Date: Sat 22nd June
Temperature: Hot
Mood: fascination
Highlight: Blown away by Venice

After sharing our final breakfast with our ‘gypsie’ friends and bidding them farewell and safe travels we headed back to Florence to return our sporty Alpha Romeo hire car. This ‘simple’ drive was causing much angst and hours were spent examining the map to find the best route. We managed to fill up the car with diesel after sitting at the petrol station searching for the lever to flip the fuel cap – such high tech mod cons are not necessary in Italy, you just have to release it from the outside! Actually getting the petrol out of the pump was the next quandary, however after a bit of time, all was sorted. The drive into Florence did not cause us too great a problem and we arrived at the train station to catch the train to Venice with 30 minutes to spare.

Arriving in Venice was quite overwhelming and vey hot! After queuing for 15min to get a map of Venice at the tourist information office, we were told it would cost us 3€ and wouldn’t include the transport routes, so we went next door and purchased a map and sightseeing book for €5! Our Italian tourist information experiences haven’t been that wonderful.

We bordered a ferry bound for San Marco to experience a ride up the Grand Canal,which resulted in a squishy, slow sojourn up the Canal. After disembarking, we made our way through the narrow winding streets and over bridges, our eyes agog at the beautiful Murano glass shops, the masks, the leather, the designer brands. We walked through San Marco Piazza, looked at the basilica (from the outside) and then headed off to find our accommodation, which was next door to the Scala Contarini del Bovolo (unfortunately this building is now closed to the public). We were shown to our room by a lovey older lady, We think she has transformed her family home into a guest house, keeping some of the rooms as her private quarters. We were greeted by a splendidly authentic Italian decorated bedroom, complete with all the stuff from years gone by, but more exciting was the fact that our room was on a canal, only one floor up, so we could each look out windows at the passing traffic below. We also had the luxury of a private bathroom, but we had to navigate from one end of the floor to the other to get to it!

By the time we had checked in and hit the street, all tourist sites were then closed, so we set off to simply stroll the streets aimlessly and enjoy all that there was to offer with the views, the narrow streets, the squares, bridges, all very fascinating! Whilst we did get lost on a few occasions, the maps are useful and there is good signage directing you to the main areas that do help a lot.

We ended up with a very late diner of pasta (possibly due to all the Gelato’s consumed). Then back to our accommodation and dropping into bed being lulled off to sleep with the gentle lapping sounds of water from below as boats quietly moved about at this late hour.

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Date: Fri 21st June
Temperature: Pleasantly warm
Mood: Happy
Highlight: Susan’s Birthday

This is our last day of relaxation and of course its a special day for the celebration of a very big milestone in Sue’s life before we hit the last stage of our European adventure! It has been pure indulgence having these last few days to relax and enjoy the company of good friends in Tuscany. It will be hard to get back into the full-on travel and sightseeing mode.

Today was Sue’s day, as long as it included a Gelato, which it did. So we all waited patiently for her to emerge from her extra long sleep in before breakfasting (Some of us were getting a little worried that we would miss breakfast altogether!).

After a leisurely breakfast and relaxing by the pool (you may see a pattern occurring here). It was time to venture out to another local village called Montelupo for some afternoon Gelato and a Cappuccino and some pastries and… (We’re too embarrassed to go on, particularly when we constantly get ribbed by the old man that we will be up for excess luggage on our return trip!)

On our return it was time to turn the Birthday celebrations up a notch with pre dinner (happy hour) drinks and nibbles before dining alfresco style and finishing off with a pre ordered Tiramisu Birthday cake. Luckily we dined at the Villa’s Restaurant so we could all waddle back to our Villa’s to recover.

A great day was enjoyed by all.

Happy Birthday Sue!

Under the Tuscan Moon!

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Date: Thu 20th June
Temperature: Hot
Mood: Relaxed
Highlight: Authentic Italian Cooking Class

Today we had arranged an authentic Italian cooking class at the villa’s Restaurant. The class commenced around 11am and finished over a 4 course meal prepared during our session.

There was a lot of fun and participation during the session and we got to appreciate first hand traditional Italian cooking. It does help if you have industrial cooking equipment! We finished off enjoying our spoils dining outside with more than enough food and wine and of course, good company.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool! We might add that much frivolity was enjoyed under the Tuscan sun!

No dinner tonight! But Gelato withdrawal symptoms beckoned us to a nearby village of Carmignano to seek out a local Gelato shop. Arriving at 8:00pm we discovered the shop closed, we suspected that it was due to open later so we strolled around the village and enjoyed the sunset from the hilltop. True to Italian form, the village sprung to life with the shops opening up at 9:00pm and all the local village people out and about enjoying the summer evening and a yummy Gelato. Delicious!

Cooking under the Tuscan Sun……….. Moon?

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