Tuscany, Venice, Switzerland, Austria

Hello everyone,
Finally back again & should be able to load my photos on now due to lots of technical problems.
An early rise & take the daunting challenge of driving to Florence, an hour into our drive, going thru toll gates, taking wrong exits, back thru toll gates, back on crazy freeways, we decided to detour & park our car at the Pisa airport & catch the 70min shuttle bus ride. That way we could relax, take in the sites along the way, destress, so much better for us & a lot less praying for me.
Got to Florence to start the battle of wondering around with thousands of other tourist doing the same thing. It was a sunny day, navigated our way around the sites, still fascinated on how proud they were hundreds, thousands of years ago in building such enormous structures, that still stand the test of time, each building with its individual characteristics, telling its own story is truly amazing, but unfortunately for me I refuse to line up even with prepaid tickets waiting to get a glimpse of the insides & being pushed thru for the next cattle run to come thru. On our way back we stopped at Pisa to see the tower, lucky for us it was about 6pm & nearly all the tourist had gone. We r loving that it stays daylight till late. We took a drive down to the Pisa marina where along the river mouth goin out to sea are these fishing huts built on the rock wall, with huge nets attached on a swinging pulley arm, that they drop into the water to catch there fish, add the gorgeous sunsets to the mix, only being there can describe how it feels. Our last days in Tuscany, I went walking thru the mountain down to the local village off Barga, taking an hour & a half to walk through & down very steep countryside, spent the afternoon sightseeing the village, while chatting to locals & tourist, enjoying the true village lifestyle, while Lyn went on a wine tour all afternoon. Final day we joined in the local village of Cascio where they were having a outdoor wood fired cooking food & home made wine festival. I think we were the only Aussies. You got to try 4 dishes which consisted of lamb shank with olives, potatoes, a pasta bake, polenta, pork minced spread on bread, baked tomato, egg pie, berry tart & cake. Was great watching the locals socialise, eat, drink, music playing & lots of Italian chatting.


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Hello from Madrid to the gorgeous mountains of Tuscany to romantic Venice

Finally hello everyone,
After leaving gorgeous Marriott hotel in Costa del sol Malaga in Spain, we headed back to Madrid. The challenge of catching a taxi, then bus, train, another bus & another hotel shuttle bus is nearly driving me to drink. We had a good time walking the streets of Madrid, neither one of us able to navigate their so called map of the city, so we were not able to find certain landmarks even with asking directions as we went along. But we were happy with what we saw & basically walked all arvo/night. I am in ore of these incredible buildings, there own individual characteristics of each structure, the shear size, let alone a monument on every roundabout or piazza square, what a culture shock, let alone way to many police with rifles & guns(not sure if I feel safe or should worry about there presences) plus tourist everywhere, not enough green natural nature & waterways for my liking.
This was a vast difference to when we arrived at Tuscany (Lucca Italy). We discovered that this Marriott package deal that we managed to snag had a catch to it as it was way up in the mountains & no public transport to it, it was going to cost us $130 euros to catch a taxi to get out there, so we were forced to hire a car ( little red fiat, of course). Next challenge trying to follow the GPS & navigate the crazy Italian drivers to get out there. Much to our delight & surprise after doing a lot of praying, while horns were going full bore on us & got out of the city, it was tucked away high in the mountain top surrounded by small quaint real country villages. Just magic & a real gem, what a way to wake up everyday, with breakfast on the terrace & spectacular views. We ventured out on a country drive to the local villages where I got to experience the true Italian culture, converse with the locals, eat local food (yum) & appreciate there simple lifestyles. We managed to get lost as usual & stumbled across a farmer working in his terraced vegetable patch, when much to our surprise he was a very well tanned stark naked man with only his boots on, thank goodness for us he had his back to us & he hadn't seen us, we snuck past on the dirt track & found ourselves in a mumma italians back yard where she was peeling veggies at her sink, I poked my head in her window, speaking my very slang Italian, apologising for being lost, asking if she could assist us to find our car, ended up having a chat, as she had relatives in Melbourne, all the time while I was smelling the Italian food she was cooking & wanted to invite myself for lunch. She let us take the shortcut thru her yard back to the Main Street where we found our little car. Went to the Grotto Del Vento caves & did a 3hr guided tour, we climbed 90mtrs up & 86mtrs down into the cave, from the Middle, was fascinating, in 1996 the cave totally flooded & has since flooded 5 more times, but seems to drain away within a wk or so, to which they r trying to find an answer to why & how this is happening. We travelled to Cinque Terre where these beautiful old villages r built into the cliff edge over looking the Mediterranean Sea, we went in by train to the furthest town & then caught the ferry to each village, so that u could appreciate the beauty of the mountains, view the incredible building of these villages carved into the cliff sides, they grow all there produce on the steep face of the terraced mountains, just beautiful.



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Towns of Estepona & old white village of Rhonda, Costa del sol Malaga Spain

I caught a local bus to the main town of Estepona, it had the most inviting promenade/esplanade walk for locals & tourist alike, the beach had been screen swept clean with a tractor, garden beds were green with trees, cactus, shrubs,lots of colourful flowers, eateries all along, walked the whole stretch, thru to the fishing port, boat marina, then up the hills to the back residential streets, where they seem to live in more low rise apartments, streets r a bit wider, the villas/terraces with small cobblestone streets r not as vivid as in Marbella, but enjoyed the wondering around.
Today Friday 1st may is a public holiday & we have travelled in a four wheel drive & private tour guide to the old white village of Ronda. Had to drive through the national park which has volcanic rock on one side & limestone rock on the other, the farms are mainly, chestnuts, olives, sunflower, plus apparently because the weather in Spain is so good they grow every type of fruit & vegies u can think of. Stunning scenery, skinny tiny stone roads, quaint little communities, fantastic village built on the gorge & thru the mountains, wondered around freely for 2 hrs, got to experience venturing around the residential part of the true lifestyle, then got taken to a small town of only 200 population & had a home cooked lunch of cold tomato soup Spanish style & wild venison with chestnut/ red wine sauce, ate green olives, was a nice experience, gr8 family culture, will leave with good memories off to Madrid in the morning.
Cheers

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Marbella village streets in Spain