Italy.....cut short!

With our Year in Provence coming to an end, it was off to Italy for one last fix of pasta, pizza and chianti before heading north for England.  Unfortunately our plans for a packed week of sight-seeing, eating and drinking were cut short......
We started off with three nights in Lucca, a beautiful walled city with so many narrow streets and lanes it was easy to get lost, which we did, several times.  In fact, I tried on a jacket in a shop one evening, and when we went back the next day to buy it, we couldn't find the place!  Serves me right for being indecisive!
Many of the shops have their original frontages with beautiful glass and stonework....

The weather wasn't great for two days, so to avoid the showers we ducked in and out of the shops, and cafes......the Italians do love their sugar and their carbohydrates, preferably combined in a couple of perfect mouthfuls.

Lucca is quite a prosperous city, so there were lots of interesting sculptures and artworks to be seen: you have to look carefully at this one, it was a bit hard to photograph.

A bus trip to Pisa was next on the itinerary.  Travelling by bus means you can see over everyone's hedges and fences into their gardens - in comparison to the French, the Italians make much more effort with their landscaping and general appearance of their houses.  While the French tend to plonk a semi-finished house down on a barren section then live like that for the next 20 years, the Italians are obviously big vegetable growers and like their properties to look homely and lived in.

Pisa was, as expected, teeming with tourists, most of whom are taking the classic photos of each other propping up the Leaning Tower.  Sorry, not for us, you get the boring version!

It is quite spectacular in its vertically challenged state, but we didn't pay the 18 euros to go to the top, instead spending our tourist euros on going in the cathedral....

The Baptistry....

  And the Camposanto, which is the cemetery....

We actually enjoyed the Camposanto the most, as there were hardly any people there, and there were some stunning paintings on the wall, and some great sarcophagi (stone coffins/tombs).

Moving south towards Siena, things started to go downhill....I got the flu!  We spent a day driving around the Chianti hills, with me sleeping in the car all day, and Lew hopping out to explore each little village.  The following day  I was totally incapable of moving out of bed, so Lew abandoned me at the B and B to see Siena.  Not much fun on his own, but someone had to see it!

Lew also very gallantly had to front up for breakfast each morning on his own, as I was beyond eating anything after day one....and what a breakfast it was!  The tablecloth does confuse the issue a little in this photo, but breakfast consisted of cereals, scrambled eggs, cold meat platter, various fishy things platter, multiple cakes platter, basket of bread, crostini platter, juice, RED WINE, and the thickest hot chocolate imaginable!  Lew did his best, but couldn't really do it all justice without me!

The staff at the B and B were wonderful when I was ill, constantly offering hot drinks, cakes and even a box of dubious sachets of something, which Mr Google told me were anti-inflammatories.  However, things were not looking promising, so, rather than pay to see the inside of another bed and breakfast in Florence, we decided to pull the pin and go back to France three days early. Besides, Lew had had enough of shopping for his dinner in the supermarket and eating it off a plastic plate with a spork sitting on the bed! Florence will keep for another time.

During our ten months in France, we've visited Italy three times, and find ourselves loving the country more and more, and comparing it favourably to France.  Why so??  Here are a few observations.

• Italians are more friendly.  The French have the attitude of "we live in the best country in the world, and you, little tourist, are lucky to be here".  The Italians attitude seems to be "we live in the best country in the world, and we want you to love it too...and love our food....and our wine....and our grandmothers....love us"!
• Italians are better drivers.  Especially on the country roads, there were none of the suicidal overtaking manoeuvres that the French have perfected, and the Italians give you much more distance when travelling behind.                                     

• Italians just look better, especially the men!  They take more pride in their appearance, not just in their classy stylish clothes, but there were noticeably more men exercising - walking, running or cycling the country roads.
• Italians take more pride in their houses and gardens.  Yes, the houses may be crumbling, but somehow its a better class of debris than France, and at least the crumbling house is surrounded by flowers and veges!
• Eating in, and eating out is much cheaper in Italy
• They are just as good at doors and knockers as France....

The down side?

• Italian roads are in worse condition, and the signage is terrible: we managed to get lost several times despite map, GPS and signs!
• Food - now this can be regarded as good and bad, depending on your preference, but the reliance on sugar and carbohydrate was a bit much for me after a few days.  Cake and bread for breakfast (with the exception of the one bed and breakfast above!), pizza for lunch,  pasta/rice/polenta for dinner.  However, the variety and quality of fruit and veges in the shops was amazing, so obviously home cooking must be different, we just didn't get to experience much in the way of plant matter when eating out.

Obviously we didn't have to get the car fixed, buy a 6 inch nail or ring a plumber in Italy, so we can't really comment on day to day living in Italy, but if we ever choose to house sit or look after a property again, I think we'd give Italy a go.

How the other half live....from one extreme to the other.

Ladies and gentlemen, step aboard our latest purchase.....a super yacht!  Yes, this week saw us mixing with the high-flyers of the yachting world, at the Monaco Super Yacht Show.  We were very lucky to be given free tickets by some friends down the road, so how could we turn down such an opportunity?  At €80 each, we certainly wouldn't have bought them!  So, we fronted up at Les Arcs train station at 7.30am to get the train to Nice, then change and get the train to Monte Carlo, Monaco.  Monaco is apparently the most densely populated country in the world (no, it's not part of France, it's a sovereign city-state) and we were well advised that driving into the city is not an option even on the quietest of days.  As you can see, the housing is not your typical French hill-top village....

The harbour was crammed full of incredibly large palatial yachts and launches, which enthralled Lew - I spent most of my time looking at the clothes and shoes parading around!  There were more Chanel/Prada/Louis Vuitton labels than you could shake a diamond-studded stick at, so we felt quite "exclusive" with our Kathmandu label attire!

Even in the "residential" harbour it was standing room only on the water...

And out to sea were the unlucky few who didn't manage to book a berth in town early enough.  We counted 150 vessels before giving up...

Back in the harbour there was plenty to look at besides the fashion parade.  Most yachts had their backs open (I'm sure there's a more technical term for that) to display the toys and sun-loungers available to the rich and famous...

 And whilst Lew assures me this photo was taken out of national pride, I'm not sure there wasn't some other attraction in the lens at the time...

As it was the morning after the America's Cup final (less said about that the better) we managed to talk our way onto one of the yachts to look around, as the Chanel model in charge of visits took pity on us!  The yachts were available for viewings to the select few, by appointment only, for prospective buyers, suppliers, clients etc.  We had to produce a business card to clinch the deal - it was a toss-up whether "agricultural consultant" or "physiotherapist" would be the strongest hand to deal!  Luckily there were a couple of Kiwi crew on-board so we blended into the background quickly!

As the smell of money was getting a bit overpowering after a couple of hours, we escaped to have a quick look around Monaco, particularly the Opera House..

There were several sculptures in the gardens, including this one of Adam and Eve.  Obviously the French versions had more to eat than just an apple, and why is a certain part of Adam's anatomy somewhat more polished than the rest?!?

A stunning display by the Red Arrows topped off the day.

From one extreme to the other.  A few days after the show we went for a walk through beautiful chestnut forests to a monastery in the middle of nowhere, Chartreuse de la Verne.

  This is a 12th Century monastery which housed an order of monks who must have been a bit careless with the candles - the whole place burnt down three times, before being left derelict until the 60's.  Its been incredibly well re-built/restored, using traditional stone building techniques, and is a very calm and peaceful place to look around.  It's now a working monastery again, housing an order of nuns of Bethlehem.

We've now got one week left here at Les Fadons, so we've been trying to visit a few places that have been on the list all year!  Today we took the bikes on the car to Grimaud, where we had a look around the village before cycling down to Port Grimaud on the coast about 5kms away.  This is a bizarre place: a marine village designed by Francois Spoerry in the late 60's as the Riviera's answer to Venice, with traditional French fisherman's cottages, numerous water channels and personal boat moorings at the end of each cottage garden.  All on re-claimed land!

For some reason it didn't feel very real, and not much like Venice either.  There were lots of tourists around (like us!) looking at the boats and houses, but no feeling of a community or village in any way.  We weren't sure if anyone actually lived there full-time, or whether all the houses were second homes for rich Parisiens who use it as an expensive boat mooring.  A bit like Monaco really, but less high-rise!

After a week like this one, we've come to the conclusion that we're not the French Riviera types, and we need to stick to our Provencal villages, with doors, knockers and pot-plants!