Ten days in Tuscany; split between the capital city Florence and lesser-known Siena. A lot happens in ten days. Oddly enough what we'll probably remember the most about our time in this region of Northern Italy is the heat. We arrived in the middle of what locals have called a "very uncharacteristic" hot time of year. The weather forecast has been easy to memorise: clear skies, sunshine and temperatures ranging from 25°C at night to 35°C+ during the day. Sounds lovely, but the relentless heat has lulled us into some sort of haze: a temperature-induced stupor. As such, I'm sitting on a train to Rome, trying to organise my thoughts (admittedly the air con is definitely helping air out the sweat patches). A couple of highlights emerge.

On a day trip to Cinque Terre we were trying to hike to and from as many of the 5 seaside towns as we could in a day. It was late afternoon and heat stroke was definitely setting in when we came to a point in the trail where the path had suffered a fair case of landslide-itis and was no longer passable (even for us energetic souls!). After backtracking a couple of hundred metres we found a small rickety half stairwell (substiuted by a tree trunk and rope where the rest of the stairs had collapsed) down onto the pebble-strewn, nearly uninhabited beach. I remember falling in love with the crackling sound the water made as each wave receded back over the pebbles and into the sea. We both stripped off to our jocks and spent an hour or so lazing about and cooling off in the Ligurian Sea. Beautiful.

We opted to go to an evening Wine Tasting course in Siena as a way of learning more about the wines of the region (and of course tasting a variety of them). The course was run by a qualified somellier and I loved being able to pick her brain about the different wines and why each region has its distinctive flavours. Asking the most questions, Sjane thinks I got an A+. On that note I didn't particularly like the famous Chianti Classico red we tried - a full-bodied Sangiovese-Merlot mix, but loved the pure Sangiovesi from both Montalcino and Montepulciano. The white from San-Gimignano and sweet amber Vin Santo were even better. After collecting our Wine Tasting Diplomas (put that on the resume!) we spent 15 minutes happily walking in the opposite direction to our accommodation, and then had to backtrack. Oh well! At least we now have more wines to add to the list to share with everyone back home when "happy hour" rolls around next.

Whilst on the topic of tasty treats; we have tried our hardest to give ourselves full-blown gelato and espresso addictions whilst we've been here. There are few things better than sitting on a step spooning ice-cold Italian gelato into our mouths as the day-trippers scramble by, or standing in a café drinking our thick, intense espresso shots. I've also done my best to sample as many local wines as possible while here as well, but to be honest Sjane hasn't done so with the same enthusiasm. Something about not wanting to undo all the good work of her early-morning runs. At least one of us is still health-conscious. I just call it "cultural eating" (or drinking as the case may be), and that justifies it in my mind.

Obviously we did a lot of other things in the last week-and-a-half, but these are the things that pop to the forefront of my heat-addled brain. We need to thank Amé and David for money that went toward the many wines and antipasti consumed during our time here. Thank you also to Sjane's colleagues at Holy Spirit whose gifts were put towards our time in Tuscany as well: Sjane felt it fitting as many of you love this part of the world. And a belated thank you to Maree and Beni as well! We were supposed to thank you for a gift of absinthe shots in Prague. What with all the excitement of Pisser and what not we forgot to thank you during our time there! We sissied out of the flaming absinthe, and instead invested in a plethora of Pilsen Urquell - the Czech beer - which we enjoyed in the beer gardens and the like whilst there. Another example of "cultural eating".