Italian holiday

Again - I know...the rest of you are still locked on an island and here we were traipsing around Italy in October with our Covid Vaccination passes having a wonderful holiday. We landed in Milan and spent the weekend enjoying exploring the city, eating pizza and climbing to the top of the Duomo and seeing the gold statue of Mary hidden on the top.

We then caught the train to Turin and despite not being able to tour the Ferraro Rocher Factory (they just don't do tours), we loved this city! We visited the Royal Palace, the Music Museum, the Automobile Museum, the old Fiat factory (now a neighbourhood shopping centre) that still has the racetrack on the top and enjoyed some fabulous food and wine.

From Turin we drove into the Piedmont Region where we stayed in a fully restored castle on the top of a hill. It was beautifully done and had a wonderful restaurant run by the owner/chef. She was very passionate about the region and only sourced local produce. We spent a day driving around visiting hilltop towns, with views to the French/Swiss Alps and also had fun buying both delicious hazelnut products and a spread of cheeses that we ate over the next few nights with some of the local wines.

Day 2 we did a wine tour with a wonderful guide Mattius who had a Phd in Gastronomical Science! He shared his knowledge of everything Piemonte - soil/grapes/wine/hazelnuts/white truffles/pasta/pizza/gelato and took us to both a Barolo and a Barbaresco winery that the region is famous for. It was the truffle festival time of the year and it wonderful to see the area with lots of tourists - much like Australia, it was the Italians holidaying within their own country. I am most definitely a convert to Italian wines.

Our next stop was the walled city of Lucca, we wandered through ancient cathedrals, attended a Puccini recital, drank red wine and ate pizza! I did try eating pigeon at a Michelin starred restaurant however it is not something that I will ever order again!

On our drive to Florence we stopped off in Pisa and climbed the Leaning Tower. There was definitely one side of the climb up that was easier on the legs than the other. I loved that the fallen angel was symbolically left on the lawn, also, please note he has quite the sculptured 6 pack!

In Florence there was yet another marble marvel built over centuries with inlaid pink and green highlights. The first 2 pictures below are taken from a rooftop bar, the next day we actually climbed the dome - firstly on the inside within the cathedral and then around the outside with a 360 degree view over the city. The last photo is us at the very top of the dome, me trying to catch my breathe!

We visited the statue of David, (as you can see his butt is quite cute too) and the Uffizi Gallery '...renowned worldwide for its unparalleled collection of sculptures and paintings from the Middle Ages to the Modern period.' There was so much to take in and I doubt I did it justice as my ability to stand and pause was time limited. I ended up finding a quiet seat while Neville did the rounds of the last floor.

Throughout Italy we met warm, welcoming and wonderful people - Florence was no exception. Thanks to a referral from our hotel we found a place to eat pizza, our waiter Alberto was a joy as was the chef making the pizza just across from our table. We returned there the following evening and were again treated to wonderful service, food and wine. It turns out both Albert and the Chef are owners of this wonderful restaurant!

We drove through Tuscany stopping off at Montepulciano, a lovely medieval hilltop town on our way to Umbria. There we spent 3 nights staying in a guest house set high up on a hillside above Umbertide with lovely views down into the valley. The evenings were getting too cool to spend much time outside, this photo was taken quickly before we grabbed our drinks and returned to our warm room. This was also our last night before we drove to Rome and flew back to Dubai. It felt like we had been away for a month - a wonderful holiday leaving us with lovely memories and some bottles of Italian red wine to drink as a reminder.

ps: Whilst I did eat the occasional slice of pizza when we were away, it was the fresh focaccia that I couldn't resist!