OK, so I thought driving in Florence was difficult. All we had to do was drive into Rome to the main rail station and drop the car off. We got lost, couldn't find any land marks and we stopped and asked three locals how to get to the main station and they all sent us to the different places. It's no wonder tourists can't find their way around Rome….the locals can't either. The maps aren't accurate and the streets aren't labelled properly. After tears, (mine not...

We left Venice at about 9.30 this morning though we could have easily stayed another couple of days. We drove to Pisa on our way to Florence. Something our travel agent decided we should do, rather than stay in Pisa for the night. We probably shouldn't have attempted to do it this way as we felt quite pressured for time, realizing we had to get to Florence and find our apartment. I was completely surprised at the Tower. It really is leaning, and it is quite bea...

I really didn't know what to expect with Venice. After our disastrous arrival in Nice I was anxious on the drive to Venice. We were to meet a woman there at 6.00pm and she had given us instructions about parking the car and then taking a water bus. It was sounding all too hard! However, her instructions were very good and by 5.30 we had caught the water bus and were waiting at the bus stop for her. Our apartment is extremely old but has everything we need. Last ...

What started as a disaster, actually turned out to be OK.We left Cases de Pene at about 10.30 and got to Nice at about 5.00.By 6.00 we realized we were not going to find the B&B and we had started to argue amongst ourselves….family democracy!! Mike called the owner who told us that he had let out our rooms because we hadn't turned up at the estimated time of 2.00 and when he went to charge our credit card, the number was wrong.(I have yet to check the email...

South of France - Day 1 What a beautiful place! We're staying in a small village called Cases de Pene which is about 12 kms from Perpignan. The Gite we're staying in is one of six in a complex. (We're the only ones here because schools have gone back in Europe.) The Gites are gorgeous and the area stunning. We're at the foothills of the Fenouilledes and we're surrounded by Vineyards and Olive Groves. Today we stayed at the Gite, (with the exception of Mike who w...