Well Tuscany was lovely. I had a great time with my girlfriends and swam every single day.

The first day was the long drive from Geneva. I left the house at 7.20am (yes, me, yes really!) and we left Geneva before 9am. We did suffer from some geographical embarrasment but made pretty good time nonetheless and were in the town of Mercatale before 6pm.

Then it was the start of the long, complex road. The Villa we had hired was up the side of a mountain. Seriously. A long dirt road wound up and up and up... and then up again. At last we reached the top and saw our home for the coming week.

Not bad eh? Sadly it wasn't quite as good as it looks. The house is a bit odd; two kitchens, three bathrooms, one of which was fundamentally a toilet with a shower nozzle hanging out of the wall. Seriously! Most strange. The power went off at least once a day and when it did, the water went too, being from a well.There were some pluses though, beyond the pool. Great views of the stars (even if they were wrong) and every evening we saw a different example of wildlife. Over the week we saw.... a weasel, a fox, a hare, an owl and a porcupine. Some unusual insects too; bizarre jurassic-looking crickets, spiders, scorpions and even a firefly!

On Monday we headed out to Cortona. The others weren't all that excited about history (read: pretty much utterly uninterested) so while they had coffee I ran around the town and through the museum.

We started to head home, via Umbertide, and had to pause because of rain. There looked to be some interesting things to see there, but noone else was really interested so we just sheltered from the outpour and ate gelati. The girls started practicing yoga and tai chi moves, which thoroughly bemused the locals!

That night we ate at Mimmi's; a wonderful local restaurant where for 30 euros you are fed food and wine to a standstill. Bruschetta, 3 types of pasta, 4 different types of meats, vegetables and dessert. All very much local food, and delicious.

Tuesday was to be an exciting day; we had ourselves booked in for a cooking class at a lovely Agriturismo restaurant called Calagrana. We made a lovely lunch of chicken liver salad, fresh ravioli stuffed with aubergines and deboned chicken legs stuffed with truffles served with a pear moulded out of potato. It was cool learning how to debone a chicken leg.

In the evening we ate cheese and bread mostly, and then partied. I won't put any of the photos up... it wouldn't be fair! Let us just say that there was vodka, limoncello, peach juice, dancing and late night swimming involved!

The next day, despite being a little worse for wear, we drove off to have a tour of a wine factory at Val d'Orcia, and then to a rather spectacular vineyard called Banfi, set around a castle.

While the others tasted wines, I raced into the glass museum.. always a sucker for glass!

The collection had some excellent roman glass, but not much middle age or renaissance glassware.

In the evening we battled the barbecue at the villa to have a feast.

The next day, Nikki and I went for a drive, and visited Assisi. We didn't have much time there, but I had enough time to be very impressed by the cathedral; especially the paintings inside. Sadly no photos were permitted inside, but you do get a few pictures of the town. It is, like so many towns in Italy, perched up on a hill, with lovely views out over the countryside.

I wish we'd had more time to explore but we had a dinner date! We were gathering at the Restaurant Calagrana, this time for a dinner we didn't have to cook ourselves! It was a lovely dinner, a sort of italian degustation, with accompanying wines. We had become good friends with the chef and barman, and didn't leave till after midnight. Our last night completely together, the next day, three of our party headed out.

So, the remaining three of us drove off in search of thermal pools. I know, we had our own swimming pool, but it wasn't warm enough for some of us. Me, I loved it, and got quickly into the habit of having a 3am float, watching the stars.

But, after some searching we found San Casciano dei Bagni. An afternoon in the thermal pools was just the ticket. The town too looked absolutely gorgeous, and the views breathtaking.

One last night, and a last float in the pool.

The next day we drove away, bidding farewell to our home-for-the-week and the lovely fields of Tuscany.

20 July

I won't update for a few days, because I am off to Tuscany and won't have web access. But in a weeks time, I should have some lovely pics for you.

14 July

Last night I met with a few friends on the edge of the lake; have a look at the sunset! Amazing. Tonight I met with other friends in the Parc des Bastions and we sat on the grass and played music and sung as the sun set.

I finally downloaded some photos. Here are a few of my trip to visit Christoph in Basel last month.

8 July

Well, I was supposed to be going to the Montreux Jazz Festival today, on the Brazilian music boat. Even paid $50 for a ticket! So I head to the train station and wait in the queue to buy a train ticket to take me there. Guess what. Watched the two men behind the counter have a nice long chat, then they sold me a ticket. I ran (and I mean, full pelt) to the train and watched it leave. Next train got me to Montreux 10 minutes after the boat left. At that point I took my ticket back for a refund and went home.

Still, tonight I am going to the Orange Cinema with my friend Janet; its the big screen open air cinema on the lake's edge. Lots of fun!