Happy ending

It was all too soon ended but what a good way to end.

A Margherita for the Blog and an Aperol Spritz for Mrs Hayes.

Unfinished

This Blog will forever be known by the Blog as the unfinished blog.

Due to the unhelpful, unexpected and unfixable technical problems experienced with, as we now know, the Blog's travel laptop the blog was not completed within a decent timescale. It was, and still is, being caught up a month after the Blog was back and had almost forgotten the tour ever happened.

It was all so frustrating, at least for the Blog if no-one else.

Pants

This place is full of apparently trendy and certainly expensive fashion shops all selling items that are of no use to the Blog. 

Market Day is a different matter. The Blog was delighted to spot these very practical items with a familiar brand name on one of the stalls. They probably sold like hot cakes, don't you think.

An alternative Venice

 

 

 

Yes the tour keeps repeating previous tours but there is always something new to see and somewhere new to visit. Livorno is a case in point. It has always been there but has been rudely ignored by previously tours.  So to put things right this year's tour decided to go there.

 

And it was a surprise to find a bit of it was just like Venice. 

Staying cool

 

 

No-one seems to be complaining but the weather every day has been hot. Very hot.

 

Loyal followers will be familiar with the great days that can be spent hanging out at one or more of the many beach bars available. But when the evening is so hot the best option for staying cool is to go into the woods and sit in the shade with a Peroni, or Aperol Spritz in Mrs Hayes' case.  

Marble

A short train ride from the tour's base is a Carrara. Viewed from a distance the hills behind the town, covered in white stuff, look like they are covered in snow when in fact the are full of marble. Not just any old marble but in fact the marble that Michelangelo and other potters used to make their statues, fonts and other items now famous and much visited.

Graffiti

Italian's would have to admit that there is a problem with graffiti. It is mostly confined to ugly areas like railway sidings and disused factories and not the areas of historical or cultural significance or beauty but it is a problem.

But the Blog thinks graffiti can also enhance otherwise uninteresting urban features. The uninspiring concrete benches along the prom have now been made much more interesting by the talents of local anonymous artists.