Sun 17th Sept: Viareggio ⇒ San Gimignano  It was partly cloudy for our last morning in Viareggio but still lovely and warm. Mark went for a last ride and I went for a walk. Our check out wasn’t until 12 noon so we used the time after breakfast to relax by the pool; we’ve been… More

Thursday 14th Sept Our accommodation for the next three nights was at the 4* Grand Hotel Royal in Viareggio and it definitely deserved that rating and maybe even more. Grand was a most apt inclusion in the name as that is exactly what we experienced from the moment we stepped across the threshold. Our room… More

 Wed 13th Sept It was a bit overcast this morning which made us grateful we’d taken our Cinque Terre trip yesterday in the sunshine. Our pack-up and departure from Sestri Levante went smoothly and we got away by about 10 am and our plan was to stop at Portofino for brunch on the way to… More

Sunday 10th September;  Diano Marina ⇒ Sestri Levante The drive around to Sestri Levante went smoothly and we arrived at 2 pm for our apartment check in. Our accommodation in Sestri Levante was a 3 bedroom apartment that I had sourced through STAYZ / VRBO. A lovely grandmother and her adult grandson gave us access… More

Saturday 9th September It was another glorious morning and perfect for our journey from Nice, France along to Diano Marina, Italy. Poor Tom was rather squished in the back of the car but at least we managed to fit everything in. I would not have been too sorry if Dagwood had to remain on the… More

Wednesday 6th Sept: Day trip to Monaco We were supposed to be attending a French Cooking School class today but our host had unfortunately come down with Covid. So we decided to head a to Monaco for a visit and take a Voice Map walking tour of the town. Our tip to Monaco was by… More

Sunday 3rd September The drive from Avignon to Nice went smoothly and we found the location to collect our apartment keys and, then, the apartment with relative ease. Our accommodation for the next week was Limoncello, a 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom + powder room apartment sourced through Nice Pebbles. We had used this rental… More

Saturday 2 nd September It was a beautiful sunny day for our drive to Avignon. We made one stop on the way and that was to see another Roman monument, Pont du Gard , a Roman aqueduct from the first century and it was a most impressive structure. This was a most popular site, drawing… More

Wed 30th Aug: Carcassonne ⇒ Montpellier Our journey from Carcassonne to Montpellier was only a couple of hours but we couldn’t check in to the apartment in Montpelier until 4 pm, so we decided to visit the seaside area of Sete on the way. This, in hindsight, proved to be a very ambitious task; the… More

Tue 29th Aug The drive from Bordeaux to Carcassonne was pleasantly uneventful and we arrived at our hotel at around 2.30 pm. Our accommodation for the one night was at the 4* Mercure Carcassonne La Cité hotel and our room was nice enough and totally adequate but, after our recent 4* hotel stay in St… More