We were heading for Umbria, but needed some wifi and so stopped in small and industrial Fabriano for coffee and pastries in the most delightful café we saw in the whole of Italy. Completely non touristic, the people were friendly and generous, and Liam showed our gratitude by tipping them 100% of the bill. Feeling pretty pleased with how good he felt after his first tip in Italy, I didn't want to squash his enthusiasm but made sure he didn't think we had to be quite that generous every time.

We spent 2 days in Umbria in a small an cosy apartment and had planned to do lots of walking in the Parco del Monte Cucco. Unfortunately the weather was atrocious and so we were limited to going out during breaks in the weather. Truth be told, having an excuse to sit and eat olives and drink wine wasn't so bad, and we witnessed a storm with hailstones the size of marbles! After 2 days, we headed east and spent a day in the hilltop town of Assisi. The weather had improved dramatically and we wandered up and down the steep streets and shops full of cured meats, cheeses and wine. Liam even managed to find the man who sold him a wallet 9 years ago when he visited Assisi on a day trip from Rome. After admiring the colourful frescos in the Bascillica of St Francis, we walked to the top of the hill to overlook the town, olive groves, and flat plains of Umbria.
We had booked a last minute room on Airbnb the night before on a small vineyard in Tuscany near Montelupo. We were amazed at how rural it became as we followed the navman onto small gravel roads through wheat fields, vineyards and olive groves nestled in the Tuscan hills. Thankfully we didn't meet many other cars but the couple that we did hadn't got the memo that there wasn't really room for two cars on the road, upholding the infamous Italian driving reputation. We didn't know quite what to expect and when we arrived we were met by a horse, a miniature pony, a goose and its entourage of adopted ducklings, and a goat. I was wondering what we had got ourselves into when our host Roberto and his rotund jovial translator welcomed us into the kitchen for wine, conversation, pizza making, and more wine. We could have sat in his kitchen and sipped the next three days away, but in the morning we drove through the winding Tuscan backroads to San Gimingiano, a small medieval town in Tuscany. San Gimingiano is often called the ‘Town of fine towers’ because of its unique and well preserved tower houses which can be seen from a distance as you approach. Though there were quite a few tourists, after looking around town we made our way to a courtyard full of olive trees and found a seat in the shade to watch some artists painting and listen to a busker playing guitar and some sort of horn violin. It was blissful and really starting to feel like summer. After the heat of the day had passed we headed back to Montelupo and walked along tracks through the nearby vineyards and forest. In the evening Roberto hosted a dinner party for some of this Tuscan friends and invited us to join them. None of the guests spoke a word of English and our attempts at Italian were welcomed, but of evoked more laughter than understanding. Liam’s fondness for red wine was growing, helped along by Leonardo the translator, who made sure our glasses were never less than three quarters full.
The rain had returned in the morning and we weren't feeling the freshest but we got out for a walk before a cooking class Roberto was running for a couple from Florence, which he had generously offered for us to join. Ragu, gnocchi, and tiramisu were the main dishes we tried our hand at. It didn't take long for me to notice that Liam was quite the star when it came to gnocchi. With any luck I'll get it once a week when we get back to New Zealand.
We caught a train into Florence the following morning and spent 2 hours in a queue waiting to get into the Uffizi gallery, which didn't do wonders for Liams back, and stifled our attempted enthusiasm for Renaissance art. It did make us realise how good we’d had it on our trip so far, it being so early in the season and with very few crowds. The rest of the day we spent meandering the streets, dodging tourists and visiting the many piazzas and palazzos, and Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral). We went to the Ponte Vecchio twice because I thought it was so special to look at from up and down river, though for me being on the bridge itself was spoilt by the excessive jewellery and souvenir shops. Florence was alluring, and though we would have liked to have spent a night there for the atmosphere, we were both itching to get out of the city again when the evening came.

The last two nights before meeting up with Megan we stayed in the small town of Montecarlo in an old Italian woman's home. We had an amazing walk though roads winding around olive trees, grape vines and forest where we found a freshly dead western whip snake. Montecarlo is a very small, quaint town with just one street of shops; a few restaurants, a Delhi/superette, and a few craft shops. In the evening we visited an olive oil factory/mill where we learned about the old and new processes extracting oil from olives, fascinatingly basic but very refined.

On our way to Pisa to meet up with Megan we spent a day in Lucca, famous for its Renaissance-era city walls. We both loved it’s laid back yet elegant feel, and enjoyed wandering around the tree-lined walls and cobblestone streets. We especially liked the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, where the ring of pastel coloured buildings surround the square follows the elliptical shape of the now absent amphitheatre.
Pisa was only a short drive away and we arrived in the late afternoon. Finding a place to park along the narrow one way streets and parking without damaging the rental car was quite a challenge, and anyone listening could have been been either impressed or shocked at the coarse broad vocabulary we adopted during the hour long ordeal. After a few glasses of placating wine, we wandered the famous bell tower and amused ourselves watching tourists take very original photos of themselves holding up the wall. Of course Megan and I joined in the next morning, embarrassing Liam enough for him to consider wiping us off his acquaintance list for good.

From Pisa the three of us headed north towards the Italian Riviera and Monterosso al mare, the northernmost seaside village along the cinque terra trail. Our first afternoon there we planned our walk along Sentiero Azzurro (‘Azure trail’) for the next day, before enjoying some of the areas famous pesto on a scrumptious antipasto, washed down with plenty of wine. Trying to avoid some of the foot traffic, we headed off on the trail early in the morning. It didn't take long for us to realise why the trail is so popular. We relished the views of the coastline and brightly coloured villages, unashamedly pleased we didn't have to share them with many others. From Monterosso to via vernanza we were able to follow the old trail, closely following the coastline, but from there the low trail is closed due to damage caused by flooding in 2011. We ascended steeply along a slowly winding trail through the quaint grape vines and vege gardens arranged neatly in terraces perched on the steep-sloping hills overlooking the sea. Sweating profusely, we were almost counting the number of glasses of wine we were going to need to rehydrate. We passed Corniglia without dropping down to it and further along descended steeply to Manarola, tucked between two narrow steep opposing cliffs running to the sea. From there a gelato gave us the energy to do the short sharp climb over to Riomaggiore. It was early afternoon and we had half planned to continue walking to Porto Venere, the same distance again, that afternoon. The ferry back wasn't going to be running though, and in hindsight it was a good thing as we were probably biting off more than we could pleasantly chew. Instead we did some swimming and sleeping in the in sun on the rocks of a small bay south of the village. In the early evening we caught a ferry back to Monterosso, admiring the 5 villages nestled on the cliffs from a different perspective.
We could see the clouds and the darkening sky in the evening while we enjoyed a relaxed meal at the apartment, and we were apprehensive about how the weather might affect our plans for our walk the following day. The morning drizzle turned into heavy rain as we made our way to the Monterosso train station where we found a very trendy cinque Terre branded red poncho for Megan. It rained on and off all morning as we climbed up the hill behind Riomaggiore and followed the track idling high above the ocean. It was cloudy and misty but we still enjoyed spectacular views down the coast and the sky cleared as we descended to Porto Venere, giving us impressive views of the Church of St Peter, perched on a promontory next to the entrance to the marina. The thunderclouds we had been watching approach reached us just as we were leaving the marina and the sky opened for the rest of the ferry trip back. In the morning we had pesto focaccia’s for brunch before we headed back to the Pisa airport to sadly see Megan fly back to London.
We spent one night in a small town near Ferrari? Where we stayed with a young couple and their very lively dog Alfie, in their villa. In the morning we headed north. We had hoped to make it to the Dolomites however the area had been hit with unseasonally cold weather and lots of snow and thunderstorms, so we decided to go as far as Trento and make a more definitive plan from there. The drive up the Adige river valley was picturesque with lots of vineyards and spectacular surrounding rocky crags. We reached Trento in the rain and Mapsme took us into one of the main squares in town, another not so car friendly place. We had a nice place to stay with an Italian family just out of the city and over the next day we headed up to Monte Bondone where we walked a loop around three peaks, against the advice of a local ranger who thought our footwear wasn't up to it. Although the views were limited by the surrounding cloud, the alpine flowers were wonderful and we saw roe deer and a fox. In the evening we had pizza at a restaurant owned by an Indian family and Liam thought it was the best he'd had. Before leaving the next day we walked into town. The main piazza was really attractive, with beautiful painted facades and a local market. We spent about 3 hours at the Trento science museum which had the best natural history we’ve seen and the most incredible taxidermy imaginable. It also had a temporary art exhibition of paintings by Marzio Tamer, a naturalist painter who focuses on the often overlooked details of animals and landscapes and we both found them stirring.
After lunch we headed towards lake Garda. Feeling like we needed to slow down for abit, we decided to stay in a small apartment in Brenzone sul Garda for 3 nights. We spent 2 days walking the old mule tracks on the hills below Monte Brendone through old olive groves, with beautiful views of the lake. On the third day we caught a ferry across to Limone sul Garda on the northwest side of the lake. Limone was only accessible by boat until the 1940’s and is known for its lemon houses which are distinctive and can be seen well before you arrive when you're coming from the lake. The lemon houses were used for protection of lemons from weather and support of the trees when they were laden with fruit. Nowadays there are more tourists than lemons, but we still enjoyed visiting one of the old houses which has been restored. Who knew there was so much to know about lemons! We relaxed and enjoyed the bustle of people along the attractive old streets, knowing we would be heading back to the peace and quiet of the locals in Brenzone in the evening. Before catching the ferry back we ate gelato while wandering up to a high kaarst waterfall overlooking the lake and visited a local fishing museum. The number of freshwater species they fish for was surprising and we enjoyed watching the fishermen along the lake edge near our apartment all the more for having been.

We journeyed south and picked up Jacob and Daisy, catching the train into Venice in the morning. There were fewer tourists than we expected and with Liam as our navigator we zigzagged our way from the train station to St Marco Square, popping out onto the grand canal as often as possible to admire the charming buildings and houses lining its edges. Reaching the Piazza San Marco we realised the plentiful narrow streets had done a good job at dispersing the tourists, only to lead them all to the same place, where the reality of the masses flocking to the picturesque city hit home. St Mark’s Bascillica is lavishly built and its intricate gold mosaics and marble floor patterns have to be seen to be believed. Leaving the square we let the crowds behind again and crossed the Rialto Bridge, reaching the tip of the entrance to the grand canal in time to enjoy the afternoon sun looking out over the lagoon and watching the boats and gondolas on the water. Finally we took the lift up the Campanile in the square to catch a view over the city we will savour for a long time. Legs tired and memory cards full we headed out of the city, looking forward to returning to the fresh air and sparkling streams of Slovenia.