From Italy to France

Our  plan this morning went off surprisingly well, thank goodness. After breakfast in the hotel we were off to Livorno to drop of our rental "hunk of junk" . We left at 9:20 am and arrived, thanks to GPS a few minutes before 10. Livorno is close to Tirrenia, like Richmond is to Vancouver. Jeff was going to tell the guys at the rental shop (politely, of course) what he/we thought of the car but he didn't say anything in the end, because the fellows were so nice he didn't want to spoil their day.  They called us a taxi to take us back to Terrenia. An 8 passenger Mercedes Benz arrived! The drive back was interesting until we got stopped for a bridge to raise, meter running the whole time. Ahh the joys!
Back at our lovely Hotel Bristol we checked out at 11am and had to wait until 2pm for our next taxi to take us to the Pisa airport. We planned to spend the time laying around at the pool but then Enrico ((hotel owner) asked if we would like to use the bicycles to tour around. Yes! And we were off! The Hotel is not far from the beach and we rode along the bike path for about 6 km, sat for awhile and watched some surfers in the waves, and ended up at a cafe for pizza and salad.  When we got back with the bikes, Enrico and Jeff were talking tennis as Enrico had offered to put on the big tv in the bar for us. Enrico told us that Milos Ranoic had stayed at his hotel for a week and he had a photo with him........soon Jeff was pulling up his photo of him and Federer......boys!  It seems there is a tennis facility near by that the professionals use occasionally.
Our taxi arrived to take us to the Pisa airport, which is about 12 km away. On the drive we were passing  km's of serious barbed wire fencing....razor wire on top. I asked the driver  if it was a prison....no, it is a USA military base which was built during World War Two.  He said it was 6km in length and though not many Americans were there now it employs many Italians. (Not sure doing what)
Pisa airport is quite small and our flight was delayed.
We finally arrived in Paris to rain and cold, and hailed a taxi for our trip into the Marais district. We
had landed at Orly airport, flat rate to Paris is $35, (CDG Flat rate is $55) we were in rush hour traffic
so it took a long time to reach our hotel Turenne Le Marais. The hotel for two nights was quite expensive so we were anticipating a lovely room. Not! It is one of the smallest rooms we have ever seen and truth be told it is a bit shabby! I know it's Paris....but really!
We did ask if there were any bigger rooms and were told there were not.
Tomorrow is strike day for the transportation systems in Paris.
We asked at the desk for some dinner suggestions and thankfully there were lots of choices in the square half a block away.  Smoking in Paris is not allowed indoors so most people sit outside in plastic style tents. We are quite astounded at the number of smokers all over Europe, it was the same in Spain and Italy.  Soup of the day was creme lentil, piping hot and very tasty.
We purchased some water at a little corner store and decamped to our teeny room.
What will we do in Paris tomorrow ? I have always wanted to visit Auvers sur Oise which is 41 minutes by train from Paris. It is where Van Gogh spent his last days, also Corot, Pissarro, so much art history in an old French village....but the trains are on strike.


Just may have to shop instead😀😀☔️.
I still love Paris, wet, expensive, rude at times, but full of history, art, architecture, and style!

Last day in San Gimignano

We had a lovely breakfast in the breakfast room of the Cisterna Hotel with views that description does not do justice. Our friendly server from last nights dinner and yesterday's outdoor patio service was once again our server for breakfast. We asked her if she very gets to go home, we are not sure if she understands as she laughs and smiles. Jeff invited a girl who we had seen dining alone last night, to sit with us. It turned out she was/is a tour guide as we had guessed. She was pleased to be our guest I think.
After breakfast our plan was a leisurely exit from the hotel, I had a purchase to make and we would then walk down the hill to our car to bring it back up for our suitcases. All going according to plan till I suddenly remembered I had left my coat in Siena!   What to do! In the end we decided we had time to return and pick it up. Our hotel reception kindly called Siena to make sure the hotel had it. Now we are in a rush. It took us 1 1/2 hours we had not allowed for. Consequently we arrived in Lucca quite late in the day. We quickly realized the walled city was not suitable to drive in, so after a bite of pizza and a beer we had a quick run up to the outer wall to have a look. Sadly we had no time for a bike ride around the old wall......many bikes and joggers were to be seen and it looked like fun.
We drove to Tirrenia, which is between Pisa and Livorno. As we drove through Pisa we got a glimpse of the leaning tower, sadly no photo! I had wanted to take one of those pictures where it looks like I'm propping the tower up. We were both tired after our very long day dealing with traffic and tailgating Italian race car drivers and thought a relaxing hour by the pool would be the best thing to do.
At about 8:30 we walked to the beach area to a restaurant recommended by our hotel.....real Sicilian food! The walk to the beach was long but we finally found the location. The Bagno Lomi is owned and operated by a Sicilian family, they live in Sicily in the off season and return to Tirreno for the summer. They did not have much English nor us much Italian but we managed .......sort of!  I ordered grilled prawns, Jeff ordered Vongole.  When my plate came I was pretty sure I was not looking at prawns and the 8 or so little fishys looked too big to be sardines. Hmmm. Well I have to say they were delicious, after I cut off their little heads and tails. Jeffs pasta was full of mussels and clams. The evening was losing light but we could still see the waves crashing in and the spray it was causing, quite wild.
It was a long way back to our Hotel Bristol where we still had a hotel to book in Paris and a flight to check in. Travel is fun and work!
Ciao......tomorrow it's back to Bonjour!

Departing Siena for San Gimignano

We awoke to rain this morning.......and on the positive side were glad we were parked in the underground garage! Small mercies!
Our plan to walk out and find a coffee/bar where we could sip our coffees outdoors changed to a full breakfast (for me) and coffee for Jeff in the hotel breakfast room.  Soon we were packed up and driving towards San Gimignano which was only about an hour away, so we had lots of time to explore along the way. We stopped in to Casole de Elsa the old walled city we had seen on our trip to Siena, a very charming village, all the signs leading into the walls inexplicably led us nowhere! We tried to find the entrance twice and gave up.....it being Sunday there was nobody we could ask. Italy is as closed up as Spain on Sundays. The bonus in that is, the roads are less busy as they are either at church or "Sunday lunch"
We were hoping the rain would keep the motorcycles off the roads and I think it did some.
The scenery is really picture postcard. We came upon a beautiful old brick building with a gorgeous garden and restaurant and shop😄 A perfect combination and we pulled into the gravel driveway. Well, you guessed it.....we couldn't even get a coffee, they were very sorry, they were preparing for either Sunday lunch or a wedding! The room was perfection! The shop was closed and we hit the road. Another walled city, Monteriggioni was admired from the road as we drove on by.
We arrived in San Gimignano with very detailed instructions on how to find our hotel, thank goodness. We could drive into the centre of the old town directly to our hotel and park to unload for 20 minutes max.  This took awhile as the narrow streets were filled with tourists.
Our Hotel Cisterna is truly lovely and I would recommend it for the location and charm. It is also very spacious for a European hotel.  The hotel takes its name from the large stone cistern (well) in the centre of the square. It's walls of brick have ivy climbing up and around the windows.  By now the sun is shining and it is quite hot. After about 20 minutes we are driving back outside the old town walls to park our car.....6 euros for 24 hours. The walk back uphill is about 600 meters......and we managed to spend about 200 euros on the way! The painting girls who I traveled here with in January 2015 will be amused to learn that ALL the shops that were then closed were now open......and filled with tourists. It was quite busy but we were told nothing like it would be in another months time.
We spent the day wandering the top of the town, drinking wine on the patios, eating pizza (Jeff) gelato (me). The painting girls will remember the best gelato in the world shop where we all had gelato in January. My choice was coconut flavour...yum!  Very fond memories!
We decided to dine in our hotel restaurant and the view was staggeringly beautiful, we were seated at a window to enjoy it and enjoy it we did!
We will be leaving tomorrow to visit Lucca and Pisa and staying in a little town between Pisa and Livorno.
It was a wonderful day! ❤️

Crazy crazy day!

This morning we woke a bit late.  First order of the day was to pick up our rental car. The rental location was about 5 km from our hotel so we hopped in a taxi and tried to remember the route as we had to come back to our hotel.  Ha! Anyway we talked to the clerk at the agency about changing our drop off and at the end decided we would bring the car back to Livorno.  That settled we got in our Fiat, which Jeff has since declared a "hunk of junk"!!!! Graeme, the gears are ridiculous! As is the suspension, and this was an upgrade! Nuff said about the car.
We are using Graeme and Joanie's GPS which they have kindly lent to us and we could not get the gps to switch off of Sardinia, so in frustration we set off to find our way to the hotel. We later rememberd that the gps satellite takes time to register. We found ourselves down a narrow street and drove smack into a market......normally this would be a good thing. We pulled over to the curb while we thought about how we could negotiate through as there was no way we could reverse. Jeff is wrestling with the gps, I'm connecting my phone to google maps and there is a knock at my window. Yes it is the carbinerios! Fortunately he was very helpful and told us two right turns ...then go straight . He knew where the Hotel Gran Duca was.  Whew! Could have been a lot worse. He then proceed to hold back traffic and lead us to our first right turn. Amen!
Back at the hotel we had missed breakfast but there was a lovely coffee shop on the corner, not busy and the girl serving was very sweet....so a nice experience ! Now that we have decided to return the car to Livorno we have booked ourselves on a flight from Pisa (24km from Livorno) back to Paris on May 31st.
We packed up, checked out and were on the road, gps now operating in the correct part of Italy, by 12:30.
Our destination today was Siena and we were taking the coastal route. Livorno is quite large and it was taking some time to exit the city, the beaches were numerous and looked quite rocky. There were people laying on the rocks in every nook and cranny sunning themselves.  It being Saturday every square inch of space along the side of the road had a parked car or motorbike on it. People getting out of their vehicles loaded down with towels, food and libation.
As we passed the port we saw the fishermen with the morning catch, cleaning it in sheds by the road, seagulls everywhere waiting for the spoils. Fishermen carrying crates of fish weaving through the traffic to waiting customers on the opposite side. Traffic is going every which way...why do they bother with lines?
We pass through many small villages, Castglioncello, Casole de Elsa, an old walled city on a hilltop just 22 km from Siena......looks worth a visit.  The drive was through beautiful countryside, rolling hills, wine country, walled hilltop villages, unfortunately made less enjoyable by the insane motorcycles, who passed without caution or care for themselves or others on the road. It was quite unnerving especially for Jeff. Being Saturday they were out in full force.  We stopped at a roadside bar for a drink  and a rest on the covered patio with a magnificent view.  Another village Monteriggioni, ringd by a stone wall and we were close to Siena.  Entering Siena we had our eyes peeled for our hotel, we saw a sign with an arrow and followed it till the arrows were no more, round and round we went.....tired and thirsty. After way to much time we found ourselves at the same spot again......it was the entrance to the walled part of the city......yes our hotel was mere meters inside the walls!!!!!!!
We checked in and flopped for a few minutes then ventured out to walk up to the duomo It was an uphill walk and we were soon enticed into a bar whose chalkboard outside beckoned us for the view.
A wander around the narrow streets and many photos later we came to the duomo, which was closed to visitors.
Back in our hotel we made a reservation on our hotel patio for dinner .....it has a fabulous view of the surrounding valley laid out below.
The patio was quite full of diners, a young couple was seated at the table next to us.....the beautiful young lady was dressed fashionably in a very short skirt but what really caught my attention was her shoes! Black patent high heels with a gold strip on the heel and at the top of each heel there was a
small gold  padlock!!!!! Exquisite.  
Our meal finished we left the patio to walk down to an area below the hotel where a local Festival was in full swing.....many hundreds of people eating at long tables being served by young people who were delivering food from a large fired bbq. There will be a band and dancing afterwards. Tourists are  invited to join in but it seemed too much to deal with after our day.
We wandered  back to our hotel hoping the rain would be stopped at Roland Garosso so we could cach some tennis.
Bonne Serra! And Goodnigh!

Our last day in Sardinia

Our final day with our friends started off with breakfast at Sandy and Mikes Hotel in Porto Rotondo, a lovely little hotel right on the water. After the typical Italian breakfast of meats, cheeses, croissants, buns, juices and cake we strolled along the boardwalk admiring all the moored yachts. Many millions of dollars in boats lined up, cafes, and little shops selling yachting clothes, bags and anything else you may have need of.
After an hour of walking the waterfront we said goodbye to Sandy and Mike and went back to our condo to pack up.
Our wonderful friends and hosts for the past week, Joanie and Graeme drove us into Olbia for our 2pm ferry to Livorno.
The Moby Ferries are the size of cruise ships.....the one we were on was decorated with large paintings of cartoon characters...tweety and Sylvester . We walked on to the lower car deck and took the elevator up......I think the ship was 10 stories high....huge😀. We went to the information desk to get the key to our stateroom.  The room had 2 beds, either an additional 2 that could be pulled down from the walls above, a bathroom complete with shower, a desk, and a closet. We deposited our suitcase and backpacks and set off to explore the ship.
As we pulled out of port it was extremely windy on deck, it was interesting to see Olbia from the sea.
We walked all over the ship, it amazed us to see so many people with dogs, big and little all up on deck, inside the seating areas as well......having been used to ferries at home keeping dogs below decks. People were obviously old hands at this type of  ferry travel, they had foamys to sit on, blankets to wrap themselves from the wind, shopping bags with drinks, sandwiches etc. Many were already curled up sleeping. Seemed like sleeping was a good idea and I slept for at least an hour.....in the stateroom, .....not the deck.
We were back and forth to our stateroom and the bar where we had a jd and coffee (me). Then  decided to go to the dining room for dinner when it opened at 7pm. We ordered Bruschetta which came with prosecco, Jeff had a pasta dish and I had an appetizer which was zucchini wrapped around eggplant topped with buffaletta cheese....delish.
Soon it was time to disembark.....and the fun began......trying to get directions from staff re where to actually do this! Our room key was to be returned to the info desk....where Jeff asked about where to disembark.....he was told deck 8. Okay, this is different, we had entered on the car deck (at sea level). We are patiently waiting on deck 8 and a staff member sweeping the floor is waving his arm at us to move forward.....we ignore him! I am now asking other passengers where we get off, making a walking motion with two fingers! A passenger tells us the opposite direction from what the crew had said. We find ourselves back at info desk on deck 6 with a short line of people, I ask the last person in line, using my walking fingers!!!! If this is the walk off line. It is. Soon the door opens and the line starts to move......at the top of the escalator the staff member is letting 4 or 5 people advance at a time. We are finally back at sea level where we had originally boarded the ship. Now to get a cab to our hotel, Hotel Gran Duca. There appeared to be two cabs at the taxi area but no drivers in them. We enlisted the aid of one of the many staff who seemed  to be watching the cars coming off the ship. He phoned a cab and said one would be there in 5 minutes.  Our cab driver was very pleasant, could speak quite good English, enough to give us some advice re sights and towns to visit for the next 3 days. Our hotel is very nice as well.....so all is well in the world today!
We decided if we again were to travel by ferry, which is a 7 hour trip we would take the overnight ferry departing at 10pm and arriving at 7 am the next day............note to ourselves.....learn mor Italian for next visit.
Bonne Serra xo

Thursday another Beach Day

We were off again in the car after breakfast...Mike and Sandy following behind us. We decided to return to Cinto Beach near Teodora....this is the "best beach in the universe".  It was another quite windy day. We stopped at Brandinchi beach first and walked its length, the beaches are numerous all along the coastline.  At  Cinto beach the wind was blowing in instead of out to sea so it was not as clean today as it was on our previous visit......nonetheless still glorious with more kite surfers than ever whipping around in the surf.
Back in our cars again we decided to test Mike's driving skills.....to see if he could keep up ( Jeff is now officially an Italian race car driver) ......we lost Mike😋......Joanie called Sandy on whatsap and we pulled into a lay by to wait for them! All in good fun this went on till we arrived at the same restaurant we had been to a few days earlier in the hilltop town of Posada. The restaurant is called Mario and Catherina. She remembered us from our previous visit. The food and service was excellent. The bread sublime ! Catherine spoke virtually no English, except the word pasta! Anyway I wanted to ask her if she could sell us a loaf of the bread.......the light went on when she realized what I meant and off she went to comply.....I thought!  She came back bearing 3 gifts, one each for Sandy, Joanie and me......gifts of the crispy flat bread they make inhouse.  Each package tied with ribbon. It was not the bread I had meant but what a gift! I felt like hugging her.
On the road again we lost Mike, (haha) pulled over to wait, they caught up and passed us. All in good fun.
Home again we prepared an antipasto platter and a spaghetti dinner.
It as another fine italian day.

Whacky Wednesday.

Today we planned to hit a few beaches around the island.  Before breakfast Jeff and I made a quick trip into town to purchase an overnight ferry ticket from Olbia to Livorno, Italy. We discovered the overnight ferry was full.....at least all the staterooms were booked and we didn't fancy sitting up all night possibly falling asleep in chairs trying to hang onto our suitcase! There was an afternoon ferry got which we could still get a stateroom for 2 persons, which we did book. The ferry trip is 7 hours so we felt it would be a good idea to have somewhere to leave our belongings while we moved about the ship......which is in the Moby line and the size of a cruise ship.  ....our ticket booked we hustled back to Porta Volpe as we were heading to the beaches with Joanie, Graeme , Sandy and Mike.
We had only about 600 yds to go when we were stopped by the police and not allowed to go further. We could see and smell the thick black smoke. Apparently it was too dangerous to pass as they were worried about a gas explosion.  We had no choice but to wait it out......hungry and frustrated as they could not tell us how long it would be. This being Italy and the odd hours of eating it was impossible to find a restaurant open.....until 12 pm......at which time the road was passable.
Arriving back at the condo where J,S,M,and G were patiently waiting we put together a huge antipasto platter for lunch, cheese, salami, olives, prosciutto, melon, bread and veggies.
Hunger taken care of we piled into two cars and we were off once again to join the crazy Italians racing around on their winding narrow roads! Mike doing his best to keep up (just kidding Mike!) and Jeff doing his best to lose him (or not!)
We were driving basically to the northern tip of Sardinia, where Sandy and Mike would eventually catch the one hour crossing by ferry to Corsica France. The coastline was beautiful and rocky, there was a large lighthouse at the tip and many walking/hiking trails through waist high shrubbery over hilly terrain. We were told there were a lot of large turtles  (tortugas) that lived in the area to watch out for them. We were not lucky enough to see one, although hikers we passed had seen one.
After a bit of hiking we were back in the cars, the next stop was at an archaelogical site Lu Brandali where we would see the Gianti Tomb. A collection of huge stone blocks which are a collective grave of about 60 skeletons from a nearby village, placed in the shape of a bull head complete with horns. This was found during an excavation together with bronze and amber jewellery and 2 pottery bowls. On the basis of the material found a chronological period was established.....middle and late Bronze Age (xiv - x. sec BC) .  There was also remains of several abodes that had been excavated and the belief is that there are more.
It was a long drive back to Ponto Volpe after a stock up at a supermercado for shiskabob makings and more wine and beer.
The six of us had a great bbq then tea and biscuits to end the evening.
Bonne Serra xo