Off on a bus at 9am back to Milan then a train from Milan to Venice...we ended up arriving in Venice at 2:30pm. Matty went for the quick 2hr tour around Venice with our group leader so that we get our bearings before we headed off the next day around an overcast and rainy Venice. We had perfect weather up to this point so we weren't too disappointed, plus their 'rain' is what we would call spitting/sprinkling. So many shops! Chocolate/lolly stores, bakeries, Veni...

Today we took a ferry at 10am aross the lake to a small town called Bellagio and I absolutely loved this place, so many small shops full of clothes, jewellery, bags, things made out of wood etc. What made it so special was the most of this stuff was all hand made and very well done. I fell in love with a store called "I vetri di Bellagio" www.bellagio.co.nz. This store contained gift and xmas glass ornaments and of course I made a couple of purchases :) We took a...

Again in the morning we were on a train and off to Milan, this took about 3 hours, so we arrived at 11:30am. Milan's gothic church is beautiful inside and especially out, it is a must see when in Milan. Other than that, Milan has shopping streets full of American brands like The Gap, Banana Republic and Mango etc. however it is mainly a business centre. Our tour group had four hours in Milan and well let's say I'll never need to go there again, the four hours too...

Today we took a 9:30am bus to the world's best wine vineyards in Piedmonte. The wine countryside was just rows and rows of vineyards as far as the eye could see. Even the bus stop had grapes growing in it. After our walk around the countryside we were escorted to a family's vineyard where we were taken into their 17th century cellar and were shown wine making tools from the past and their award winning 1964 bottles of wine which they sell for only $50 Euro..... G...

The next morning we left La Spezia by train to St Margherita where we stored our luggage and took an hour walk into the town of Portofino which is know for the international jet-setting tourists. It's another by the sea town and our group went for a 1.5hr kayak around the cliff face. I wasn't feeling 100% so I got to be the bag minder; sitting in the sun on the beach and eating my lunch in that time was not all bad :) After the kayak we all went on another small ...