Rickie writes….

It’s the last night before I reach an Italian city that is new to me, Bergamo. I wish the rest of the world has the classy Christmas lights that we enjoyed on our street. Photos courtesy of @Timmy666

Just a day, well an afternoon in Milan as I’d spent so much time there last year. But i’s lovely, in short doses! Photos courtesy of @Timmy666

Photos courtesy of @Timmy666

A repeat of the bus ride of last year to a very pretty Garda.   Photos courtesy of @Timmy666

Verona looking it’s most gorgeous, despite the Christmas lights in Italy being so much more classier than elsewhere. Photos courtesy of @Timmy666

I’ve been to Venice before but it’s worth a re-visit at Christmas. Photos courtesy of @Timmy666

This year, I decided to do Verona again but with two travel buddies. However, we chose Verona as the base rather than split my time as I did last year and my favourite city (thus far after three visits) is as pretty as ever. Photos courtesy of @Timmy666

It’s not one incident as such, but I’ve often said the best trip I’ve had for just having a ball was my time in Italy, travelling through the northern cities. (The best trip otherwise is Vancouver, eclipsed recently by Vancouver mark 2) I met loads of people and we just laughed from the breakfast to [...]

Ticket to Verona More than the other two mornings, I’m more confident that I am going to feel much better today. For one, I can breathe more easily, still violently coughing but being able to breathe at will is an unbelievable relief. I get to ‘central station’ with relative ease and what I thought was [...]

Surprisingly for a religious country, shops and Christmas markets are open so late on Christmas Eve but then I realise why, they are not open on Boxing Day – not even the restaurants so I get by on McDonalds salad and fries. Although I was dying for soup as I actually had an appetite for [...]