Tuscany

After a night in Innsbruck we went up to Bergisel, the ski jump on the hill above the city. Its tower, designed by Zaha Hadid, rises above the trees, and from the top the landing slope drops away towards the stadium, the rooftops of Innsbruck and the mountains of the Inn valley.

In Modena we visited the Museo Enzo Ferrari: Enzo Ferrari’s birthplace and his father’s old workshop, next to a new gallery under a bright yellow roof shaped like a car bonnet. It was designed by the Czech architect Jan Kaplický. Inside, the classic Ferraris stand on a white floor like sculptures.

Then we walked through the old town to Piazza Grande and the Romanesque cathedral with its tall bell tower, the Ghirlandina, before driving on to Florence.

We had a day and a half in Florence. On the first evening we walked into the centre to the cathedral, with its facade of white, green and pink marble, and down to the Arno, where the Ponte Vecchio glowed in the setting sun.

The next morning we went back to see Brunelleschi’s dome in daylight, crossed to the basilica of Santa Croce, and wandered through the market around San Lorenzo before heading for the coast.

For the next few days we stayed by the sea at Marina di Cecina, south of Livorno: long sandy beaches, pine woods behind them, warm September water and not much else to do.

On our last afternoon on the coast we drove inland to Volterra, an Etruscan hill town high above the rolling Tuscan countryside. We walked its stone streets and squares, looked out over the hills, and stopped for a drink and a bite before driving north.

From our next base between Pisa and Lucca we spent a morning at the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, with the Leaning Tower, the cathedral and the round baptistery on the bright green lawn under a grey, rainy sky. Then we walked through the town to the Arno and the tiny Gothic church of Santa Maria della Spina on its bank.

In the evening we walked through Lucca inside its old walls.

The last big day of the trip was for the Cinque Terre, five fishing villages clinging to the cliffs of the Ligurian coast. We started in Riomaggiore, with its colourful houses stacked above the little harbour, took the train up the coast to Monterosso for an afternoon on the beach, and came back to Manarola to watch the sun set into the sea.

On the way home we broke the long drive with a night by the sea in Bibione, a beach resort on the Adriatic between Venice and Trieste. After a night near Modena we crossed the Po plain, spent the afternoon by the sea and the evening in the town centre.

The next afternoon we set off north through the Alps and across Austria, and were home soon after midnight.