Siamo arrivati in Italia - Torino

Buon giorno a tutti

Viva Italia ... siamo arrivati in Torino Martedi con tanta pioggia e freddo. Adesso due giorni dopo, il sole sia fatto vedere la faccia e la temperatura e circa 10 gradi.

La zia ci ha portato al Palazzo Reale e alla Mole, il icon di Torino. Siamo stati anche in Via Roma con tutti gli negozi 'chic' exclusive! Stanci e con la fame, siamo fermati in pizzeria dove abbiamo mangiato la belleza di Italia, la PIZZA .... mmmmmm! Delizioso!

Siamo ritornati a casa verso le cinque, zia ha preparata la cena (da sola) e abbiamo mangiati (cosi tanto) insieme tutti i cugini e con il carino (e vispo) Guiseppe piccolino. La serata e stata completa con gelati italiani ... o dio!!!

Dunque! Ora to partire di nuovo ...
Da tutti noi, ciao ciao.
Concetta .

ps for all you skips ... get a translator!

Skiing the Swiss Alps.

Hello all,

Just a really quick post to make all the skiers and snowboarders jealous.
We couldn't do the Jungfrau because of high winds so to drown our disappointments, (Mind you, not sure how disappointed Connie realllllly was!!) Connie and Tessa went for shopping therapy while Louis and I went SKIING, yay!!

It was an incredibly surreal experience as we basically had the whole mountain to ourselves. Just as well because our performances left a lot to be desired, lol. You will notice in the video and photos that there is hardly another soul in the place. Kids are still in school and being a Monday, adults at work so it was as if someone had given us the keys to the ski fields and said, "go knock yourself out". Which we did. I had more spills than I care to remember but got up laughing after every one.

I won't go on about the views again but they were great. We had a really good time and although our legs are killing us both, it was huge fun. Hopefully we got out all the cobwebs so that we will do a lot better in Aspen. Ooops. Did I say that out loud ;-)

Skiing the Swiss Alps

This is ski captain, Frank "stackem" Valenti signing off.

Switzerland from Frank

First of all, let's get one thing straight right here and now.
Yes I did put on my thermal (shirt only). The reason is that we were supposed to travel to the top of Europe and the temperature was -13 Celsius with winds of 138 kph! I put them on as a precaution only, so I am still tough as.

Now back to the holiday.....

Picked up our brand new Renault Megane Estate on Saturday and we headed off to Interlaken. Have got the left hand drive thing going quite well right from the start. The only thing I occasionally do is try to grab the gear stick with my left hand. Thank God for GPS navigation, next best invention after the MacBook. Lets me concentrate on staying on right side of the road.

The drive took just over 6 and a half hours and glad to say I didn't fall asleep once, despite everyone else getting shut eye on the drive. Car is pretty good getting 6 litres per 100 kms with 4 adults and about 100 kgs of equipment. It is so good being able to legally travel at 130 kph on the motorway. Downside is the tolls they charge. 25 euro (AU$50) to France/Swiss border and then another 30 euro (AU$60) in Switzerland. They tell me the tolls in Italy are worse so that looks like being a bumma.

Connie is right about the latte's in Switzerland although it's the closest we have come to one's provided at Cinema Bridgeman in Brisbane. Mind you it was only after much movement of the hands and broken French/Swiss-German/Italian that we got close.

Connie is also right about the landscape. It's amazing and brought me close to my second spiritual experience of the trip. In case you don't remember, my first was the drive from Fort William to Glasgow. Seriously though, it's truly awe inspiring when you are not used to the snow, mountains and vast landscapes. The paradox here is that it is all a pain in the arse for the people that live here as the snow and cold is just a huge nuisance to them. These drives are one of the main reasons why we (Connie and I) will return one day despite her misguided thoughts.

Saw our first ice hockey game at Grindelwald today after not being able to get to the Junfrau. It was interesting not realising how fast the game is and how many interchanges they make. Also saw a curling game in the same centre although they were only casuals like us. Tried to talk Connie into a game but we couldn't get the old girl interested.

Well time for bed now or at least hand over to Louis so he can Skype Grace till 2 in the morning. After his last phone bill, it is the only way he can now speak with her....

With a bit of luck the Jungfrau will be open tomorrow and we will be able to head up. I am really looking forward to it so fingers crossed. In the meantime, as always, enjoy the photos and videos.

Switzerland Photos

Paris/Switzerland

Captain Frank aka OB2.
:-) :-)

Hello Switzerland - Interlaken

Hello from me from Switzerland ...

Well, he finally caved! Frank gave in to the cold weather and put on his thermals. Yes, to all of you who thought he was tough as, well, this will prove he's human after all!

Temperatures here are quite cold reaching zero and beyond ... but the scenery makes up for it. If I were to use one adjective to describe this small town almost in the centre of Swisse, it would be "majestic". We tried to book a train ride to the 'top of Europe' called Jungfrau but due to high winds and bad weather, the area was closed as were most of the ski resorts. We did however, catch the train to the next best spot and it was so picturesque ... the kind you see on postcards with timber cabins (with smoking chimneys) gently spraying the snow covered mountainside. An those tall, beautiful dark green pine (?) trees contrasting the landscape of snow and sky and gently running streams.

People are friendly and most will understand English with almost as many speaking it. Last night we had the local cuisine, cordon blur and snitzel, both very good. We did notice on the menu however, apart from potato appearing in every dish, horse meat is very much a favourite here! The pastries and bread are nothing to rave about (the French have secured top spot) and the Swiss also don't know how to make a latte!

That's it from me ... Italy is next and we all know what Italy is famous for (where do I start) ...
Unitl then,
Auf Wiedersehen.

Au revoir from Parise.

The time has come my friends for us to move on yet again.
Today we farewell Paris and head off to Switzerland to Interlaken where we may even get in a little skiing if mummy bear lets us.

Our last night in Paris was spent trying snails. Well most of us did. Mummy bear wasn't having any part of that no matter how much we tried to encourage her. The hardest part was getting the damn little buggers out of the shells. Then the mental challenge and viola.... snails alla pesto. I will post the video and photos once we get to Interlaken. Busy packing for the taxi that comes in about 30 minutes.

Bye for now.

Frank and family.

'Allo from Parise.

Hi again,

We have been in Paris four days now and it's another great spot to visit. It gets 4 VSA's (Valenti Stamp of Approval).

The main thing to hit you is the number of Cafe's, Pasticherie's and Chocolatier's.
The Chocolate shops in particular are amazing. They are set up like fancy jewellery store's and their merchandise costs about the same! We could eat their baguettes (sandwich subs) all day long, their bread is just to die for, it is really amazingly good stuff. Croissants, Brioche any type of bread. It's all heaven. So many breads, too many kilo's and so little time, sigh......

We have really been busy getting around to all the "tourist" sites which have included The Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Invalides, many museums and of course The Arc de Trimophe with Champs de Elysees and all its shopping. There are many more spots we visited but can't think at the moment. We will be going on the Batobus tomorrow to see France from the river point of view.

Only downer for me so far is all the smoking the French do. It's by far the worst we have come across so far. Once again, it's impossible to get these guys to make a latte let alone a half strength one! I think I'll be changing to orange juice...

Tomorrow will also be another opportunity for Connie and I (Tessa) to shop in no doubt one of the top fashion capitals of the world. We will be heading to a large department store close to where we are staying. Hopefully it will be nothing like the "Printemps" shopping centre we visited just a few nights ago. Although it was filled with many many expensive designer shops it was truly spectacular in having three buildings interconnected by bridges. The day tomorrow however should be fairly relaxed as we all hope to sleep in... well, to at least 9am.

Driving looks pretty crazy in Paris and although we haven't been to Italy yet, you would definitely need to do an apprenticeship here. Their parking is also something to be seen to be believed. They park so close that you cannot walk between the cars sometimes. We even saw cars touching each other on many occasions. I don't want to think of how they get out! Lots and lots of big scooters here and Honda Goldwings. Not many "traditional" motor bikes as we know them to be. The 3 wheeled scooter is also very popular (2 front wheels and one rear). Copy link below into browser.

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2006/05/11/piaggio-3-wheel-mp3-scooter/

Once again we hope you enjoy the photos and videos.

By the way, does anyone know why a "Quarter Pounder" is called a "Royal with Cheese" at a French McDonald's store?

Paris by Video

Paris

Good night for now from Frank - Connie - Louis and Tessa.
:-)

London from Frank....

Hello everyone.

You are really getting spoiled today. I notice Connie and Tessa have both posted some comments after much badgering from me. Should give you a different perspective on the trip so hopefully there will be more of it.

Well London is everything Connie and Tessa said and more. That place really rocks in the true sense of the word. It was explained to me that because their houses are nothing more than a place to sleep they get home and within half an hour they are out again. It really doesn't matter what day of the week it is. We went to a comedy club show at 19:00 on a Sunday night and it was packed. The next show was at 21:00 and people were queued up waiting for us to leave. It's madness and it's like that every day of the week.

I came across the mother of all computer stores on Oxford Street. Check out the photos. It is an Apple store and I am still in shock at the sheer size and number of people in the place. BTW none of this closing shops at 17:00. That store was open till 22h00 every night. Sigh.....

As Tessa said, Hyde Park is massive and we just loved it. Great for walking around with quite a few memorials, statues, water features, restaurants and Kensington Palace. We guessed that five of our botanical gardens could fit into Hyde Park without any trouble.

Caught up with Rick Franzolini and girlfriend Tahlia in London and once again we were treated to some great local knowledge and a personal guided tour through Harrod's. My god, where do I start with this place! Seriously this place has everything and I really mean everything. They even sell pets and pet clothing. Sorry, the only thing we saw that they didn't sell were cars. Mind you, with the line up of Rolls Royce, Mercedes, Bentley's etc that were lined up out the back, all you needed to do is put up a for sale sign and off you go. And, on the car topic, you just stop drooling after you see your tenth DB9 coming down the street. Exotic sports and luxury cars are just everywhere......yawn.

Highlights of London. Seeing play 39 steps, Hyde Park, Apple Store, great weather for 4 days, catching up with Rick & Tahlia, Harrod's, Maddam Toussauds, St Paul's Cathedral and Piccadily Circus.

Here's a coupe of video's (one for Mr Franzolini) and lots more photos for everyone to look at. Please let me know if you have any special requests for future postings.

London

That's all for now. Hopefully tomorrow night is Paris...

Frank Valenti.

London!! - by Tessa.

Hello everyone!!

Much to my disgust both Mum and Dad had failed to report on the absolutely amazing time we had in London. So where do I start? Well, that's not hard... the shopping! The shopping was amazing; and if I had an extra 50,000 or so euros it would have been even better. On one of the first days of arriving in London we found ourselves walking down the notorious Bond Street... Bond St was the home to... well all the major brands - gucci, hugo boss, dolce and gabbana, chanel, armani, etc. When we left Bond Street, feeling sad that we would never really become a regular shopper within one of these stores we visited some of London's notorious attractions - the London Bridge, London eye, Kensigton palace and Buckingham palace.

Our apartment in London, being on Two Hyde Park Square, weirdly enough was in very close proximity to Hyde Park. For any person who does not like dogs, I do not reccommend visiting this park - they were everywhere!! Wherever you looked, there was some kind of fluffy animal. And this does not just include dogs, squirrels were around anywhere that people were. They were very cute but as Mum pointed out they are really just rats with tails... whatever they are, i want one as a pet :)

A quick hello and thanks to Rick and Tahlia for chilling with us in London and briefly showing us around. Your company was awesome and we hope to see you both soon not if, but when you come back to Brisbane... eventually. And to Tahlia, just remember, it's alright, it's alright, it's Camdon!! Look after Amy for me!!

Anyway, Louis is dying because he hasn't talked to his girlfriend in nearly 6 hours, Woah!! haha so I better get off!

Much love to all... peace

Tessa xo

A word from Connie.....

Bonjour everyone

I will never visit Europe again during the Christmas season and I never want to see another set of thermals for the rest of my life!

I thought Europe was in recession, well let me tell you, I have never seen so many shoppers in the one place. And one place is like everywhere! No matter where you are, from centre of London to the outer of Paris, there are thousands, and I mean thousands of people everywhere. To give you an idea, its like being at the end of riverfire at Southbank at finishing time. And its not only weekends, its every night, yes, from Monday to Sunday. These people need something else to occupy their time, like a back yard or something!

Here in Paris, I must say however, they sure know how to eat (and cook). They make the best bread and sweets I've ever tasted! Just as well we're keeping active and keeping off the kilos, well, Tessa and I are.

Two big disappointments in France - they don't make lattes and its very cold here in winter but I promised the family I wouldn't speak of the cold! But I will speak of the simple beauty of this place - nothing seems complicated except for the traffic. They pay a lot of attention to detail in their shops with clever window dressing. Christmas lights adorn most of the city creating a serene atmosphere. The city's historic past is very colourful from King Louis XIV to their last emperor Bonaparte. The folk here seem relaxed, not overly friendly but pleasant only when approached.

Paris is a beautiful city, much to see and do. Great shopping, great food, great history ....

Au revoir
Connie.

Catch up - Edinburgh

Hello all......yes, it's been a while since our last post. No internet in London without paying a small king's ransom so we have waited until Paris and it took a day for the landlord to hand over the code. So here we are and it's just gone 1 am so i will take the next few days to catch up if that's okay.....

When we last left you we were in Glasgow and were being dinned by Gerry and Joanna Ward. Another thank you to them for their time and laughs.

For those of you following the itinerary you would know that our next stop was Edinburgh. This was probably our first special stop as we caught up with family we had only ever e-mailed in the past. Elio, Margherita and Valerie Vivarini. (Por favor, perdóname si mi ortografía es incorrecto.)

They treated us like royality giving us theirs beds and run of the house while they went off to work. It is wonderful catching up with relatives that only hear about in discussions around the dinner table with nonna or zio. Elio was full of stories and facts about the Vivarini family in Italy and Venezuela. We even snuck in a video Skype call to Pierluigi in Italy to discuss the upcoming Roma football game....which incidently Elio is flying over to Italy to see. Travel in Europe and the UK is so cheap and simple you just fly off from Edinburgh to watch a game in Rome.....

Another great highlight was the video call to my sister Ada in Brisbane and seeing Nonna Malvina on the other end with my mum, Gilda and uncle Guiseppe (Joe). This is the first time Elio and family got to see Nonna, mum and Joe (not forgetting Frank's sister, Ada ;-) and it was a really great moment in our trip. All were blown away by the technology and the call went on for ages. The last photo shows us around the table carrying on like kids with lollypops. Thank you Ada for getting out of bed to make it all happen. Pity about your roman husband although we know he can use the beauty sleep......

I guess I should give you a view of Edinburgh and the sites we saw. I must let you all know that we walked for over 8 hours on that first day with Elio! After getting up in the morning, he asked if we liked to walk and all we said yes not realising that he took that as a go ahead to circumnavigate the whole city!! Thank god he went to work on the Tuesday. Seriously though, it was a LOT of walking but we really enjoyed the city and it was a great way to see it. Our tour through Edinburgh Castle was awesome and we could have stayed a lot longer but there is just too much to see in a city like this and 2 days just doesn't cut it.

Tuesday night, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and it was Marghertia's turn to make us walk. Her first language is Spanish and I'm not sure what "around the corner and down the road" means in Venezuela, but in English in Edinburgh, it's a one and a half hour trip. Mind you, the restaurant was really good and Tessa got to exercise her eyes a bit while having dinner..... There's a photo of the Italian waiter in the slideshow. You will notice the protective mother keeping an eye on things!

By the way, good weather again for us in Edinburgh and not too cold for the ladies. I am still to unpack my thermals so all is still good for me. Got to be better than the temperatures I keep hearing about from some of you back home. Final words go to the Vivarini family in Edinburgh.

Gracias a todos por lo mucho para el cuidado de nosotros. Esperamos que usted nos visita en Australia.

Edinburgh

Frank Valenti
:-) :-) :-) :-)

Message for Monica and James Ward

Hey Guys,

Spent a night with Gerry and Joanna. They were awesome and we went to dinner at La Scarpetta which is where I understand they took you guys almost a year ago to the day. Gerry is a blast and we could have spent heaps more time with both of them as they made us feel so comfortable. When you catch up with them next, ask how many Balloch's there are in the UK? He will tell you a funny story.....

We took a couple of video messages (although it was a bit dark in the restaurant) and have posted them here for you.

Gerry and Joanna

Bye for now from Frank and family.
:-)

Glasgow - Day 4 - minus 4 degrees!!

Well here we are on the coldest day of our trip. Started off at -5 but got up to -4 when we walked into town. Tessa had a lovely hot chocolate with marshmellows in the city square while Connie and I got our half strength latte's in a nice warm Italian Cafe.

Last night we caught some of the action of St Andrew's celebrations in George Square. There was a really good band with guys in kilt's playing bagpipes, fiddle and piano accordian. They were pretty good. Would have loved to stay longer but Louis was love sick and Connie's feet were freezing......

Had dinner tonight with Gerry and Joanne Ward, that's Jim's brother from Brisbane. Looked after us very well, once we eventually caught up with them.... In case you didn't know, there are two Balloch's in Glasgow and they are about 50 kms apart so make sure you get the right one!! We didn't, so drove an extra 50 minutes in thick fog. What an experience that was.

Must mention the drive from Fort William to Glasgow. What an incredible scenic drive. Highlight of the tour so far for me. Just amazing to see the snow all over the landscape. Pulled up to a roadside food caravan and saw our first deer. Also came across a mad scotsman playing the bagpipes at minus 2 degrees in his kilt!! Check him out on the photo's.

We are off to Edinburgh tomorrow so must get some shut eye. Sun goes down at 16:00 so it's a long night even when you go to bed at 21:00. Hope you enjoy the photo's. Stay tuned for more posts. Sorry about no captions, too tired to sort them all out....

Drop Box

Below is video of band playing in George Square, Glasgow.
(Need to be patient with downloading, unless you have fasssst internet)



Hope you enjoy it all.
Frank.