I always thought that my visit to Provence would be one of the most impactful legs of my journey – and it was, but not in the way that I had expected. I have always wanted to visit the south of France, ever since I was introduced to Van Gogh in high school, I wanted to see the vistas that I had admired on canvas for the last 30 years through my own eyes. I also have a future dream of retiring to the country and building a lavender farm… Read More
Paris is such a vibrant and expansive city – there is so much to see and do and so little time to get from place to place. The weather was heating up again and I knew I would have a repeat of the Italy heat stroke incident if I tried to navigate the many landmarks and districts on foot – so I decided to book in on the sunset hop on hop off bus tour around the city in the evening and spend the day meandering locally along the seine and… Read More
I arrived in Paris late morning with one thing on my mind – getting to the Louvre! I had been giving myself a hard time since leaving for the airport in the morning because I felt like I really got this leg of my trip the wrong way around when I was planning the trip. I should have travelled from Venice to Monaco on the train and continued through Provence to Paris – if I had of done that, I would have been in Paris for the Bastille Day weekend…. Read More
Can you believe it – this is the view from my room in Venice! I might just sit here, drink tea and watch the Gondola’s paddle past for the next 2 days! This morning I packed up and left the apartment early. Bought a cappuccino and chocolate croissant from the bakery and headed to the railway station to catch the train to Venice. Again I would be making use of the high speed rail to get there in reasonable time. One high speed train to Florence and the next to Venice. I would arrive… Read More
Cinque Terra is a stunning region. There are 5 main towns that span the coastline of this area of National Park and each of them has it’s own unique, colourful, picturesque little village. It is possible to hike across the hills and to each of the villages by foot, but when I looked out across the hill and saw the line of people snaking up the trails and into the mountains in the blazing sun, I decided that this wasn’t for me. Not today. I added ‘walk the 5 villages of Cinque Terra’… Read More
I got up at around 7am, still not feeling 100% but with the body aches and fever hopefully behind me. I was feeling a bit shaken and vulnerable so I made a commitment to myself to make relaxation the main goal of my next few days in Italy. I was able to spend a little bit of time before checkout exploring the lemon farm and grounds which sat behind a cathedral and market square. Over breakfast I got a quick introduction to the production process for Limoncello and I bought a small… Read More
The tour of Pompeii. I had been so looking forward to this part of my holiday – I remember doing an assignment on the lost city of Pompeii when I was at school and finding it fascinating. An entire city frozen in time, the ash from the volcano creating perfect moulds of the bodies in their final resting positions, cowering, mouths covered, trying to survive the tons and tons of falling ash that would inundate and wipe from existence the home of 18,000 residents for the next 1800 years. I had booked… Read More