April to June 2008 - Pisa (Tuscany), Rennes (Brittany) and Bristol (England)

In April and May Valeria and I have been to Italy twice and, during one of these trips we went to Tuscany, where we had the opportunity to climb inside the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. In the picture below, you may not recognise us, but those two little green and red dots are us (Paul and Valeria). Climbing inside the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a strange experience, and the fact that the floor is not straight gives you a clear feeling of dizziness. The tower started leaning soon after it was built and it is amazing that it is still standing after about 800 years.

Below we are in Italy again, with Marco (Valeria’s brother) inside his car driving through Catania (Sicily) city centre and a full view of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The photos below were taken in the town of Lucca, in Tuscany. The picture (below left) we took on top of a medieval tower in Lucca, Tuscany; the writing on the roof definitely got our attention. Whoever wrote that sentence went through a lot of effort to climb on the roof and write, only to spell happiness wrong.

On the right Valeria with some of our travel companions. I organised the trip to Italy with people from my Italian class, including the teacher (June) and her husband. In the photo below you can see from the right (basking in the Italian sun): Clive (an expert of Puccini and fine wines), Valeria, Cathy (top student in our Italian class), Catherine's daughter Georgina and Catherine’s father Dick (a veteran from World War II and one of the guys who landed in Sicily and fought with the Allied Forces to liberate Italy during WW2).

At the end of June and in need of more travels, we popped just across the English Channel to Brittany in Northern France. Rennes in Brittany is the home to friends Mathieu and Sylvie. Mathieu has been bothering me for years to be included on one of these newsletters so here we go Mathieu :)

For any of you who have not visited Brittany, Rennes centre is worth visiting and nearby St.Malo also is well worth seeing. The architecture, the atmosphere, the shops and the food are all worth trying. The only things I did not really like are a specialty from Brittany called galettes, which you can see Mathieu and me eating below (and you surely can guess that I was not keen on them by the look on my face). On the right, Sylvie and Valeria walking on a path along the coast of Brittany.

Below a few photos of the streets of Rennes, which we took.

And back home in England in May we finally got around to seeing the Eden Project. It was Valeria's 1st ever visit to Cornwall; a place where she had wanted to go for a long time (with Cornwall famous in Italy because of its landscape and because of King Arthur). On the left there is an overall view of the Eden Project and, on the right Valeria with a big grin on her face. She could not stop laughing, after seeing the biggest attraction in the Eden Project: Elvis’ cab. If you ever go to the Eden Project be sure to take a ride on the Elvis Cab - a virtual trip in an old black cab with a recorded voice with a British accent, that pretends to be Elvis. You are led through the countries where Elvis buys the ingredients for his favourite pizza and there is also a screen fitted in the cab to show you pictures of the countries and the cab moves back and forth to give you the illusion it is moving. The whole thing is so bad that it ends up being good; just try it if you do not believe us!

In the pictures below we are in England again, with a Bristol attraction: the SS Great Britain, on the docks. The SS Great Britain is the oldest passengers cruise ship and I recommend you see it if you visit Bristol. The inside of the ship, which has been restored, displays the original contents of the ship with a reconstruction of life on board.

And finally, one of the attractions at Bristol Zoo. A very large thorny cactus!

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