Venice! Wow! It has to be seen to be believed! The sheer size of the city surprised me. I knew about the canals but so many weaving in and out over such a bit area, incredible and I had no idea. Continue reading ‘Venice Rocks the Boat’
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Archive for the 'Italy' Category
Sadly we depart our ‘toscano retreat’ We travel today to Oriago, a 15 minute ride out of Venice. We travel mainly the ‘autostrada’ (motorways) all the way.
We pack a picnic lunch for our driving tour of Tuscany. I feel as though we are on a movie set as the country is that beautiful. The hills are rolling and green with grapevines and olive groves as far as the eye can see. The roads are narrow and full of hairpin bends though and so a lot of caution is needed negotiating the. Our destination point is Vinci, the home of Leonardo Da Vinci. It is an interesting ancient stone place where the wealthy Da Vinci family were major land owners. We visit a museum set up on the ground floor of the family castle and fll of amazing original drawings, mechanical devices and statures. Leonardo was an all round genius it seems. He drew detailed topographical maps of the whole of Tuscano without the benefit of aerial photos. He was a scientist, mechanical engineer, botanist, had an amazing knowledge of anatomy for his time and of course incredible artist! Continue reading ‘Wild Boars Run Amuck’
The tourist information in Pistoia has been incredibly helpful. Pistoia is a medieval town, complete with stone wall encasing the centre and full of narrow streets and large Italian piazza. WE arrange accommodation through the tourist information at an ‘agriturismo’ (tourist farm accommodation) stay. We have found the best place to stay in Tuscany, at a very reasonable price, we are sure of it! In the middle of an olive grove with the lights of Florence in the distance! We celebrate with a bottle of local wine, some local pesto and of course olives all experienced outside in the cool evening air.
As we approach the breakfast room Elsa and Luke are sharing cappuccino and the day’s text. Ciao! After our breakfast we exchange gifts. Elsa insists we take two bottles of the gorgeous Umbrian wine she has chosen for us to have with her meals. With Luke translating (he speaks better English than we at first thought) we can express our appreciation for all they have done. More tears, more hugs, Oh dear! Our drive today will take us north to Tuscany. We have told Tom (sat nav) to direct us on the scenic route. We are not taking motorways through this beautiful country!
After breakfast we plan to catch the train to Rome, a one hour journey. At breakfast Elsa, translated by Paula, her pretty married daughter invites me to go in the field ministry with her. I am disappointed that this won’t work out today. The group for field service is meeting in the huge foyer of the hotel so we are able to meet some of the local brothers and sisters. Elsa hugs me and Justin and explains something to them about ‘Australie”, ‘speciale’, ‘Justino’, ministeriale’, ‘Sydney’. The sister tears up and so I follow, not sure why but their love is tangible. Continue reading ‘What Lions, What Christians?’
We have breakfast together with Guiglio, Lisa and Josh Campara before they leave to stay at Bethel in Rome. Its been wonderful catching up with them on the other side of the world! We intend to visit Marmore falls, an incredible waterfall switched on and off at certain times of the day but roadworks have blocked access to them so we take the detour to Terni for shopping. The detour takes us along narrow roads, so narrow in fact that a bus and van do get stuck together! There is a lot of edging back and forth and scraping before the two vehicles are freed from each other. There was also some very animated speech and at that time I was pleased that I didn’t understand Italian!
It’s a four hour drive to Terni in Umbria to the Hotel Fontegaia owned by a special sister, Elsa and her 4 beautiful adult children, two of whom are married, who all live there with their 94 year old grandmother. Continue reading ‘We Feel the Pain’
We wake early this morning for our exciting day exploring ‘Cinque Terre’, (five towns). The Mediterranean is glistening as we walk easily from Riomaggiore to Manarola (1k). A marvellous paved walkway lulls us into a false sense of security thinking the path between all 5 towns will be like this. Manarola to Corniglia is 1hr 10min (3ks) and a rougher path, steep in places and ending with a stair climb to the village high on the cliff (300+ stairs!). Continue reading ‘Did Someone Jack this Road Up’
Our destination today is Cique Terra. We travel the coast road via Monaco and Monte Carlo. Talk about your rich and famous!! There are yachts moored here bigger than our house! Continue reading ‘Calf Muscle Workout’
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