OnTrails

Participant in a (harvest?) parade in Florence (above)

Our campsite in Tuscany

Two highlights in Florence amongst many were firstly Michaelangelo's "David". The queue of nearly 2 hours was worth it. It is heartbreakingly beautiful to be in the same hall as the real thing. You walk down a long passage towards it and you cannot take your eyes off it. The other good thing was the reason for the long queue was to limit the number of visitors. That meant it wasn't crowded inside.

Michaelangelo's "David" (I had to quickly take this, no photos alowed)

A second highlight was a tiny, local trattoria called Mario's, recommended by a guy we met in Oxford with Lily and Nick. It was a family run place of course, with the main waitress an older, jovial woman, who told you happily what you would have. They sat you at tiny tables on stools, jammed in with complete strangers, and they dumped a load of fresh bread on a napkin as you sat. Pasta dishes were 4-5 euro, meat dishes 8-10 euro. The food was absolutely extrordinary. There was a queue of people waiting to get in when we left, despite the 3 or 4 open places with tables to spare just around the corner.

Trattoria Mario in Tuscany

After Florence we decided we had had enough of central Italian historic towns and cities. Beautiful, but similar. So we crossed Volterra and even Pisa off our list and headed for the Cinque Terre, or "5 Towns" national park. In some ways similar to the Amalfi Coast, but the 5 small villages huddled on the edge of the cliffs above the sea are all accessible by foot via scenic paths along the seaside cliffs. Far fewer tourists than the Amalfi Coast too (they can't get tour buses there). It'll be interesting to see it in a few years.

Town of Vernazza in Cinqe Terre

Next we moved north to the Italian lakes area, to Lago Maggiorre, in a campsite near the town of Stresa. Weather was great, I even had a swim in this crystal clear lake. Our campsite was right on the water too.

Our campsite on Lago Maggiorre, note Bluey in the distance

Time to leave Italy, we crossed the Alps (actually through them, an 11km long tunnel under Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in the Alps) and arrived in Chamonix in France. From there, there is an amazing cable car trip up the slopes of Mont Blanc you can do, to a jagged rocky peak called Aigulle du Midi, at an elevation of 3842m. This was a full 1km above the snow line. It was an incredibly exhilarating experience, especially as it was a nice clear day with a clear blue sky. We found ourselves grinning stupidly as we tramped around the various viewing spots in the snow, across the Alps and down to Chamonix deep in the valley far below. We even considered doing it all again the following day.

From Chamonix: That jagged peak is where we were heading by cable car, and from where the next few photos were taken

View down to Chamonix in the valley floor far below from the peak at 3842m

At the top

Now we are in Geneva for a few days, and will head south to meet Johnny and Edda (from Düsseldorf) in south eastern France. Till next time...

# posted by OnTrails : 5:40 pm