Our day of travel to Santa Margherita felt like very hard work. We left early in the morning, hunted down the winery manager to pay an outstanding wine bill, stopped off at the tip to drop off our rubbish (no door to door rubbish collections in Italy!) and repeated the arduous drive to Pisa we had done the day before. We lost Joanne and John, who we were following, on the motorway in Pisa, searched online for a car wash near the airport (yes you have to wash the car before you return it in Europe), got to the airport half an hour later than we had meant to, and then prepared for the “inspection”, and as the car rental website put it, “eventual” scratches that would be found. LUCKILY I had photographed all the scratches before we picked up the car and the were date stamped, so that when the inevitable discussion arose about the scratches on the driver’s door that wasn’t on the condition report, I was able to show that it wasn’t our responsibility. Amazingly, we escaped within 5 minutes with no additional fines, jumped on the airport shuttle (which dropped us off at another part of the airport 40 metres away), and jumped on another bus to take us to the train station. Going at a snails pace, it finally dropped us outside the train station 10 minutes before our train was due to depart. We knew we would just make it! It felt like everything was going our way – when Chris exclaimed “where is my camera!?!?!” In the hire car!!!!!! Chris jumped back on the bus to return to the airport while the kids and I camped out at Pisa train station, amidst multiple dodgy gypsys prowling for victims. He returned an hour later with the camera (hurray!!!) and we were able to catch another train with only one change. As we boarded the train one thief opened Nick’s backpack for a look inside but only found a travel diary and a bottle of wine. We couldn’t wait to collapse on the train, but inevitably there was an older couple sitting in our seats (isn’t there always in Italy?) and they were reluctant to move. Sadly for them, I was in no mood to be messed around so we put the pressure on and inevitably felt terrible when we were finally seated and the old lady insisted on standing next to her husband instead of going to her allotted seat. Chris immediately offered her his seat and then I offered her Michael’s seat but she graciously declined. As before in this situation, we got talking to them and found them to be a very nice couple from Rome full of interesting stories. Our journey passed smoothly, and before we knew it, we were in gorgeous Santa Margherita being met by our lovely hostess, Marina.

I have waxed lyrical about the beauty of Positano and Tuscany – but I think I like Santa Margherita the best of all! It’s kind of like an Italian Noosa. I love how all of the facades are painted on so it looks like a film set. It’s full of boats, cafés, artists and produce stores. It’s stylish but relaxed. I absolutely love it.

We met up with John and Joanne who had the fabulous idea to hire a boat the next day and this is what we did. At around 10.00 we picked up two small motor boats and putted over to an Abbey around the coast. Here we had lunch and then swam and snorkelled around a submerged statue of Jesus. Apparently this statue was erected by parents of a drowned child many years ago and put in this spot, which is kind of spooky but also very beautiful. Blue fish swam right in front of us, the water was refreshing but not cold, the day was perfect….it was pretty amazing. Afterwards we putted into Portafino, moored our boats at the jetty and had an ice cream and a wander around. Now THIS is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

It was hard to return the boats – it had been such a perfect day. The kids just loved it! The next day we took a train into Cinque Terre and investigated Vernazza, another gorgeous place which sadly was under 10 feet of mud only 3 years ago, although thee is no sign of it now. This part of the world is very, very beautiful.

We went home to pack, bought our tickets for Venice and went to bed early. But when we woke up at 6.00am Chris said ” It’s crazy travelling for 6 hours to for one day in Venice and then another 3 hours back to Milan the next day. Why don’t we just stay here one more day?” He was absolutely right! And so, with regret, we said goodbye to the Bornas and walked to Portafino (a really lovely walk) and had a lovely lunch watching the boats coming and going.

Only one more day left until we turn home. I don’t want to go now!

We arrived on our train from Naples late in the afternoon and bid good bye to the Bornas’ as we each headed for our different rental car companies. We found the shop in Florence with no trouble around 5.30pm and were surprised to learn that we were very lucky there was a staff member still present. Apparently they usually close at 4.00pm on Saturdays! After a very long and convoluted booking in process, taking no less than 1 hour (no wonder they were working late), we were presented with a very nice Renault which was not the Alfa Romeo we had booked, and which Nick was desperately looking forward to, and began our journey to Il Piano in San Gimignano. The host at our accommodation had helpfully given us the GPS coordinates, which we dutifully loaded into the car’s GPS and double checked, and we were off, speeding out of Florence and into the beautiful Tuscan countryside. It got dark quickly and as we neared our destination, beginning to feel very tired and hungry, our tarmac roads gave way to gravel roads, and gravel roads turned into little more than gravel driveways. We pressed on, even as a deer ran in front of the car and breathed a sigh of relief as we came upon a Tuscan farm house and the GPS announced “you have reached your destination”! But apparently we hadn’t! Through the partly open front door we glimpsed an extremely hirsute man racing to put on some clothes. I enquiried timidly “Il Piano?” to which he replied with evident relief with a long, detailed spiel, all in Italain, that involved left turns and right turns and passing of lemon orchards etc. Chris actually managed to pick up some of what was said, so after profuse thanks we returned to our car and prepared to travel back up the long gravel driveway and onto God knows where. Chris reverted to the good old iPhone, input the GPS coordinates, and what so you know? – we were directed to somewhere close by, but quite different! (Bloody car GPS!). Amazingly our journey did involve left turns and rights turns and passing of lemon orchards and before long we found ourselves ascending a long driveway lined with conifer trees and our host standing at the end of the drive waving at us (she was desperate to get home and had been wondering where were). After settling in, we drove to the nearby town of San Gimignano, found a cheap pizza joint, and returned home for bed!

We had arrived in the dark so the next morning was a total treat! We awoke to the sun rising over rolling green hills full of grape vines and olive trees with the beautiful towers of San Gimignano atop a hill in the distance. Il Piano is a working winery and olive plantation and we were treated to a wonderful tour of the winery followed by some wine tasting. This winery is an old fashioned one that still uses concrete vats and the technology that was installed in the 1920s. Although traditionally relying on making good quality table wines, sold in 50 litre demijohns to the locals, they are starting to branch out into premium wines. I was fascinated to learn that the ground is full of fossilised shells, 3-4 million years old. The plough often pulls up old fossils and when they do, the farmers celebrate because it gives the wine a special, mineral characteristic.

We settled in for a few relaxed and happy days in Tuscany. The views were so beautiful and the old medieval towns so interesting.

One day we took a train to Florence and spent the day wandering the streets. I was intent on finding a handbag and Chris wanted a messenger bag for his computer and so we must have visited over 20 leather stores. While there were many lovely products neither if us could find the “one” that made our hearts beat faster, so eventually we gave up and went for dinner at a restaurant that John and Jo frequented 16 years previously. The food was as good as they remembered and we enjoyed wild boar fettuccine, rabbit in a tomato and olive sauce and veal in white wine with mushrooms.

The next day Chris and I visited the old town of Volterre together. This town has been around since 700BC and has become a more popular tourist attraction since the Twilight movies. Here we found a leather shop that was the answer to our dreams and I bought two handbags while Chris bought his messenger bag. We asked for a recommendation for lunch and were directed to a little restaurant around the corner where we had a sensational meat plate (full of porchetta, proscuito, salami etc) and other local delicacies. That night Chris cooked some sausages we had bought at the supermarket on a wood BBQ, while the boys played frisbee and I enjoyed the amazing view of the sun setting over San Gimignano. Eventually, we were rained out and the sausages had to be finished in the frying pan but they were the most amazing sausages we had ever had!

On our final day we took a long drive to Pisa to visit the tower. Poor Pisa! Such a pretty old town, on a river, with the most gorgeous duomo but no one cares! Everyone wanted to see the tower and once seen we wanted to leave again.

Next stop is Cinque Terre. We are nearing the end of our journey and while there is some sadness, the trials of travel are beginning to wear on me and the boys and we are beginning to really look forward to our return to Australia.