G&B: 1992: Italy

In June 1992, we went to Italy. We flew to Venice, then picked up a car and drove to Tuscany where spent a couple of weeks.



We loved Venice, and it remains our favourite city. We just mooched along the streets, and stumbled across some beautiful sights. We stayed in the Hotel do Pozzi, which was central and relatively quiet (quite an achievement in Venice, which is busy and noisy with tourists) Above, left: us on the Gand Canal; Above, right: Bruce in front of the church of Santa Maria della Salute. Below, the Campanile and Doge's Palce on the Grand Canal.





St Marks (above, left) of course, had scaffolding over it! But the Bridge of Sighs (below , left) was unencumbered.

We bade "arrividerci" to Venice and drove our horrible hired Fiat Punto to our next stop, San Gimignano, famous for its tall towers built in the 1600's by competing wealthy families. Driving in Italy was... exciting.



From San G, we took trips to some nearby villages, all of them ancient and perced on hilltops.



We went to the rival town of Volterra (above and below)


We were also quite close to Florence...




...and Sienna, which we loved.




We then treated ourselves, and had a few days in Gaole in Chianti. We stayed in the Castello di Spaltenna, which Geoff had been to before, and was very keen to take Bruce. It was a lovely place - a former monastery set in the countryside, now a very comfortable hotel, with fantasic food.


We were adoped by by the hotel's cat...

We then drove to Pisa, from where we flew home, but we had time to visit the famous piazza and the leaning tower.