Today we farewelled southern Tuscany and headed north visiting Siena on our way to Bologna. Our start was a little halted by trying to find someone to check us out of our accommodation. It appears 8.30am might have been a little early for the hosts. Siena is a not quite as large a city as Arezzo yesterday. We wondered if we had parked in the right place when we first walked into the no drive zone. There was very little clue as to what was to come. Very early on i...

Today we were in holiday mode and made a very late start out the door. We did not hit the road until 11am. The walking, especially uphill in the last few days, taking its toll. First stop Castiglone del Lago, a castle on the shores of Lake Trasimeno. This was an amble around the small old part of the town and then a fairly short walk around the entire castle and town walls taking in the lake views. There were many locals and families out and about who for once ou...

Today we only had a rough plan, and had no idea where we might end up. We headed off to Cortona first. Michelle doing a fine job of navigating us through the countryside to this very high, but attractive town. Parking on the bottom side of the town, we took an escalator (a first in these hill towns) nearly up to the main street, but decided to do the hard yards first by walking up a very steep cobbled road to the high point of the town, where the most magnificent...

Today we set off in "donkey" as we have nicknamed the car, visiting Pienza, Montichiello, Vignoni Bagno Vignoni, Montalcino. They are all hilltop towns with great views across their valleys. Generally there are very few tourists out in Tuscany at the moment so it is very quiet. We also found traffic quiet, toilets are free and clean unlike the city options, but there is a lack of bakeries (this maybe a good thing!) Pienza was a former papal palace, and the first ...

Today was a travel day. We were up early at 6am and rushed to check out, grabbed a taxi and make it to the fast ferry to Naples. So our farewell to Sorrento and Helios Hotel was brief and rushed. The ferry was full but we managed to get a seat at the front with room for all our bags. The sailing was slightly rougher than previous crossing in the last few days, this despite the crew steering the boat in a completely different direction to counter the waves. Naples...