Towers, tour guides, and tons of attention (for Charlie!)

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The Cinque Terre (literally meaning five lands) are five tiny villages on the north west coast of Italy. Wedged into a series of coves between sheer cliffs, the villages are only really accessible by train. The line from the nearby town of La Spezia runs through miles of tunnel, emerging occasionally at a village station before disappearing underground again.


We spent a lovely, if not rather busy day hopping on and off trains, enjoying the fabulous scenery and the ice cream! A number of footpaths run between the villages, and it’s customary to leave a padlock somewhere along the Via dell’Amore (Lover’s Path). The area is an essential destination for Australian and American backpackers and there were quite literally thousands of them about. Unfortunately, many of the paths were closed due to heavy rain which meant that the trains and villages were extremely busy.


Just beyond the Cinque Terre is the beautiful little town of Portovenere. Even prettier than the Cinque Terre, it’s a bit further off the beaten track so not as busy, but it’s a delightful place with great views of the surrounding coast.


From Portovenere we moved on to one of the most striking sites of our tour; the extraordinary looking marble quarries at Carrara. Huge slabs of marble have been cut from the mountains here since Roman times and everyone from Michelangelo to Henry Moore has trekked up here in search of the perfect stone. Carrara is still the world’s largest marble producer and exporter.


We spent a couple of nights at the excellent motorhome site in Lucca, which was very handy for the city centre. Lucca is one of several northern Italian towns brimming with amazing architecture and impressive works of art. One of the great things about wandering round these towns is coming across a plain looking church and peering inside to see huge paintings by someone like Caravaggio or Titan.


Charlie attracted a lot of attention in Italy. We couldn’t step outside without people cooing over her or saying ‘ah piccolo’ or ‘ah bello’ (that’s ‘ah small’ or ‘ah beautiful’!). Some wanted their photos taken with her, and a conductor on one of the vaporetti in Venice even picked her up and cuddled her for the duration of the journey!


Pisa is of course famous for a certain tower with dodgy foundations, but we were more impressed by the buildings alongside it in the Campo dei Miracoli (the field of miracles). The cathedral and baptistery, which also lean slightly due to the sandy earth below, are both stunning, even more so when you consider that building began in the 11th and 12th centuries.




We were amused by the line of tourists taking the obligatory photo which appears to show you holding up the tower. We are, of course, above such things…


We were even more amused by the hilarious boxer shorts that featured a leaning tower, but that’s another story!

After a couple of days in the sun we hit Florence in time for David’s birthday (24 again!). The birthday cakes sent over by Alex’s mum disappeared within minutes, and we then set off for lunch!

Celebrated by many as the most beautiful city in Italy, Florence is a mecca for art lovers as it’s home to several major galleries. You can see Michelangelo’s David here, and the Piazza della Signoria is full of impressive statues. The city’s vast duomo is one of the most impressive and colourful we’ve seen, due to the different types of marble used in its construction.


We enjoyed a wander through the maze of mediaeval streets, had a good lunch, and followed it up with a great night out. We ran into a couple from Glasgow and it was great to have some English speaking company to compare travel notes with.

Florence has to be the tour guide capital of Europe. They’re everywhere; marching around waving telescopic car aerials with tassels attached, as groups of slightly confused looking tourists struggle to keep up and understand a word of what’s being said. It seems the current trend is for the guide to have a Madonna style headset on and a small loudspeaker attached to their chest, which does make them look a little like C3PO!

While in Lucca we managed to blow up the in-car charger for our laptop - disaster! We ordered another from the UK and had this delivered to David’s Dad who rerouted it to a colleague of his based in Florence. Our thanks to Lorenzo for doing us a huge favour and our apologies that we didn’t have time to stop for a coffee.

Everywhere in Italy seemed to be full of stylish, good looking people (so obviously we felt right at home!). This is unsurprising as even the smallest towns are full of boutiques selling expensive designer clothes – not a Pri-Mark or Bon Marche in sight!! It did make us feel a little sad about the state of the British high street with the huge chains dominating every one, and small business being in decline. It certainly appears that the small independents are going strong in Italy.

After a couple of days in the Brit filled hill towns of Tuscany we arrived at one of its most spectacular.

San Gimignano is famed for its mediaeval towers and the church which is filled with amazing 13th century frescoes. The towers were built by feuding nobles in aristocratic rivalry in the 12th and 13th centuries. Set in spectacular countryside and with a beautiful centre with many interesting buildings, San Gimignano is definitely worth a visit, especially in the early evening as the sun starts to set and the crowds disperse.


After a lovely overnight stop in the little walled town of Montereggioni where we awoke to find a classic car rally passing through, it was on to Sienna. Famed for its huge scallop shaped piazza, and the bareback horse races that take place there every summer, it really is a beautiful place.


The cathedral is striking; its black and white striped walls give it the look of a giant liquorice allsort!


Sienna also resulted in another visit to a gelateria! Even the smallest town in Italy has several gelateria, where homemade ice cream is displayed in colourful mounds waiting for the evening ‘pasagieta’ when everyone heads out for a stroll and a couple of scoops of their favourite flavours. When in Rome! ... or any other city for that matter!


Rome was our next destination but arriving during the Friday evening rush hour wasn’t the best idea we’ve ever had!

Gondolas, gastronomy, and Charlie’s transport troubles!

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The aires and campsites close to Venice are, of course, rather expensive. We spent 4 days in Venice and accommodation didn’t cost us a single cent and being from Yorkshire, we rather liked that!

We were camped next to a canal in the little town of Oriago, about 5 miles outside the city. The spot was close to a shop, pizzeria, and laundrette and it took just 30 minutes to get into Venice by bus or train. It couldn’t have been better for us.


Everything you’ve seen of Venice on TV and in films doesn’t really do it justice. The place is simply stunning. There’s nowhere quite like it and everyone should go at least once. It’s a lot bigger than we were expecting. The miles of canals, bridges and alleyways are great for wandering, and the more you do so, the more you leave the crowds behind and discover the real Venice.


A historical regatta was taking place on our first day in the city. Teams of gondoliers of all ages competed in different races along the Grand Canal, and spectators lined the route to cheer on their teams. There were also processions of older boats decorated with large flags that draped in the water behind them with gondoliers wearing period costume. It was an amazing and colourful sight.




Travelling by boat in Venice is not as cheap as you might think. A ride in a gondola will set you back around £60 for half an hour (needless to say, we turned that one down!). A day pass for the vaporetti, the water busses which ship people along the bigger canals and around the islands, costs 16 euros. We spent a couple of days exploring the different routes and outer islands - the map of the network looks very similar to the London Underground map. Murano made for a peaceful break from the busier parts of the city. Largely residential, it’s a mini version of Venice that’s home to the city’s famous glass works.


We then spent a couple of days exploring the city on foot and walked many miles in total. Venice is known for being quite expensive so we set off each day complete with packed lunch and Thermos of coffee!!

Venice is bursting with amazing art and architecture. We’re not really big art buffs so we didn’t visit the galleries, but it was great to see the fantastic paintings in the churches by artists such as Titan and Caravaggio. The best piece we saw was The Crucifixion by Tintoretto in the church of San Cassiano. The best view of the city was from the tower of San Giorgio Maggiore; where the city and the islands stretch out below you in every direction.


Bologna is famed for its porticos, or covered pavements (over 38km of them in total), and for having the very first university. The city centre is certainly very grand; its central square framed by several impressive palaces. The best part however is the sixteenth century Neptune Fountain, which features four mermaids shooting water from their breasts!


The city also has its own leaning towers - the Due Torri. In the Middle Ages the city had hundreds of towers, but only these two remain. A rickety wooden staircase clings perilously to the inside of the taller tower – it’s certainly not something for the faint hearted – but the views across the city from the top are pretty amazing.


Bologna is also home to one of Italy’s major modern art museums – Mambo! We decided to visit on a Sunday afternoon but found that the security staff outnumbered the visitors 3 to 1. It wasn’t a pleasant experience being chased around the galleries by the staff, who were obviously bored and felt they had to keep a very close eye on everyone. We didn’t stay long!

We found Bologna rather claustrophobic with all its covered pavements and, after having such a great experience in Venice, we didn’t really warm to it. We’ll also remember Bologna for an officious ticket inspector who fined us because the dog didn’t have the right train ticket!


Modena, famed for balsamic vinegar and its famous sons Luciano Pavarotti and Enzo Ferrari, was like a breath of fresh air. A Celtic festival was in full swing when we arrived and half the town had turned out to watch a ‘Sealed Knott’ style battle between the Romans and Celts. When the battle was over, the music and drinking began and there were the usual stalls selling what we generously term ‘ethnic tat’.... or ‘hippy shit!’

After a quick detour to the beautiful town of Mantua, we headed to every food lover’s favourite city, Parma – famous for Parma ham and Parmesan. Obviously we had to go out and sample the gastronomic delights, and we certainly chose well. The restaurant’s excellent antipasti were prepared at a counter in the middle of the restaurant on several sparkling meat slicers. Traditionally, you follow this with a pasta or risotto dish, and then a meat dish. We were somewhat stuffed when we left!


A motorhome show was taking place in the city’s exhibition hall so we had to call in and check out a few new vans. There were hundreds on display but none seemed better than the one we have at the moment. Thankfully there weren’t too many ‘must have’ gadgets on sale so all we ended up buying was a new guide book and some toilet chemicals! The last of the big spenders!!


Aside from its magnificent 11th century Duomo and octagonal baptistry the thing that really struck us about Parma was the number of bicycles. And it’s quite amazing what people manage to transport on them; in some cases, 2 kids and the shopping and even the dog. Having seen this we decided Charlie might like a new mode of transport...


No, sadly not a Fiat 500 or a Vespa, although there were thousands of them buzzing about. No, we thought she needed this...


She seems quite happy in her new basket. She’s only fallen out once! Not sure we’ll be cycling through Leeds like this though!

We left Parma heading for the coast and a date with hundreds of back packers!