Big BLOG catch up

Hello again. As promised, here is a more detailed update of our travels since the post on the 18th of December. Wow, that was a long time ago. Finally on our way to New York after missing our flight yesterday, so I have a heap of time……….

Torino.

We left Switzerland and headed for Italy on the 16th of December. The weather in Switzerland was wonderful and sunny with lots of snow everywhere. Absolute picture card scenery. We travelled to Italy through the Swiss/Italian Alps by putting our car on a train. Two 15 minute tunnels and we were through, into the biggest rainstorm you have ever seen. Mind you, this didn’t stop the Italians from driving well in excess of 130kph!

I quickly learned how to spot the non-Italian drivers. (A) They use their indicators and (B) they actually stay in their lanes. It was a sobering introduction to the Italian way of driving….. Then we arrived at Torino! Geez Louiz, and I thought the Autostrada was bad. This was organised mayhem although somehow, thanks to the Tom Tom, we made it safe and sound to Connie’s auntie’s house. Many hugs and kisses later, we settled in and prepared for the Italian leg of our tour.

Although it didn’t rain hard, it was overcast most of the time in Turin but we soldiered on visiting the old Royal Place, Egyptian Museum along with many churches and of course, the shopping. On the last day, it fined up with the sun coming out to greet us farewell.

Once again we were well looked after being fed very good Italian cuisine. (Finally got to eat some pasta, pasta and more pasta!) It was great to catch up with family and see them again after 21 years. The Skype video call was a real hit with many laughs had by all.

Zio and Zia lived in an apartment on the 5th floor with no elevator. 100 steps, each way. That, and the walking helped us keep the weight off while eating the lovely food provided.

Lucca.

Another lot of sad farewells and we were on the road again to Lucca in Tuscany, my father’s hometown. It was there that I had a very tiny, small, insignificant, hardly worth mentioning, “bump” with another car as we came into the town. Seriously there was the slightest dent on the rear right wheel arch but the paperwork and phone calls were a real nuisance. Anyway back to Lucca. What a real interesting place. The main “CBD” is surrounded by a wall and is 1.5 x 1 kilometres in size. We walked the whole city and then hired pushbikes to ride around the walls. We actually got hold of 2 tandem bikes and it was a hoot. Can’t wait to see the live video footage.

Caught up with 2 of dad’s cousins, Silvana and Michele, passing most of the evening away with dinner and many naughty stories about my dad’s time in Lucca. Meow……!!

We stayed in the house right next door to where dad grew up and this area has not changed much at all in over 50 years. The beds were warm but we didn’t have any heating in the house and the “corn” fields surrounding the home made Tessa conjure up ghost stories that gave us more of a laugh than a scare. That and her rendition of “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” kept us well amused.

Of course no trip to Lucca is complete without a visit to the leaning tower of Pisa and it was a glorious sunny day so off we went. Being winter there were no lines so we went straight in but now your visit is limited to 30 minutes. After that we visited the church and when we got back to the car found a parking fine for AU$72!! Even though we checked with the locals if we could park where we did, they neglected to tell us we need to purchase a parking ticket, similar to what we have in Brisbane although there is no vending machine. You need to get the ticket from a “T” store! Bloody wogs.

Reggio.

Leaving Lucca we headed off to catch up with my cousin Ida who now has 3 lovely kids living in Reggio Emelia.

She looked really good and hasn’t changed much at all since our last visit. They all live in a nice new apartment on the outskirts of the town and she is an absolute excellent cook. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t kind to us in Reggio and our trip to city was accompanied by thick fog. We still had a good time with the kids and walked the main street, which I admit, was much bigger and better than I expected. They have an awesome musical fountain that kept us entranced for ages.

Special thanks to Massimo while in Reggio as the Mac Book wouldn’t work due to a bad memory card and he helped me find the smallest philips screwdriver known to man so I could remove one of the memory banks. Another thank you to my Australian tech support department, Dean Kennedy Systems that identified the problem for me in the first place.

My only disappointment in Reggio is that the Ducati factory was closed so much to Connie’s absolute delight; I couldn’t order my new 1098 sports motorbike ☹

Venice.

What can you say about this magic town that hasn’t been said before…

BTW This is the only time Connie drove while in Europe and it was hilarious. She only wanted to drive on the Autostrada but it quickly led us into Venice and the smaller roads. She handled it quite well and we got a laugh out of her anxious and stressed demeanour. Needless to say, it was her first and last time behind the wheel.

The weather in Venice was shitty to say the least. The fog was so bad there were no trips to the Morano Island where the famous Morano glass is made. We had about 50 metres visibility for most of the day but that doesn’t stop you from seeing the canal streets and of course taking the mandatory gondola ride. This was a highlight and we managed to get all four of us on one boat for a 30 minute ride. The price started at AU$240 but we eventually found someone willing to take us for AU$100.

Apart from the glass, Venice is very famous for their masks and some of them were amazing. Regretfully we didn’t buy one as we were concerned about getting it back safely but they are just awesome.

Ari – Chieti – Abruzzi

As stated in previous post, this is mum’s hometown and where we spent Christmas. The main celebration takes place on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas day so we had the very traditional 6 course meal. No meat but lots of “Stoco” e “Bacala” (fish for the uninitiated) vegetables bread, cheese and of course pasta made with tuna.

We stayed in the most amazing place while in Ari. The family had won part of the old church in a card game many many years ago, or so the story goes, and it has been converted into a residence. It was fabulous when you consider the building dates back to before Captain Cook discovered Australia.

I have to say that while we didn’t officially get our white Christmas, it did snow on the 26th so we nearly got there. Always next time.

Good to see all the cousins and relatives in Ari. We have all grown up now with families and we got on really well.

Sicily.

Slight change in plan when heading to Sicily. We found out there was a car ferry that went from Napoli to Catania (Sicily) so considering the long 10 hour drive ahead of us as well as the overnight stay, we headed for Napoli and the ferry boat.

The drive was the normal entertaining trip without incident and getting onto the boat was no problems. The overnight sleep was a different story with Connie not enjoying the stay on the boat. I think the cruise holiday is definitely off the “things to do” list.

We got to Fiumefreddo fine enough and caught up with Rosie and her mother Maria. This was extra special for Connie, as we had never seen either of them before. Auntie Maria is almost a clone of Connie’s mum and she couldn’t do enough to look after us. Cousin Rosie and Gianni (husband) were also really great making sure we wanted for nothing. We actually spent New Year’s Eve at Rosie’s house and this is where we went onto the roof and set off a heap of fireworks as well as seeing a heap go off all over the place with Mt Etna as the backdrop. The night was so clear, you could see the lava at the top of the volcano. It was an amazing new year’s for us.

While in Sicily we went to visit Connie’s parent’s home town of Castiglione and had a look at the little house they grew up in. Caught up with relatives and had dinner with one of them. Louis and Tessa attended the local bingo event and ended up winning a picture frame. Turns out the lady giving out the prizes knows Connie’s mum and had been out to Australia so they became instant celeb’s.

Had an awesome 4WD tour of Mt Etna and did some rallying through the old forest tracks. Highly recommend the Land Rover if you want to do some serious 4WD’ing. Lucky Connie bailed on this trip! Once near the top we visited the snow fields and had the traditional snow throwing session.

Interesting story here for you. In 2003, Etna erupted and amongst other things cut the road leading up to the snow fields. It took them 4 years to replace 3 kilometres of road and they still haven’t replaced the ski sheds, bar, etc. There is no place to have a pee up there unless you drive back to the nearest restaurant about 5 k’s down the hill!! There is an insane reason for all this but if I tell you I may end up with a horse’s head in my bed ;-)

Rosie and Gianni took us up to Taormina one day and it is another spectacular spot. It overlooks the Gold Coast of Sicily (Giardini) and there is an old Greek Theatre up there as well. Shopping galore with many nice stores. We had no problem passing many hours away just walking around waiting for the sun to set and then seeing it all again at night.

Final night in Sicily was spent at Augostino’s new house in Lunguaglossa (Sure I’ve spelt that wrong.) where we witnessed the re-enactment of the baby Jesus in the stables and all that religious stuff. They had the full program going with “Mary” on the back of a donkey (they have lots of donkey’s in Sicily) arriving at the stables with Joseph, the 3 wise men etc etc They had witches making up a wine concoction over an open fire in a big black pot and candles were all over the big back yard. It was all pretty interesting and certainly a treat for us pagan Australians. We also spent time playing with the big bonfire they had going.

Sorrento

Back on the boat and off to Sorrento on the Amalfi coast we go. Things start to go a little sour here, as Connie gets violently ill, we suspect from playing with the donkeys in Sicily. Louis is soon to follow with Tessa and I holding out but not able to fight it off. So there we are, in one of the prettiest parts of Italy and our apartment resembles a hospital ward. It’s raining outside just to put the icing on the cake.

Okay, all jokes aside, it probably wasn’t the donkey and we weren’t that bad. Just coughing and sore throats. Figure it was an unintentional going away present from Rosie but we won’t hold that against her.

This place, Sorrento, was the surprise highlight of our tour so far. It’s like a Montville by the sea. Mind you, getting there is a slow tedious drive but well worth it. I couldn’t believe when the GPS was telling me it was going to take one hour to drive 20 kms but it was pretty much on the ball. If you do decide to visit Sorrento, take the ferry from Napoli or Civitavecchia.

The main street is closed on some mornings and open to the public only. Lots of tourists, mainly poms, visit here although being off season; we once again had the place to ourselves.

From Sorrento we took the train one day to Pompeii and did a tour of the ruins. I know I keep going on about it but all this ancient stuff never ceases to leave me awestruck. Of course Pompeii was extra special because Pink Floyd played and recorded “Live at Pompeii” in the amphitheatre. This was truly a hallowed moment when I was able to get on my knees and kiss the very ground Pink Floyd performed on…

This is also one of the spots that takes you to the island of Capri so we organised a tour of the island with a return trip, on the boat, to Napoli. The island was very romantic and again caters for the tourist. Access to the Grotto Azure was closed for the winter break but the rest of the island was magical. This is where we had our best pizza in Italy. It was unbelievable. I am ruined!

So off to Napoli we go after spending the best part of the day on Capri. We have booked dinner at the famous Brandi restaurant but have a couple of hours to kill so we walk around the busy ritzy streets of Naples looking at stuff we can’t possibly afford but hey, we can dream.

Another funny story here. As we wait for Connie and Tessa to come out of a shop (love to know how many hours we racked up doing that on the trip!) we notice about 5 “gypsies” selling trash on makeshift cardboard benches when one of them says something and, whoosh, within 10 seconds they have all packed up and headed around the corner. I am seriously talking no more that 10 seconds. About half a minute later, the local cop car comes down the street. 30 seconds after that, they are all back again. It was seriously like a skit from the Benny Hill show.

So how was Brandi, I hear you ask. It was very good although we all ate too much so the decision was made to walk to the main train station in Naples about 3 kilometres away at 22:00 at night. We were told the next day that it was probably the most dangerous walk we could have taken and that we were incredibly brave. In this case, brave = stupid.

Roma

Well from Naples to Rome and the final stop of our European tour. Once again, the weather was not kind and day one way overcast with light showers but we still managed to catch the major sites noted in previous post.

Day 2 was worse with constant rain but as we had the Vatican Museum tour, it probably didn’t matter too much until the tour was over and we had to walk the streets again. Out came the raincoats and off we went. The Vatican Museum is so “huge” that is rivals the description in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. There are over 10,000 pieces of art in the place. Just amazing. The Sistine Chapel is not what you would expect but it is still an awesome place with a story behind every painting. Of course this is where the famous “creation” painting of Da Vinci is but in real life, it’s not what you expect being much smaller and almost lost in the other paintings on the roof.

On the third day, the sun came out and we jumped onto the open top bus and did the loop of the city following the path of the ancient roman walls. Rome seemed to be much nicer than when we last visited but that may also be because it’s off season.

So there we were. Saturday the 10th of January heading off to the airport for our flight to New York. It was with a lot of sadness that I boarded the 2 hour delayed flight to London. As long as our stay in Italy was, it has left me wanting more and I know that I will return (without the kids) to spend more time in less places.

As mentioned above, our flight to London was delayed 2 hours due to bad weather at Heathrow. This meant we missed our connecting flight to New York so we spent last night at the Soffitel catching an 08:20 flight this morning bringing me to now.

Sorry if I have gone on a bit much, but there have been many requests to put some more posts on the BLOG and it is a 7 hour flight so there you go.

We should have more reliable and accessible Internet in the states so I promise not to make you wait so long for the updates. All the best to you all for now.

Frank.
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