Two days in Lucca

We are having a great time in Tuscany, although the hot sunshine we had the first two days has been replaced by on-and-off rain.

We spent Sunday and Monday in Lucca, a lovely old walled city that is really easy to explore and doesn't feel too touristy. 

It has a very impressive cathedral that is currently being restored, but I found the carved columns and marble floors very inspiring.

On Sunday, there was a dance festival with different stages showcasing different dancing styles. We discovered we have our very own baby belly dancer in the making.

The other main discovery was a fantastic pizza shop selling slices of wood-fired pizza and something called chickpea cake by the kilo. Yum, yum. Over the two days, Rob went back three times.

Freddie has loved hanging out with his Grandad.

Freddie and Grandad enjoying their pizza

Flossie has had a lovely time with Nana Caroline. She has followed the morning make-up routine very studiously, got her nails painted and now has her own make-up bag with a whole assortment of flavoured lip balms.

Rob and I have enjoyed having their lovely company. Thanks for coming Dad and Caroline...

...and for helping us make some inroads into the enormous flagon of wine we bought in Barga.

We were sad to say goodbye to Dad and Caroline this morning. Today was a quiet one. We visited the May Day Flower Festival in a nearby town (a bit like Sydney's Easter Show at 1:16 scale) and then chilled at home this afternoon. I had a very rainy walk into the village to get bread and milk, only to find all the shops were shut - I think May Day must be a public holiday.

Much more happily dispatched was a scorpion that I found on my bedroom floor. How big do scorpions have to be before they can really hurt you? Here is a very bad photo, but it was about two inches long. Who says Australia is the only place with scary stuff?

Tomorrow we have an early start so that we can get to Florence by 9.30am so Rob can go on a Segway. Apparently he can stand the embarrassment. Photos to follow...

Yeah baby! Check out our view...

From the front balcony...

From the back garden...

Well, when I say garden, I actually mean estate...

Flossie's bed has a princess canopy and I am in a four poster. Flossie has her own bathroom with a roll top bath. This place rocks!

We arrived in Pisa late on Thursday night after our reasonably uneventful Ryanair flight. Rob experienced the triple whammy of driving on the right side of the road, in a manual car, up very windy mountainous roads to our Tuscan villa - something of a trial by fire! 

Dad and Caroline were there when we arrived, with a very welcome spaghetti dinner and lots of red wine. The children had fallen asleep in the car but managed to stay up 'til after 10 to eat and, in Freddie's case, meet his nana and granddad for the first time. 

Poor Floss looking pretty tired

 In the morning we woke to a spectacular sunny day to go with our 360 degree views.

This is granddad and Freddie with our posh Peugeot

We walked to our nearest village - apparently about 10 minutes walk, but the crutch/pram/Flossie factor put about 20 mins on that.

Corelia Antelminelli our local village

Nana and Flossie walking to the village

The boys having a rest

We stocked up on provisions and then walked up to the church at the top of the village, stopping for a drink on the way. Lunch was a delicious array of local cheese and meats that I successfully purchased with my very limited Italian at the local supermarket. I love Italy because even rubbish old Spar-like minimarts have a deli counter groaning with local delicacies.

We had a lazy rest of the day, although Rob and Flossie tried out the heated swimming pool complete with breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains. A combination being really overtired and having lentil casserole for dinner was not kind to Freddie (or me), who screamed on and off until 11.30pm, when he did a big fart and finally passed out.

Today we have been to Barga, a local village supposedly about 15 minutes away, but the conflicting GPS and WPS (wife positioning system) instructions, as well as novice right-side-of-the-road driving put another 15 mins on that!

Barga is a walled town with a Roman church overlooking the mountains at the top.

We had some lunch and then stopped for a gelato. Freddie worked out that Flossie's chocolate was the pick of the bunch and chased her around the piazza.

We've been swimming again this afternoon and Flossie is working her way through the villa's stash of Barbie DVDs. I think we are going for an apperitivo in the village this evening before coming home to put the children to bed and have some risotto made with the outrageously expensive dried porcini I bought in the market today.

Malta continued...

Our Maltese chill-out continues - not much new to report over the last few days. We managed a return trip to Valetta for a nice lunch and (for me and Freddie) a look round the very ornate cathedral and a couple of Caravaggio's.

Freddie enjoyed playing on the cathedral steps.

Flossie enjoyed sucking up spaghetti over lunch. [This is a movie - I'm not sure if I've uploaded it properly, so you may not be able to see it.]

We went back to the beach so that Rob could take Flossie canoeing. She got ready...

...but chickened out at the last minute. Rob had a solitary paddle and worked up enough of a sweat to manage a dip in the chilly Mediterranean.

Other than that there has been a few swims in the hotel pool, a lot of pizza eating and some colouring-in.

The area where we are staying has some really nice old buildings and very impressive doorways - I seem to have photographed blue ones here, but they come in a lovely palate of deep red, lime green, cream and teal.

     

Today we had a return visit to the Playmobil factory following persistent nagging from Flossie. I had a great massage this afternoon and then we went for a walk in the park over the road. Floss and I have done a bit of exploring in the park over the week and as well as cute ducklings we found a maze, which she thought was awesome fun, a very impressive peacock, some noisy chickens and lots of tortoiseshell cats.

On the way in, we saw some men with a pony and trap who had stopped for an ice-cream. A photo op for Floss.

Tomorrow, we have the challenge of meeting Ryan Air's stupid baggage restrictions before we fly to Pisa. I hope GPS lady is on form for our drive up into the Tuscan mountains to meet Dad and Caroline. I have lost considerable confidence in her since she instructed us to "Navigate off road" yesterday.

A lifetime's ambition realised...

We've been having a fairly quiet time in Malta. We have to drive if we want to get anywhere so that means one, or may be two, outings a day at the most. 

For some reason it has been difficult to sort out food here - restaurants often don't open til after 7pm, or they won't do pizza until after 7, or you can eat inside but not outside (despite a fantastic view), or they are too busy and it will take an hour to get our food. I'm quite fed up with room service and bad pizza, but given Flossie's limited diet that what we are stuck with. I am having a bag of crisps for dinner tonight.

On the plus side, we found the Playmobil factory, thanks to our new GPS. This was a huge hit with everyone.

I love Playmobil!

So do I!

And I got to realise a lifetime's ambition - to actually sit on a Playmobil horse. 

Ouch!

  

There is a reason Playmobil people don't have bottoms - Playmobil horses are very uncomfy if you have one. 

And here is our little piggy on a little piggy...

In the late afternoon we went to Golden Bay - a lovely spot to have a drink and watch the sunset...if you don't have children, because the kitchen is closed and you have to forgo a drink so you can find them something to eat. GRRRRR

Nice view at Golden Bay

The reason we live near the beach

Today we went to a village famous for its Sunday fish market. It was a bit touristy and very busy, so we abandoned plans to have lunch there and made our way to the Blue Grotto - a series of caves to the south of the island.

Nice fishing boats

We took a trip on a little boat around the caves.

 

It got a bit scary - you can't see Freddie gripping my hand!

Notice how Freddie has wiggled out of his life jacket

We finally managed to find a restaurant that would actually serve us and I had some nice fish, which cheered me up a lot.

On the way back GPS Lady took us on a crazy route via tiny narrow lanes, completely pot-holed. We were praying not to meet anything coming in the opposite direction. Rob loves GPS Lady but I think she has the occasional off day.

I'm hoping to get back to Valetta in the next day or two to see the Caravaggio in the cathedral, given I saw no art in Rome, and also to get a phone sorted out for the rest of our Europe stay.

Living the high life in Malta

So we are now in Malta. We left Rome yesterday and my seasoned travellers made the most of their time in the airport waiting for the plane

Trolley climbing

Making a phone call

Ballet practice

Making new friends

Rob's boss Anton met us at the airport and organised a cab to take us to our very posh hotel. We have a suite with a proper sitting room and dining table. Our bed is enormous and so comfortable.

We went for lunch with Anton and his three children, Alfie, Eddie and Georgia and then for a walk in the park opposite the hotel where we spotted these cute ducklings.

We hung out in the hotel in the afternoon and then went for an early evening walk around the local village. Our hotel is quite a way out of the main town areas and feels very local and Maltese. We bought two enormous bottles of water (75 cents) and a litre of milk (79 cents) - we thought they had made a mistake with the prices!

I will take some photos of all the beautiful houses with their square balconies over the next few days - there is lots of atmosphere to soak up, which I hadn't expected.

We had room service dinner and an early night with a great night's sleep had by all.

This morning Anton, Georgia and Eddie came to meet us and took us on a brief site-seeing tour. First stop was a brilliant playground on the sea front where Georgia and Flossie had fun on the roundabout. Georgia is eleven - Floss is very excited to be hanging out with such a big girl. Georgia is in turns very sweet and indulgent of Floss and then, understandably, gets a bit bored and wanders off!

We just missed the 12 noon canon that they fire every day over the harbour in Valetta, Malta's capital, but stopped for a drink and pastizzi (flaky pastry filled with ricotta - yum!) while Anton and Rob were parking the cars.

We had a quick wander through the main streets of Valetta. Anton says much of it was rebuilt after intense bombing during WWII, but it still seems very ancient to me.

Then we stopped for lunch - rabbit ravioli for me and Rob, another margarita pizza for Flossie and whatever he could get his hands on for our resident dustbin.

Eddie, Anton, Laura, Freddie, Rob and Floss. Georgia took the photo.

We have just got back from having tea at Anton's sister's. She lives in a beautifully restored traditional Maltese house, runs two pre-schools and teaches piano - a very inspiring and warm lady. She has offered to help us find a laundrette and a GPS tomorrow. We definitely need the latter to get around Malta - there are very few signs and the only map we have is at a ridiculous scale for navigating.

There are lots of things to do in Malta - so far on the list are: the beach; the fish market; the Playmobil factory; trying to find Jo's mother's house; Popeye village; and something called Blue Grotto. We are also planning to spend lots of time in the posh hotel spa.