As you are aware I am decorating my good living room. I haven't progressed very far yet as I am looking out for white furniture and grey curtains. For the moment I have put dried hydrangeas in the fireplace. I hope to have the room ready for Christmas...

Autumn is well and truly here now with the shorter days. The clocks changed last night. It is a long weekend here in Ireland so I hope to get out into the garden to set my daffodil bulbs. I have 100 of them to plant so that will keep me busy... Hope you are all having a nice weekend.

It is hard to believe it is October here in Ireland as the weather is so nice, beautiful blue skies during the day and lovely sunsets at night. I was out along the Wild Atlantic Way yesterday and look at the beautiful sky. These photographs were taken at Mullaghmore in County Sligo. Ireland really is beautiful when the weather is nice.

More photographs from my travels, sorry if you are getting bored with all the travel posts but I really wanted to share these places with you. These villages below are known as Cinque Terre - meaning the five lands in Italian which include the villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorola and Riomaggiore. They form the Italian Riviera and are designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. They are located to the west of La Spezia where we got the train to the villages. You can also access the villages by boat but due to stormy seas the boats weren't running the day we visited. Walking paths connect the five villages but again due to the stormy weather the walking paths were closed. There is no vehicles in the villages and tourists arrive via the train or boats. It is such a breathtaking place and I would love to go back there again and walk between the villages. The areas are very busy with tourists so it is best not to visit in peak season as I am sure they are crowded with tourists particularly if the paths are closed. Just this week when I arrived home, I have seen online that the locals in the villages have an online petition to call for the numbers of tourists to be managed as the villages cannot cope as they are being overrun with mass tourism. I do hope that the numbers of tourists can be managed to ensure that the integrity of the villages are protected and also that a balance can be struck to allow the villages to thrive on tourism but that the unique architecture, landscape and heritage of these villages remain intact. It is one of the most beautiful places I have visited and the photographs below really do not do it justice- it is 100% nicer in reality.  

Next stop on our holidays and the third country we visited was Italy. We stopped off in Rome- the Eternal City. It is absolutely beautiful, no matter where you look the architecture and heritage is amazing. We decided to take the red bus tour to see as much as possible in a short space of time. Hope you enjoy my photographs and if you have time do check out my previous posts from Palma De Mallorca in Spain and Marseille in France.

As a follow on to my post on Palma de Mallorca, the next stop on our holidays was the
city of Marseille in southern France. I have visited the south of France before taking in Monaco, Nice and Cannes so it was nice to explore further along the coastline. Marseille is France's oldest city and as a result it is steeped in history. The weather was lovely when we visited and we spent a lot of our time around the lively Vieux Port (Old Port).