And now for something completely different ...

We drove from Florence in the north of Italy to Sorrento in the south today. The landscape changes from lush and cooler and to hot and dry, and the rolling hills of Tuscany and Umbria change to mountains and coastline as you approach Napoli.

We drove past Mount Etna and Naples, and deposited our luggage in the five-star La Pace Hotel in Sorrento before embarking again on a white-knuckle tour of the Amalfi coast. This does not involve a nice scenic tour close to the water, as it sounds. It means driving high up in to the mountains on ridiculously tight switchbacks on a narrow road and looking down a terrifying sheer drop to the sea below. We followed this route until we reached Positano, a town built vertically from the sea nearly to the mountain tops. Seriously, it has to be the most inconvenient way to live that I can imagine. There is not a flat surface on any of the streets until you reach the beach level. The rest either climbs or descends, depending on which way you are going. Positano has many chi-chi shops for the tourists (beware) and it is certainly an interesting place to visit, but as the old saying goes ... I wouldn't want to live there.