Today we tasted a little piece of Pisa and it was good. The morning was foggy as we caught an early train to Pisa Centrale Station, but it soon cleared to reveal a clear sunny day. On arrival we stopped for a warming cappuccino before tracking down the famous tower and, although the froth was beautifully adorned with chocolate dusted designs, we were ripped off. It was the most expensive dishwater we had tasted, but even so, it could not put a dampener on our day...

BROWN Florence is a brown town - Her rooftop tiles Her warm toned bricks, Her fallen leaves And winter sticks, Her statues bronze, Her leather tanned, Her roast crackling pig And her buildings grand. Florence is a brown town A 50 shades of brown town, And the people, with tawny skins Sometimes crinkled by brown frowns, Have smiling brown eyes when lit by grins. Florence wears her brown gown To her toes. Her hemline brushes the muddied cobblestone...

Florence is as beautiful as I remember it, possibly made even more spectacular by the blue winter sky that greeted us on arrival. We easily located our apartment nestled in a narrow cobblestone street close to the train station and just around the corner from the Medici Chapel. Our first few days were glorious. The sun shone and we relished exploring the sights and shops. Then KAPOW! Down we went with some bug that put us all out of action for a couple of days. T...

Any flight from Australia to Italy is long, but Cathay Pacific provided a comfortable enough trip with plenty of movies to fill those long 21 hours in the air. A 5 hour transit at Hong Kong Airport gave a chance to stretch our legs and even stretch out flat to nap for a while. And then we landed in Milan on a crisp clear -6 degree morning with a beautiful fireball sun that rose in the sky and shone on the snow dusted ground. There is nothing more beautiful than a...