Today has been the most glorious, gorgeous summery day. Such a wonderful day to be alive! So we had brekky as normal, but after studying the public transport maps for ourselves, decided on the combination of a bus that stopped just up from the hostel, and the tram that connected with it at a later stop. This tram took us all the way to the bus depot, no worries for an old woman with osteoarthritis of the knee! So we arrived at the bus depot and were spotted by ...

Straight after brekky we headed off on our coach - Bob had us being the first group up Mt Pilatus, which was lovely. Our first cable car took 30 minutes or so, and the second took about 9 minutes on the first one we were travelling through cloud all the way, but then we suddenly rose out of the cloud. It was incredible. Mt Pilatus (where they believe Pontius Pilate's spirit to be) is where they filmed the James Bond movie - On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It is ...

So we boarded our bus and retraced our steps to Bologna and continued north west to Switzerland. We passed through Modena, home of Ferrari, Andrea Boccelli, the late Luciano Pavarotti and balsamic vinegar (which is NOT used on salads in Italy, but to marinate meat, to sprinkle on strawberries or Parmesan cheese after dinner). We continued on through Parma, home of Parmesan cheese (which is produced from cow's milk, with cows that do not go outside and do not ...