SORRENTO, Amalfi Coast, Italy - 5 - 8 July 2011

TUESDAY 5 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

When we opened the curtains on the two enormous windows this morning we were greeted with the most stunning view down the coast of Sorrento and also of Jack’s nemesis, Mt Vesuvius.  ‘Why didn’t you tell me we were staying near a volcano’ he worriedly stated.  ‘Ah, it’s nothing’ we reassured him however later Corky and I did some research on it and realised that it is classified one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the millions of people living on its doorstep.  Of course the most famous eruption was in AD79 when Pompeii was destroyed and since then it has erupted at least three-dozen times, the most recent was in March 1944.  It was clearly due for another eurption ‘they’ reckoned.  All this we kept to ourselves, Jack already was freaked out by being so close to a volcano, even if it was currently dormant with no signs of activity.

Jack keeping an eye on the volcano from our window

Unfortunately the day was overcast with large storm clouds out to sea (and over the volcano which didn’t help Jack).  Never mind, we got our cozzies on, had breakfast in the beautiful dining room that overlooked the glorious coast and then raced up to the pool.  It was on the rooftop of the Hotel with even more spectacular open views.  We grabbed some deckchairs and settled down just as it started to rain.  It was only raining slightly so we let the kids keep swimming however as the black clouds continued to head over us and then the thunder and lightening started, we decided it was best to head inside.  Thankfully there was a Playstation and the kids entertained themselves with this while  Corky and I sat in the public lounge with the news on the TV and our computers.  We kept an eye on the weather and ventured out to the pool again to only need to go back under cover when the rain started up again.  Next to the pool is the Hotel café and we sat here and had some lunch while we watched the storm swirling in from the sea.

Hotel Bristol foyer

The storm did finally clear up so we went to Positano for dinner.  The drive is only 20 minutes from our Hotel but it took us over the hill and to the step coastline on the other side of the little peninsula.  We were stunned by the incredible beauty of the coastline and its shear cliffs.  The road wound and wound its way along the cliff edge with many hairpin turns and blind corners.  The horror of some of these corners and turns with barely any barrier to the cliff edge was juxtaposed with the incredible view.  Every now and then as we poked out around the edge of a cliff, we could see Positano. 

The Italians either have no fear or are just plain crazy the way they drive, in particular on their mopeds.  We have seen so many hair-raising incidents and plain stupidity that we now just laugh at it and realise that this is the way they drive.  It was all so evident again on this coastline road as motorbikes sped past us on blind corners and even towards us on our side of the road right towards us as they overtook, most times we had to move out of their way!

Soon enough we were arriving in Positano, evident most impressively by the restaurants that lined the roads in which our large van had to squeeze through, we could almost reach out and grab their lobsters off their plates.  No-one seemed to mind a van squeezing past their tables.

Down below off the beach, we could see many boats and yachts anchored in the small harbour of Positano.  What stuck out the most was an easily recognisable boat to us.  It was the Arctic P, James Packer’s boat.  It use to be his Dad Kerry’s boat and is an old icebreaker that has been transformed into their holiday boat, this is why it was so recognisable, you don’t often see icebreakers in the Mediterranean.  Apparently every June James and Erica go to the French Riveria to celebrate their wedding anniversary (they were married in a civil service in Antibes) and obviously they decided then to head around to Positano.  We found out later that they had been there and gone and that Russell Crowe had joined them onboard for a while. 

We wound carefully down the narrow one-way road towards the beach below.  This road really makes you become one with pedestrians because there isn’t much room for both to comfortably share so we had to mingle; man and car.  We wondered where on earth we would park and then right before our eyes a man jumped out and waved us into his parking station.  Perfect.  It was only 4 Euro an hour and they securely parked the car for you, no worries about us having to squeeze a large van into a small hole so to speak.  Relieved of our parking duties, we walked around the bend and found the first lovely restaurant for dinner, Il Fornillo.  Fortuitously our waitresses name was Margarita so the boys just had to have a pizza by the same name.  I had a lovely clam spagetti and Corky had a seafood risotto which he later blamed for him being sick at 3am that night.  While we ate geckos crawled on the walls around us and a cat strolled under our table.  While we waited for our dinner, we marvelled at the incredible view down to the beach and out to the ocean.  The weather was really balmy and once again we had to pinch ourselves to believe we were really here in Positano with these beautiful surroundings.  I wander what the rest of the world was doing right now.

The dinner was definitely one of the best we have had and the seafood so fresh and delicious.  As we wound around the coast home the kids fell asleep, definitely satiated.

WEDNESDAY 6 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

Today we had a wake up call for 6.45am so we could fit breakfast in the dining room with a view to die for, before we got on our tour bus to Pompeii.  Our Tour Guide was an Italian lady called Lia and we were on tour with about 20 others of varying nationalities.  It took about 30 minutes to get to Pompeii in which you could clearly see the monstrous volcano that had caused all the devastation of this city just under 2000 years ago.  Our tour took about 2 hours with Lia giving a very detailed explanation and storyline of this ancient city.  Once again, this is a place I had been before but I didn’t have a guide that time so it was good to learn more this time. 

Only 2/3rds of the city has been excavated and at the rate they are excavating, they are only discovering one building approximately every 20 years.  The reason it has slowed down is because they are now putting their resources towards maintaining and preserving what they have so far uncovered.  Of the couple of hundred buildings they have uncovered, only about a dozen are able to be entered and seen by the public due to the rate of decay that they are facing.  We saw evidence of the bright colours they used on their walls; reds, yellows, oranges and of the intricate details they painted in their pictures.  Most houses were two storey but all top stories were destroyed.  You could also see evidence of ornate tiling on the floors.  The main road had large cobbled stones which had been worn away by the chariots.  We saw many shops and so far 68 bakeries had been discovered.  Inside these bakeries you could still see the ovens they used and when they were discovered, many had bread that had been baking in the ovens at the time of the eruption and therefore the archeologists discovered 81 carbonised loaves of bread.  We saw amphitheatres and images of their beloved dogs, many who use to be chained to the front door to ward off unwelcome visitors.

The heat was incredible so we were grateful to find natural spring taps to drink from.  We finally entered a large open forum area which clearly was the town’s central area, including banks and large columned buildings.  From this central area, the view of Mt Vesuvius in the background loomed.  Over to the edge of this area was a secure area where we could look through and see all the findings from the excavations.  There were hundreds of pots, some wooden carts, statues, tools, kitchen equipment etc, all now plaster-casted by the lava and ash.  Most interesting though were the plaster-casted remains of several people, all clearly frozen in the act of terror by what was happening to them.  One man was sitting with knees bent up and hands covering his face, another was a pregnant woman lying face down and her face in her arms.   There was also a dog who was bent around and clearly had been trying to free itself from its chains to escape.  It was all surreal.  This ended our tour and we all headed back to the cool comfort of the bus.  Most slept on the way back to Sorrento.  We arrived back at lunchtime and we headed straight up to the pool for a cool and refreshing swim.  We stayed here all afternoon.

It was inevitable that we would end up in Positano again for dinner since we had enjoyed last night so much.  This time we drove further down the hill and parked in a parking station at the furthest point we could closest to the beach.  There were numerous laneways that wound the rest of the way down to the beach and all these laneways were filled with various shops, all obviously geared towards tourists.  Once we came out at the bottom, we were amazed by all the restaurants that lined the black beach and were spoilt with choice as to which one we would choose.  The one we went to was right on the beach and looked straight out to the sea.  We had a bird’s eye view (also with the help of a zoom camera lens) of the Arctic P and all its goings on – little did we know at this stage that the Packers weren’t onboard anymore but it was exciting to speculate.

Once again the dinner was spectacular with fresh seafood pastas and calamari’s.  The kids enjoyed playing on the beach after dinner before we headed back to our coast on the other side for the night.  Unfortunately the windy roads got the better of Jack on the way home and he vomited across the back seat.

THURSDAY 7 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

We were looking forward to a day by the pool today with nothing to do but doze and swim.  It was going to be our last day of relaxation until Singapore.  From here we were spending two days driving back up to Paris where we were going to Disneyland, then to busy London and finally Singapore.

View of Sorrento from our bedrooms

We arrived just in time before breakfast finished at 10am and then off to the pool to resume our positions for the day.  It was a sunny and hot day so the perfect place to be.  Jack and Madi spent a lot of time with some new friends they had made, a boy and girl around their age from Ireland.  They swam together and played Playstation together.  Sophie perfected her underwater swimming technique and Harry continued his impressive swimming with his floaties.  We moved only to roll over on the deckchair and to cool off in the pool.

Positano for our last night was an undisputed decision.  We headed off a bit earlier tonight so we could catch the most of the fading sunlight, especially since the sun rose on the coast over Positano and set on the coast over Sorrento.  The Arctic P had left.  We wandered through a few of the shops and then found another lovely restaurant on the beach and an equally lovely meal of fresh seafood’s and pastas.  After dinner while we finished our drinks (wine and beer) and the sun was setting, the kids played in the sand and on the water’s edge.  It was a perfect ending to our visit to this paradise.

FRIDAY 8 JULY – SORRENTO, AMALFI COAST, ITALY

Up early today, we had a very long drive ahead of us.  We were hoping to get up to Switzerland, maybe even France today because we had a total of almost 1700km’s to cover from Sorrento to Paris Disneyland.  We hadn’t booked any accommodation because we were going to try and drive as far as we could today.  We left at 9am and the Sat Nav estimated the drive would take us 15 hours straight there; without stops or traffic jams.  If we could do 9 or 10 hours today that would be great.

The time seemed to fly and we stopped at the outlet mall near where we were staying in Tuscany, for lunch.  Corky just had to get a few last items before we left Italy.

It is amazing to see the transformation of the landscape as you head north of Naples.  The general area for kilometres surrounding Naples is very run down and almost decrepit in some places, very poor looking but as we went up the A1 north the scenery very clearly changed as we approached the Tuscany region and beyond.  Everything seemed much cleaner, the buildings were in better shape and the fields were beautifully kept with large rows of vines and olive trees.  The old farmhouses were beautiful restored and preserved or falling down gracefully.  The roads were much nicer to drive on too and we felt safer.  Even at the toll booth on the freeway leaving Naples, there were beggars who wanted to help you with your payment at the toll machine.  Even though the machine took coins, funnily enough it didn’t work and they told us we had to use notes, in other words, they hoped that they would get some of our change when it came out.  He wanted to help but Corky refused, told him to get a job and drove off.  Let’s get out of the south and back north.  I didn’t have a good impression of Naples anyway since many years ago when I was here on the beach with my two friends, my girlfriend was robbed right in front of us (of course we didn’t realise till later that her bag with her wallet, credit card and airline ticket home were gone).

We drove up the A1 freeway past Rome, Florence and then headed towards the coast near Pisa and at Genoa, we then turned inland and north towards Switzerland.  As we climbed up from the Italian coastline and into the surrounding mountains, the skies seemed to close in on us.  We have had beautiful weather all the way with the temperature rising to 37 degrees at one stage and now the clouds were circling and low and the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees.  We still had our suntans to remind us it was summer.

As we went through the Italian Alps, the scenery was incredible.  Hard to believe we were on the Mediterranean Coast this morning and now here we are in the Alps with incredible mountains around us and snow on top.  As much as I love the coast and the ocean, you can’t help but be impressed and in awe of the incredible views and monstrosity of mountain ranges, they really are majestic, even eery. Everything looked very Swiss with the chalets on the mountainsides and you could see the ski chairlifts.  We wound through many tunnels until we finally came to the tunnel of all tunnels; the Mont Blanc tunnel.   Before we could go in the tunnel we had to pay a 38 Euro toll.  It was also the border because half way through the 11.6km tunnel we crossed from Italy into France.  Out the other side we pulled over and you could look straight up to the view above of Mont Blanc however unfortunately it was very cloudy and we couldn’t quite see the top.  The traffic coming into the tunnel from the other side was kilometres long.

We made it to Geneva, Switzerland, 11 hours and about 1300kms after we left Sorrento, Italy.  We arrived at 10pm just as it had got dark and it didn’t take too long to find a hotel for the night, a Best Western in the centre of Geneva.  Of the whole 15 weeks we are away, tonight was the only night that we didn’t have pre-booked accommodation.

At 10.45pm we finally sat down in a Chinese restaurant to eat dinner.  Finally something other than pasta and pizza and it was truly the best Chinese we have ever had though unfortunately the staff were very unpleasant, maybe because they had planned to go home just as we arrived.  We were back to Swiss Francs which we didn’t have but luckily they took Euro’s.

Some more stats so far:

• Two more suitcases have needed to be purchased (total new suitcases now = 3)
• 15,243 km’s driven
• An extra 5 new pairs of shoes, therefore a total of 35 new pairs of shoes
• Two pairs of worn out shoes by Trine, now both have gone to shoe heaven (or the tip)
• Three visits to the same Outlet Village in Tuscany
• Roman relic sightings; infinite
• Margarita pizzas eaten; even more infinite
• Shocking Italian drivers; even more infinite + 1
• Corky’s top driving speed; 170 km/h
• Hottest day so far; 39 degrees
• Increased knowledge of foreign languages; zero.

Till next instalment .... x

ROME, Italy - 2 - 4 July 2011

SATURDAY 2 JULY – ROME, ITALY

We were sad to be leaving Montemerano today, we have had a great time with Francesco and in this beautiful area.  We slept in very late this morning till 11am because we had such a late night and by lunchtime we were ready to head to Rome.  Francesco and Lorenzo were having lunch with Francesco’s brother Gino and his wife at the restaurant Il Nibbio nearby so we stopped via there to say our goodbye’s.  Francesco will be in Sydney from October for several months so we will look forward to catching up with him and Alison again then.

Saying farewell to Francesco and his son Lorenzo

It is only 1.5 hours to Rome and we arrived there mid afternoon.  Our hotel was in a great spot near the main train station, so very central.  The hotel was very nice and once again we had 2 rooms because nowhere seems to be able to fit a family of 6 in one room. 

We settled in and then went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner.  We just couldn’t eat another strand of pasta or slice of pizza.  It was a 1.5 hour wait for our table so we went for a walk and a drink in a café nearby.  We realised we were close to the Spanish Steps so we went for a look.  As usual it was very crowded with many people sitting up and down the stairs.  The kids couldn’t quite understand what was so special about the Spanish steps, ‘they are just steps!’

Soon enough it was time to get back to the Hard Rock for our booking.  We were very happy to go to sleep tonight without mozzie’s waiting for us like vultures.

SUNDAY 3 JULY – ROME, ITALY

Today we decided to see Rome on one of the open top tour buses.  It was extremely hot but we enjoyed the view from the top of the bus and listened to the commentary in our headphones.  We went past all the usual sites; Colesseum, Roman ruins, where the chariots raced and gladiators fought and the city in general.  We got off at the Vatican.  Being Sunday, the Pope had come out this morning to address and bless the crowds so by the time we got there there were a lot of people leaving the area.  We wandered up and had a look around the forecourt in front of the Vatican.  The queue to go into the Vatican snaked for a couple of hundred metres so we decided against that and wandered around the little touristy shops nearby for a while.

We decided to get back on the bus and head to the Trevi Fountain for lunch.  The crowds around the Trevi Fountain were incredible but we managed to get to the edge and throw our coins backwards over our shoulders into the fountain and make a wish.  We were hot and tired so we had some lunch and then caught the bus back to our hotel.  We rested for a little while and then went out for dinner.  We went to the Pantheon and ate in the open square at a lovely restaurant.  The mood was festive and we had a great view of this ancient Roman building whilst we ate our delicious food.

Making a wish at the Trevi Fountain

We ran into Natalie Taylor and her family near the Pantheon (she was in Jack's class last year)

MONDAY 4 JULY – ROME, ITALY

We had tickets booked to see the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum for 11am so we didn’t lie around too long this morning but were up, dressed, packed, breakfast eaten and out the door by 10am to get the open top tour bus again to the Vatican.  We just made it in time for our tour.  The tickets cost a bit extra than queuing up yourself, but this ensured that we skipped the queue to get in and went straight to the front of the line.  The queue snaked right around the building and we estimated at least a 2 hour wait.  The extra cost was worth it.  Once we were inside we were left to explore on our own.  The museum was packed!  We had to shuffle along with the crowds with not much space to move, they really had a problem here with excessive numbers of people inside at one time, no wonder the queue outside was so long and definitely more people were coming in that going out at this stage.

We were here to see one thing and one thing only and it took us about 30 minutes to get to it; Michelangelos ‘Creation of Man’ – La Creazione di Adamo.  Being a holly place the Sistine Chapel, no-one was meant to talk or take photos of the incredible painting on the ceiling but of course everyone did (discretely).  The whole Chapel was packed and you had to shimy around people to get directly under the painting for a good look.  We stood eyes to the skies and admired the painting for as long as we could before we felt the need to escape the crowd.  Once again we shimied and skimmed past the crowds to get out of the Museum where we jumped in a taxi back to our hotel to head off to our next destination: Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast.  But first we needed to go to the Outlet Village outside Rome.

We loved Rome and the kids were extremely interested and intrigued by the history of Rome especially since we could physically see where the Romans lived and remains of their lifestyles.  They couldn’t believe the barbaric behaviour of the gladiators who fed Christians to the lions and also at one stage burnt 250 alive and then cooked St Peter’s meal over the flames.  Only 2% of gladiators survived their battles at the Coliseum.  The history of the Romans is a fascinating yet bloody one.

Time to leave the blood-shedding and start the money-shedding.  The outlet village was only about 45 minutes south of Rome and we were there in no time.  We had a wander around for a couple of hours, Corky enjoying the most success in shopping and then back in the car for a few hours south again to the Amalfi Coast.

We arrived at 10pm in the darkness into Sorrento so we missed the dramatic coastline as we wound around the coast but we got an idea from the lights around the Bay.  The roads were very windy and we were tired once we got to our Hotel Bristol but we got our rooms and then wandered down the road to have dinner at the local restaurant.  The guy who owned the restaurant seemed like the typical 'Italian Stallion' (well maybe in his day once upon a time).  He had his white linen suit with the black shirt buttoned down one too many and the gold chain with small coin on it.  Hair slicked back.  Maybe he was one of the Mafioso!  Didn’t matter, we had a nice dinner and then back to collapse into bed.

Till next installment ... x

MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY - 26 June - 1 July 2011

SUNDAY 26 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY

Sadly we now aren’t woken in the morning by the lovely chirping of the swallows but instead by the frenetic itching of our newly acquired mozzie bites.  We have been totally overwhelmed by them, covering our arms and legs and some on our faces.  They have been building up over the last week and there seems to be no room left for new mozzie bites.  Harry seems the most affected and he looks like he has chicken pox again.  Jack has scratched all of his so much that they have bled and formed scabs.  We all look a treat.  Corky only has a few and most surprising of all, Sophie has not one single bite on her despite sharing the same room.  Luckily she has been spared and we are envious of her un-lumpy and non-itchy skin.

Beach day today.  We headed off around lunchtime and straight down to Florida Private Beach Resort.  Probably not the best day to go being a hot Sunday during the school holidays, so the resort was quite packed.  Nevertheless, we managed to get a front row umbrella and sun lounges.  We settled in for the afternoon.  We swam, we relaxed, we watched amusingly at the peddlars selling their wares up and down the beach.  Madi was dying to get her hair braided so we negotiated with a lady to do it for her.  It took about 45 minutes and looked quite painful at stages when tears sprang to Madi’s eyes, but she was thrilled with the result.  We got some lunch from the restaurant and ate it on the beach.  It was a lovely leisurely afternoon and we spent about 5 hours here. 

Around 6.30pm we decided it was time to head off.  We once again went around to Porto San Stefano for dinner but before that we stopped for a drink at the café on the port to check our emails.  Since it is now under a month till we get home, we need to start looking for a house to rent and we needed to take the opportunity of internet access whenever we could.  By now, the owners of the café knew us well and welcomed us with big smiles.  They didn’t mind how long we stayed.

From the café we went around the headland and parked our car.  We walked along the temporary markets that were set up on the edge of the water and then found a lovely restaurant with views of the large boats and the sunset.  Corky and I had a lovely porcini lasagne and it wasn’t until 30 minutes later that the kids got their meals.  Not very organised but enjoyable all the same.  We found the best-yet ice cream shop and this time I just had to indulge as well.

We finally got home just after midnight.

MONDAY 27 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY

We could tell today was going to be scorching temperatures as soon as we got up and opened the windows.  The air was already quite hot and muggy.  Great chance to do some washing.  I quite enjoyed hanging the washing out here.  The clothes line is suspended outside the bedroom window which is 2 stories above the ground (thankfully not facing the Piazza but instead facing the view over the countryside).  I have to lean out and carefully peg the clothes onto the line without dropping them into someone’s unknown garden below.  I then pull on the line and the clothes move along to the far end so by the time I have finished, I have a whole row of clothes hanging along the length of the back of our house.  Goodness help me if a strong wind blows and my underwear goes flying off over the village! 

Today we drove up to Monte Amrita which is in a northerly direction from Montemerano and into the Siena district.  It is one of the highest mountains in the region.  It was 40kms of windy roads which took us about 1 hour.  The temperature had reached 39 degrees on the way there.  We decided to stop for lunch first in the village of Santa Fiora.  What a mistake!  It was 3pm and there was nothing, zip, zilch open.  One could starve in Italy in the middle of the day!  We went into the reception of a hotel to ask about getting to the Monte Amrita.  We interrupted the social telephone call of the lady behind the counter.  Once she addressed us, we asked ‘do you know how to get to Monte Amrita?’  She nodded ‘Si’.  ‘Are you able to show us how to get there?’  She nodded ‘Si’.  Then nothing more.  Uncomfortable silence while we looked at her and she looked at us.  I changed the subject.  ‘Is the restaurant open?’  A shake of the head ‘No’!  ‘Is there anywhere for us to eat?’  A shake of the head ‘No’!  We left after such an enjoyable conversation and with no new knowledge.

Being the intrepid travellers we are, we were determined that we could find Mount Amrita ourselves.  And we succeeded.  How could we possibly miss it at 1738m.  The temperature dropped to a comfortably 20 degrees at this altitude and we had to unblock our ears several times.  The drive up was beautiful through the forests with incredibly tall trees.  During a short snow season of only 3 months (due to being so close to the coast) from January to March, this area is a skiing resort area and you could see on our travels up several chair lifts and pommels.  The buildings up at the very top were true snow chalet style and you could see the paths through the forest where the skiing trails are.  By this stage I had started to develop a headache, I think a combination of the heat, my cold I was still trying to get rid of and the windy roads. 

Soon enough we headed back down to Santa Fiora where finally being 5.30pm, there was sign of life again and the Pharmacy was open.  We bought some headache tablets and headed on our way back towards Montemerano.  By the time the windy hour-long trip was up, I was verging on a migraine and felt terrible.  Corky took the kids to the playground and I struggled my way up to our house and finally into bed.  This was one of the worst headaches I had experienced.  I slept for about an hour and felt so much better afterwards though my head was still a bit sensitive.

About 8.30pm we headed out for dinner.  The night was still quite warm and we went down to a different restaurant, one we hadn’t been to before.  It was slightly more upmarket than the others we have frequented in Montemerano.  There was only one other couple there and we quite convincingly shattered their peace and romantic setting.  The Corcoran’s had arrived.  Soon enough however another family arrived and they too had 4 children (4 daughters) and the mother and I gave each other a ‘yes, I too am a mother of 4’ look (yes, there is such a thing!)  I had a private bet on which family of 4 children would be most disruptive, I was betting we would be.  Harry has developed authority in the family and he certainly isn’t quiet about it. 

The meal was lovely but of course the kids were picky but we managed to get them fed somehow.  Off to the bar for dessert and coffee.  Yes, we are definitely locals now!

TUESDAY 28 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY

Another glorious Tuscan day, what shall we do?  We stayed around the house for the morning chatting with Francesco and organising our Sorrento accommodation for next week.  After lunch, we went down to the river which is only a couple of kilometres away.  The day was certainly hot enough for a dip in the river.  We parked by the side of the road and walked down under the bridge to the crystal clear water.  We found a nice spot in the shade and went straight in, relieved to be out of the heat.  The river is incredible and the water a very comfortable temperature.  We had the privilege to do what many people pay for in Japan; have little fish nibble at our feet.  Incredibly you can pay for this service as a treatment in Japan.  The little fish nibble at your dead skin.  However here in Montemerano, you can get it for free.  At first it is a little odd and feeling them suction is very bizarre but after a while it becomes a bit of a novelty and eventually you shake them off due to annoyance.

There were a few other people there but certainly not that many to feel crowded or overwhelmed and overall it was very peaceful with cicadas chirping in the trees all around.  After several hours here, we went back home to get showered and changed for dinner.

First stop before dinner was the Pharmacy in Manciano.  We just had to buy stronger mozzie repellant because the one we have just doesn’t seem to be working.  We also needed a cream to sooth the itches.  Once purchased, we were off to Pitigliano for dinner.  We have now been to this town several times however it still wow’s us as we come around the corner and all is displayed on the opposite cliffs for us.  We found a park and a fabulous restaurant with views of the lit up city walls above the cliff.  Dinner was one of the best we have had, I guess it also helped that the menu was in English so we could experiment a bit more than the usual words we can understand.

I had lovely local mushrooms in olive oil for entrée and for main a very tasty lamb stew.  No meals ever seem to come with vegetables so I ordered a side of roasted vegetables.  Corky was comfortable with what he knew; ricotta ravioli with bolognese sauce.  Sophie helped him with this.  Jack and Harry enjoyed lamb and Madi her usual spaghetti bolognese.  Whilst I was trying to cut the meat off the lamb bone, my knife slipped and I splashed red sauce all up my top.  I think my squeal startled everyone but soon enough the waitress came over with a magic potion and sprayed it on all the splotches.  She told me I had to wait 5 minutes and then we could brush it off.  I walked back to the table with white blobs on my clothes feeling just great.  Sure enough, when the dried white marks were brushed off, voila, no more stains.  I still brought my top home to wash.  For dessert we couldn’t resist the Panna Cotta with chocolate.

We had a lazy and leisurely walk back to the car admiring the city all lit up because we knew this would be a last visit here.

We pulled up into the carpark at Montemerano, hopped out and had a look into the bushes to see if we could see any firefly’s.  There were none but there was a man driving quickly on a small motorbike.  He came flying into the carpark and straight out the other side and then up over the road above us and back around again to the carpark.  We couldn’t work out what was going on until Jack called out ‘what is that?’ pointing at something running along the road in our direction.  It was a huge hedgehog.  The poor thing was quite startled by someone chasing him on a motorbike and now being trapped by fences in the carpark.  The guy on the motorbike was trying to video him on his mobile phone.  We were fascinated to see the hedgehog a bit closer.  He kept dodging behind the parked cars and we kept following him up the road.  He was easily half the height of Harry and was missing quite a lot of his spikes, we gathered he was very old but all the remaining spikes were up on end.  He ran up and down behind the cars trying to find a way out.  At one stage, Sophie and I were up further in the middle of the road and everyone else was down looking at him when he suddenly came out from behind a car and started running up the middle of the road towards us.  Clearly he didn’t see us because we were standing still but as he got closer I got nervous and moved to the side a bit, this startled him and he dodged off to the right behind more cars.  I reckon he would have run right into us.  We finally managed to shoo him out of the carpark and he gratefully ran off into the night.  That beats firefly’s anyday.

WEDNESDAY 29 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY

We decided today to make another attempt to see the deers down near the coast.  The first time we went it was way too hot to bother and headed to the beach. The second time we went on a Sunday and it was very crowded and too hard to find a parking spot and finally this time we managed to get there OK.  We parked the car and walked across a little bridge and through a gate into a forest area.  The area was well covered with the trees but very bare on the ground.  The whole area was several kilometres long stretching from the mainland and across to the island.  It was all national park where 1600 deers lived.  A beach also stretched right up the side of the park.  We walked for about 15 minutes down the shaded track in the middle of the park.  We couldn’t see any deers and I guess there was no wonder with all the noise we made.  We eventually decided to turn around and give up all hope of seeing any when just ahead in a clearing two little deers were feeding on some grass.  We were excited to see some and gave us hope of finding more.  We made our way carefully over to them and eventually they heard us and ran off into the trees.  We followed, not very deer-like, and we managed to see a small herd of them.  We were finally satisfied that we had seen Bambi.

It was nice and cool under the canopy of trees along this long tombolo but once we had got back to the car, the heat was intense.  It was about 4pm and we headed down to our favourite little internet coffee shop on the port at Porto San Stefano.  We ate a very late light lunch and had some drinks and enjoyed checking our emails and the kids playing on their iTouch’s.  The owners were always happy to see us and finally after a couple of hours we needed to leave because we had to get back to Montemerano to go out for dinner with Francesco.  We said fond farewell to our ‘internet friends’ because this would be the last time we were visiting here and we started back to Montemerano.  The trip usually takes about 50 minutes.  As we were heading off the island and along one of the tombolo’s, we could see off to the right two sea planes flying over the other tombolo – at the end of where the deers lived.  The two seaplanes were picking up water from the ocean and dumping it over the land.  We couldn’t see what they were dumping the water on because there was a hill in the way but we parked to the side to watch for a while.  There was also a helicopter with a large bucket helping out.  There must have been a bushfire.

We only watched for about 5 minutes but as soon as we joined the road again, there was a huge traffic jam.  This would mean we were going to get back late to Montemerano and Francesco would be waiting for us.  We had a reservation at a restaurant in Saturnia (10 minutes drive) for 8.30pm.  The Sat Nav predicted we wouldn’t get home till 8.30pm – no time for a shower and change!

Corky drove like a racing car driver to get home quicker and we pulled up into the village at 8.25pm.  Jack, Harry and I jumped out so we could take the short cut up to our house while Corky, Madi and Sophie took the car to park.  We were out of breath by the time we got up to our house and we went upstairs and called out to Francesco.  There was no answer.  I found the mobile he leant to us and I called his number.  ‘Francesco, hello it’s Katrina’ …. ‘Ahh, Katrin, I was hoping that it would be OK if perhaps we could go out tomorrow night for dinner instead, I have been caught up in another town’.  Of course it would be alright I said as slowly my heart rate returned to normal.  The others arrived puffed through the door and were actually relieved when I told them they had no need to rush anymore.

We took our time and got ready and then went to a lovely restaurant in Montemerano called Il Moro that we haven’t been before.  It has a deck out the back with glorious views of the sweeping countryside below – similar to the view from our bedroom window but we are higher and in a slightly different direction.  We sat out in the lovely evening temperature and ate pizza which was all that seemed to be on their menu tonight and then we wandered up to the Bar for dessert.

Our time in Tuscany is quickly coming to an end so we are enjoying all the little things we have been doing for the last time.

THURSDAY 30 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY

Today is our sightseeing day with Francesco, who is proudly our Tour Guide for today.  Francesco use to be a Guide for the local area, in particular the all the Etruscian sites.  He also was a Tour Guide in Australia for 15 years, taking Italian Groups on tours even out to Ayers Rock.  He is extremely knowledgeable about the area he lives in but more importantly, he is extremely proud and passionate of his homeland and also about the history.

We started off by driving for about 30 minutes in a direction we have never been before.  We went through the old Etruscan town of Sorano.  The Archeological park “Citta del tufo” is situated in the territory of this town and it consists of many archeological, historical and naturalistic sites of great Etruscan importance.  Located in the archeological park we went to is the largest Etruscan tomb found.  We walked around the area they lived and you could see many tombs and remains of old buildings (ornate columns etc) dating back about 5000 years ago.  We walked down into one of the tombs and Francesco explained in detail about how they use to store the bodies and stories about how the tombs were robbed but also treasures that were found by current man.  You could also still see coloured plaster they used on the buildings.  One tomb was only discovered about 4-5 years ago so the area is still relatively new in discovery and importance.  Francesco says it is still a bit of a secret and thankfully not very touristy.

We walked up and through a gorge that the Etruscans dug out over a period of a couple of hundred years.  It was quite narrow, just enough to fit a car through and incredibly you could see how much lower the road has become due to 2000 years of rain washing away more of the rock.  They use to have religious parades up through these gorges and there are many of them around.  Francesco showed up further a large swastika that is engraved in the wall.  The swastika in Etruscan times (about 4000 years ago) was used as a symbol of sun and life and they use to engrave it on their ceramics etc.  The symbol was originally taken from India where it too depicted sun and life however sadly many thousands of years later Hitler took this symbol to depict his Aryan race ideologies and shamefully has changed the image of the swastika from life to a symbol of death.

We could have spent a long time here learning so much from Francesco because I doubt there is an end to his knowledge of the area however it was time for lunch and a glass of vino.  We went to Pitigliano and to a lovely restaurant with views from the cliff we were dining on the edge of.  The restaurant was in an open courtyard but above us was an extensive growth of vines sheltering us from the hot sun.  Sophie tried some of Francesco’s proscuitto and loved it.  Harry enjoyed tickling Francesco and playing ‘round and round the garden’ on his hand.  We enjoyed a few glasses of wine so to wake up for the afternoon we decided to go to an indoor pool nearby for a swim.  The water in this pool is very pure and clean, obviously due to all the natural springs in the area.  We all had to wear caps on our heads but we managed to have the pool to ourselves because no-one else was there.  It was very refreshing because the heat is quite oppressive.

Home after our swim to put our feet up for about an hour and then get ready for dinner.  Tonight Francesco was taking us to a favourite restaurant of his in Saturnia.  We got there as the sun was starting to set and the restaurant looked out in the direction of the setting sun.  We had a lovely meal with more local wine but not too much that we couldn’t drive to Manciano to see the horses racing through the streets at 9pm.  We got there in time but we found out that there was a problem and the horses weren’t racing tonight.  Instead we wandered around the town which was in a festive mood with markets and stalls and activities for children.  We separated from Francesco who had some business to take care of and we got an ice-cream and then headed home.

FRIDAY 1 JULY – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY

This morning we spent the time to pack out belongings that we had managed to spread from one end of the house to the other.  We were cramming and squashing things in, clearly we needed another suitcase.  For lunch we went into Manciano and ate in a restaurant there and then we went over to Saturnia to the Thermal Spa’s.  It was quite expensive to get in but we just had to try the thermal spas.  These spas are built on the source of the spring water from underground.  When it rains on the mountains (Monte Amrita where we went a few days ago), the water seeps down into the bowels of the earth where it stays for up to 400-500 years and becomes exceptionally pure and very hot.  The water eventually comes to the surface at the Saturnia Thermal Spa.  It gushes out at a rate of 800 litres per second at a temperature of around 37 degrees.  The swimming pools are sulphurous (hydrogen sulphide) and rich in carbon dioxide.  There were special pools for the kids and many different areas for the adults.  It was the perfect day to go because finally the temperature was below 30 degrees and it was overcast.  We would change between pools because you weren’t meant to spend more than 20 minutes at a time immersed in the water.  It really was invigorating and is very good for your skin and muscles.

Town of Saturnia on hill in background

For dinner we went back to Il Moro restaurant in Montemerano and sat on the deck again.  The sky was threatening to rain but it held off but it was quite dramatic to see the thunder clouds over the mountains in the distance.  Tonight being Friday night, there was a keyboard player who sang as well.  It all made for a very nice atmosphere.

At the end of our dinner, Francesco and his son Lorenzo who had arrived today from Edinburgh where he has just finished his studies, came by to let us know they are going into Manciano to see the festivities and if we would like to join them there later.  The bubble blowing for the children was at 11pm up in the square next to the tower.  We decided to go since Francesco was so excited about it and it was our last night in Tuscany.  We met up with Francesco and Lorenzo in the square and watched the clown bubble show.  The kids loved it.  Another very late night so straight home to bed.

Till next instalment .... x