Adventures With Harvey

  Trains, boats and (very fast) automobiles Today’s story starts with some very fast cars!  Italy is well known for its luxury vehicle manufacturers ending in ‘i’, the towns of Maranello & Modena being home to several of these marques, the most famous of them being the prancing horse of Ferrari!  Your author thought that the highlight of this region would be a visit to their museum, however, and this may surprise some of you, something else was found to trump even Ferrari!  Lesser known to most people (perhaps those who haven’t watched Top Gear over the years) is the supercar maker Pagani.  This company only started in 1998, their founder is still alive and actively involved in the business, which hand-makes only around 40 supercars per year…. and they offer factory tours!!!  Not for the first time on this trip there was initial disappointment as all tours were booked out for several days in advance (maximum for tours being 25), however it never hur...

Visitors! We have been super-excited to share our adventures with visiting family over the last week or so – yes, Ian & Sophia Bilby (Anita’s Dad and Step-mum) have been our recent travelling companions, starting in Rome and heading north into Tuscany.  However before we get onto that report, there are a few gaps in the earlier story that need to be filled. You’ll recall that the last blog was dedicated to my Grandfather, Ralph Woodfield, as we followed his wartime journey through southern and central Italy.  In amongst all that we also visited some other delightful towns which I’ll quickly fill you in on now.  The first has a name that will be familiar to most of our New Zealand readers:  Gallipoli.  I had no idea that as well as Turkey, there is also a town by that name in southern Italy, the spelling is even the same.  The old town is on an island and it is quaint and delightful with crystal clear water, a cute little harbour with many old fishin...