Happy holidays

I hinted yesterday that in just a few weeks I would be showing a vast improvement on my blogging output, at least in volume terms if nothing else. So now, the big reveal, the reason why - I've finally got round to booking my (much delayed) summer holiday and in just 3 short weeks I will be heading off on my next big adventure.

As regular readers will remember, last year I took myself off to Spain and enjoyed a fun filled 2 weeks touring Andalucia by train, including the getting there (but not, to my shame, the getting back).

Well, this year I intend to go one better and get myself to and back from Sicily entirely by train. Well, ok one bit will be by ferry - but probably not the bit you're thinking about. I have discovered that not only can you get all the way to Madrid in just 3 trains from Stirling (if you ignore the Metro transfer in Paris that is), you can also get all the way to Sicily (the football bit of Italy for the cartographically challenged amongst my readership) in just 5 trains - including the bit where they shunt the train you're sitting on onto a ferry across the Straits of Messina between mainland Italy and Sicily. How amazingly cool is that?!!

Since it's actually quite a long way from Stirling to Sicily, I'll be breaking my journey in Paris and Rome on the way and again in Paris and London (plus a brief stop in Ventimiglia) on the way back. Great excitement. While I've been to Tuscany, Venice and the Italian Lakes before - ie pretty much the north of the country, I've never been to Rome or further south. And I am feeling very virtuous for doing it all without air travel this year. Green brownie points all round for me.

So from early October, once the dreaded marathon is done - have you sponsored me yet by the way? - I will be packing my bags and preparing to leave for warmier southern climes. And I will of course be blogging all about it right here on Crafty Manoeuvres.

You have been warned...