Thursday Woke to a mill pond sea. First stop the Officio Turistico to get the mandatory map. We found the Informatzione which was like a miniature portable class room plonked in the middle of a car park. The windows were covered with posters so you couldn't see in and on one side there was a small sliding window, behind which sat a tall skinny guy in a white singlet with cigarette, gazing intently at his laptop. After the usual expression of disgust at having bee...

Sunday All settled in and mildly rested and its up and off to Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, or so it seemed. The guide books tell us that because Grasse is an old ( aren't they all?) hill top town, it can be hard to navigate. Need I say more? For 90% of the time it was all uphill, but with our trusty map and google maps on the iphone, all was not lost. After only one circumnavigation of the town, we found the Fragonard perfume factory and museum and ...

Friday Today is our last full day in Stresa and once again it turned into a beautiful day, weather-wise. That being the case it was back up to the cable car to the top of Mottarone only this time with 2 mountain bikes, map, an a sense of bravado that exceeded our collective sensibilities. The plan looked quite straightforward, the girl in the bike shop had highlighted the trail and explained what was what and off we went. A gentle climb to get up to the ridge t...

Thursday There are events in life that become indelibly etch on our minds, never to be forgotten, and surface in times of future calamity or humour, and today was one such day!! The Prologue: Early breakfast, walk to the station to catch a local 9:12 train to Domodossola, Italy, arriving at 9:38 in time to connect with the scenic special train over and through the Alps to Locarno in Switzerland, departing at 10:25. As this meant crossing the border, it was st...

Monday, 16th en route Desenzano to Stresa. Well despite any trepidations held because of the name of our next destination, it was unbelievably stress free, other than Jean's insistence that we drag our suitcase up the hill from the hotel to the train station. The train to Milan arrived in Desenzano on time, seats were available, a small glitch with storing the bags, Jean wanted them within line of sight and I wanted them out of the way, and as I was the one wh...