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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