Italy1

Our passage around the southern coastal Alps was full of white knuckle driving and lots of road up grades....after all it is the time of year for that. Precipitous drops and long tight fitting tunnels with back to back trucks and anxious fast drivers wanting to overtake by threatening to push you over the edge, warrented some nerve relaxing breaks.

Our first port of call was Carrara at the very top of Tuscany....Reason.....to go to the quarry area where Michelangelo Buonorotti first saw the piece of marble for his massive sculpture of David....and for Mick to find his own piece as well!!

The approach to Carrara was spectacular....the colour of the mountain that is being worked is wonderful...and as you become closer you understand the magnitude of the work to bring such special alabaster marble to the world today. From a distance it looks like snow.
On our approach to the town centre trucks of marble passed us.

Eventally after getting a tad lost we went up to the national park surrounding the quarry area and Mick found his piece of alabaster to bring back

So after a hair raising trip up....we had to come down the mountain again.....no easy task as the road was so narrow, winding through some lovely but close quartered villages. As we approached Carrara again we took a wrong turn and went into the old town area ..roads .built for donkeys and man only.......not for vehicles. Boy was that a nail biter...coming out on a pedestrian plaza with locals wondering what the heck we were up to!!....answer to problem....do not believe everything a GPS says!!....(By the way her name is Rachel)

Time to move on ....Pisa!!

Pisa ia about 50km down the highway and so we thought we would be down there for the night....A 20 min ride later we entered Pisa area.....Checked with the GPS for a place to stay and Rachel sent us off into a strange derelict area of the city......Mick looked at the area and said looks like hookers around here and sure enough....brazen "ladies of the night" awaiting thier tricks....next to the hotel that Rachel had chosen!!

Time to look at plan "B"....we drove about 11 km out of town and found a pleasant "canadian" type of hotel at a good price.....aaaah rest, meal and a well deserved vino!