Rome

Our first sensation was of chaos since we had just spent an idyllic week in Positano, cooking, eating, drinking and hiking. The heat and noise of Rome felt overwhelming. After we arrived at our hotel and paid the extra money for the air conditioning, we regrouped and planned the rest of our evening. We found a cafe, ordered some wine and settled in. We strolled after dinner, the ever popular passeggiata, and began to enjoy the sights and sounds of Rome in the evening.

London

When we finally found a week that would work for all four of us to visit London, we had no idea that we would overlap with the Queen's Jubilee! My mother was excited when she realized we could watch the 1000 boat flotilla on the Thames. We ended up having the same view of the flotilla as my mother did in Canada --- from the television in the apartment we rented since the thousands of people that lined the banks of the river made it impossible to see anything, plus it was raining, no surprise!

The Algarve, Portugal

Vilacampina, a nine room hotel in the sleepy little village of Luz de Tavira in the Algarve, was the perfect home base for six days in Portugal.