Creme (something with eggs) and pistachio - Day 5

A trip out to the Chianti region. We woken by the Americans getting ready to leave.

Finally got ready to have breakfast another delicious breakie with the change of cake to chocolate marble cake, before we set off on the hunt for petrol as the gauge reached empty. We find a garage, it's Sunday, it's closed ! Don't panic, we drive down the road, find another, it's also closed. We drive back towards the direction we're meant to be going in, phone Simonetta she reassures us that there's a petrol station (lots of them) along the autostrada. With the empty light on and 15mins drive we find one, and after some help of some Italians with little English (but more than our Italian) we work out that you pay the machine first then it fills it up automatically for you, and to Jo's surprise a little,goes along way here.

Off we drive to Chianti towards Sienna then off to Cat.. stop at Bostia look at the outside of a castle, drive off to ..... nothing to see but lots of beautiful views along the way...

so on to Vertine take some photo's...

try some wine (very nice wine), hope we don't have to pay E10's for it and order some brushetta, and a pastry pie (imagine a Gregg's pie for posh people) very nice, with freshly squeezed juice, followed by a fruit tart and an apricot type cake, in a peaceful setting with tweeting birds swooping by and the odd meow of a scruffy cat.

I love my wife x (Thanks Jo nicely added touch)

Then off to the next village while listening to Elbow, the seldom seen kid, singing along loudly to the Fix. Actually no we decided to drive to Arezzo, strange place, we drove into the new centre seemed a bit like a foreign Stevenage no roundabouts just lots of traffic lights. Most of Arezzo was destroyed during WW2 and we seemed to feel it’s sadness as if it had been forgotten as we walked through the quiet streets of the old town centre.

By avoiding the crowds we found a scary but beautiful deli where we brought cheese, salami, ham, bread and pizzas sticks, along with a newsagents where we got some drinks and walked up to a park to eat dinner, relax...

and again watch the sun set and the people play before walking through the main street to find a very busy Ice cream shop, so we couldn't’t resist.

We make our way back to the B&B for a quick read on the balcony then finally an early night, where Jo (for a change falls fast asleep first).

Snickers crunch with mint - Day 4

I won't repeat what I wrote down for the beginning of this day, but I have edited a gentler version so you can understand what happened.

7.15 breakfast today so up at 6.15 only 6 hours sleep, more beautiful views and more yummy breakfast.

We rushed off to the train station, confusion over the ticket machine, got help from a nice Italian, but he left, then machine wouldn't except our money, so had to try the whole process again on a different machine, no change given you get given a receipt instead that you can cash in at a maned booth only there isn't any at this station, only to miss our train JUST. So we sat and waited an hour for the next. We sat next to a lovely American woman (I thought it was funny that she kept laughing at some of the things we said) who sold everything and started a new in Italy, but due to a lovely grand daughter was now in the process off going back home.

We arrived safely at Florence station, it's quite big but very organised. In brief we did a walking tour, no museums, or galleries or shops (well some). From the station we started our journey towards San Lorenzo church along the streets with the biggest markets selling cheap leather goods, towards the Duomo square where we saw the Duomo and the golden doors of paradise. And grapped some fancy Icecream.

A short walk and we stopped at Piazza Della Repubblica (we think) to eat our cafe style pizza aubergine (and mushroom for Jo), before we continued on to find the Town Halls medieval building in Palazzo Vecchio.

Here we saw a replica of David and many beautiful statues like this one -

Although we were next to the Uffizi we didn't get to get close as we took a diversion towards the WC and from there we rested again at Piazza di Santa Croce outside of the church listening to a man cheerily paying some drumming type string instrument, while writing more postcards, and watching an empty square quickly fill up with groups of tourists following umbrella's and sticks of all shapes and sizes.

We then ventured off to find the Piazzale Michelanglo across the river Arno, and climbed streets and steps to reach the top and boy was it worth it. The views were amazing over seeing Florence with no sky scrapers you could clearly see the old buildings like the Duomo below.

With views like this we sat at an over priced cafe and drank cold coffee topped with Ice cream, before we leisurely walked to Giardino di Baboli through to Piazzo dei Pitti, but with another climb up behind us we found the gardens closed or maybe we reached the forte di Belvedre by mistake which was closed so we couldn't get access to the gardens. So we went to admire the Ponte Veccio loaded with it's many (now ) jewelry shops (they were butcher shops but some mayor or something said they were to smelly) as the sun began to set.


Of course we saw a lot lot more along the way, too much to remember.

A quick light dinner before returning home looking into a nice square by the station cafe style for risotto pomedorro and Gnochi pesto, both just what we needed. We knew the train was on platform 12 and it was (not like Britain) so it didn't need us to ask at least two people. A safe journey easy get off the train and into the car and easily home for an early night of 11.00.

Pistachio and Creme deCatalan - Day 3

After breakfast we drove off on the scenic route to Sienna, through Sangulga in and out and in and out again then.... Sienna was hard to get into, getting there was no problem but trying to find away to find a way to a car park was difficult and then when you did you realised it was very expensive then you reach the inside walls and there's nothing really there.

The cathedral has amazing features, a zebra like interior, with lots of marbled flooring of religious scenes. There’s a library with a beautifully painted frieze and large books incased in glass with beautiful artwork.

Sienna also has an interesting centre or piazzo, I’m sure this where they filmed part of Quantum of Solace, here we had to sit on the floor and ate Calzone (although Jo didn’t realise it was stuffed with loads of mushrooms) and later our daily Icecream (there were so many gelato here).

On leaving Sienna we decided to visit a small walled village called Monteriggoni neatly sitting on top of one of the hills. Not a lot to look at, apart from more beautiful scenery, but many tourists drive this way by the bus load. We parked in an almost empty car park and climbed a few lavender aisled steps to get to the entrance. Nothing else to do but eat, so after looking at a light menu we decided to eat in one restaurant but were faced with a menu that was three times the price and decided to leave just as they were about to present us with a flute of sparkling wine. After relaxing from a slight panic attack and hunger we decided to sit at a more relaxed dinning area. The staff were really friendly (not like the snooty waiter in the one we had just left) and they fed us lasagne and Sausage and Beans, were not talking tinned beans these were beautiful cooked fresh mmmmm. Followed by the best Panna Cotta I’ve ever had.

Then our 40minute straightforward drive back turned into a we don’t remember where we are staying, so going from village to village in the dark, having lots of shouting, crying, adding Google maps to the phone, we arrived safely back 2 and half hours later. Another early night gone.

Nutella Day - Day 2

Followed by Peach and Mistakenly coconut

We woke to get ready for our first breakfast abroad at 8.45am in the darkened room, lost in the huge bed. On opening the shutters we realised what a beautiful it was going to be. It didn't take long for us to get ready (I think Jo was spurred on by how hungry she was).

Downstairs for breakfast we were seated at a large table with cereals, cold meats, bread, toast, jams, cake and croissants. That wasn't all Simonette brought in juice, coffee (very nice) and soft boiled egg. We discussed where to go and Simonette helped us out with a map of Cortona. So off we drove on what seemed like a fairly casual drive. We found a free parking space it was not quite where S recommended due to the sharp bend Jo decided to take on two wheels with both of us shouting woooaaaahhhh. It was a lovely town not much to see there or do, wonderful buildings, apartments and street to look at. Of course there was the Ice cream shop (nutella to start) we found a public WC, and the car park we were meant to be heading to. At this point I decided to walk through Cortona to get to the Fort rather than take the car through the narrowest streets. A wise decision I feel, altohugh it didn't feel like it when we were walking, no climbing up through the winding streets, and up through cobbled steps, and up past the church. But the views were amazing and very quiet (obviously no one wanted to walk as high as us).

We went a different route which took us a quarter of the time on a more direct route and found ourselves back at the square were we first started and celebrated with another Ice cream Peach and mistakenly (a good mistake) coconut.

Back in the car for a trip to Lake Trassimo, which you can see in the distance in the photo above, with a few journey round and around the roundabout one dead end one nearly up a no entry we made our way to the lake fairly easily. Drinking freshly squeezed Orange juice watching the sun go down over the waters edge and looking back at where we had earlier climbed.

We drove back to Cortona for dinner and with briefly watching the swallows/swifts swoop around us for a little while the sun set, we quickly arrived at a recommended restaurant. Not sure what we ate but we decided that four course was too much and settled for a pasta dish each, ricotta and spinach with a plate of green veg (more spinach) and I had a sausage tortellini with a side of tomatoes. It was meant to be a quick meal so we could head back to the B&B for our champers, only we got chatting to a lovely mother and daughter form Canada. On returning we we found our free bottle of chilled Spamanti naturally we opened it and forced ourselves to stay awake long enough to enjoy the sweet bubbles of the sparkling wine, before drifting off for another sleep in our over sized bed.

No flavour continued... by Jo

My uncle came to collect us at 8am and off we went to Stanstead airport. All went according to the itinerary... which Nayera kept in her phone for peace of mind. We arrived into Pisa and collected our hire car, a new fiat punto which was very nice.

The drive to Casa Bellavista was about two and half hours and fairly straightforward, a taster of some beautiful countryside. If you want to have a look at their website you can find it here

We get our amazing tuscan guest house at 5.30ish and stare out at the wonderful views from our room. We are very lucky that we are the only guests as May is the the start of the season.

Simonetta our host welcomes us and recommends a local restaurant. It was very expensive and we ate 3 courses (no room for dessert) not realising we could just have pasta, although I think in a posh restaurant this is frowned upon. We had Brushetta, nutty tagliatelle, chickpea soup, lemon chicken, pork chop. Later we drive back to our lovely big bed.

No Icecream today but so many flavours to come....

OUR HONEYMOON IN ITALY, No Flavour

Seemed a long day - Nayera

This page seemed very empty for the first page of our honeymoon adventures so I'm going to introduce my wife's anecdotes of Italy - Tuscanny, Rome and Sorrento. These are the tales of Eeyore, my Eeyore, who wasn't 100% happy about leaving our new home and our beloved Alfie and Smudge but she trusted me and my crazy ideas and came on adventures with me. I hope from reading these tales that you'll agree we had a wonderful time together, we laughed, we argghhheedd, we cried... I did it Dad... but it has been so rewarding and we are so very glad we went and so very glad we got married 9 months ago. - Jo

Here Here - Nayera

I hope you enjoy reading about our travels as much as we enjoyed going on them. If our next adventures will be closer to home, I think I'm ready. Thank you Nayera I love you x