Brescia to Treviso via Lake Garda

What a beautiful day we have had. We left our hotel after our Italian breakfast - mostly cake and coffee - and headed east towards Lake Garda. We chose to stop at Sirmione to check out the lake because it looked like an interesting spot on the map. We ended up spending half the day there as it was spectacular. It is very rich in history as well as being surrounded by natural beauty of the lake and the mountains (which still have a bit of snow on them). We started out with a boat trip around the peninsula with Marco who told us all about the town. There is a 700 year old castle built by a family dynasty from Verona. This was impressive enough but then we saw the Roman Palace ruins. They were absolutely huge. It would have been a truly impressive place in it's day (2000 years ago).
To top it off every second shop in the town was a gelateria so we were very happy by the time we hit the road again.
Back on the road to Treviso. After arriving and unloading we walked into the "old walled town" area. It is gorgeous - lots of alley ways, paved streets, archways, gorgeous shops, delicious coffee.
We took ourselves to a local bar/restaurant for dinner. Yummy pasta and gnocci!
Tomorrow we are catching the train into Venice. :)

We drive to Italy!

Another big drive. We started out the drive with a gorgeous drive along the coast line between Frejus and Cannes - very pretty sites along the way and amazing houses.

We got onto more toll roads and drove through 135 tunnels (give or take) so you can imagine what the drive would have been like without all those tunnels. Lilly's tummy could not have handled it!

So here we are in Italia! Woohoo. We just have a one night stop here in Brescia where I have checked in with success using my basic Italian language skills.

Tomorrow we drive on to Trevisio (nearby to Venice).

Cannes

Today we caught the train to Cannes - where we discovered the film festival was still going on, so the town was very busy with lots of security around the place and a real "buzz" in the air. Crazy place. There were many "beautiful people" and people begging to be given an invitation and of course loads of paparazzi. They did not notice us??!! Our disguise of typical tourist served us well :)

The other interesting thing in Cannes is all the HUGE boats that are moored there for the rich and famous. All that money poured into such frivolity - oh dear.

We caught a tourist mini-train around the city which was fun and a good way to get around the crowds.

Back for a swim and packing up for next leg- Italia!

Riviera

Well we arrived safe and sound to our cabin after spending approximately 35 euros on road tolls!! A lot of money - but good for getting a long way quickly.
So now we are staying at a Eurocamp site. It is HUGE! It is organised so that there are many different companies of "camp grounds" (like our Big 4's etc) but they are all in together on the same site but share the main reception and the facilities like the pool etc. So as I said - it is huge and covers a lot of ground - it takes about 5 minutes to get to our cabin from the front gate in the car!
But the kids are stoked because it has a pool with an indoor water slide. Happy campers. And the cabin itself is lovely - very very clean with everything we need. Great way to holiday on a budget.
So we are staying near a seaside town called Fejus which is about 35km from Cannes where the film festival is going on at the moment.
Today we explored some of the area - it is so different down here to where we have been so far. You can really tell that we are in the mediteranean and that we are by the seaside. The houses, the landscape and the people are all different. Not wrong - just different!
But the best part is - we are now in shorts and t-shirts at last! YAY! I hate to admit but I am even a little sunburnt today.

On the road to the south of France

Just a quick one on the road again - this time to the South - French Riveria area. Looking forward to some warmer weather :)
We have chosen to go on the larger roads today as it is such a long way. We are paying big tolls (13.70 euros for one and we have 2 more to go!!) for it but it will save us a lot of time. More time for swimming and hanging out with the rich and the famous!!
Love to all xo

A day of rest!!

Today we have spent most of the day just hanging about our lovely house. Bliss. We did take a short drive through the countryside and then back to more resting and eating (made french toast - aka dippy eggy inny!) and finishing off that bottle of champagne.
We are on the road again tomorrow for a big drive down to the south of France so it has been lovely to have a down day. Also it is quite cold so it has not been too hard to stay in. Looking forward to hopefully some warmer weather from now on...

Dijon & Beaune

Drove into Dijon to check out the town. They have a really cute self-guided walking tour where you follow the owl around the whole town (little brass plates on the footpath). It was a lot of fun to explore by ourselves using the guide from the tourist office (in English). There is a carving of an owl along the way that people rub and make a wish for good luck.
After lunch and buying Chris some new sunglasses we drove further south to the town of Beaune which we had read was very pretty. It is very popular - we had a hard time finding a car park! Once we did we had a wander around the town which is very pretty (but not as good as chocolat town!!). The drive was worth it though - we have never seen so many grape vines!!! Everywhere - it is like every spare nook and cranny is filled with grape vines. Fabulous because where there are grape vines there is of course wine :)
Home cooked spag bol for dinner - just wanted to tell you something ordinary. But we did have french "champange" with it!
Love to all xxx