As we set sail from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa we had a sense of deja vu from a month earlier. We left Northern Italy because of wet cold weather and arrived in Sicily just before Easter in the aftermath of a Saharan sandstorm. As we left Brindisi (leaving cold wet weather days before Orthodox Easter) the…

We left Sicily by short ferry from Messina to Villa San Giovanni in Calabria. Our first stop was Tropea, inspired by the excellent cafe of that name in Russell Square which is run by a family from the town. Tropea is perched on a cliff top with a series of the tightest hairpin bends ever…

This was a week of the amazing limestone and lava buildings which have been built in Sicily by the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, and Spanish, an extraordinary and beautiful mix. Here in Ortygia cathedral the 7th century (A.D.) pillars in the shadows are built inside the fourteen 6th century (B.C.) pillars of the orignial Greek…

The dust clouds have cleared and in South East Sicily the skies are bright blue, the fields are full of wild flowers and we’ve been to some beautiful Baroque towns and churches. Here is the Wildervan in Scicli. This is Diana’s drawing of Ragusa cathedral in the evening light. But for fans of Montalbano (Sicilian…

We left the mountains and headed South for a week visiting Verona where we camped by the canal and walked into town to San Zeno and along the river past the Castelvecchio. Dinner in the Antica Bottega del Vino with a wine list you can hardly lift up it’s so big. Along the plains of…

This week we just stayed put in one glorious place in the Dolomites in a very nice hotel we first visited 29 years ago. We spent our time toboganning, walking, swimming, steaming in saunas and eating! We were joined by Frances, George, Arthur and Alfred (Alex’s drawing) The toboggan run is 6 kilometres down the…