ITALY - SWITZERLAND - FRANCE - a cross country jaunt!

The ferry was running a bit behind schedule but fortunately we aren't on any real timetable other than being out of the Schengen countries in just one week. It will be a very quick & very mobile visit to Italy.


The fountain at the railway station in central Bari

Bari, pretty city with I think about 160,000 people & plenty of tourists too. It has a lovely long corsico along the sea edge with a wide walkway, rocky outcrops, seating for weary walkers, fisherman, kids playing & a few shady trees a very pleasant place to stroll especially in the afternoon when it is shady. We visited the castle here which was built in the 1100's, naturally it has been altered, added to, rebuilt many times since then but this year it is celebrating 350 years since the last major restructing was done. They had a very interesting DVD that we were able to watch in English about its history & architectural highlights, most of which we were able to visit for ourselves as well. Originally there had been a moat round the land side of it & the other sides were on the water's edge but there must have been plenty of reclamation of the water here as there is now a main highway & a whole international port area between the castle/fortress & the water.

One of the castle's fortified corners &
a section of the long disused moat

We then strolled through the lovely narrow cobblestone laneways of the old town, which was full of hustle & bustle, cars that barely fitted, scooters zipping left & right sometimes with dad & a couple of kids or mum & a week's groceries on them, we even got to the basilica just as a bride & groom where leaving, so confetti, wedding cars, people gathered round, all lovely.

That's Grant in the white shirt, in one of
the narrow laneways of the old town

A bit of lunch then off on a 30 minute train trip south along the coast to..... 

Wonderful 'graffiti art' on the side of the cinema at Polignia de Mare

Polignia de Mare, a very beautiful coastal town. It was siesta time so all the shops were shut but we walked into the old town & to the viewing points where we got a great views of the water & the limestone grottoes (caves) which cut under the structure of the old city centre. We had a lovely pizza & some granita (lemon for me, rockmelon for Grant) at a little restaurant with a view to the sea & a fresh breeze as it was pretty hot.



Limestone grottoes under the old town

When we got to the last viewpoint we could see the small rocky beach & the outcrops where people were diving into the water, swimming to an access section then scrambling up the rocks to do it all again. The beach was full of young people sunning themselves (the oldies are smart enough not to go out into the sun at that time of the day) all with swim shoes on because of the rocky bottom. There were paddle boats, skiboats & a couple of sailing boats tripping round the area, all in all it was a beautiful couple of hours spent there, just as you might expect from Italy, just like in the movies. 

The small rocky beach nestled in the centre of the town, this shot was taken from the viewpoint in the old town

Next move was a 5 hour train trip to Bologna, the map showed that the train line hugged the coast for most of the trip & it was right. In places the track ran almost in the water & at other times there was a beach full of colourful umbrellas & deckchairs, then came changes as we moved a little inland to the farming areas, grapes (wine I think), olives, market gardens of vegetables (some I didn't even recognise), figs, citrus fruits, stone fruits, you name it they grew it - my question was where did they get the water? The soil was as dry as chips & we haven't seen a dam or lake of any description.

A section of one of the arcades which
line the streets in Bologna, marble floor,
wide & airy

Bologna, with only the one afternoon here we checked into our hotel & made a bee-line for the main city square. This was walking distance & we enjoyed the stroll looking at the fantastic shop windows (boy I wish I was a size 10 there were so many absolutely gorgeous clothes & shoes) under the arcades for which Bologna is famous. In the square they were setting up for a festival this weekend, there was a stage with lighting & lots of stalls etc going up unfortunately these things spoiled our photos a bit but we did see all the churches, fountains, historic buildings & leaning towers.

Dinner out & a good night's sleep, after we snuck up to the building roof (silly them leaving the door unlocked) for a quick look at the city lights.

Next morning it was a lovely breakfast, being the good girl I am I chose fresh fruit salad, natural yoghurt, brown bread & jam - I honestly drooled over the choice of cakes & pastries but just couldn't bring myself to eat such things for breakfast, now if it had been morning tea time that would be a different thing altogether! We had to be at the railway station by 9:15 so we packed up & headed off straight after breakfast, fortunately the station was only 200 metres away.

On the train, speeding through the countryside Grant thought he would check how fast we were going with the GPS, well it went ballistic, we were only doing 165 kph but he had the GPS set for pedestrian, which we had used for our city walk yesterday & it didn't know how to handle someone who can walk that fast....we laughed ourselves silly!

This part of the trip is inland but the scenery is still lovely, quite flat with mostly broadacre crops or ploughed up paddocks waiting for rain I guess! A change of trains at Milan, this was a very busy & very large station so it was a relief to make it to the train & find our seat in the airconditioning.

It was a lovely surprise to find that our travelling partner was a young lass from the USA, named Toni - can you believe it! She is a seasoned traveller & we chatted most of the way about great places to visit in Europe. The scenery on this part of the trip was spectacular as we passed through the Alps into Switzerland & before we knew it we were in Geneva, Switzerland.



One example of the fountains provided round the city - drinking, watering
animals (in the past I guess), washing clothes too I believe

The weather was a bit damp but we didn't let that stop us, we walked to the Reformation Monument which is a massive sandstone wall full of carvings & engraved script. Then up a few steps & a hill & we were in the old town for a walk round the passed the basilica (where they were filming a movie scene or something) & voila there we were at Lake Geneva. Since the weather was a bit ordinary we decided on an hour long boat trip round the Geneva end of the massive lake (it's 370 metres deep unbelievable!). The water spout fountain was functioning which was great but with a cloudy sky the photos won't be anything special. By the time we finished that it had really started to pour and it was getting late in the afternoon so we headed home to our hotel.

Grant suggested MacDonald's for dinner as we were walking passed & it was too early for most restaurants which don't seem to open until 7pm. NEVER again...it was exorbitantly expensive & the worst I have eaten even though a prawn & avocado wrap sounded nice - but was YUK - the thickshakes were runny, Grant's farmer's salad was tiny, 'the meal' & I use the term loosely, cost over $A50, unbelievably overpriced.

Next morning a lazy start, we had a lovely room & it was hard to drag ourselves away, I could have lived in that room, & got the afternoon bus from Geneva to Annecy in France. Well this was a fabulous trip, two hours of mostly glorious green farm country with a smattering of towns & farmhouses. I am going to take this opportunity to thank our friends Dave & Jean for suggesting a side trip to Annecy, it would have to be the loveliest town in Europe so far (don't want to include the UK here because there are a number of really wonderful places there too).



This canal & triangular building from the 1400's was only 50 metres
from our hotel

Just one of dozens of small piazzas around
the town

It has a medieval centre with cobble stone pedestrian ways, canals, churches, arcades, unique shops, a massive lake with a walkway around it (much further than we can walk in our day here) & more restaurants than we could possibly count then of course there is the actual city, modern & bustling with plenty of high fashion shops, all with that traditional 'french flare'.

We found our accommodation (after helping a couple of Japanese lasses work out the town map at the bus stop & find their hotel) which we entered through a door in the front of the church, talk about squashing things in! Our room was on the third floor, no lift & just spiral staircases, it had a sloping ceiling as it was a loft & in the roof space. Food, I need food, since we had missed both breakfast & lunch my stomach was really letting me know it needed something in it....how do we choose, so many options. We went with a fixed menu that was a reasonable price for three courses & served at a cute family run restaurant in one of the backstreets. The proprietor wanted to practice his English so that was good as my french is pretty rusty (it's only 42 years since my last french language class, you think I would have remembered more than a few words, what is the Australian education system coming to) & Grant can say MERCI & that pulls him up french wise. The food was really nice & good value especially compared to the 'so-so' food we ate in Geneva.

Yummy, love the gelati !

A beautiful day dawned & Grant found the address of the fire station so off he went, I wandered round the shops in the old town, only to find it was market day & several of the streets were packed with farmers selling cheeses, meats, vegetables, flowers, you name it they sold it! Just wondeful, I sampled lots of bits & pieces but bought some soft cheese, salami, olives, tomatoes, bananas & a couple of fresh bagettes. Lunch was enjoyed sitting on a jetty with our feet dangling in the lake water, crystal clear, crisp but not freezing, then disaster struck in our piece of paradise....a ferry went by & sent waves of wake towards us & our jetty which was only a few inches above water level.....the water bubbled up through the boards & washed over the end of the jetty, needless to say we spent the rest of the day with very wet bottoms....thank goodness we saved the cheese & bread! We had a lovely walk along the lake edge, ate sorbet & gelati til it came out our ears. It was just heavenly!

Our lakeside walk, such a glorious day & the views not bad either...

Next morning it was the bus back to Geneva airport, flight to Gatwick, pick up the hire car & drive to Eastbourne to see Kathy & Terry, a delightful couple we met on our Hurtigruten Cruise.