Post No1 - 2012 Trip - A Short Stint in Italy

Its been far too long! We've been travelling pretty much for the past 3 months and I'm going to now attempt to write a few separate blogs about the places we've seen, and hopefully eventually add some of the sketches that made up my travel journal. I'll jump back to early May when we were driving through Italy yet again, on our way to France to pick up the first of our Oz companions (Rita aka Madelene!)

We spent two nights in one of our favourite spots, Moneglia - a perfect place to tackle the busy Cinque Terre Coast and the small towns north and south. This time we had our sights set on Sestri Levante,    a turnoff we'd sped past many times, with me uttering my usual "we must stop and have a look there someday".  Peter has scanned many of his Dad's old black and white photos, taken back in the 1950's and 60's, some with him as a child, and he has over the past couple of years being trying to identify where these were taken. So we hopped onto the train and headed along the coast to Sestri Levante - a possible from one of the old photos. 

After a good explore of the town (including the grounds of a very grand hotel thanks to the welcoming concierge!), we made ourselves comfortable in a chic cafe sitting over the water where Peter got chatting to the waiter, and before too long an older local guy. Much discussion in both Italian and English ensued, whilst I happily sketched across the bay. 

Some photos were excitedly identified as being from the town and were duly transferred onto another laptop to be sent on to the Sestri Levante Town Hall. We've been were pleased to see that some of the smaller towns in Italy are keen to gather up photos from the early days, and are using them in various ways around the town.  These little chats are great as they often send us off in other directions to identify other photos, and in this case another mystery photo was identified as more than likely being a town near Brindisi where we often come off the ferry - another place to visit!
Next stop for now though, was Provence.