20th September Today when we woke it wasn't raining, for a change, so we decided to take the boat trip around the coast to Santa Margharita Ligure,Portofino and San Frutuosco Abbey. By the time we got to Portofino it was raining. This was very disappointing as I know how beautiful this place is when it's sunny. Luckily Gary packed the umbrellas. We wandered around for an hour and hopped back on the boat to San frutuosco. This is an Abbey built in the 10th cent...

21st September Todaywe woke to sunshine. Yeah. After having a morning coffee with Klaus and a look around his place, which is right on top of the hill overlooking Rapallo, we drove around the coast to Porto Venere. This is a picturesque port with a protected fishing harbour lined by colourful houses. The old church out on the point, typically decorated in the horizontal stripes of many Italian churches, has a great view from the top. We hada lovely dinner at K...

19th September I am happy to be back in Italy. Today was our first full day in Rapallo. It rainedyesterday and started off raining today. We decided to go to the aquarium in Genoa to escape the weather. What a waste of time and money that was. After the aquarium we wandered around the old town of Genoa. Genoa is a large port city in northern Italy. Cruise ships and ferries leave from here to places such as Tunisia, Spain, Greece and Sardinia. As such it is a b...

17th Septmenber Today we drove from Villeneuve Loubet on the French Riviera a to Monaco and the on to our accommodation at Menton. After two days of rain, most torrential, it was sunny and warm today. Monaco and Monte Carlo are still beautiful. Very clean and very posh. We walked around the town past the palace which isn't really pink, around the old town, through the gardens and along the city walls. Monaco is only tiny. It is 2km wide by 900 m deep. We have ...

14th September Today we went to Switzerland for lunch. I just love the way that that sounds! Instead of driving to the other side of the lake, like yesterday, we decided to take the car ferry over. Very short trip about 10 mins. Lugano is about ½ hours drive from Menaggio where the boat drops you off. Lugano is on Lake Lugano and is a lot smaller than Como or Lake Como. Not as picturesque. We walked around did some shopping , had some lunch and came home. Rig...