This is the front of the house that we reached by driving along a very narrow road from the hamlet of Canali. Our hostess, Francesca, had spent time in Miami, so her English was very good. She was quite taken with our story and we found out she had shared it with all of her FB friends. It turns out, traveling light and free is a goal of hers.
The house is beautifully decorated with many Asian touches which we, of course, enjoyed.
There was also a pool and the weather was hot, so this was a nice touch. The only downside was a massive amount of star jasmine around the area, the scent so strong that we both had significant allergy attacks.
A really nice location to try and get the blog moving, if ever so slowly.
This was a cute sign on the door to Francesca's kitchen where we had breakfast. We found it through www.booking.com, which has served us well on this trip.
We decided to take a trip into Reggio Emilia and searching for parking on mapquest, this looked like a good choice, good name association, close to the center of the city, and it was. The only thing we did not take into account is the city is over 2,000 years old, is walled, and designed before the invention of the car. The GPS got us there OK, but through a maze of narrow, one way, high walled streets. The good news, it was close to the main piazza's.
We had been eating so much, that eating another dinner was one meal too many, so we opted for gelato. When in doubt, eat ice cream!
This sign was next to the fountains in the piazza and I thought it rather fun, it might have been easier to indicate just what you could do.
We had an invitation to visit a friend, Caroline, in Switzerland, near Geneva, which she told us was only an hour from Lyon, of course, we just had to go. An added bonus was that we had to go through the tunnel that goes under Mont Blanc.
To get to the Mont Blanc tunnel we had to drive through northern Italy, the above photo gives some idea of the scenery.
Castles and churches always dominate the high ground.
We were hoping for a nice coffee shop or restaurant somewhere in the mountains near the motorway, this is all we found. How about that table!
The approach to the tunnel and border check point.
That is not the height of Mont Blanc, but the tunnel length, I think.
In the tunnel, not much of a photo, but gives some idea of what it looks like under Mont Blanc.
It was hard to get any photos as we exited the tunnel, but Diane did a great job of catching a glimpse of this glacier flowing down the mountain.
Don't know the name, but an impressive peak.
Driving along the lakeside in Geneva on our way to Caroline's.
The famous Jet d'Eau in the background.
Caroline has two dogs in her care, this is Charlie.
And this is Maclan, who is a very large and gentle dog.
After a lovely overnight visit with Caroline, we drove to Lyon airport, just over an hour's drive through beautiful countryside. Spent the night at the airport hotel, and took a BA flight to Heathrow on Friday morning.
Next stop England.
No comments:
Post a Comment