So. We decided to take three weeks touring the Riviera and Italy in our old Renault 21, which stood up to the trip beautifully. We left Castelsarrasin for Marseilles on a cool and overcast day - just right for a drive since - we don’t have airconditioning, and travelling at 130kmh on the autoroute is non-conducive to having the windows open.

We planned to stay in Marseilles for a couple of days to really see the sights, museums, old town, port, cathedrals etc and to soak up the regional gastronomic specialities. No such luck - we stayed only one night since most tourist attractions were closed and we were not at all impressed with the somewhat watery bouillabaisse that had chunks of un-digestible fish floating on it. While the old harbour and old town were attractive, it was all a bit noisy, smelly and dirty. There was one highlight however, the city boasts a Roman archeology museum and site right in the centre of town which has parts of an ancient vessel like a ‘trireme’ as part of its collection. For those who haven’t cruised on one recently, a trireme is a fighting vessel powered by three rows of slave oarsmen, a popular type of boat around the turn of the first millennium. This one had only a single bank of oars - a one-reme ?

Marseilles is of course a large port - France’s second largest - with main cargo shipping facilities well out of town and international ferry service terminals just outside the Old Port. Pleasure boating is well catered for also as this area of the Mediterranean is a key pleasure boating centre with many construction and servicing facilities and companies situated right in the centre and also in the outskirts of this huge city.

There are hundreds of boats in the Marseilles Old Port. The port marina is probably 2 kilometres long and 200 metres wide (it has a ferry service to allow you to get from one side to the other) and on both sides are dozens of finger wharves that hold boats of all shapes and sizes. There are three masted ships and dinghies the size of Optimists, 50 metre motor cruisers and 12 foot rubber duckies - and everything in between including the Coast Guard, police, tourist vessels and floating restaurants. All of these vessels are accommodated right in the heart of the city in the old port.

Our first hotel on the trip was therefore a great choice, taken from one of our travel guides, the Hotel Alize, right on the old port in the restaurant area was comfortable, clean, inexpensive and very well situated and just around the corner from a huge underground car park.

However, with little to keep us here, the next morning, after checking out the (very expensive) chandleries and having exhausted the tourist opportunities, we returned to the autoroute towards Monte Carlo via Nice. I had worked in Monaco several times for IBM but Maureen had not been so we headed off to check out the pleasure palaces en-route and to thoroughly spoil ourselves in one of Europe’s most famous star scenes.

As it happened, we checked out the tourism office on arrival at Monte Carlo to get their up to date hotel guide, and choosing a centrally located 3 star, I put in a call to reserve a room. As luck would have it they offered and I accepted a suite overlooking the yacht harbour for the price of a standard room - why not. We were soon ensconced in this rather sumptuous pleasure palace with three bathrooms and balconies right near a multi story car park. I bring up the car park angle since it is impossible to find secure parking on the roads which all have different hours available for parking (if at all) are fully saturated all hours of the day and night and are subject to frightening fines if you park illegally.

We were soon out of the rooms and onto the tourist trail, eager to take in the Casino, the Café de Paris, the Prince’s Palace, the cathedral, churches, old town and Oceanographic Institute - all equally amazing !!!! Lunch at the Café de Paris - dinner too we liked it so much, and aperitifs taken in sunshine looking at the rich and not so beautiful wending their way to the Casino from the very elegant and hugely expensive Hotels de Paris and l’Hermitage (which were right next to our own hotel- the Balmoral).

The Oceanographic Institute, inaugurated by Prince Ranier’s forebear about 100 years ago, started as his hobby and ended up a world class institute of oceanographic and environmental research. Access to this cliff side museum and science institute is easy as a little road bound tourist train takes you to its door from all interesting parts of this hillside city. We toured the route of the famous Grand Prix, stopped at the burial place of Princess Grace and watched a not very exciting ‘changing of the guard’ at the palace. All in all we had huge fun being tourists and feeling every bit as privileged as the trillionaires whose ships (not boats) thickly congested the harbour outside our balcony windows. One of the windows opened up on the view from one of the bathrooms within which is a huge bath with seemingly endless torrents of steaming water. I took the opportunity for a long bath - unfortunately without the champagne to go with it (we had had a couple of drinks in the hotel bar / lounge chatting with some well heeled locals and their visiting American friends).

All too soon we headed off to Pisa, which contains of course the famous leaning tower which truly is a really amazing sight. Having parked in a city square guarded by teams of young black men selling trinkets and promising to guard your car (really ??) We headed off through a maze of narrow streets in the general direction other people were coming from and going to. You cannot see the tower or any of the other buildings which accompany it until you emerge from the warren of streets into the large open area that surrounds the complex.

The Tower is accompanied by a cathedral, several museums and another tower and surrounded by additional buildings of the same era which were originally barracks and other military facilities. As I understand it, the tower was originally built to aid in the manufacture of musket and cannon balls which were made by dropping blobs of molten lead and other metals down the centre. In flight, the blobs would form perfect spheres of the correct size and cool sufficiently so that on impact in the water well at the bottom they would not be deformed. Obviously the tilt of the tower made the use for which it was built a thing of the past.

We had not planned accommodation ahead of time for any of our destinations since we did not know how long we would stay in any one place. We had seen what we wanted to of Pisa and headed east towards Firenze (Florence) but after thinking about the small towns on the way we decided just to head for the city and try at the Pensione Pendini which we had used some 3 or 4 years earlier. On arrival in this rabbit warren of an old town we fortunately saw a sign to a rare undercover carpark which we, even more fortunately, found. It turned out to be only a couple of hundred metres from the Piazza Republica in which the Hotel Pendini resides. Yes - they did have accommodation, unfortunately it was a suite - would that suit - if the price was right. It was and so once again we were regally accommodated at realistic prices. Of course, being November, well after the height of the tourist season, prices are much lower. Even so, central Florence, like other high priority tourist cities can be pretty expensive so we were pleased to have great rooms at really affordable prices.

What prices you ask ? Marseilles 75 Euro ($A 130), Monaco 140 Euro ($A 245) and Florence 95 ($A 100). We later paid only 75 Euro per night for an excellent room in Venice and so decided to stay several nights. The summer season prices for all the above are at least double and in the case of Monte Carlo, four times the amount we paid.

So, day 4, Florence to re-visit old haunts and find new ones, especially the Piti Palace. We also found a really lovely, tiny Trattoria (about 10 tables) with an amazing menu and great local wines. It was here that we discovered the new craze of the Italian diners, a light and very drinkable white wine with a very slight fizz. Known as frizzante, this style has become widespread in the north east and is really enjoyable along with the range of very light, almost sweetish, red wines. In most areas on this trip we chose to drink local wines from half or full litre jugs rather than bottled wines. It was a really good choice as the wines were wonderfully fresh and light, flavoursome and not too alcoholic.

After wandering across the Ponte Veccio, crowded with its collection of goldsmiths and jewellery shops, we headed for the palace, which took three hours to scan. Taking it in in detail would take days with its collection of highly decorated rooms, furniture, paintings, marble sculptures, costumes, and household goods - all formerly owned by the powerful rulers of the Tuscan lands, the Medici.

We spent the morning at the palace alone and returned to check out of the hotel and head out of town. Having ransomed the car out of the carpark (some 30 euros for overnight parking) we amazingly found our way unerringly to the entry of the main route south to Sienna.

Sienna is famous for its skilled flag throwers and the annual horse races, known as the Palio, held in the central, cruelly angled square, known as the Campo. This cobbled area features fabulous medieval buildings of 5-7 floors, a cathedral and other grand edifices towering over the uneven rectangle (probably a rhomboid or some such other trigonometric detail) around which is a brick paved ‘road’ which runs along the bottom edge against the cathedral, up a steep slope and turning left again across the top of the area to drop precipitously down to the cathedral section again. The race is conducted bareback and rules include the right to try to unseat other riders. Bribery is expected and the result is frequently spectacular if not extremely dangerous to horses, competitors and spectators, the latter crowding the central area for hours without any facilities, before the events are completed.

Since the Palio is held in August we were not to witness it but it is enough to wander through this impressive city with its massive buildings and beautifully adorned religious edifices. We entered just a few to marvel at the state of preservation of the relics and adornments. Huge paintings and frescos on all walls and ceilings.

On to Arezzo via the Tuscan wine areas of Chianti etc and then to our Canadian friend's apartment in Riccione, on the east coast. On arrival I was laid out with an excruciating pain in the neck and shoulders, requiring twice daily pain killing injections and a barrage of pain patches and pills, massage and x-rays over a period of a week. The hospital specialist I was sent to with the x-rays, asked whether it was a road accident on the way to Italy that had caused the two fractured vertebrates. Since I had not had a close encounter with Italian drivers and had no recollection how it could have occurred it left them and me, bemused but none the less debilitated.

When the pain subsided we were able to drive to San Marino, an independent republic in Italy. On this day, as for others during November, there was a great deal of low cloud, quite thick at about 1,000 feet above the land. Many of the places we explored, such as San Marino, Urbino and San Leo, are hill or mountain top fortress towns and at San Marino we wound our way up the hillside and into the cloud. Some time later, at about 2,000 feet we emerged from the cloud and the city stood above it like a fairy story set of castles standing on cotton candy clouds. Very spectacular.

Other mountain peaks also poked out of the mists and from the ramparts of the castle towers we were able to take fantastic digital pictures and video of the scenes.

In this area a number of local princes held off armies from the east and south for centuries, increasing their strength and wealth until the Austrians invaded around the 16^th or 17th century. They were defeated by Napoleon who rolled on to take over the whole of Italy, enthroning his nephew as King in Venice. More of that later. As a result of all of this history of war and hostility, there are a number of linked fortified towns in various states of repair among which is Gradara where there is a Romeo and Juliet sound-alike fable. It seems that two ruling princes wanted to combine family forces and fortunes and did so by marrying one’s son to the other’s daughter. Unfortunately the lame and ugly son was away at the time of his marriage and was ‘stood in for’ by his younger and handsome brother Paolo who was later to fall in love with Francesca, his sister in law. They were discovered as lovers by the brother and murdered, a fact now celebrated by a series of theatrical re-enactments during the tourist season.

Their house is in remarkable condition, having been kept in the family for hundreds of years and having been missed by the wrath of the second world war as the Commonwealth army fought back the Germans during 1944 and 45.

Our friends Randy and Nancy with whom we stayed for two weeks are building a major theatrical and audio visual attraction for a large and popular theme park in Riccione (including an Imax type large screen format set of theatres), introduced us to 'slow food' a new movement from Italy which is rapidly spreading throughout the world. Slow food is the opposite of fast food but is far more than just a style. It involves the discovery and protection of ancient and special regional recipes and the produce that is necessary to re-create them. Bio-diversity and environment are key also to the slow food philosophy which is championed in each country or area by regional coordinators. Perth has one in training at Bra in Italy, the town in which the Slow Food University id taking shape. Elena Aniere will, after a year or so of experience in Bra will return to Australia to champion the process for our collective benefit.

While in Riccione we visited a slow food restaurant where Giuseppe, the owner, advised us of what we would be eating and drinking before beginning a parade of platters of fabulous food and carafes and bottles of equally delicious wines. Randy and Nancy also arranged for some of their Italian friends to cook amazing theme dinners for us while we had the luck to enjoy such wonderful hospitality - and gastronomy.

Our last side trip from Riccione was to Pesaro, only 25 km south. Unfortunately it was a heavily overcast, cold and drizzly day, one of the only poor weather days we experienced until heading back to France. We entered the old town and parked then headed off on foot to the centre of town which boasted a couple of good museums. Completing a circuitous route we found the museums but had completely lost track of where we had come from. Having investigated the tourist attractions (closed until 4.00pm) we tried to re-trace our steps to find the car. That took almost an hour and found us near the port.

Always interested in things nautical we drove down to the sea side and stared out to sea. Through the wreaths of mist and rain we saw a couple of ghostly shapes flitting and darting across the harbour mouth. As the breeze filled in and the fogs parted we realised the shapes were a couple of duelling 420 yachts. Four young people were out on the Adriatic in impossible conditions practising to beat our sailors. I felt a strong bond for those young sailors and wished them well. Anyone prepared to push on in those conditions deserve success - perhaps a second to our own fair lasses.

Reluctantly we left for Venice where we found the Guerrini Hotel on the Spina de Espana, just near the Ferrovia (train station) having parked the car at the Marco Polo Airport and taken the water bus across the lagoon to Piazza St Marco vi the Lido and Murano (home of the famous Venetian Glass). Here we stayed two nights in order to take in all the sights I had not visited on a whistle-stop trip 20 years earlier. On both nights we dined in a tiny, family run trattoria on the outskirts of the canal system while during the days we took innumerable vaporettos (ferries) to and from Palazzo’s and Piazza St Marco. Even in November there are queues in some of the attractions but since we had great dry weather with temperatures above 10-15 every day, we were as happy as clams.

Venice sits on the lagoon and is split by the Grand Canal which is about 4 kilometres long in an S shape. Our hotel was at the west end and Piazza St Marco near the end of the Canal to the east. Since Venice is so compact and has no cars, bikes, skate boards, scooters or any other form of motorised transport save the vaporettos and gondolas, it is easy to walk through, especially if you are visiting the attractions en-route. The key sights of course are the Piazza St Marco with it’s attendant Palace of the Doge (governor), the Basilica St Marco (the Doge’s chapel), the Museo Correr and the Library, all of which surround the famous square with its attendant cafes. Along the Grand Canal are the Galleria Academia (16^th - 18^th C art), the Ca Rezzonico (18^th C art), the Rialto markets and Ca Pesaro (modern art). There are tens of churches, basilicas and cathedrals, though none more glorious than St Marco with its golden mosaics and the Golden Altar Piece, and many other museums like the Guggenheim collection of modern art. Along with the historic come the places of rest and recuperation like Harry’s bar - famous for being the favourite of Hemingway and his cronies - now very expensive where most people drink the ‘special’ a mix of Prosecco (our favourite sparkling wine of the region) and peach liquor. We chose a bottle of Prosecco.

Throughout the city there are also scads of restaurants, bars, panini and pizza places, cafes and hotels and on any day at least a couple of classic music or opera concerts in historic churches or colleges. The Grand Canal is awash with boats of many kinds, the two major kinds of ferries, the gondolas of course and the water taxis, goods barges, garbage barges, repair boats, police and coats guard boats and private run-abouts. The water taxis and ferries work 24 hours per day since that is the only way to get around and a 24 or 72 hour ticket saves you having to buy bunches of tickets and saves time and cost.

We spent two days exploring, walking, watching, visiting, looking, catching ferries, getting lost in the labyrinth of tiny streets and enjoying slumping in Harry’s at the end of the day to sip bubbly and watch the tourists, doing pretty much the same as us - touristing. It was at Harry’s that we learned of the final defeat in the Rugby World Cup.

We were extremely reluctant to leave Venice, we were having such a good time, but we were also getting pretty tired of touristing and I especially was all ‘cathedralled out’. We took the No 5 bus from near the Ferrovia at Piazzale Roma to the parking station at the airport and were pleasantly surprised that it was less than half the cost of the car park near the station in Venice at only 23 Euros.

We drove back through Bra - the home of slow food - (this being essentially a movement to rediscover and preserve traditional foods and ingredient, to protect bio diversity and to develop a world understanding in the enjoyment of eating and food production to balance the 'fast food' incursion and bio singularity of modern production methodologies). Great food slow food and it goes well with young fresh regional wines of which we tried quite a few - both commercial bottled and local 'novella' (new) wines in carafes.

We spent the night at Bra in the home of the parents of the CEO of the Slow Food Association. Their other two sons are also in the organisation which has a staff or hundreds, a turn-over of millions and offshoot associations in the US, many European countries, Australia and others. Elena, our friend from Australia and host in Bra, took us to the number one slow food restaurant which not only served a great range of regional foods, it also served its best wines by the glass. That allowed us to try the two best whites, and three reds, Barolos and Valpolicellos.

The next morning we were back in the car for the 550 kilometre trip back to Castelsarrasin via a friend's boat at Grau du Roi on the south coats of France. We arrived late in the afternoon and watched with growing alarm at the big and bigger, then huge logs coming out of the tributary stream which fed into the port area where John and Jan’s boat, (Blackbird Fly) was moored. Its position made it impossible for this barrage of heavy duty flotsam to miss and many of the trees and logs bashed the hull, to the growing concern of its owner. We had dinner on board, accompanied by the cacophony of bashing blocks of wood and other floating battering rams and then retired. I slept through the night, unconcerned since Blackie is not my boat. John and Jan however were up all but a hour or two. The next morning we arose to find the boat completely log jammed by a solid web of logs, branches, bamboo, rubbish, reeds and other assorted warp and weft. We worked on it for hours and reduced it to just the thick pad that had built up under the boat despite our moving it away from the floating pontoons and into the current.

We left at midday after the harbourmaster had also started work on the mess.

We drove back to Castelsarrasin just about three weeks after our departure on the day of our 31st wedding anniversary - we went to bed early !