Funny how things turn out, as Sienna is one of Stan's most favourite cities, especially the famous Piazza il Campo. With is large sloping terrace bordered by a series of medieval palaces, on a sunny day it is truly beautiful. Getting there was fine but we struggled to work out where to park. Then once parked, how to get in the city. The Italians are not great on providing clear signage. We wandered around, visited the Palazzo del Campo, still a local governmen...

Here we are at 9 pm sitting outside writing our diaries, finishing off the lovely jam tart Flaminia, our landlady, made us with the juiciest strawberries watching the sunset over the Tuscan hills. The best way to get to Florence is anyway that does not involve driving and parking there ( I've heard lots of stories of huge parking fees). So we boarded a local bus that carried a full load of locals and tourists along those awful roads to Florence. Needless to say...

So we braved the Italian road again dragging ourselves out after a good hearty sleep in and headed to San Gimignano. Apparently the most visited village in Italy. The weather was warm, streets packed with tourists and an endless array of kitsch souvenir shops. It's a walled hilltop town, with many towers, apparently at the peak there were 27 of them but only 14 remain. I forced our poor children into viewing yet another cathedral, Cassie most upset as she had t...

Stan head off Monday night whilst the girls and I stayed at the very lovely Novotel in Lyon. We really liked Lyon, it had a good feel to it. And the shops are open till 8 pm, so we made the most of it and Cassie, who else, managed to pick up a cute little dress. We head off at 8 am ,.after a yummy hotel breakfast, on the light rail to the airport. Staff so friendly, and most people we came across spoke reasonable Englush, which made it easier. Melbourne needs s...