Life is feeling pretty good!

Tuesday 10^th June

Sad to be leaving Venice today but we are headed back to a place we have already been to, but really liked. We travelled 380k today basically south and west to Volterra, which is in Tuscany. We took the autostrade for 80% of the journey and arrived in Volterra in the early afternoon – you can certainly cover the miles quickly and the bonus is that the autostrades are actually good roads.

 

Our hotel at Cavallino - the food was pretty good here
 - AND we got eggs for breakfast.
 I am not keen on the Italian style breakfast at all.

Our B&B is about 5k out of Volterra and has a lovely outlook over the surrounding farmland. We were here 3 weeks ago and it is quite amazing how the countryside has really dried off in those 3 weeks. The farmers have been cutting hay and ploughing. I’ll have to try and find before and after photos so you can see the contrast. Our hostess speaks no English so we are having very brief and basic conversations with a lot of ‘si’ and nodding of heads.

Our B&B at Volterra - beautiful views over the surrounding farmland.

Sun setting - and the views from the town of Volterra.
A lot browner than 3 weeks ago.

The Volterra countryside 20th May.

 It is still really hot here so we rested for the remainder of the afternoon and headed in to Volterra late in the afternoon to have a further look around and to have dinner. We took the easy option and headed to a restaurant we ate at last time we were here.

Wednesday 11^th June

Today we headed back in to Volterra to do some shopping and to have more of a look around the town. The first hour of the day was spent in the bank, I was going to say trying to do a bank transfer, but in actual fact it was spent waiting to do a bank transfer, and when I got to the teller was told ‘no can do’. The bank had a ‘take a number’ system and there were about 30 numbers before me. I briefly considered giving it up but while I waited it seemed that the queue never got shorter so the wait was going to be as long any time of day. I think maybe it was pension day because lots of the people in the bank came in with similar bits of paper. They certainly don’t do things in a hurry here – and everyone just waits and spends time catching up with their friends in the queue.

 

Street scene in Volterra
- not too many people here.

Statue in Volterra

Even though we have been in and out of Volterra a few times now, we are still finding interesting things to see. We explored all the nooks and crannies in town but we still have not visited quite a few parts of the town.  We had a good day shopping and met an interesting English couple at lunchtime and had long conversations about places we have both been and seen in Italy and France. Again we heard a lot of German today - seems that the Germans have travelled further in to Italy than just the beach area. 

 

The main street at night.

One of the churches in Volterra
- where we are dinner we had a beautiful view
of this church as the sun was setting.

The end of the day and we had a lovely dinner with a beautiful view over the Tuscan countryside. Life was feeling pretty good!

Thursday 12^th June

We are now at La Spezia which is at the bottom end of the area known as Cinque Terre. We arrived here just before lunch with the aim of hitting the tourist information centre to get all the info on visiting the villages of Cinque Terre tomorrow. Goal achieved and it was lunchtime. Something smelt pretty good and we followed the crowd (mostly older local people) to a ‘self service’ café on the pier. The food was all seafood and was actually pretty good – we figured the pensioners would have the good and cheap food sussed out.

The queue at the lunch venue .

The harbour at La Spezia and one of  the cruise ships in town.

There were 2 cruise ships in town today but we have watched both of them sail this afternoon. We can hope that there are no cruise ships in tomorrow but we will see what the morning brings. We have plans to hit the first ferry in the morning to get as much in the day as possible. The only thing against us is the hot weather that makes it pretty uncomfortable in the early afternoon.

La Spezia

La Spezia

Our B&B was again a little hard to find but this time it was just poor signage – Dora did take us to the right spot. The views from here are pretty spectacular and we sat outside eating dinner and soaking it all in. Another feel good night! The only thing missing are the friends we would love to share this with.

The view from our balcony - pretty stunning!

Is Venice in Germany?

Monday 9^th June

Venice! Fantastic!

We caught the local bus down to the port – along with a crowd of others.It seems like the main tourists in town at the moment are the Germans - that was the language we heard on the bus, and everywhere. The port was straight down the main road and we could easily have driven the car but the bus was fine. The problem of the day was when we went to use the camera and discovered that we had left the camera card in the computer back at the hotel. Damm! We have had to resort to the iPhone for photos but I can’t download them so not sure how I will get them in the blog. I will try again tomorrow night when I have internet access.

The ferry went from Punto Sabbiano with one stop then San Marco square. Our first sight of Venice and we were impressed. There were hundreds of boats as we approached the pier, from little speed boats, water taxis, ferries and of course the gondolas – also 2 cruise ships in town. Rob said for him Venice lived up to all the hype and was just like he had seen and pictured it. He loved San Marco square though I found the expanse of emptiness a bit of a down thing - probably because it was too hot to stand out in the middle and really 'feel the vibe'.

Ferries on the water as we approached Venice.

San Marco square.

Another view of the square

The clocktower.

 .

St Marks Basilica.

St Marks Basilica.

It was very hot (around 35) so we just ambled around the streets of Venice near the square. There were some lovely little shops away from the main drag and some beautiful Murano glass in every other shop – too much to choose from really. It didn't take long to find the main tourist strip with shops such as Prada, Gucci, etc and we quickly headed away from there. As we crossed over each canal we looked up and down at the gondolas on the canal and the traffic jams from time to time as they all waited their turn and also waited for delivery boats to pass up and down.

Our first canal we crossed.

The gondoliers - waiting for a fare.

Traffic jam on the water.

A lovely view down one of the canals.

Dog of the day 1 - something every dog must do.
With the loves of his life!

The church opposite the ferry terminal.

We went as far as the Ponte Rialto and stood at the top admiring the lovely canal. Back in San Marco square and we thought briefly about visiting the church but the queue was very long and it was very hot so we contented ourselves with admiring the outside, which was just beautiful. This is a lovely looking square with interesting buildings on all sides. A great place to sit and admire the architecture, or people watch, if it hadn't been so hot.

Standing on the Ponte Rialto
and looking back along the Grand Cananl.

The street leading up to the Ponte Rialto.

Dog of the day 2 - I'm with you dog.
 It's hot and I'm tired!

We had lunch in Venice before heading to Murano to see the glass blowing. This was a bit disappointing as it is just a very brief demo to entice you into the showroom. There were some stunning pieces there especially if you were after a really special piece (with price to match) but a bigger variety was on offer back in Venice in the little shops. From Murano we then headed back to our hotel, very tired, and very hot. Dinner done and now we are relaxing before an early night.

Last one out of Venice, please turn out the lights!

Sunday 8^th June

A reasonably long drive today as we headed for a beach resort near Venice. We met a couple at a B&B a couple of nights ago who told us to stay near this place and then catch the inexpensive ferry to Venice. We have timed it so we are not going to Venice on the weekend in the hope that it is a little less busy. The drive was fairly quiet until we got to within about 50k of Venice – then the traffic started, heading the way we had come. It appeared that the whole of Venice was headed to the beach for the day. The traffic was backed up for kilometres. So glad we were going the other way.

Our travel took us around the north side of Venice and down the small peninsula on the eastern side. We weren’t spared the traffic though. As we got closer to our destination we were also caught in bumper to bumper traffic. Not as bad as we had seen on the other side of Venice though. The man at the hotel told us that holidays had started in Germany this weekend and all the Germans had flocked in.  We are staying at a hotel and they have actually given us one of their apartments so we have space to swing a cat or two – and 2 spare beds if anyone wants to come for the night.

This afternoon we just wandered down to the beach and made use of our ‘parasol and 2 deckchairs included’. The beach is just covered in these umbrellas and there is very little ‘free’ beach area. By 7pm most people had left the beach and they were folding the umbrellas. We had dinner tonight at a restaurant nearby and the main language we heard at the restaurant was German. Must have a look at the map and see just how close we are.

The beach at Cavallino Treporti. The sand is not as white
as it was at the beach at Guilianova.

  

Rob called this a 'pretend tall ship'.

Peace and quiet on Saturday

Saturday 7^th June

We have travelled today to a town called Ravenna. It is on the sea and was apparently once the sort of capital of the eastern roman empire. A small challenge to find our B&B – first loop we missed the street, second loop we found the street but could not access it from where we were, and third loop we were in. I think the B&B is a guy’s private apartment where he has converted 3 of the rooms to B&B accommodation. It is quite nice, comfortable, and central to the city of Ravenna.

Once we parked the car and unloaded the suitcases we headed off by foot into the town in search of lunch. We had also picked up a brochure in the B&B about mosaic tiled floors uncovered in the town so we headed there for a bit of variety from churches. It appears that they had been found when bulldozing the site for residential living.  At the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra you can see the entire ground floor of a home that belonged to a high ranking court official. Each floor is a beautiful mosaic, and every room is different. There are geometric and floral patterns, as well as symbolic figures. These mosaics were absolutely stunning.

One of the UNESCO listed monuments.

Another of the churches.

This mosaic was titled something like 'The Good Shepherd'.

Just some of the mosaic flooring. Maybe an early quilt design?

We found Ravenna to be a lovely quiet town and worth stopping at. They boast that they have 8 UNESCO listed monuments (all churches) – we saw a few from the outside as we walked past but didn’t do a tour of any. Another thing we found in Ravenna is pushbikes – thousands of them. Unlike most other towns we have been to, Ravenna is flat, hence the bikes I guess.  Ravenna is also known as the place that Dante spent his last 20 years and where his tomb is located. It was a pretty hot day and too hot to be doing too much exploring so we didn’t visit the tomb either.

Looking back to another of the churches.

We have seen some lovely doors on our trip
 - this is just one of them.

Now we are back at the B&B catching up on the blog – and Rob is having a siesta. We have also spotted a laundromat just around the corner so might do the

washing after dinner. Tomorrow we are headed to Venice, before heading back west across Italy.

A dead mouse...

Friday 6^th June

Dammit! It appears that the mouse has died so I’ll have to do it the hard way until I find another mouse. And we don’t have WIFI again tonight. We’ve come across a new WIFI system here where you register and they send you an SMS with your login details. Well – 4 hours later and I’m still waiting for the SMS and it will probably arrive conveniently at 3am.

We have continued moving northwards up the coast. Today’s drive was less than 100k because we stuffed up the calculations – we would have liked to go a bit further but here is where we are. We followed the coast road up today which took us through a lot of beachside holiday and residential accommodation. The journey was very slow as the speed was mostly 50k but slowed by a lot of traffic.

We were quite early to where we are staying so we went a bit further along to the town of Ancona where we had lunch. The town is hosting the areas youth games this weekend so there were a lot of young people in town. We didn’t have any information regarding places to visit in town so we just had lunch and then travelled back to our B&B. Along the way to the B&B we passed close by the town of Loreto and on the side of the hill was the beautiful looking convent. On the next hill back we could see another town, and further away again was another hilltop town.

An interesting pentagon shaped building in Ancona.
This is an 18th-century building constructed on an artificial island
for the purpose of serving as quarantine station
and Leprosarium for the port town of Ancona, 

Looking out over the port area of Ancona. 

An interesting bronze sculpture in Ancona
- this is not an old one at all with a date of 1995
- done by sculptor Valeriano Trubbiani.

An interesting spiral spire on the cathedral in Ancona.

Calamo Fountain - also known as Fountain of the 13 Pipes.
Dates from Greek times and was apparently demolished in 1503
and rebuilt some time after 1560.

Convent at Loreto.

Another hill top village.

We are staying in another lovely B&B tonight near a small town called Potenza Picena. It is an old early 1800s farmhouse and has beautiful gardens surrounding it. When we arrived there were 2 bus loads of people here for lunch and tonight there is a group of car people driving sports cars (triumphs, MGBs, etc) and sporting 100 Miglia door signs (not 1000 Miglia). The B&B is in the countryside a few K from a town so we were glad to see that they had a restaurant. It has been quite challenging some nights to find somewhere to eat – we had taken note of the closest McDonalds today, just in case.

Our B&B - Country House La Cipolla D'Oro

Some of the garden area around the B&B.

Just one of the 100 Miglia cars - there were about 6 that we saw
 - for some reason they all wore the number 13.

Just gave the mouse mouth to mouth and it has been revived for the moment. Rob is downstairs talking to someone – could be the car people, or the other couple staying here tonight.

Our hotel last night was OK though we had one of those bathrooms where the shower floods the room. The embarrassing thing is it appears that we were the only ones in the hotel and we came downstairs to breakfast this morning where there was only one table set, and a whole spread of food laid out.

One parasol and two deckchairs...

Thursday 5^th June

A short and relaxing drive today heading up the east coast of Italy. We decided to take the coast road rather than the autostrade and there were some beautiful views to be had along the way. As we left Termoli we could see in the distance off to the left mountains still covered with snow. This apparently lasts till around August. As we left this mountain range behind us, another snow covered mountain appeared. On this drive we only saw one village perched on a hill. Unfortunately not many photo opportunities so we just have to remember it all.

We arrived at our hotel by lunchtime so after checking in we wandered down to the beach (only 300 metres) to find a place for lunch. The morning market was just winding up and the stalls all closing down but we managed to get some fried calamari from one of the fish vendors at the market. Very nice! We followed this up with pizza and coffee.

Beautiful weather we are having
- just perfect for long lunches outside.

Next stop was the beach. Our room rate included 2 deckchairs and 1 parasol so we took advantage of this and sat on the beach, watched the passing parade (very quiet today) and had a nap under the parasol. We were even upgraded to 2 sun lounges - 'today is possible' we were told. Gelati o'clock rolled around so we enjoyed a gelati before heading back to the hotel to search for tomorrow nights accommodation.

Didn't have the bathers with us but was still probably
not quite warm enough for us to swim.

We both went in for a paddle though - Rob in the red shirt.

Not very many people there today.
Wonder what the weekend will bring?

We enjoyed another lovely seafood dinner tonight just a short walk from the hotel. While in the restaurant we noticed on the TV that the Trevi Fountain is closed for cleaning – so glad we were there a week ago. Imagine all those upset tourists today!

Oh – and just for future reference – Belgian chocolates don’t keep for 8 weeks. :)

Far from the madding crowd

Wednesday 4^th June

Today has been a very relaxing day as we headed away from the hustle and bustle of the Amalfi coast area. We have travelled today across Italy from west to east and are now at a place called Termoli.

The drive across Italy was quite interesting as we first drove through the mountainous and rugged areas around Amalfi and Salerno, and then headed over a mountain range to find ourselves in a gentler rolling hill type landscape. It sort of reminded me of the hills just north of Melbourne. The road was excellent but the speed limit was only 80 – can’t figure out why as other roads we have been on are in much worse condition and they are 110. Along the drive there seemed to appear around almost every corner, a hill with a town perched on top. At the very top of the hill was usually the church. It really is just wonderful to look at. One thing we did notice on the drive was the rubbish on the side of the road. At every lay-by there seemed to be bags of rubbish just left there. Pretty disgusting.

Just one of the villages we spotted on the drive.

This tower sat alone on this rocky outcrop.

And this castle also sat alone on a hill.

We stopped briefly at a town called Benevento to look for an old aqueduct. Found no sign of the aqueduct but did find an old Roman bridge called Ponte Leproso.  

The paving - this looked to be of roman times,
or if not then certainly pretty old.

The roman bridge
- not too sure that this photo shows the bridge terribly well.

The road eventually followed along a river valley which had been dammed to form a big lake. The road didn’t just go along the edge of the lake, but down the middle of the lake on a huge bridge. As Rob said, the Italians aren’t afraid to build stuff.

After checking in to our B&B we headed in to the town of Termoli. No particular reason for visiting Termoli apart from it was on the east coast and about the right travelling distance for the day. We wandered around the old town which is on the hill overlooking the port. We considered going out to the Tremeti Islands tomorrow but there is only one boat there and back each day and it would mean 8 hours on the island so we decided to give this a miss. We drove along the beach and were able to stop and have a good look (no people) at the way they do beaches in Europe, and get some photos. We have got the parking meters sorted and always put money in the meters but often wondered if anyone checked. Well, today we saw the parking inspectors checking meters in Termoli.

 

Looking back along the beach at Termoli to the old town on the point.

Look - not another tourist in sight! Do I look happy?

Street in the old town of Termoli.

The beach - European style. Some people we were talking to
could not believe that you don't have to pay
to go to the beaches in Australia.

Rob has been having real difficulty with parallel parking the car
- wrong side of the car, wrong side of the road.
Then we saw this parking job and his look pretty good.

As we walked through Termoli searching for a restaurant for dinner we noticed the phenomena of the Italian evening stroll. There seemed to be lots of people out on the streets just walking. We had a lovely seafood dinner in the town – on the coast one has to eat seafood. Following dinner we wandered back to the car and along the way came across a photo shop that had a lot of photos of the town, both recent photos, and old photos. They were really fantastic and great to see the town over time and in different conditions. We didn't have the camera but should have taken some photos of the photos.

Our B&B is out in the countryside and very quiet and peaceful. In the distance you can see the lights from many small villages. Rob is snoring on the bed as I write this blog and it is time I headed for bed as well.