May 22, 2008 AGRIGENTO, Sicily, Italy Thursday morning we drove north through the country side and along the Sicilian coast to Agrigento. Another nice drive. This is a small city on the west coast of Sicily and is a resort town with some beautiful beach areas and resorts. ( and some very nice private villas ). Some of the rather rocky beaches are being filled with truckloads of nice, fine, sand. Someone is spending a lot of money !! It is obvious that the tourist business, with all the coastline and beaches, is a very important part of the Sicilian economy. [View Full Entry]

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May 20, 21, 2008 RAGUSA, Sicily / MALTA Today was a short drive from Taormina to Ragusa in the very south of Sicily. This is another very nice drive through some beautiful scenery through the mountains valleys and lots and lots of seascapes from the high freeway. This is an interesting grain farming area with vineyards and fruit growing areas. In Ragusa their is not a lot to do but we took a walk to visit a local botanical garden and of course another large “Duomo” church. Wednesday morning we got an early start to catch the ferry to Malta from [View Full Entry]

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May 18, 19, 2008 Taormina, Siclily After an enjoyable 3 hour drive, through some more mountains and coast, ( and some more tunnels, via ducts and great scenery ) and a short ferry ride across the straights we settled into a very neat little town, on the east coast if Sicily, called Taormina for a 2 day stay. We took the cable lift up to the hillside town center from our beach front hotel ( no sunset here but could be a great sunrise place if we were ambitious ) and spent the afternoon snooping around the town. Very touristy but [View Full Entry]

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May 17 , 2008 Amantea, Italy We drove down from Sorrento to southern Italy and spent one night in a small beach town called Amantea on the south west coast. This is a very nice part of the country and is getting better known for the beaches and great weather. We had a nice hotel on the beach a little ways from the main town and enjoyed the peace and quiet and a beautiful sunset over the ocean. This would not be a hard place to come back to for a week or so. The drive is easy on very good [View Full Entry]

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May 17 May 15, 16, 2008 SORRENTO, Italy We arrived in Sorrento after a fairly long drive from Orvieto. The road is good and the drive is easy but takes a few hours. We have spent a few hours in Sorrento previously and enjoyed the city the first visit. We were not disapointed as it is still as nice as we remembered. They are experiencing some minor problems with garbage not being collected ( and piling up ) but not to the extent of the problems in Naples where it is a major problem. We never did get the whole story [View Full Entry]

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May 14, 2008 ORVIETO, Italy This morning we drove from Livorno, after a quiet evening and night aboard the ferry from Sardinia, to Orvieto, Italy. Orvieto is a very interesting hilltop city that has been occupied for thousands of years. The city is home to a very famous cathedreal, and an important example of neo-gothic architecture, that is the highlite of the city. The city has buildings from midevial times as well as ruins from much older times. Old Orvieto was saved from bombing in the second world war because of the Cathedral but all the newer areas surrounding the old [View Full Entry]

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May 11, 12, 13, 2008 SARDINIA, Italy Our ferry trip from the mainland was 9 hours and we arrived late evening in Porto Aranci, Sardinia. (near the north). We spent the next 2 days exploring Sardinia from top to bottom by car. The island is not that big but it takes about 4 hours to drive from one end to the other. Our travels took us first to the north and then west and down the coast to the southern tip at Cagliari. All the roads are good. ( some a little too twisty, bendy, curvy for Alice but fun to [View Full Entry]

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May 8, 9, 10, 2008 FLORENCE, Italy Thursday morning we left Milan for the ½ day drive to Florence. ( Firenze ). Again a great, easy drive on a good highway through the beautiful Italian countryside. As this is a main road in Italy there is a lot of traffic but for the most part civilized drivers and an easy trip. We stopped along the way for lunch and to visit another “ Outlet Shopping Center” a short distance from Florence. They don't seem to get the concept yet as the pricing is not great and selection isn't much better. Our [View Full Entry]

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May 6 - 7, 2008 MILAN, Italy We enjoyed another very good few hours on the road in our Peugeot. ( This is a great car. ) We drove from Nice via Menton, Genova, Italy and on to Milan. The freeway trip was worth a few stops at some smaller towns off the main road to have a look at the coast and the scenery. We by-passed Monte Carlo as we have been there before. This really is a beautiful part of the world !!! The cities and towns on the coast are all built in the small valleys in the [View Full Entry]

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May 3 - 5, 2008 NICE, France Sunday is a quiet day in Nice as a lot of the stores close for the day. We have been very lucky with the weather and today was another beautiful spring day. To keep up the tradition we took the “ Hop On Hop Off “ bus to get another look at the whole city. This is a very good tour in Nice and a great way to get some sun in the open top bus and visit the most important places. The beaches were very busy with locals and Tourists. ( a lot [View Full Entry]

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