DAY TWENTY FIVE The weather has definitely picked up we all wore three quarter pants and tops and no coats!! We have decided that Burgundy should be our time to relax before coming home and so today being Monday we decided to relax and just wander around. Jenny and I headed off and walked around the outside of the wall. We found the supermarket and just had a lazy morning. Robyn had a real lazy morning, waking at 11.00 and missing breakfast, meanwhile Pete had been out and about walking and taking photo's. Jenny and I decided to hop in the car and go for a drive around the villages around Beaune and to take a picnic lunch while Robyn and Pete decided to walk around Beaune. Our drive in the villages was great with many ... read more

DAY NINETEEN Today we left Torino by train, our last day in Italy. We have loved Italy and really enjoyed the food, wine and the culture. We had a wonderful time and really felt at home in Italy. We knew what to ask for to eat and importantly what to drink! We could follow the most basic of road signs and managed to handle the crazy road rules and directions whilst driving in Italy and we were all feeling a bit sad that this part of the trip was over, but we have all agreed that we would love to come back to Tuscany to do some more exploring, oh yes and eating and drinking! We woke up early, as so it seems did most of the hotel as the breakfast room was incredibly busy, so ... read more

DAY SIXTEEN - VENICE By Sandra: Woke to a clear day with no rain, and we were all ready to go out and explore Venice without anything particular in mind. After we all had breakfast together we set off on separate paths for the day, with the plan to meet up for lunch or dinner together. Jenny and I set off enjoying wandering through the streets, stopping for our first coffee of the day, the hot type!! We had a lovely Panini with ham and mozzarella which was really yummy and then walked on enjoying looking at the shops, buildings and canals. As we walked into San Marco the sunshine hit the square and we decided to indulge ourselves and stop in the square at the tables and listen to the music that was being played. ... read more

DAY ELEVEN Time to say goodbye to Tuscany! The day dawned fine, much better to drive when it is fine, it is hard enough driving on the right hand side of the road without pouring rain. We headed off from San Gimi about 9.30 am and it was a great day, lots of blue sky and off we went to Pisa. Yes we got lost again, but only a little bit this time and we still ended up in Pisa. We found a car spot in Pisa, with the help of a Sudanese native and his friend who were hanging around selling tissues! We were a bit worried we might come back to no car, or no luggage but off we went walking anyway. We found our way to the tower and then did all the ... read more

DAY SEVEN - BY ROBYN Because Sandra had been sick for a few days and we were sick of Jenny’s company, Pete and I decided to go solo on Thursday (only joking of course Jen). Peter got up at 600am and went for a walk all around San Gimi, for his morning photo shoot of daily life activities. Found the old Italian lady stacking wood, previous day she was stacking all the wood with her husband sitting watching having a cigarette, very chauvinistic we thought. After breakfast we walked back into San Gimi waving to our old Italian lady friend who sits on her balcony waiting for us as we pass. Before we knew it we were wine tasting (what a surprise) then we realised it was only 11.00 am in the morning, oh to be ... read more