20th Oct: Italians Observed

Except in the cities, the Italians don’t seem to go in much for normal width pavements. It could be because, even when provided, the locals walk in the road. The Council therefore constructs a pavement one foot wide, thereby discharging their duty, but making it more comfortable to walk in the road. The chicken or the egg?

Near Genoa, on our way to Tuscany, we stopped for lunch in the lorry park of the motorway services. Parked next to us was a lorry driver sat at the side of his vehicle eating his lunch. Having finished his lunch, the lorry driver turned on a water tap that most continental lorries seem to have on the chassis behind the cab, and rinsed his plate and cutlery.
All perfectly usual. But then he extracted his false teeth and rinsed them, very diplomatically- but instead of reinserting them, he put them in the palm of his hand and wandered off through the lorry park. The question is, was he looking for his mates so he could ventriloquise the teeth into telling an “I say, I say, I say” type joke? Unfortunately, we’ll never know!

Oct 18th: Siena

Train again, and a cold but bright day. Perhaps not ideal tripper weather, but we were enchanted. First photo is the central square, the Piazza del Campo, ringed by medieval buildings with 11 streets and passageways feeding into it. The large edifice with the tower is the Town Hall, nearly as splendid as Huntingdon’s Pathfinder house before it was demolished.
Photo 2 is just a typical example of one of the beautiful buildings you stumble across everywhere.

The cathedral was something else. We’ve never seen so many superb examples of different kinds of artistic work. Each of the following is a representation of a fraction of what was in the building:



12 to 14C Cathedral exterior, marble cladding
















Cathedral interior, black and white marble facings







16C Mural depicting Pope








13C Book of Illuminated writing








15- 16C Inlaid marble floor tableau: one of many covering most of the floor space.

Despite containing so many treasures and being such a tourist venue, the town had a real living soul, not at all like some Disney attraction they locked up at 8.00pm and everybody went home. Siena was our favourite place so far.

Oct 15th: Florence2

This visit was devoted to the Uffizi Galley. The tickets were bookable on line at a large premium, but we didn’t have to queue. The gallery itself was stunning: Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael etc.- and they were just the cloakroom attendants! Everything was larger than life, including the price of the coffee at €4.50 each (£4), but a total experience not to be missed.


Photos are unsurprisingly not allowed in the museum itself but from a window between the rooms you could take a good view of the Ponte Vecchio. The lower photo is taken from the coffee shop terrace, over the rooftops of central Florence- a shot worth all of €9?

Oct 10th-14th: Small Towns in Tuscany

Sometimes smaller places give you a better atmosphere of past times than the showcase cities.
San Gimignano is an example. The whole town is 14th C and is all the more authentic for being a little patched up here and there.



Each building is also so different.













These worn steps are from the town of San Miniato. You can picture the medieval townsfolk strolling up and down them of an evening & maybe the odd medieval drunk falling in a heap at the bottom.
Not much has changed!

Oct 11th: Pisa

Couldn’t go to Pisa and not include THE photo. We did resist the tourist’ favourite snapshot: the photo showing the hands of child/partner/friend stretched out supporting the toppling tower. Immense pains were being taken, “in a bit”…”out a bit”…to snap the hands in the precise position to save the precious monument.

This is the actual brass light fitting that Galileo saw swinging back and fore, and deduced that it appeared to take the same time to swing each arc, even as it was slowing down. He turned these observations into formal calculations for the time-swing of the pendulum, the principles of which were applied to create pendulum clocks, the most accurate timepieces in general use until modern times.


Wondrously lifelike, intricate carved figures support the pulpit in Pisa cathedral. The lady’s hand in covering her nakedness shows a very proper modesty. You aren’t allowed to speculate on any other interpretation.

Oct 9th: Florence

Any city that’s named after a character in the Magic Roundabout has to hold high expectations, and Florence didn’t disappoint. Here we have the Ponte Vecchio, and then us in front of a copy of Michelangelo’s David in the Piazza della Signoria. The Piazza itself was full of wonderful statues and palaces. Far too much to do in a day, so further trips on the cards.


We took the train to Florence. Italian trains seem to run reasonably to time but all look in need of tlc and are covered in graffiti- see sad example below. While waiting for the stopping train to take us to Florence, an express thundered through the station, which is on a curve. The express was able to take the bend at such a high speed because the railway lines are set at different heights, so creating a banked track. What a brilliant idea! Our train pulls up a few minutes later. We are now presented with getting into a train with an upward slope of 30 degrees. So much for the banked track! It does hasten the departure of alighting passengers, however, by rolling them straight onto the platform as soon as the doors open.

Oct 4th to Oct 7th: Ciao Italy!

We arrived yesterday at Montopoli where the site is almost empty, as can be seen from the photo. You won’t be able to see that the caravan aerial is missing, replaced by a small silver lump. That’s half a coke bottle secured by elephant tape. The aerial snapped somewhere en route but, fortunately, was prevented from falling off by the cable, so simply rolled around on the roof. Elephant tape is the most wonderful instant repair solution and secures anything including, presumably, defective elephants.

The weather today was sunny and warm (26º). We spent a lazy day on site followed by a pleasant evening walk up to the picturesque small town of Montopoli (nearly the board game!). We are conveniently located 25 miles from Pisa or Florence and well placed to visit most parts of the region.