HE SAID... On arrival we walked the cobbled path into the fortified village of Lucca and made our way to our apartment, a roomy four storey conjoined building that we shared with our guide and two others. We had our own private balcony looking over Lucca, which was unexpected and simply unbelievable. We headed to the supermarket and stocked up on food and wine and then walked to our restaurant, which was run for (and by) disabled kids. My pasta with rabbit sauce was absolutely brilliant, as was our walnut, mozzarella and gorgonzola pizza! The house wine was sensational (as always), and I capped the meal off with a grappa (that warmed me up for the walk back to the apartment in the rain). Looking forward to the bike ride round the walls tomorrow! We arose ... read more

HE SAID... We landed in Rome and caught the train from the airport, arriving at Termini at 12.30am. It was warm and raining as we set out for the hotel. We got lost in the rain and eventually had to ask a café worker for directions. We were only 100 metres away from the hotel street, which we had already checked once - the packs were heavy and we were tired. We reached the hotel at 1am, unpacked, showered and went straight to bed at 2am. At the end of a long journey from Seoul, we had finally arrived in Rome. We woke early and headed out at 7am for a café latte and pastry, and then walked the city to a few places of interest. It felt strange to chance upon the Pantheon. It was ... read more

HE SAID... Our trip started at 3pm on April 30. We had worked frantically up until our 3pm deadline to leave, and then my Mum Aileen drove us to the airport. Aileen and Molly (Aileen’s red healer) had arrived the day before to look after the house and our pets. We arrived in Melbourne just after 7pm, dropped our bags at Eva and Roy’s (Ren’s parents) house and went out with them for a memorable meal at Sigiri - a fantastic Sri Lankan restaurant in Northcote, where we were joined by Ren’s brother Ralph. It was a regular Friday night buffet where everyone eats three times the amount they need, and we certainly kept up that tradition. We retired at 11pm and arose sleepily at 4am for a morning departure on Korean Air. We were finally ... read more

Choosing an appropriate time of year to visit Vietnam had been a much discussed and researched issue for us. The difficulty lay in the fact that Vietnam is a very long and narrow country and crosses numerous climatic zones - therefore if you wish to travel the length of the country it is unrealistic to expect ideal conditions everywhere. However I think we did really well by picking the month of March. We experienced good to fabulous weather conditions throughout the trip. Although the heavens did open up on our very last day there, and it made for a very wet and hazardous drive to Ho Chi Minh’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport. And a very stormy flight home. Hmmm...yes...well...anyway... we are at the end of another truly amazing travel experience. We trekked through the northern ... read more

...Crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels... and Cruising on the Mekong Delta... Saigonis home to about 6 million people and what seemed like 20 million motorbikes. It’s a bit of an assault on the senses after the quiet of country Vietnam. Our train arrived in Saigon at the ungodly hour of 4:30am, and while we waited for our rooms, we wandered down to the local park to watch Tai Chi being practiced…I was expecting deathly quiet, old world serenity and precision; however in this funky modern city, traditional Tai Chi was being practiced alongside open air aerobic style dance classes and nimble games of badminton. Love it. I started the day with a strong cup of gorgeous Ca Phe Sua Da (iced coffee with condensed milk), then we hopped on a bus for a day trip ... read more