France

Travels in Italy

July 5-10 We are currently staying with a former colleague of Pat's, Gary Davies,who lives in Lerici near La Spezia, Italy. From here we have been able to see Pisa, the Cinque Terre and tomorrow Florence. It's been quite hot here but I don't envy the damp cold back home.

The pattern seems to be to escape the heat and the hordes on the coast by diving into the mountains behind! So far we haven't lost any weight. The money we're saving on accommodation seems to be going on food.

I was impressed with Pisa despite the heat and the crowds although we only saw 3 of the buildings. They are planning to reopen the tower in the next year. We're going to attempt Florence on the train from Sarzana tomorrow to avoid the parking difficulties.

We are having a very relaxing time - so much so that I haven't got around to the group email thing! The news from my squash friends in Sydney was good. The four months break was needed for me as I've had pretty bad tendonitis in the elbow ever since that last game.

Anyway we are now in our third country, Italy, after doing a big circuit of France and a sojourn in Spain in Barcelona and the Costa Brava, then back in France to Provence and the Cote d'Azur. To our amazement we found that the Australian team of canoe polo players were coming to play a tournament here so we stayed the weekend to watch it (I had to come to Italy to see a live match even though Pat has played several seasons in Sydney!). Pat actually knew a couple in the tour from The Lane Cove Valley Canoe Club so they filled us in on their progress and that they are going to Brazil for the world championships.

July 10 San Gimignano used to have 40 towers in its small walled space but now has 13. Despite the crowds it is a pretty place. Unforunately the square was having a large audio system and stage installed when we arrived. The camping ground was extremely full being the only one in the district. A large thunderstorm tried to sweep us off the hard hilltop but Pat was able to peg the tent out and we mopped up with towels!

Other beautiful towns in Tuscany: Volterra (the parking defeated us), Siena, Pienza, Montepulciano and Orvieto (right).

Heading towards Rome we had a brief stop in Viterbo for a map and headed to the sea past Tarquinia. This was a mistake as the campsite was enormous and embodied the worst of summer holiday camp madness. The Etruscan tombs near Tarquinia were very interesting. At Tivoli we got more maps to navigate to a campground near Rome. They were near full but we got an adequate site albeit in the sun. From here the campground provided a bus to a train station, which we caught to the north of the city.

July 31 We're in the Dolomites and the mountains are beautiful although there are far too many people. On our 4 hr walk yesterday we managed to get away from them for at least 30 mins by avoiding all chairlifts! We shall do another couple of walks and make our way west into Switzerland, maybe a bit more France and then Germany.

I was trying to ring Mum from a pay phone but the 30s I managed with our coins cost more than the 8 mins I spoke to Dad from a shop in Rome! We had to wait another day (Monday) for this internet place to open which a slightly cheaper deal.

(Note: My card (Visa) continues to work intermittently so it's lucky Pat has two ATM cards (Visa and Cirrus) to chose from.)

August 1 At the start of August we were still in the north of Italy and thought we would finish it off by going up the Mt Blanc cable-car. The $50 price dampened our enthusiasm and so decided to try from the French side. Going back to France however was a big mistake. It seemed as if the entire country was on holiday and either driving around or lining up to pay the $75 dollar fee to get up the French side of Mt Blanc. Needless to say we headed straight for the Swiss border and sanctuary.