Saturday 8 June, Lucca
Today has been one of those rare days in my life where absolutely every moment was far superior to anything I have experienced. I have looked at friends' photos and heard their travellers' tales for years, never thinking I would share their euphoria  but there we were on our little bus on our way to La Spezia by 8.15am where we boarded our boat to go to the 5 villages that constitute the Cinque Terre.

En route we drove through Carrara, famed for its white, black, grey and green marble which we could see in the mountains.  Pink marble is only found in Lessini and is far more expensive. Italy with its population of 60 million has four industries: automobile manufacture, agriculture, tourism and soccer. We drove for 1 1/2 hours through many lengthy tunnels, across the Margara River to reach La Spezia, a pretty harbour city of 80,000 people. We made our way through throngs of tourists, each group headed by a flag -waving guide, onto our cruise boat taking us to Vernazza, Riomaggiore, and Monterosso, three of the hamlets located on the West coast of the Riveria. Cameras clicked constantly. At first the skies were clear Kodak-blue, but as we continued a sea mist arose creating a setting for Peter Jackson's next movie. This was so mystical but certainly blighted the photos. The sea rose making alighting at the little hamlets challenging for some. However when we finally disembarked for lunch at Monterossa the skies cleared again to reveal the magic of the UNESCO heritage site.

Peter and I found ourselves a superb restaurante for a sea bass lunch, which I felt needed accompanying with a bottle of chianti. Peter was far more restrained but I needed to celebrate my grandson's birthday and welcome Edward into his teenage years in suitable Italian style.
A couple of hours later we met up with our group again to board the train to Levanto where our bus was waiting. We managed to score front seats in the bus for the first time on our trip, so could really soak up the glorious scenery along the Aurelian Road which was built 1,900 years ago by the Romans. It is the second oldest highway in Italy.

We had a brief time to change and then group with all the guests in our boutique San Marino & Diana Hotel for cocktail hour which offered a wide array of finger food and wines. I preferred Prosecco.

Our tour guide Mario had told us about a concert at the Santi Giovanni Cathedral one block away, celebrating the work of Puccini who was born in Lucca in 1858. We were astonished that only 1 other of our group was interested in attending, preferring extended cocktails or shopping or resting. For goodness sake, they could do all of that once they got home.  So just three of us turned up for what turned out to be a soul-stirring performance of a variety of opera numbers sung by two grand opera singers and a spine-tingling piano medley of Wagner's finest. The pianist accompanied the singers in appropriately unassuming style, but when opportunity arose with his solo, he proved himself to be a virtuoso in his own right. And all this in a majestic cathedral built for its acoustics.

So you can tell that the whole day exhibited the finest that Italy has to offer all within a space of 12 hours. Off to Pisa in the morning.