Author Archives: Peter Ball

Today starts early with a bright blue sky and swallows flying in formation. We are pleased to be heading home. Bob will have missed us. Our train leaves at 10.01 but our flight leaves Pisa at 15.50, so we have time to kill somewhere. Val is voting for a walk in Pisa to take inContinue reading “Saturday 2nd May. – The return”

We took the train from the railway station in Monter whatever it’s called and it was absolutely crammed with young people going somewhere, all refusing to give up a seat for us old-age pensioners, kind of looking on very arrogantly. Anyway eventually we’ve arrived in Lucca and we’re presented with the city wall picture belowContinue reading “Friday 1st May in Lucca”

Off to Firenze. So here we are. We arrived in Florence and we’re sitting outside the Duomo. The queues are horrendous. There are more queues than you can shake a stick at and we have an hour to kill before going to see the David, where again there is a large queue We’ve just seenContinue reading “Thursday 30th April Florence”

Our first day in Monte whatever it’s called . The weather is glorious. The sky is blue and the sun is blazing down and we have a temperature of about 26°C. We took the funicular railway to Montecatini Alto which was an interesting ride after the stories of the funicular railway in Lisbon. The townContinue reading “Wednesday the 29th of April Montecatini”

A couple of days before this our Inverter failed. After help from Paul Landregan who was working at Givenergy until the 10th April when all the staff were laid off, we established the battery board within the inverter had failed. I shopped around and managed to find a replacement on Ebay. Of course it’s aContinue reading “Our AC Coupled Inverter Failed”

As you’ll know reader, we’re now back in the UK doing less mileage but still continuing to walk. I was delighted to receive 50 Australian dollars from a friend in Melbourne this morning very early. Thank you, Alan. Much appreciated

We’re planning and easier day today. St Peter’s and a little window shopping….. The day started with hugely long queue to get into St Peter’s despite having an online booking. We ended the day knackered and so we’ll write up the day later

Today the post is written by Val with her birthday tomorrow. We had tickets for a Vatican tour. As usual, we set off walking from the hotel, leaving at 7 a.m. allowing plenty of time for our 8.30 check in. It was just as well as our rendezvous-vous was at the museum entrance, at theContinue reading “9th March”

Today we’ve been predominantly in the coliseum, and the forum area. It’s quite stunning how huge everything is. The amount of labour needed to build the buildings that are in the area must have been absolutely massive. Val and I have worn our feet out. Continue looking at our Google photos and blog at http://www.peterball.ukContinue reading “8th March”