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More heavenly days of touring around with Ham, Ariane and Rose

These emails have been so infrequent because we’ve been SO busy. Having a car makes you want to see and do everything while you have the opportunity and this we have done. This past week with the kids in Tuscany has truly been amazingly wonderful. But let me pick up where I left off after the day in Pisa.

The next day, Thursday we headed off to Genova for the day. We just got on the autostrada and got ourselves there and then spent the rest of the day exploring the streets of Genova. What a great city! Reminiscent of Naples in that it is centred around a thriving port and a city that has seen the splendour of the seafaring heyday. But Genova has an elegant side with beautiful old palazzos lining the streets in the upper town. You can just imagine the ancient splendour. It also has a seedy/ edgy side to it like Naples. So full of life and people and activity and decay. A large immigrant population adds to the life of the city. We all loved it. We went and had a great lunch…full of the pesto that originated in Genova and (for me) the fish! Then we wandered around the tiny, winding streets of the old port town. We walked up to the more elegant area with all the palazzos that lined the streets and once buzzed with life. We went into Palazzo Reale that is now a museum with the opulence of the times on display. Totally gorgeous really. To the Duomo, a quick aperitivo, then finally back to the car and home to Lucca. Home late to Lucca and then out to find a Pizza for dinner. A big day!

Friday we retraced our steps almost to Genova but turned off to explore the Italian Riviera and get an injection of the world of the rich and famous. First to Rapallo with its old, decaying seaside mansions, castle on the water and lovely water front promenade. Then on to Santa Margherita where we had lunch, wandered around a bit to take in the sites and then on to Portofino…the jewel in the crown of the Italian Riviera. It is so beautiful, it really is. It still has the air of a small, beautiful fishing village despite the obvious presence of the rich and famous with the amazing yachts and the expensive restaurants. For all this it doesn’t seem to lose its charm. We had THE most delicious gelati there and sat by the waterfront in the sun. It was really lovely. Then home again, back along the windy cliff edge road. Back in Lucca we had dinner at Ristorante All’Olivio where Rose and I had been before H&A arrived in Lucca. It was a splendid meal. In fact I think I had the best meal I’ve had in Italy. It was heaven. A beautiful fresh pasta with tomato and superb mozzarella- type cheese, followed by the most divine pigeon you could ever imagine. It was so tender and so delicious. I was ecstatic. Then my desert was to die for…a pannacotta- type thing with an orange sauce. Impossible to describe!

Saturday. Ham and Ariane’s last day in Tuscany and what better way to spend it than touring around the Chianti area with wine tastings and a lovely lunch at a futuristic winery…Antinori nel Chianti Classico. It was a most beautiful day really. It was sunny and warm and the drive was just too beautiful for words. We went to Castello di Verrazano to taste their wines (and buy a couple of bottles), then on to enjoy a lovely lunch with local wines, then drove some more through vineyards, olive trees, castellos and ancient hilltop villages before going to Volpaia, Radda in Chianti for another tasting (and purchasing) and then home. A Glorious day really.

For their last night in Tuscany Ham and Ariane had their choice of restaurants to go to for dinner which very predictably saw us back at the best of the best, Ristorante Giglio for our magnificent Last Supper. Again the first dish is always wonderfully fresh pasta and then Ham and Ariane shared a Bistecca- about a kilo of the most tender and tasty meat you could wish for. Ham particularly really got into it demolishing the massive T-bone! Rose and I were marginally more delicate but definitely not left behind with Veal cheek and pork. We won’t go into the amazing desert of semi-freddo ice-cream with crackly chocolate sauce…oh my god!!!

This morning was very sombre for the mumma. We got up, got organised, walked to the car park with H&A getting a coffee on the way and then had to sadly wave them off to Pisa for them to catch the plane back to London. What a lovely, lovely time it has been. I’m so lucky to have a few more days with Rose here in Lucca but already the end is nearing and I will so hate to see such a lovely time come to an end. But before it does we will make the most of what is left. Rose and I laundromatted, aperitivo’d, lunched and went to the Torture Museum for the rest of our day. We’re now resting before we aperitivo again and then decide what to do for dinner. A happy Mumma for another few days!!

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Tuscan days

The days are just flying by and as a consequence no emails have been forthcoming from me. So this is a catch up.
Sunday: Exactly as planned. A day of grazing. It was crazy…we couldn’t eat all the food for lunch so had to extend the meal into dinner. Antipasto platter consisting of cheeses, prosciutto, salami, bruscetta, etc…so delicious, all the produce of this wonderful food oriented country. Then the primi piatti which was a delicious pumpkin ravioli with a gorgonzola sauce. We then went out for a bit of a walk in the afternoon. The streets were full and bustling. Then home to cook up a chicken with garlic, oil and lemon. For desert we had bought a delicious custard/cream and strawberry pie and a torte di limone…just superb. This was all washed down with Aperol Spritz’s, beer, wine by the tonne and finished with Arancello and (for Hammy only) Grappa. Talk about a feast day.

Monday: A public holiday in Italy and we set off for the Giardino dei Tarocchi which is a sculpture park I had been told to go to. It is south of Lucca and near the coast. We naively thought this would be a lovely little excursion with a fish lunch by the seaside. So off we set. As it turns out so did every other Italian family in the whole bloody country. Our lunch by the seaside turned into a bit of a fiasco with not a single table to be found anywhere and the streets of our lovely little seaside town jam packed full. We eventually found a place where we could get takeaway and sat on a street bench with hamburgers, seafood lasagna, beer and wine. Sunny but cold!! Eventually we got to Giardino dei Tarocchi and had to fight our way into the carpark and then stand in a queue, absolutely freezing our butts off, for an hour to get into the place. It is a great park, similar to the Gaudi Park in Barcelona, with wonderful, colourful and bizarre sculptures to look at and climb into. Would have been wonderful with less people around. We finally got home around 10pm due to awful traffic. Cooked up some leftovers for tea and went to bed exhausted.

Tuesday: Off for a drive through the Chianti Region and to take in San Gimignano and Siena. Although still cold the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day. So lovely driving through the Tuscan countryside through the typical rolling, vine and olive tree covered hills. We went first of all to San Gimignano. It is a really beautiful town as everyone probably knows, wonderfully preserved, antiquated twisting, tumbling and climbing streets, with towers and churches adding to the atmosphere. We went to an absolutely superb place for lunch that we had read about and were lucky enough to get there in time to get a table. Many were not so lucky. We had a superb meal and a lovely chianti. We wondered through the town some more, had a heavenly gelati and then headed off for Siena. Again driving through the beautiful countryside. Siena is lovely. I have been there in the last couple of months so I planted myself in Italy’s most beautiful Piazza (Del Campo), found a spot in the sun and sat there while the others went off to the Duomo. We wondered around the town and then headed off for home. The trip home was the drive from hell. We’re not sure what had happened but there was a massive blockage of traffic. So much so that cars were driving off the on-ramp to get away from it and we all made Hammy do the same. He was very brave…this would NOT be something you would do in Australia!! Anyway we kept hitting blocked traffic and exiting very cleverly to get around it all. When we hit Lucca we went straight out for a meal in a cheap and very cheerful ristorante which was fun. Then again late home and into bed.

Wednesday:….finally catching up, I’m now up to today. This morning it was off to Pisa. Saw the tower…tick(didn’t climb it though), saw the battistero…tick. and the campanile…tick. All really nice but the really nice thing was when we’d seen everything we had to see and went off walking in the town. It is a lovely town and I had never really explored the town before. I’d been into the main tourist area but what I loved today was that we got away from there and found to our delight a wonderful town. We went down to the Arno River and honestly you wouldn’t know whether you were in Pisa or Firenze they are so similar along the river. Again we found a place for lunch but this time not as successfully as in San Gimignano. Hammy was determined to have a pizza but unfortunately the place we found was mediocre at best. Still nice sitting out in the sun.

Then we came back here. Before coming back to the apartment we went for a walk along Lucca’s wall for a way just to soak it up in the sunshine. It is just glorious when the sun shines, it really is. Ham and Ariane have now gone off to do some laundry at the Laundromat and tonight we are going to a restaurant North of Lucca recommended by Chris to eat game!!

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Early days in Lucca

It’s been a few days. Rose and I spent Thursday getting our bearings in Lucca. We walked the wall (at least most of it until we hopped off to find some lunch). We sat in the glorious sunshine and had a most delicious pasta. We also did the mundane things. We found the supermarket, identified the shops we’d be needing to be able to cook up an Easter feast. We bought Rose a little jacket given that she hadn’t packed anything warm. We took it easy in the afternoon then went out and had a nice meal at Trattoria L’Olivio, then home to bed. Still very nippy in the evenings.

On Friday we went walking again after morning coffee. It is business as usual on Good Friday in Italy which feels a bit weird. So we did a bit more window shopping. Did a bit more wall walking before we found another nice place to sit in the sun for lunch. Then it was time to get on the bus for Pisa Airport and go and pick up Ham and Ariane. As we were about to get on the bus we got messages to say their plane was delayed. We got on the bus anyway and their plane was an hour and a half late. Not too much drama, just another excuse to have to go to a bar for wine/beer/coffee.

So exciting to see them..what more pleasure for a mumma!! We took ages to finalise the car hire mainly because I didn’t bring the right credit card. Anyway eventually we were on the road and in Lucca before long at all. Parked the car outside the walls and walked in to the apartment. Aperitifs and settling in time and then out for dinner to a fantastic restaurant called Buca di San Antonio. It was great…fabulous food and lovely atmosphere. So much to eat!!

Now we are up to yesterday. The weather angel finally decided it was time for a big piss and it rained and rained all day. Apart from running off to put money in the car meter and having coffee and doing LOADS of shopping for Easter Sunday/ Monday we did little in the morning. We then went and found a place for lunch. We happened upon a lovely place for the mandatory fresh, delicious pasta.

We then thought despite the awful rain that we’d go for a little drive in the surrounds of Lucca. And it was absolutely lovely. A lush, green valley with mineral springs, lovely little villages and a river with picturesque bridges. We got to a town called Barga and walked through it’s steep winding streets up to the Duomo on top of the hill. That was lovely. Then back to Lucca. What could have been a wet and miserable afternoon was really enjoyable. We got home late and could only spruce up to get ready to out to dinner to “Lucca’s best” restaurant Ristorante Giglio. And it was truly heavenly food. I’ve never had a gnocchi like it….just superb as was every single dish. Lovely wine and a desert to only dream about. A fitting start to the easter break.

Today we have stocked up for a ‘cook-up’ at home for Easter Sunday. It will be fun. I for one am in heaven surrounded by family. Just missing you A&K!!!

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Arrived in Lucca

Here we are ensconced in Lovely Lucca after a very rocky start this morning. I’d paid a 200Eu deposit on the apartment and had to settle up the electricity bill. I’d told Eleonora (Landlady/ Manager) that we had to catch a train at 10am and had arranged to meet her at 8.45am. So we were up nice and early, showered, packed, cleaned the apartment and were waiting at 8.45…and we waited and waited. By 9.30 I started to ring her, no answer!! By 10 I was worried by 10.30 still no Eleonora. Finally she rang at about 10.40. I said our train was going at 11.10 am and we couldn’t wait. She said she’d be here in 15 mins. To cut a really exasperatingly long story short she arrived about five to eleven. Our train actually went at 11.20 but we were frantic. Anyway, grabbed some money from her and ran. Got a subway train immediately (had to race for that too) and then had to fly to get on our train in time with 3 suitcases and a lot of angst.

All went well after that, we connected in Florence and came on to Lucca. Cristina’s husband was there to meet us and we are comfortably settled into our apartment with a wine and a beer in our respective hands. We’ll head off out to dinner before too long and then call it a day with lots of exploring to do in the morning. I have to say that coming to a new city and finding my feet is SO much nicer and easier with Rosa. It’s fun and I love the feel of the city. I cannot tell you how much I’m just loving having Rosa with me as we sort it all out. Where’s the supermarket? Where is the best place to buy wine, have a coffee, hire a bike etc etc.

More adventures from Lucca in the lead up to Easter. Very excited about H&A arriving on Friday too…this is just too much excitement for an old and erstwhile solitary girl!!

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Life in Rome with my travel buddy

First full day out and about with Rosa yesterday. What fun for me! Rose is still a bit jet lagged, so tired at times but we did a lot of walking…a few churches in the morning with my favourite mosaics and frescoes etc. That was fun (for me). Then we stopped for lunch and in the afternoon we went to the Forum and up the Palatine Hill. It was a beautiful sunny, even hot, day and the Palatine is lovely and green with the Wisteria coming out and beautiful blossom trees in bloom. It was lovely but tiring. Rose at one point grumbled at me that my enthusiasm was exhausting…so, home for a rest (and for her a sleep!!). Then out for a meal. Day over!! Rose didn’t sleep so well last night so I think she’s getting too much sleep during the day so I’m planning to kill her with enthusiasm again!!

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Days of waiting!!

Goodness me its been quite a few days since I last emailed. There was little to report on Thursday and Friday really. I spent the days going for a few walks, trying to do some Italian revision and basically going into shutdown mode waiting for Rose to arrive. I got a walk or two in each day, I ate and drank as per normal and all I could think about was Rose arriving. That is until Friday night when everything went haywire!!

Rose rang to say she was at the airport…all good!! Then she rang to say the plane was delayed for 2 hours. Still all OK because she had a 4 hr transit in Dubai. Then a 3 hour delay. Then a 5 + hour delay. By this time I was on the website watching as the delays got longer and longer and nervously hoping, hoping that they would hold the ongoing flight to Rome until they arrived. So to bed but not sleeping, not knowing whether I’d be going to the airport in the morning or not. I was up in the early hours of the morning and it was looking as if the connecting flight had departed but Rose’s flight hadn’t arrived. Very bad news but still not sure. Then finally a message from Rose confirming she had landed in Dubai but no connection and she was now arriving in Rome Sunday morning. SO depressing, such a build up but no Rose!! Poor thing, it was so awful for her. They put her in a hotel but it was 3 hours before that was sorted out and she could get some rest.

So another day of waiting!! Again what can you do? The sun was shining and it was lovely and warm…but that is the only good thing I can say about this day. In all other ways it was an absolutely crap day, everything that could go wrong did go wrong:

  1. No Rose after so much anticipation
  2. I managed to leave my apartment without the card/ key to get back in. So I had to try and get hold of the landlady, Eleonora. I couldn’t get on to her for about 3 hours. In that time I not only couldn’t get into the apartment but I couldn’t leave the vicinity for fear she arrived. So I sat about wherever I could!! Eventually I got on to her but she was at work and couldn’t come so I needed to get to her….a massive enterprise! But to cut a long story short I eventually got in but the effort involved was a shocker.
  3. I stood up from a chair after coffee and felt severe pain in my leg. I’ d pulled something that left me in great pain in my leg. So much so that negotiating stairs was a killer. Bloody awful!! (improving now)
  4. I went to buy a bus ticket to the airport online, in optimistic anticipation of going to meet Rose in the morning and booked it going the wrong way.

Blah blah…what more could go wrong??

Chris was feeling very sorry for me so I went over there for tea and to watch a film. I walked over and had a nice night…she had cooked a delicious meal. But I had to go home early because Rose was now arriving at 7.30 am and I had to get myself up to the station to get on the bus out to the airport. But in terms of bad luck it was daylight saving changeover night so the 5.30 am get up was actually 4.30 AM (old time)!!!! OK you win…as a day that wasn’t vying for any honours.

Today (Sunday) up at the crack of dawn…actually well before dawn. No problems. Out to the airport and eventually wahoo, there she was. Not in too bad shape for such a shitty flight. We came in by train to avoid delays and the pushing and shoving associated with the bus trip in.

After a shower and a beer we set off to walk to the market where we met Chris. It is such a glorious day and we sat in the sun and had a beer/wine before setting off for lunch in Trastevere. We had a lovely lunch, sitting outside on an unbeatable day. We walked around Trastevere, drove up the Gianicolo Hill, had a coffee, went back to Chris’ place then set off to walk home. Chris came with us as far as Piazza Venezia and on the way did one of her ‘tours’ through Piazza Navona, Piazza Minerva etc. I still love Chris’ tours and the walk in the lovely sun was a delight.

But by then we’d done a lot of walking and were both very tired. We collapsed back home and now Rose has done what I try to avoid…gone to sleep on the bed. Oh well, its been a massive couple of days for her. At least she finally here!!

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A day of Rain, rain and more rain.

I haven’t seen this much rain since Milan in November. It has rained (and this is rain not drizzle) all day. And all this after yesterday when I was hot even without a coat on and thinking I was going to have to move to lighter clothes.

So there hasn’t been much happening today. I had a lovely long phone call from Ang this morning with good reception which is very satisfying. That was great and very exciting because plans are underway to see Ang and Kirst in August/ Sept.

Then I ducked down for my morning coffee. Then I went to my trans – sexual hairdresser and got another haircut, then and could do little more than duck back home again. I kept myself busy with Italian revision, sorting emails etc, tidying up. Then down I went again to have some lunch at the restaurant over the road. Then back.

Then down for my afternoon cappuccino then back …..and the day is over!!!
And still it is raining. I just hope it gets it out of its system before Saturday when I want to sun to shine!!

That’s it for now

I’m really getting excited now.

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Another day in the life

Nice treat this morning. Had a Skype date with my favourite work buddies who were out to dinner and set me up to dine with them vicariously. Must say the food Shamala cooked meant that the vicarious bit was rather hard to take. Still that was very nice and left me thinking about home for the rest of the day. Heard the goss, the good the bad and the ugly!!! Then Rose rang for a brief chat so by the time I got my morning coffee I was a bit desperate.

After I stoked up on my cappuccini I set off to a Museum that was a bit further away outside the walls, The Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini. Now this really id an interesting Museum. It’s housed in Rome’s first public electricity plant and all the massive turbine engines, massive steam boilers and diesel engines are all beautifully preserved and surrounded by magnificent classical roman sculptures. Really unique. The ultimate his and hers Museum!! I loved it, some gorgeous mosaics which always gets me going!!

I tried to walk home, got a bit boxed up so decided to jump on the subway to make my life easier. Then I indulged myself (probably because I was in a nostalgic, homesick type of mood) with a sit down lunch and glass of wine. Had a bit more of a wander then came home fairly early.

We’re down to 4 sleeps now til Rose arrives.

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Enter the last week in Rome

Bit of catching up to do I think.

Where was I? There was the weekend which was fairly low key. I went to another big basilica on Saturday. It had a lovely old cloister and some nice old mosaics but not a lot more to report. Saturday night was very noisy. Wales was playing something, somewhere so there were a lot of very drunk Welshmen getting around in Red and making life very noisy.

Then Sunday…the Rome Marathon!! Where was Ang???

I spent the day just chilling out with Chris and really doing nothing. I walked over to her place (the whole of Rome was shut down to traffic). I walked along the Marathon route and saw the leaders come in at the end. All Ethiopian/ Kenyan/ whatever and all looking like Olympians. I just gaze at their muscly legs mesmerised. I didn’t see a white man until way, way back. Anyway we had lunch at Chris’, and watched a movie (The Imitation Game) and then I walked home. It was a nice relaxed day.

Today was teeth clean day in Bologna. It was lovely going back to Bologna. It is a great place to be. My appointment with Fabrizia was at 12. I had a train that was supposed to get in at 11.12am but as my luck would have it it was 1 hour late so I was late for my appointment and I was fretting something terrible. You know how I hate to be late!! She was very good about it. She spent 1 hour and 10 min manually cleaning my teeth. She was pleased that it is working and my gums are much better etc etc. She is not too impressed with the dental care I’ve been getting. She insists I have to find someone who will keep up this regime!! Anyway the teeth feel good and for the hour she spent cleaning me up it wasn’t too expensive at all (150EU for the sake of comparison to the cost in Aust….I think it compares favourably!)

Then I spent a couple of hours wandering around Bologne. It looks different in the warmth with the blossoms out from the icey, dampness of Pre Christmas Bologna. I went back to my coffee shop and got and cappuccino and big hugs which felt really, really nice. I went back to my gelati shop and got a gelati. I wandered the streets, bought some food to bring back to Rome (Bologna really has to be the food capitol) and got back on the train to come back to Rome. This train was also 40 mins late which was most annoying. Usually the Italian trains are pretty much spot on timeless but I had a really bad run today.

I have a Skype date with my work friends in the morning. they are all going to Shamala’s for dinner and I’m invited!!!

It’s really getting close to Rosa arriving now and my excitement levels are rising!!

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Low activity day

Definitely a low activity day today…a declared non-tourist day. I was out and about at the time there was supposed to be an eclipse of the sun…lots of hype but totally nothing to see for it. Not even a slight change. very disappointing.

I puttered around, went out for a walk. Was at home when the landlady, Eleonora, was around. very embarrassed when she knocked on the door and I had undies out drying etc.

After a bit of a walk I went to my cafe. I sat at my bench with a coffee, then decided to have a glass of wine and sat at my window and read my book/kindle. Then the most exciting thing of the day happened. Some girls must have pinched something and the chase was on. They scuttled up the stairs in front of me with at least 3 people behind her. They were losing ground but the girls ran straight into the arms of the police at the top of the stairs. It was beautiful to watch. The whole neighbourhood came out to watch. Quite a carnival atmosphere. Very exciting.

I have just seen that Malcolm Fraser died, I feel really sad about that he was a wonderful voice of reason in a mad, racist world.
I’m redoing some of my Italian homework on my low activity days…can’t say it’s too exciting and it doesn’t stop most people saying ‘Thank you’ when I say ‘Grazie’…what can I do???