Saturday 1 July 2017

War Cemetery, leaving the villa, Rome

Our Italian holiday is almost over. We drove from Laterina to Rome today, stopping for morning tea on the motorway as Matthew listened to the end of the All Blacks/Lions test and then we had lunch before walking to the Colliseum

This morning Matthew dropped Shelley and Rhonda at Arezzo and then visited the Arezzo War Cemetary which contains only Commonwealth graves. It's a solemn reminder of how lucky we are -  many NZers, including Lee and Malcolm's Dads,visited Italy in quite different circumstances.




After Matthew watched the first half of the rugby we left the villa just after 10.00 am and listened to it as we drove to Rome where we lunched with Pete and Cherry and then walked to the Colliseum. On the way to Rome we glimpsed many hilltop villages, including Orvieto, and the sunflowers were also looking their best.

The rooves above the carparks at the over-motorway Autogrill we stopped at for morning coffee also double as solar panels.









We dropped Pete at his apartment, the lift was typically small, and then left for the airport.


A few last precious minutes with Cherry in a lounge  at Rome Airport before she left for London and we left for home.


Friday 30 June 2017

San Gimignano

We went to San Gimignano today. It started raining but that added to the atmosphere and it was easy to find shelter when it rained.

San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture and unique in the preservation of 14 towers although there were once 72. 














The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta is famous for its frescos, some of which are rather gruesome.


























































We had one last group dinner this evening, now down to 18 because John and Katherine left to go on their Baltic cruise this morning.