We spent the last two weeks, and part of the summer holidays, in Italy ..
Passing by Lake Garda, we spent one night close to Verona, to then cross the Po plain, have a hiking stop at the Stone of Bismantova and cross the Ligurian Apennines to get to La Spezia.
In the first couple of days we took the train and boat to and between some of the Cinque Terre towns and did a walk in Porto Venere and around Palmaria Island.
We made Pizzeria La Capolinea our local place to dine in La Spezia – right next to our very nice apartment – and spent some time at a very nice and much less crowded beach in Le Grazie.
A couple more hikes in the area and the week in La Spezia was already over.
In week two of our stay in Italy we moved on to Tuscany, first passing by Pisa.
We then visited the lovely villages of San Donato, Montefioralle and Castellina in the Chianti of Tuscany, as well as San Gimignano a bit further to the west.
We continued with a very enjoyable cycling tour of the beautiful city of Lucca …
… and paid the obligatory visit to Florence.
We concluded our stay in Tuscany with a visit to Volterra and a bit more countryside.
Finally, on our way home, we made another stop at Lake Garda and took some impressive passes through the Alps.
