Post No8 - 2012 Trip - Crete

We couldn't possilby spend all that time in Italy with 'the Australians' without showing them some of Greece, and after a few relaxing days back in Koroni to catch our breath, we drove up to Athens and caught a flight over to Crete. It was a new experience for us all, apart from a stay there for me way back in the 70's.

The first night we ventured only as far as Sissi, a small town on the water, buzzing with tavernas. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we stayed again the following night!

We took the scenic route and drove through some very dramatic countryside.

Next day we were off east towards Sita which I remembered from a visit in the 70's. 

We stopped off for a coffee in the famous Agios Nicholas which was as bustling as ever, and then continued on through the increasingly barren landscape to Sita for the night.

 Sitia had changed quite dramatically since my last stay. In my early days of painting, one of my first large acrylic paintings was from a photo I took when we stayed here in the 70's.  I am currently attempting an updated version, hopefully downplaying the apartment buildings up behind the harbour!

One other place I remembered from that visit was a little place called Myrtos, on the South Coast, just past Irepetra. We took the gamble and headed there for the night, and it paid off. Myrtos still has loads of charm, and a very nice laid back feel to it. It still seems to consist of mostly narrow streets with little whitewashed houses, a lot of them leading straight down to the blue sea. Its wonderful to see there are still some of these villages around.

Next it was time for a dose of Greek history, and we'd realised we would more than likely have to save Knossos until the next trip, so off we went to Phestos. This is a Minoan archeological site, where the Phestos disc was discovered.  It was amazingly hot there, but an fascinating place and set in amongst high mountains and lush plains.

 and saw plenty of  'lines in the landscape'

Once we reached the north coast, we spent the night in Rethymnon, an interesting place with its Venetian facades,

but the following day we moved on to have a look at Chania, and decided that was the perfect spot to spend the last couple of nights and have a break from the car. We stayed in a great hotel right smack bang on the waterfront amongst all the restaurants and didn't have to venture far for anything.  Having said that plenty of wandering was done as there was a maze of laneways in every direction, buzzing with life.  It is fairly touristy, but beautiful and it worked extremely well!

checking out the menus.....

 We also did do a short trip to nearby Stravros which is famous for as being where the movie Zorba the Greek was filmed, and having just watched the film again recently, it doesn't seem to have changed too much since then! If you know the fil, you can see the mine up on the mountain, and the tiny house, right by the beach.

Sadly, our titme in Crete went way too fast, and it was time to head back to Athens again for a couple of nights before putting Rita and Peter onto their flights.

Just a little footnote. There was actually some sketching done enroute this time as Australian Peter became my 'sketching buddy'. I'm soon hoping to be able to get my sketchbook into shape, fill in the odd blank page, and produce something to put online in the not too distant future.

Needless to say, I have many many beautiful photographs of all of the places we visited on this trip, in France, Italy, Switzerland and Crete, and they will be appearing on my Picasweb site soon, at which time I'll add a link.

Post No7 - 2012 Trip - And then there was Tuscany

So here we are back in the Tuscany region with the two Australians keen to explore its delights!  We seem to spend a lot of time in this part of the world these days as it seems to be right in the midst of one of our usual paths through to France from Greece. No complaints from me though!

This time we rented a lovely house in the hilltop town of Barga, in the northern part of Tuscany, just north of Lucca, and it proved the perfect base. Barga's crammed with lots of tiny narrow streets, some great restaurants and it felt like it was there for the Italians, not the tourist! Another plus was that the house was high up in the town, tucked just under the large church with its intriguing bell ringing (which we later sussed out!) and looked over the town's rooftops and over to the distant mountains - hours and hours of sketching at our fingertips.

The house was owned by the lovely Frank (peeking through the door), an American Italian writer, who was a fountain of knowledge, so when we weren't out exploring we were picking plying him with questions.

So after a day of well deserved 'down time', we first headed off to Lucca, one of my favourites since I stayed there a few years back  - and yet another place we've passed so many times on the freeway and never stopped at.

Lucca is another town full of curving narrow streets, with a wonderful circular piazza in the middle of it. It appears full of large cathedrals that need exploring... next visit.

Siena was on the agenda as well and was once again worth the visit, though it was a tad disappointing not to fall in love with yet another handbag there.

Pisa was well and truly checked out as well. This was a first for me, and that Leaning Tower is truly quite amazing and still very much leaning despite the recent 'fix up' job. Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) surrounding the tower and the massive Cathedral was incredibly packed with tourists, but this didn't take away any of the grandeur of these beautiful buildings.  There was lots of entertainment value watching the tourists posing for their photographs, with them leaning in various directions with the 'photographers' furiously waving their arms about - it looked a little like some version of tai chi!

Ahh and then there was Florence. Such a beautiful city, but one again, oh so many tourists......

I'm always fascinated with Pont de Vecchio. It's such a colourful jumble of buildings, windows and shutters,

 yet walking over the bridge itself, you're lost in an amazing collection of gold and jewellry shops.

After our fantastic week in Barga, we headed  off to the south of Tuscany for our two last nights in Italy, alongside Lake Trasimeno in the tiny town of Castiglione del Lago.  On our way we stopped off at San Gimignano, but it was an Italian public holiday, and alas nowhere to park!  We did manage a walk through the town though whilst Peter waited in a shady spot in the car on the outskirts.

As a said in my recent Art Weekly Blog, I just love discovering lines of any sort in the countryside, and this is certainly the place to find them.

Whilst there, we managed to visit the beautiful Assisi 

 where we came across an interesting array of religious-ness!

Firstly, an angel

 then a pilgrim

 and lots of happyy nuns

We also visited Multipulciano, well known for its wine. A lovely spot set high up on a hill overlooking the Umbrian countryside.

The wine was sampled whilst sitting on a teensy balcony outside a cafe

and it seemed a good time to try on some of Rita's purchases!

Before long though it was time to leave the beautiful Italian countryside. It had been an amazing few weeks of exploring, eating, drinking, laughing, and even sketching.......

But wait, not quite finished yet, after a brief and well earned respite in Koroni, we're off to Crete for a week.... Next blog entry.......

Post No6 - 2002 Trip - Back to the Ligurian Coast

Now onto the next leg of our trip. After leaving Lake Como we scooped up another Australian friend, Peter from Milan Airport and continued down to one of our favourite bases for the Cinque Terre and Portfino area, Moneglia. 

 The next few days were spent exploring the Cinque Terre villages again, with lots more photos to add to my collection. Seems I'll be painting Cinque Terre for many years to come.  Riomaggiore is always interesting and this time we clambered up the hill above the town, where we found a stunning mural on the wall of the Townhall, which I've photographed in pieces.

We also walked the gentle path alongside the sea between Riomaggiore and Manorola, then made our way to Vernazza, leaving the Australians to check out the other two villages.

One sad thing this time though, was my favourite village of Vernazza. I hadn't realised just how much damage this lovely village had suffered in a huge landslide the previous October. There was work going on furiously everywhere, and it did look as though every effort was being made to get it back into shape as soon as possible. I'm sure the tourist dollars helped too.

Despite the devastation, at the other end of the village, it was business as usual at the port, despite many flooded buildings and the sound of jackhammers......

  and time to relax a bit after all the walking....

At the risk of making this blog far too long, I can't possibly leave out Portofino. Just to round that corner on the ferry and see the coloured buildings and boats tucked into its tiny harbour makes another visit more than worthwhile. There is something that gets me every time we visit, and I just can't stop taking photos from every angle. I know it can't change that much surely, but there always seems to be something I haven't seen before!