The Final Post from my grand tour of beautiful Italy!

Well the journey is coming to an end after 10 wonderful days in Italy.  It’s a long journey home starting in Milan, into Paris which I didn’t realise was an 8 hour journey and then another 4 hours back on the Eurostar to London (& then eventually back into Harrogate the following day).

I’ve pretty much wrote about every trip except our visits to Perugia & Assisi!   It was the one day where too much was crammed in as we rushed around both towns with no real time to explore or see the sites properly.    Perugia is a lovely, lovely town with masses amounts of history.   We had a great, charismatic tour guide called Marco followed by a wonderful lunch in a restaurant with amazing views across the town.  It was one of those towns which just had a great feel to the place & you can’t put your finger on what makes it so special. Definitely worth a return visit.

Assisi literally was a wash out with an afternoon walking around in the rain, which is shame as it’s a wonderful place.   The tour guide wasn’t great and we only had 1-2 hours to see the town and the Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi but realistically you need a full day.  The Cathedral is incredible but you can’t take photos so unfortunately can’t share with you the beautiful frescos.

So what can I say about this trip 3000 miles later?   I started this blog with a list so I’ll end with a list as the in between posts have been quite lengthy!

1. I LOVE ITALY!!! What an amazing & beautiful country & somewhere I’ll be coming back.

2. Italian Trains are brilliant! They put British trains to shame!  Fast….well over 180mph, clean, spacious, pretty much on time, free wi-fi and utter pleasure to travel on.  Love the TV screens & with headcams on the front of the train you can watch your journey from the front of the train!  I would certainly do a train holiday around Italy again.

3. Tuscany is just like the pictures you see – incredibly unspoilt & beautiful. Once you hit Northern Italy which is quite flat especially with the rice fields you start to appreciate it even more.

4. I would even do a driving holiday around Tuscany as the roads are pretty quiet with so many lovely hilltop towns to visit, each one with their own individual character. (Although I’m personally not brave enough to drive abroad but happy to be the passenger!)

5. Overall the weather has been pretty good & I survived without a waterproof! Some people were saying the weather hasn’t been as good as normal but I didn’t really want to come in July / August when it might be too hot.

6. You can’t come to Italy and not mention the food! Pizza was amazing!   Pasta – was great if homemade….you can certainly tell when someone serves you dry pasta!  Gelato is as good as people say so wasn’t let down….if anything I didn’t test enough of the flavours!.

7. I leave the country with a bit more knowledge of the history & culture of Italy! It might be only a few facts & figures as I have been overwhelmed with the tour guides’ information ….but gives me enough to want to come back again and learn more but at my own pace.

8. It’s best to speak at least some basic Italian! I’m glad I spent the month before listening to a CD in the car on the way to work.  Even though it was just a handful of words & greetings it massively helped.  I might have confused people moving between Italian & French but in the remote parts of Tuscany – and even the hotel we stayed the staff didn’t speak English which made communicating quite hard (thank goodness for Google translate!)

9. The people I’ve met on the tour have been amazing. I can honestly everyone single one has been amazing & so friendly.  Everyone is slightly older than me but hasn’t made any difference to my holiday.

10. Do I have a favourite? Has to be Joan who is 83 – yes 83, nearly double my age but a true well-spoken lady of sophistication & yet an absolute hoot!     I’ve sat with her a quite a few times on the train over the last few days and she’s had me in fits of laughter!  From her tales of working in London in the 1960s, her world travels, being evacuated during the War, her love of McDonald’s fries, to learning that both of us were born in Sunderland!   I hope when I’m her age I’m still able to travel around the world.  She still has desires to travel to Japan and maybe a cruise next year….good on ya Joan!

11. Always love a Favourite list….
    1. Meal – has to be the pizza in Roma & Tiramisu in Perugia
    2. Drink – actually not alcohol – but Italian cans of Lemon Soda both myself & Joan have raved on lovely it is!
    3. Place – hard one to call & having to go through all my photos to choose! But I’m going to say Perugia (although Siena a very close 2^nd!)  Can’t really say why – just the feel of the place really, a great tour guide & lovely lunch.
    4. Hotel – now we have only stayed in 3 places but going to say Una Hotels in Milan! Huge modern room, huge bath where I enjoyed a good soak & most importantly the first place with a kettle!!!   10 days later I could make a cup of peppermint tea.

So here ends my tales from Italy.  It’s my second blog and really enjoyed writing over the last 10 days but something I don’t’ get to do when I work full time.  Although……it’s the first time I’ve setup up a website, Instagram & Facebook page which has & still challenging my IT skills and patience!  The week before coming away I was tearing my hair out & had to pull on the help of a website / social media expert to get me up & running but I got there in the end!

It’s been a pleasure.   Like any holiday….when you get back home you need to book some other trip so you have something to look forward to!     So Italy will be just the first of many posts to come along the travelling way.

Thanks for reading!

Ciao!

Lou Lou xx