The fourth country on our three-month Europe tour was Switzerland. As soon as we crossed the border from Italy on the train we were struck by the beauty of the countryside. At every turn as we wound through the mountains, we were wowed at the views. There are dramatic snow-topped mountains, green valleys and peaceful …
Tag Archives: europe2017
The Italian Food Obsession
The final blog in the series about food from Italy is about everything else (we have written about Italian sweets and drinks already). There is a fantastic food culture in Italy, and they are really passionate about their food. We love it too. Back home we eat a lot of Italian food, and it is …
La Famiglia Italiana
You may not know, but Clare is a quarter Italian, with both grandparents on her mother’s side born in Italy. As with most Italian families, there are lots of cousins, and many are living in Italy. Last time we visited Italy, we dropped in on some of them in the south, where the cousins were …
Hunting Graffiti In Padua
We love finding interesting street art during our travels. Previously we have posted about the stencil art around Ubud Bali, in Oaxaca in Mexico, and have explored the street art in Cape Town South Africa (blog coming later) and the laneways of Melbourne and even our home suburb of Mount Hawthorn. When we found out that Padua had some well-known street artists, …
Styling In Milano
Our final destination in Italy was the northern city of Milan. Our stay here was only short – we came here to visit Federica, a student we hosted at our house in Perth last year, while we passed through on the way to Switzerland. We were also keen to look around as it was somewhere …
La Dolce Vita
Italians love their sweets, and with three kids travelling around Italy, we had plenty of opportunity to sample many of them. Nutella Along with the Italian’s obsession with bread is also an obsession with Nutella! I know they invented it, but they really do take it to the next level, being such a passionate lot. …
Saluti: Here’s To Italian Beverages
Italy is not only known for its range of great food, there are many varieties of drinks that the Italians enjoy too. In the last four weeks we have been fortunate to try quite a few of them. Coffee Let’s start with coffee… Italians have been drinking coffee since before it was fashionable. Espresso is …
Venice In A Day
We only had one day to explore Venice, while staying in a town called Cittadella, an hour’s drive away. Despite the cold and wet weather, we had a really great day. Even though it takes a little longer, we decided to take the train to Venice. It is much more relaxing than navigating the roads, it avoids …
Recharging In Tuscany
The original plan for our European holiday was to stay longer in a little village in Tuscany, base ourselves for a month or two, and really live the dream and relax. Due to the difficulty of getting a visa for that long, we reduced our total trip to only three months and allocated only a week in the …
Return to Pisa
We returned to visit Pisa after 12 years, and it surprised us that the tower was just as impressive as the first time we saw it. Also, just like last time, we got the obligatory photos of us holding up the Leaning Tower. This time we had to get the kids to do the same, though …