We arrived in Cagliari a little late at 8am after a smooth crossing from Palermo. We had dinner on board with Terry and Cheryl. Cheryl has a good grasp of Italian and she put us straight on how to pronounce Cagliari. The ‘g’ is not really pronounced and you need to use the same sound as in ‘onion’, consequently, we have started substituting Onion for Cagliari whenever we say it. Our hotel is not in town this time – only about 3 km...

After leaving beautiful Taormina, we got on to the Autostrada and headed for Cefalu (Chefaloo). This way, we could avoid the horrid traffic of Messina that we had encountered on our first day in Sicily. This road was amazing. Not sure how many bridges and tunnels we went through but Kerrie had cramp in her arms from opening and closing Greg's helmet visor! Between every tunnel there was a stunning coastal view as we travelled over the bridges suspended in the air...

After a make and mend day in Athens doing the washing, sitting in Syntagma Square watching the world go by and enjoying another couple of Fix beers we headed off to Patras to catch the ferry to Brindisi, Italy. The ride took us along the coast with only one stop to get a coffee in a little village - probably the worst coffee we have ever tasted, but the bakery next door was full of yummy treats. We think the ferry to Brindisi was one of the oldest of the Grimald...

Tuesday 11th June Livigno had been our home for that past two nights as the weather had not been very promising. We wanted to stay in this area to set us up to ride Passo dell Stelvio. Riding this pass had eluded us in 2011 as we were ready to ride it in April – only to discover that it was closed until June – too much snow before that. We were not 100% sure that it was open this time either. We had been told, about 10 days before, that a land-slip...

7 June to 11 June 2013 - After 3 nights in Varese, the bikes both having been serviced, it was time to hit the road again. Next destination – Andermatt, hopefully to ride some mountain passes. We had already been told by some other riders that Passo dell Stelvio or as it is known locally - Stilfserjoch Pass, was closed due to a landslide - we hoped it would be open again by the time we got there. The day was cold but fine. The views as we rode continued to...