"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!