Ciao from Lucca! Well we've been here for nearly three weeks, and on Thursday we finally move on from Lucca. Next stop - Bologna. I'm sure Bologna is wonderful, but I can't help feeling a bit sad at the thought of leaving this town. I love it here. Lucca doesn't have a "big" tourist attraction - there's no Ponte Vecchio, Leaning Tower or Colosseum. There's no single area that feels overcrowded with tourists, and there's nowhere that you get the impression Itali...

Hello from Katy this time with an update from our next stop. Not inspired by my gushing review of the cradle of the Renaissance, Josh let me drag him on to Florence to continue the Grand Tour. We surprised ourselves by yet again managing to squeeze Bertha into the most unlikely of places - this time practically in to the very centre of Florence, where she camouflaged well with the Renaissance statues and architecture. I'd been to Florence a couple of times bef...

Hello, Josh here with the latest instalment. I guess this is the point where a normal trip to Italy might end, and you leave with memories of fine food and weather, and great experiences. Or you stay, and realise that you're going to need a greater purpose than sightseeing. But without some basic Italian, our understanding of this passionate country is limited and any hope of calling it home for the next couple of months can be forgotten. With this in mind, we h...

Hello, Katy this time. Just one month into married life, and my husband has already found a new love - gelato. But I can't say I blame him. Gelato really is the only thing for it after a day's walking along the cliff tops of the Cinque Terre. These five picture postcard towns and the surrounding area really are as pretty as in the photographs, with the late summer sun reflecting off the pastel coloured buildings. We've set up camp here and made ourselves at ho...

Josh here... Welcome to our blog. Is this how you start a blog? I will miss out all the normal trudge through French motorways, the ferry, and nuances of European driving and jump straight in to where we are. Well, almost straight in. Our first little anecdote of the trip came during one of the long boring runs through the plains of east France. Katy, realising I was losing the will to drive any further, offered to take control of Bertha for a couple of hours o...