San Francisco now has a piano playing Muppet robot (with glitter ball) that randomly roams the streets playing Vanessa Carlton’s debut single 'A Thousand Miles'. It does this purely to bring happiness into our hearts... and it succeeds! Watch this video and tell me that it doesn't make you feel better about everything. I'm not …
Hold your breath and here we go… Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano & Pizza Class… Phew!
Busy, Busy, Busy Boy. The header image above is my coffee break table in Positano. It has all the Tour Manager essentials. Ray-Bans, Clicker Counter and iced coffee. If I lose everything else I can still do my job with what you see Yesterday we travelled by rail to Naples (Napoli) and then on to …
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CT & V
That’s Cinque Terre and Venice to you. We visited Cinque Terre, the five villages along the coast linked by ferry and rail. Our Local Guide Sara spent the day explaining the tough life of the people who lived there in the past and the difficulties of maintaining the area now that they are connected to …
Florence & Pisa with a pig in focaccia (and wine… lots of wine)
Yesterday we visited Florence (Firenze) and today we visited Pisa. I’m sorry that there won’t be so much text in this post but I’ve been really busy on this Tour doing Tour Managery stuff. The stuff that they pay me all those millions for! We were back on my old friend the Flying Tomato from …
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‘The Sweet Life’ in Rome
So… we’re in Rome and had a busy first day. Not quite as busy a time as Marcello Mastroianni had with Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain scene in Federico Fellini’s 1960 production of La Dolce Vita - but you can’t have everything (where would you put it?). I’ve copied a link to the famous …
Hi-Speed Italy
I'm off again on Saturday morning and it's Italy once more - but this time all of my clients are from the USA (38 of them altogether). We're doing a lightning Tour of Italy for Great Rail Journeys sister company, Vacations by Rail - Highlights of Italy Featuring Tuscany & Venice. I'm looking forward to …
HZERO
I wasn’t going to do another post on this Tour since we’re almost done (I’m writing this on the TGV from Nice to Paris) but this was too good to miss. While wandering in Firenze, waiting to rejoin my clients after they had enjoyed some free time, I came across the HZero museum, located in …
Monteriggioni
Yesterday we visited the lovely town of Monteriggioni, perched on a hilltop guarding the approaches to Siena. The Church Bells, that most Italian sound at midday Monteriggioni is on the Pilgrim route, the Via Francigena, leading to Rome from Northern Italy. Here are the signposts and markers showing the way for the pilgrims to walk. …
Treno Natura
Steam Day! Today we took the heritage steam train from Siena to Sant Angelo D’Asso. Boarding was chaos, and everything that I love about anarchic life in Italy. Boarding the train were young, old, kids, dogs and a village music band. People were shouting, phoning each other, posing for photos, getting on the train, getting …
Wine And Cheese And Russell Crowe
So… Today was all about food: And wine. We first visited Montepulciano, another beautiful mediaeval Tuscan town perched on top of a hill surrounded by Cypress trees and Corsican Pines, overlooking lots of other mediaeval Tuscan towns perched on top of hills etc. Tuscany really does what it says on the tin - You want …