We picked up a car from a Rome airport, and drove to Milan taking five days to get there. We went to Siena (which I stupidly didn't take any pictures of ) and stayed there the night. Siena was really beautiful, I thought it was the nicest place we went. The next day we drove across Tuscany, calling in at San Gimignano, which was nice too. We then headed up into the mountains, staying close to Barga.

The next day we drove over the Apuane Alps to the coast and up to la Spezia which had a certain charm about it. The Cinque Terre was only 20 minutes drive away and we went there the next day. Going there I highly recommend. We were on a tight time budget but if we'd had more time, we would have taken the boat there or the train. Also we would have walked the coastal track that threads around the coast. Cost 3 Euro.

We then went up to Genoa. The aquarium is well worth a look. It beats the London Aquarium hands down.

We were going to go to lake Como before flying out of Malpensa, Milan's airport, but as we got close to Milan it absolutely tipped it down. So we went to Milan instead. Milan was just a big well sorted out city. We looked around the cathedral and the science museum. But for me it was really dull and I wished we had gone to the lake in the rain.

After our trip, my first to Italy, I can now see why people rave so much about Tuscany. I also see why Italian driving gets slagged off, some of them are goddamn crazzzzzy drivers.