Well, the end of this holiday has come around already. Again we have had a fabulous holiday, seen some spectacular sights, stayed in some lovely apartments and hotels, met some very interesting and warm people, eaten some absolutely delicious food, and drank some very delectable wines. We have been extraordinarily lucky with the weather, managing to escape rain and cold weather for 2.5 of the 3 months - I think I may have even got over my pessimism every time I see a black cloud (yes, Garth, no longer will you have me racing for umbrellas and rain macs the moment a small cloud appears on the horizon!!).

This holiday was slightly different to last year's in that we stayed much longer in each area, and we decided that this is a much better option for us at this stage of our lives than being on the move all the time . For example, having a month in Florence gave us plenty of time to stroll around the museums and galleries in the mornings, then time to wander through back streets in the afternoons to see things well off the tourist trail. Similarly, two weeks in Sorrento gave us time to see the roman ruins in both Pompeii and Herculaneum, to visit the island of Capri and small villages and towns around Sorrento. In the odd places where we only had 3 or so nights, we stopped unpacking our suitcases because there didn't seem to be any point! I think we have slowed down a lot, and it is lovely to be able to immerse ourselves in a town and see more than a cursory look at the main attractions.

The mix of places we visited was also good, with some excellent small places off the tourist train (Sulmona and Albi spring to mind) and some very interesting big places (Verona being a firm favourite). Visiting after the main tourist season had finished meant things were less crowded, although we were still surprised at how many tourists there were in places like Sorrento (mind you, the locals were also surprised at how long the tourist season went for this year, and suggested that the unseasonally warm weather may have helped) .

The apartments we booked all worked out well (take a bow, Gillian!), as they were all in good locations, with good facilities (except that bed in Sorrento!) including free wifi everywhere. Australia really needs to get better at providing free wifi. And just about all of the apartment owners were incredibly helpful, offering advice, assistance, mobile phone numbers....

We barely ate out at restaurants during the holiday, preferring instead to buy our food at local markets and eat it in our apartments. The cold meats, cheeses, olives, breads and fruit were so delicious all the way throughout Italy that we gravitated to the markets just about every day! And Garth became an excellent selector of wine - and as usual, I was an excellent drinker of said wines!

Once again, I would like to give a big thank you to Garth for his enthusiastic practice of Italian and French. He found a number of people in cafes and bars who were willing to correct his pronunciation, and he persevered until he got things right. I did my usual trick of only speaking English, waving my hands around in the hopes that people would understand me, and Garth would hasten to rescue me in the correct language (hmm, perhaps he was actually trying to rescue the poor person who was bemused by my hand waving....).

Finally, another big thank you to Garth for his help and support during the holidays (see, Garth, I told you I could retire and not drive you nuts!!). It couldn't have been too bad, because he is already working out where we are going on our next holidays.

Thanks to all the family and friends who commented on my blog, and to Garth who read most of the entries to correct my errors before I published them. Not of course that I made many errors and sometimes his comments were a tad unnecessary - who cares that medieval and roman are not interchangeable????).

So, until next time, arrivederci and au revoir!