"Lucca, It's very strategic"

Our time in Italy has come and gone and we are now back in France, this time in a small hilltop village above Nice called Vence where we have found the most delightful small hotel where we will be staying for the next four days before we move on to Bonnieux in Provence. The beds are amazingly comfortable compared to what we have been subjected to in Italy and we are all looking forward to a good nights sleep. Come to think of it, the last decent beds we had were in France so I guess that says something for Italian beds.

Although we all enjoyed our time in Italy, we are pleased to be back in France and are already enjoying its strange familiarity. Our typically french dinner last night on the hotel terrace was a real treat - Marion and I both ordered the carre d'agneau - after having ashamedly become tired of the typical Italian menu of pasta and pizza. The boys have however said that they will miss the gelato which had become part of their staple diet.

Lucca, our base for our last week in Italy, proved to be an inspired choice. As our Italian resident landlord Bruno told us, "Lucca is very strategic" and it certainly proved to be a good base from which to explore the north western corner of Tuscany. I'm not sure that Bruno's reasons for it being strategic match ours but more on that later!

The highlight of the week was probably our cycle around and on top of the city walls of Lucca, one of the last few intact defensive city walls in Italy. It was certainly a first to be able to look down on a village from this vantage point and we had great fun. Having carted our four bikes all the way from Brussels it was also a relief to be able to use them at last as almost every other spot we had stayed in was hilly beyond Sean and Kyle's capability. We spent two or three days walking around the lovely streets of Lucca and were treated on our first visit to an antique market that all but took over the city and its numerous piazzas.

Lucca also proved to be a useful place to attend to a number of chores that we needed to get done including a visit to the Volvo service centre to have the cars airconditioning system seen to and a visit to DHL to arrange to have two big boxes of clothes and things that we figure we will no longer need shipped back to Brussels.......and all in Italian. The aircon is now working as it should and providing us with some much needed relief from the midday heat and the two boxes have been left with DHL.......who knows whether they will ever reach their intended destination!

Marion had her birthday this week which provided the boys in the family with an opportunity to spoil her just a little bit which included buying her some presents, some Crocs and a James Bond DVD (Casino Royal so that she can perv at Damien Craig) and a failed home made chocolate cake. Lunch to celebrate at Osteria Meati down the road from where we were staying was a real treat and probably counts as the best meal we had during our four weeks in Italy.

Our two excursions this week both involved the sea. The first was a visit to the Tuscan coast and a place called Forte de Marmi which is located on a 46km stretch of sandy beach......sandy by European standards perhaps but certainly not a patch on Cape Towns beautiful white beaches. Nonetheless, we all enjoyed our first swim in the Med this trip although by the time the temperature rose to +-36 degrees we decided to call it a day.

Our second day trip of the week was made, on the advice of our Argentinian American friend Diego Mirales, to the Cinque Terre and we were glad we listened. Although the weather could have been better (it rained for a part of the day) we were actually pleased of the cloud cover after the heat of the previous few days. We walked between two of the five towns that make up the beautiful stretch of coastline along a path cut into the side of the cliffs. After a very pleasant lunch at one of the harbours we visited we stumbled across a lovely little cove that proved just too enticing and so the three boys stripped down to our undies and took to the azure blue water, the Med at its very best.

I'm afraid to report that Bert let us down for the second week in the row, this time as a consequence of an upset tummy. The dirty deed was performed after we had gone to bed and were just falling off to sleep when Marion noticed a very unpleasant "warm nutty" smell that could only mean one thing and sure enough, there he was with his first installment on one of Brunos (the Italian landlord) antique carpets............two or three hours later and I awoke to hear Bert walking around which could only mean one thing and sure enough, there he was with his second installment in progress, this time on the rug in the bathroom. As you can imagine, neither Marion nor I were well pleased with having to clean pooh and scrub carpets in the middle of the night. But more excitement was to follow as Bert decided, after having been smacked by me and put outside to finish his business, that he would spite me by leading me on a goose chase around the garden as I tried to get him back in the house.......and all in the nude...me that is, not Bert! No one other than Bert was privileged enough to witness this escapade which is perhaps fortunate....for them!

Talking about Bruno, he certainly proved to be a very affable if not curious landlord. I think it is fair to say that neither Marion nor I have ever encountered someone who does so little work....during daylight hours at any rate. He shared with us that he does have an antique shop but that he never opens it as no one hardly ever visits so he rather waits for them to phone him and then he tries to sell them something....get it? He shared with us that he works on weekends which probably explains why seemed to wake up late, appearing sometime around 10 am most mornings, laze around the pool all day partaking in the odd domestic job here and there before embarking on an hour long session of Tai Chi on the lawn in his swimming costume which is what he would wear all day. He would change at around 7pm or 8pm and head down to the town only to appear back in the early hours of the morning. His two children who live with him on the property (aged 18 and 23 I think) also seemed to share in his ways so all in all they made for quite an intriguing side show to our stay in Lucca.

Well, thats enough from us for now. Things to do............yuh, likely!

Have we reached our destination yet?

Saturdays have become days of change for us and this Saturday was no exception as we packed the car once again (certainly my least favourite thing) and headed north for Lucca near Pisa.

Our week in Chiusi was great. The weather was the best we have had on our trip so far, our villa was more than comfortable and provided us all with some much needed space and tranquility after the previous hectic week in Venice. If the place hadn't already been rented out for the week following our stay (to some South Africans nogal!) we would have been very tempted to stay put.

We managed to drag ourselves away from the pool and visit Montepulcino on Thursday and were treated to a lovely Tuscan hilltown. We had initially planned to visit on the Thursday as we had read that this was when the market took place but only discovered after having walked up to the top of the hill that the market was now held down by the bus station at the bottom of the hill. Needless to say, we decided to give the market a miss. The piazza at the top of the hill, with a height of 650 m, was however well worth the trek. The little shops along the tiny streets were a bit touristy but the shops themselves were very quaint. The big festival of the year in Montepulciano revolves around a barrel race where wine barrels are rolled up the hill to the piazza! I can think of better things to do - it was enough of a challenge just trying to get Kyle to the top!

After having not had any exposure to international news for a while, we enjoyed having access to CNN et al on the satellite TV at the house. The only problem we encountered was trying to find the appropriate channels amongst nearly 2000 choices including a number of raunchy sex channels. Whilst searching for CNN at the beginning of the week, Sean walked in to see a naked women doing what naked women do on sex channels....followed by the following observation....."that seems like a strange programme to watch - a lady lying on the grass with no clothes on scratching her willy....I don't get it!".

Our penchant for buying art whilst on the road caught us again and we are now the proud owners of two new pieces of Tuscan art - and both of them involving poppies! We saw the first piece earlier in the week at a little gallery in Chiusi to which we returned on Friday afternoon. After battling to communicate with the artist and her colleague for a while in English and Italian about how to get the rather large painting back to Brussels, we eventually found that both parties (well Marion on our side) spoke French and things then all fell into place. Kyle even managed to sell one of his pictures to the colleague for a princely sum of 10 cents.

The second piece has a bit more of a story to it which links back to our last visit to Tuscany three or four years ago when we found a wonderful little gallery in a place called San Gimignano - otherwiswe known as San Jimmy Pyjamas thanks to Kyle. At the time, we couldn't agree on which of the two "Olive Tree" pieces we'd spotted we liked best so we ended up buying neither, a decision we've regretted ever since. So, when the opportunity presented itself to visit San Gimignano again, as it did en route to Lucca yesterday, we grabbed it with both hands. Marion and I had were convinced that we knew where the gallery was located so we headed off in search of the olive tree artist.

After having walked the length and breadth of San Gimignano we had come up with nothing so resorted to asking people if they knew where we could find the gallery of the olive tree artist. The response from the Tourism Office probably summed best up the responses we received to this enquiry........"that's a little bit difficult sir, all paintings from around here have olive trees in them....you dumb "$%*". We eventually however came up trumps and found our man, Fabrizio Ferrari, but not our olive trees. We did however buy another painting, a lovely poppy flower piece in quite a different context with incredible detail and use of colour. Fabrizio speaks good enough english so we were able to avoid the cantations of the previous art buying experience which was a relief.

So, we now have two rather large oils of poppy flowers heading for Brussels. Lets hope they make it!

San Gimignano is a very picturesque town and amazingly well preserved. The place was decked out in its full regalia with a weekend fair about to get into full swing later in the day. Although the place was a real feast for the eyes I'm afraid the same can't be said for the ears - if we hadn't known better we would have been excused for thinking we were visiting a medieval themed shopping mall somewhere in the US - just too many tourists for us. The boys thought it was great thanks to the largest ice cream of the trip so far and the purchase of two.....more......wooden swords to add to the already burgeoning collection at home.

You may recall that in our last story we told you how good Bert had been on this trip. Well .........

One of the challenges on this trip has been to find accomodation that allows animals and in some cases we've had to convince owners that our 15 year old dog is very well behaved and clean. The owners of the house in Chiusi don't normally allow dogs but made an exception in our case but only after having increased the caution deposit from E500 to E1000. When we arrived at the house the owner Carlo made a special request that we keep Bert off the couch in the lounge as it, and the cushions on it, are covered in silk fabric that the dog might damage. I mean who puts silk couches and cushions in a rental home for goodness sake??

Well, being the respectful tennants that we are, we made an extra special effort to keep Bert out of the lounge all together.......unfortunately not extra enough it turned out as the little devil decided that not only did he need to sit on the couch but that he also needed to relieve himself on top of one of the silk cushions. Can you believe it! Luckily we discovered the dirty deed, no pun intended, just after it happened. A quick search on Google to find out how to clean silk ensued, followed by a decision, against our better judgement, to wash it in tepid water (where after all would we find a dry cleaner in Chiusi?) with some Woolite which after a few tense minutes turned out to be the right decision, thank heavens. A quick spray of deodorant and hey presto, a good as new silk covered cushion. Phew!

The place that we've found to stay at in Lucca is interesting! The setting is absolutely amazing with a view across the entire Lucca valley towards the Apuan mountains. The car however is not all that impressed as the drive up here on a gravel road is challenging. The house is set in a garden full of olive and other wonderful trees, flowers and shrubs galore, a well manicured lawn and a pool. There is a dog, four cats and two horses on the property all who have thankfully accepted Bert into the family.....and then there is Bruno, the antique dealer, who owns the place, and lives on the property in an adjacent dwelling and is charmingly eccentric and very gay.

The house itself is over 300 years old and crammed full of character, as are its contents. Bruno lived in the house before separating from his wife and has left the things he had in the house when he lived there "for the enjoyment of the people"....if you know what that means! It has an art deco feel to it although in some cases it looks like he has just put whatever whereever. Each room is painted a different colour - all bright - from pink to purple to orange to green. There are tons of mirrors all over the walls especially in the bedroom - can't imagine what they are for!! It's not what I would choose but its clean and comfortable....and it's always interesting to see how other people do things so its fun to be here. The kids, I have to say, absolutely love it and have been running around searching for the cats for hours. Kyle is especially keen on animals and has elicited a promise from us that we will get a dog sometime soon; and Neill has made friends with the horses.

We plan on being here for a week in which time we hope to visit the old town of Lucca (there's an antique market which we are going to visit today), the leaning tower of Pisa, the Tuscan coast....and maybe the Cinque Terra. This will be our last week in Italy as we head back into France next Saturday where we'll be spending 4 nights in a place called Vence in the hills above Nice and then 5 days in Bonnieux in Provence with Craig and Lisa Thompson.

That's all our news for now - please keep sending emails to let us know whats happening in your lives and keep reading the blog! Its been great to hear from so may of you that you find the blog interesting and a worthwhile read.

Love from us all.....Ciao

Goodby Venice, Hallo Tuscany

We all agreed that Venice was fantatsic but were nonetheless ready to leave after a week of walking our legs off.......and spending a small fortune.


As Sean so aptly put it, "Venice was nice but really tiring"! To say that we were all exhausted by the end of the week would be an understatement. By the time Friday came around we decided that we'd earned the right on our last day to take a water taxi from and back to our appartment despite the Euro 120 price tag!

The weather improved for us towards the end of the week and we were able to walk around in shorts which was great....even if it made us stand out like "Tommy the Tourist". A visit to the Doges Palace was quite spectacular and a walk across the Bridge of Sighs into the prisons a memorable experience aided by Sean and Kyle's forced sighs.

Unfortunately we have lost most of the photo's that we took between us on Marion's new camera whilst in Venice thanks to Sean's over zealous use of the delete button. Marion was understandably very upset, as was Sean for that matter, as she was just getting the hang of her new camera that I bought her for her birthday and had taken some of the nicest pictures she had ever taken whilst in the most photographed city in the world. C'est la vie....not always a box of chocolates!

Saturday, my birthday, was spent driving down to Tuscany which took us about 4 hours not including a detour for lunch to a pretty little village somewhere in the middle of nowhere thanks to our GPS which let us down. Anyway, we ended up at a nice restaurant at which we were clearly the only tourists which made up for the wasted time. Marion and the boys spolied me with some very thoughtful presents particularly considering that almost everything one buys in Venice involves either masks or glass....and my presents included neither which was a relief!

When we finally arrived at Cassa Poglio in Chiusi (pronounced 'Keeoosi' I think) we thought we'd arrived in heaven. Not only is the place picture perfect but after a week of Venice is just what the doctor ordered.


By this morning, other than to take our bikes out for a ride, we still hadn't left the property and only because we've run out of provisions have we decided to venture out and visit a hill town or two and the supermarket.


Cassa Poglio is an 18th century farmhouse on a working farm located on the SE border of Tuscany and Umbria. They apparently make really good olive oil here which we are going to taste on Wednesday evening. The Villa is very nicely done and the owners have obviously take a lot of care in the place. There is a fantastic pool overlooking Lago Chiusi (Lake Chiusi) and the rolling hills which we have all enjoyed. After all the restaurants in Venice, it has also been great to get the braai going (barbeque for our non South African readers) and to eat al fresco under a fabulous gazebo next to the pool. The boys only complaint is that the place is full of bugs which they dont seem to approve of despite the fact that I continually remind them that they are Africans and should not be fussed by such things to which their usual retort is...."Daaaaaaad"!

We are not planning to do much while here other than relax and take in the sun. The weather so far has been kind to us and the boys have rediscovered their love for the water. They are getting so good that I now only just manage to get away from them when we play Marco "Peak" Polo. In a year or two I'm going to be dead meat!

Today we headed out and found a small town called Pienza (after a GPS inforced detour - we have decided that we will no longer rely on it out in the countryside). It is a really beautiful small hilltop town surrounded by some very old ramparts. There are fabulous views over the Tuscan countryside and some very pretty streets filled with flower boxes and old stone walls. We toured the shops and bought some of the local produce. Pienza is known for pecorino cheese which they prepare in a million different ways - with red peppers, herbs, black pepper, chillis, mature, young, etc etc. We also loaded up with anchovies and garlic in olive oil, herbs and some handmade soaps.

We are having mixed success with the boys schooling. As they are missing the last 6 weeks of the school year, the plan was to try and get an hour or two in each day to make up for lost time at school over the last few weeks of this school year. Marion has done loads of planning and preparation and has brought along all sorts of interesting stuff for them to do. Some days they just aren't interested and it is all a real struggle....and extreeeeeeemly frustrating for Marion and I. Other days go well and they seem quite enthusiastic and get through some good work. Its tough being a teacher and a parent!

For those of you that know him, you'll be pleased to know that Bert (our 15 year old miniature daschund) is doing extreemly well and seems to like life on the road. he must surely rank as one of the best travelled dogs around with all the places he's visited with us. His appetite seems to grow each day and he is the centre of attraction when he is out with us. We do leave him "at home" quite often, especially when there is a lot of walking planned for the day as he tends to collapse and freeze on the end of his lead after about half an hour of being out. He has impressed me with his bladder control and so far we've only had one accident indoors which is not bad for an old man like him.

This Saturday we leave Chiusi and take 11 days to get to Bonnieux in Provence where Craig and Lisa Thompson have very kindly offered to host us in their beautiful mas for 5 days. We're not sure where we'll be staying during this period as we haven't got anything booked yet so watch this space!

Thats it for this installment. Thanks for following us on our adventure around Europe.We'd love to hear from you so please drop us an email at neill.duffy@googlemail.com or add a comment at the end of this message. Please also feel free to pass the address for this blog to anyone that you think might be interested.

Ciao!

Water, water, water everywhere!

It's now been almost three weeks since we left Brussels on that rainy May day, three weeks in which we've crossed two major mountain ranges, spent time in three different countries, watched the car's odometer go over the 2000 km mark and seen much more rain than sun.

To say that we were all pleased to leave Dijon last Monday would be an understatement. We definitely didn't see it at its best given that it was a religious long weekend and the weather pretty awful so we've decided we'll give it the benefit of the doubt and stop over on another trip another time. One thing we won't be doing though is staying at Hotel Wilson which so far gets the prize for the worst beds on the trip. The best part of the weekend was finding a small village craft fair somewhere in the wine-growing hills in the Bourgogne where we were the only non-french which made a welcome change. The kids loved the obligatory 'circus' stand where they tried out all the circus equipment. Lunch was french fries with baguettes from one of the stalls.

So after week three, here are the rankings:

Sean's Top 3 so far
1. The taxi boat ride from Murano to the Rialto Bridge in Venice
2. Feeding the pigeons on St Mark's Square in Venice
3. The daily excursions to the pattiserie for pain-au-chocolats whilst on our french course at Coeur deFrance

Kyle's Top 3 -
1. Feeding the pigeons on St Mark's Square in Venice
2. The taxi boat ride from Murano to the Rialto Bridge in Venice
3. Parc Asterix

Sean's Worst 3 so far
1. Visiting Verona in the pouring rain en route to Venice
2. Hotel Wilson in Dijon (also gets mom's worst vote)
3. Parc Asterix ride with all those "scary things"

Kyle's Worst 3 so far
1 - 3. Same as Sean

Best Gelato So Far
1. Mint gelato in Venice (unanimous agreement)

Best Pain-au-chocolat so far
1. The new bakery on the Grand Place in Sancerre

Best Tiramasu so far (translated as "Pick me up")
1. Little tratoria in the village in Gardonia Riviera on Lake Garda (Kyle, Neill and Marion)

Worst Tiramasu so far
1. All of them - "I hate Tiramisu" (Sean)

Best meals so far
1. Grilled fish at the little restaurant in Baume et Messiers (Sean)
2. Pizza at a little take away joint on the road down the Italian Alps (Sean)

3. Bruschetta at restaurant close to the apartment in Venice, Fish risotto in Venice, roast duck in Balsamic Vinegar in Lake Garda, chicken in prunes in Lake Garda, gelato in Italy (anywhere) etc etc et (Marion and Neill). Actually difficult to decide really as the food has been fantastic (although Marion says her thighs do not have the same opinion and have formally requested her to stop feeding them at such a rate).

Worst of the rest
1. Dragging the luggage from the parking lot in Piazzale Roma to our apartment "3 minutes" away - more like 20 mins!

Now, back to what we've been up to since we left Dijon....................

The drive to Lake Geneva and Lausanne was very pleasant with a stop at the very picturesque village of Baume et Messiers proving to be a worthwhile detour - another find from our Undiscovered France book.

Hotel du Port in Ouchy Lausanne proved to be quite a find and despite the rain we quite enjoyed our two days here which included a visit to the Olympic Museum which was only dampened at the end of the visit by Sean proclaiming that "he didn't get it - what are the Olympics".

After Lausanne, we headed to Lake Garda and found a hotel called the Grand Hotel which looked as though nothing had changed in the last 60 years. The whole place looked like a set for a movie (like Truman Capote) - there was even a wedding where all the guests were dressed up in 1920s costumes. The rooms were really spacious and comfortable and the kids loved the pool for the one sunny day we had. Most of the guests in the hotel however were older than 70 - the sight of our two boys and the dog sent them all into states of 'tut-tut -aren't they sweet?' over and over again. The lake is really pretty but quite big and the general consensus was that Lake Como is more beautiful. The rain interfered again and one night it actually thundered and the lightning was pretty impressive. We had a relatively relaxed three days, one of the highlights being a meal at one of the restaurants in the village where Kyle asked an old lady of about 80 if she was an American spy, much to her amusement.

The drive to Venice took us across the Alps and through snow covered passes that didn't look any different to those that we had seen when we visited Switzerland in February earlier this year. I must say, I for one didn't expect to see so much snow so late in the year but then I am Zimbabwean so what do I know about these sorts of things.

Having heard so many good things about Verona, we decided to stop off on the way to Venice but alas the rain insured that the brief stop we made was as miserable as hell, particularly for Bert who got soaked proving that having your undercarriage just 10 cm off the ground is not a benefit in such conditions. The little that we did see of Verona was really impressive and it looks like a lovely city so we've decided that we are going to stop off again on the way to Tuscany this Saturday. That will be Neill's birthday so we'll spend it in Romeo and Juliet's home city....who knows, maybe I'll get a kiss (Neill).

Venice has been a hit. The boys love it and we're all really enjoying being here despite the walking that this entails. Every little road offers something new and interesting and we've already managed to use three forms of water transport - gondola, vaporetto (water bus) and water taxi. Things are VERY expensive but what can you do....... The apartment we are in is really comfortable and well located. St Mark's Square was a real hit with a visit to the top of the Campanile to coincide with the 10am ringing of the bells an added bonus. The boys went crazy feeding the pigeons and as you've already read have ranked this as the highlight of the trip so far. There just seems to be no end to the delights everywhere - from mask shops with Venetian period costumes, cute glass ornaments (including a dinsaur for Kyle, a pig for Sean and cherries for Marion) , leather handbags and shoes, gondolas with singing gondoliers, gelato everywhere, super food so far, lights glinting off the water in the evening etc - I really could go on for ages - and it isnt even spoilt by loads of tourists. The kids are even making the entire city out of lego at the moment including rubbish boats, police boats, gondolas and vaporetto (called Vaporators by the kids).

The trip to the glass-making island of Murano today was a bit of a let-down although there was fierce competition for the 'gross-est' thing on the island - eventually Sean and Marion settled for the orange lamp made into the shape of a plant with leaves in a ugly orange colour hanging over the sides - difficult to describe but equally difficult to forget. That just beat out the closest competitor being two glass boobs (yes I said boobs) the size of small footballs seated on a black chair - again difficult to imagine I know!

Enough from us for now - things to do! Until next time....ciao!