We made good time on our journey – 23 actual hours had passed from leaving Adelaide on a cool autumn night to stepping out into the warmth of a Spring Sunday in Madrid. When we ventured out for our first walk around the city, every madrileño (about 3 million inhabitants in this city) and their dog seemed to be out walking in the glorious sunshine. The city appealed to me immediately. The fact that we also consumed our first tapas at the charming Mercado de San Miguel, and had our first hot chocolate with churros at Chocolatería de San Ginés, contributed to my favourable opinion. Despite having been on a constant drip fed diet of plane food, somehow, my appetite had resurfaced. After a leisurely Monday morning start, we managed to get to the Reina Sofia ... read more

We have spent our last week in Italy living with the cousins in Prato. Some may not have heard of Prato. As cities in Italy go, this is not a place which is on the tourist map. And that is precisely what has made the last part of our journey here so interesting. Apart from the fact that this place is special to me because four of the people I love live here, I am quite glad that this time around (I first came here in 2008), I am getting to know the city a little better. Yesterday, when Mark and I were strolling in the early Monday morning calm of an Italian town that has yet to fully awaken, we were approached by a couple asking us for some information about where to find a ... read more

Having arrived in Milano on Monday afternoon, we were driven through a very clean and ordered city in efficient fashion along impressively wide and modern roadways to our "home" for the next five nights in Como. (The Milan Expo is on till the end of October; maybe they have spruced up the exit road from the airport? Anyhow, it was lovely, (not the usual industrial wastelands you see).The countryside looked very green with forests and crops (lots of corn fields). The city was having a public holiday so it was ghost like. A very, very clean place. Coming from what we experienced in Palermo (which was quite frankly, filthy) the contrast is stark. The lake from our balcony is pretty but cannot match the sights we have been seeing on the Amalfi Coast.On Tuesday we had ... read more

It is Friday August 28 and I am in Conca dei Marini. Mark and I have beaten our luggage and arrived first to our next destination. We set off from Amalfi at 7.45am on our day's walk to the next destination. We were here well before the ETA despite a few wrong turns which had us back tracking. I am feeling better about our walking now. I think I will be able to do the other two walks even though they will be longer. We are now in the embarrassing position of having stripped off (we were both saturated from sweating and feeling overheated), with no clean clothes to change into. When our bags are delivered, we will presumably have to hide in the bathroom and shout out our thanks from behind the closed door? Well, ... read more

It is Friday August 28 and I am in Conca dei Marini. Mark and I have beaten our luggage and arrived first to our next destination. We set off from Amalfi at 7.45am on our day's walk. We were here well before the ETA despite making a few wrong turns which had us back tracking. I am feeling better about our walking now. I think I will be able to do the other two walks even though they will be longer. They are certainly arduous, or at least, I am finding them so. Once in our room, we found ourselves in the embarrassing position of having stripped off (we were both saturated from sweating and feeling overheated), with no clean clothes to change into. Plans were quickly hatched to hide in the bathroom and shout out ... read more