Travels in Italy & France 2011

The time had come to head back to France again; this time to register my little car (still French plates) and to sort out more of the neverending bureaucracy. But first, some time out in Italy.....

After a good night's sleep and some relaxation on the great new Patras to Ancona ferry, Cruise Olympia, we launched ourselves into Italian life for a week.

We'd decided to make our way to Jesi, an ancient town perched on a hillside that we used to see in the distance when whizzing along the motorway. The history of Jesi goes back to before the Byzantine Empire when it became one of the main centres, and then much later was the birthplace of the Holy Roman Emporer Frederick II, hence various grand buildings amidst the old walled town. However, as often happens to us in Italy, we had a tough time finding a hotel for the night, and even harder to find a restaurant serving simple pasta dishes, but eventually we did ok, with a hotel outside the walls of the old town, and pizza for dinner! It was great to join in on the evening 'la passeggiata', strolling the streets of the old town.

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Next day we headed off towards Lake Trasimeno and stopped for coffee (always lots of coffee in Italy) and to explore Assisi. A beautiful hilltop town spilling down towards the plains. Francis of Assis hailed from here so plenty of churches and a rather polished feel to the whole town, but it was lovely. The 12 noon bells all chimed the moment we arrived too! 

Once we got to Lake Trasimeno later that day we booked into a hotel in the smallish town of Passignano. It made me realise its been a while since I'd spent time on the side of a lake, and how its very different from the sea - seems more atmospheric somehow as you might see from the photos.

Then it was off to explore Cortona, made famous by the movie Under The Tuscan Sun. A lovely hilltop town but it did seem a little lifeless and dull and we couldn't even find the fountain in the movie! - perhaps we got there too early in the morning so perhaps another visit in the summer might be called for.  It was only very early April, and these small towns are just waking up after their cold winters. I might add though, the weather was lovely, so much so, that we could take the top off my little car and beetle around with the Italian wind in our hair - haha.....

Around to the other side of Lake Traismeno next to the lovely Castligone del Lago.  The old town was lovely but fairly small and after walking around it twice we booked into the smart hotel that we decided was affordable after all - we had a room with a lovely view over the lake plus a great breakfast!

Then off to get me a new handbag in Siena - so many beautiful bag and shoe shops there and very hard to make a decision. Despite being early season though Siena was packed, but it was worth the stop. After leaving there we had a lovely drive through the Tuscan countryside - all those beautiful rolling hills, lines of cypresses reminded me why Tuscany was so popular - there seems to be a real serenity in the countryside. 

San Gimignano popped up over the hills at some stage, so we had a wander around and more coffee there - loved all those big high windowless towers.

So after our Tuscan rambles, we headed towards the coast to stay at our favourite spot in Moneglia which is just north of Cinque Terre and as I've said in previous blogs, a perfect base for exploring that section of coastline. This time we were heading to have a look at Portovenere, south of the Cinque Terre villages.

To get to Portovenere, we first of all caught the train to Vernazza which hadn't quite woken up for the day. It looked rather different without all the tourists, but when we returned later in the day, it was its usual bustling self again. I must admit, I do find it rather amazing that these very special places are becoming familiar to me these days - its a matter of pinching myself again and again!It was a rather disjointed journey to get there, with trains and a rather entertaining bus trip, jammed in amongst masses of local Italians talking at full tilt (but not as loudly as the Greeks!) Portovenere is another wonderful coastal town of tall wonky looking coloured buildings lined up along the water - painting material for sure.

So on to France and back to our old area in the Languedoc. France always seems rather quiet when we go back there now. There just never seems to be as many people out and about as in Greece, and its often harder to find places to eat and drink both in France and Italy (shock horror!) The weather was still amazing - so hot I had to buy some summer clothes (yes, really!) We visited friends and some of our old haunts, ate almond croissants and moules frites, and managed to get most of our beaucratic stuff dealt with. My little car flew through its rego, with the help of two new tyres which I don't begrudge at all, so it was well worth the trip. Pezenas was looking particularly nice I thought!

On our return to Greece, we heard from some Sydney friends who were staying in Nice, so we made an unscheduled stop-off there. We've always seemed to bypass it on previous trips so it was great opportunity to have a look around and only really scratched the surface in 2 days. Sadly we didn't have enough time to get to the art galleries either - next trip for sure. In fact this whole trip wasn't particularly successful in anything creative, except perhaps, for an emormous amount of photos with my new camera!

The markets in Nice were wonderful and my many photos don't do them justice at all. We had a fantastic lunch at an Indian restaurant - in fact, there seemed to be Indian restaurants everywhere.

We stopped off at various other places in Italy on the way back to Greece, and Arrezo, in particular, was an interesting place, but I think this blog is long enough.  I've put a lot more photos onto my Picasaweb site - check them out if you're interested. https://picasaweb.google.com/111353970085495585185/ItalyFrance2011#