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Within 48 hours of arriving in the UK we were treated to the first snowfall of winter. We awoke on Friday to 3 centimetres of snow on the ground with more falling throughout the morning. The backyard of our friend’s … Continue reading
It’s Christmas time already and with only a few days to go we are in the UK, waiting for the snow to start falling and frantically checking our Christmas lists – twice. Jean, the girls and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our loyal and lovely friends and readers a Buon Natale (as the Italians say) and a full, fruitful and enjoyable new year.
We have really enjoyed sharing our Italian adventures with everyone over the last 9 months and appreciated all the feedback we have received. And even though we are no longer in Italy we will continue to write about our adventures over the next few months wherever they happen to take us.
Once again Buon Natale and best wishes to you all.
Jean, Graeme and the girls.
The generally held view is that Italian traffic is bad, and that Neopolitan traffic is some of the worst in Italy. Despite driving all around Italy we had not experienced really bad traffic – until last week.
On Monday evening our visitors flew out of Naples and we drove them to the airport. The normal drive from Positano to the airport is about 1 hour and 20 minutes over winding hill roads. At rush hour or on weekends “allow 2 hours” has been the past advice from the knowledgable staff at Eden Roc Hotel.
We had visited the ruins at Pompeii Monday afternoon so our trip to the airport was a much shorter journey – according to our GPS only 30 minutes from the town of Pompei where we had dinner, and all along motorways. Sweet!
Even so we left Pompei town at 6:15pm, aiming to be at the airport by 7pm. This allowed a comfortable hour and a quarter for our visitors to get through immigration, security, do a little leisurey duty free shopping and arrive at the gate by 8:15pm. As their flight was EasyJet, the gate would close at 8:15pm – there is no room for movement.
The first two thirds of the trip were completely uneventful. Then the traffic started to get a little heavy – in fact we were at walking pace by the time we exited the main Napoli to Salerno motorway and transferred to the motorway to the airport.
But on the bright side at 6:40pm we only had about 5kms to go. Easy!
About 400 metres further on the fun and games began. Three lanes of traffic converge into two. As kiwis we know the routine – merge like a zip. Not in Italy. This was a case of merge like 4 zips, two of which are broken and two of which are twisted around each other and every driver has a different idea of which way to pull the zip.
The net result was that after “merging” we ended up with three lanes of traffic crammed onto a two lane motorway. To add spice, there seemed to be an unofficial fourth lane next to the slow lane which formed when a car needing to get somewhere in a hurry (not that we weren’t in a hurry) used hazard lights and horn to push through the already jammed motorway.
While this configuration got the maximum number of cars on the motorway it made for the minimum possible traffic flow. In fact walking would have been considerably quicker.
This became an option we seriously considered as time passed quickly and the distance to the airport reduced slowly – really slowly – snails paced slowly.
We only had 1.6kms to go to reach the airport but already the time was 7:30pm. The clever banter in the car about the state of Italian motoring had subsided and there was an oppressive silence interspersed only by terse comments “don’t let him push in”, “watch that VW”, “bastard, he just got in front of us”.
By 7:55pm thoughts had turned to rebooked flights and overnight stays in airport hotels. But then the traffic started to thin and the exit to the airport appeared. It was clear – well clearer than anything we had experienced for the last hour. So with 1.0km to the airport we were off.
Those of you who remember the final drive to the hotel in the movie Notting Hill will understand what followed. No stopping for anything, even for stop signs, new lanes were formed where necessary to get around queues, the pavement was even used at one point. If I do say so myself it was a truly “Italian” approach to driving and it got us the remaining distance to the airport in record time.
What followed was a mad dash for bags (all carry on thankfully) and the entire team headed into the airport except the driver who was then moved along by the airport police.
After parking the car – in an official carpark not just at the side of the airport road as the locals do – the driver made it back to the terminal. Just in time to see our vsitors, having already cleared security and customs, running towards their gate.
Ironically the drive back to Positano was done in record time. All the traffic jams had cleared and we had a clear run all the way. Ahh, Italy.
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For our visitor’s final day in Italy, we visited Pompeii, one of the three towns destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. What sets Pompeii apart from other roman ruins is the fact that the eruption buried … Continue reading
This gallery contains 21 photos.
On Sunday we took our visitors to Amalfi and Ravello. This a drive of only 25kms from Positano but it takes the best part of 50 minutes given the narrow winding road along the coast. You pass through picturesque villages … Continue reading
This weekend we will have visitors staying with us at Villa Greta. Our friend Gill from the UK is flying in for the weekend with her Mum and her Mum’s husband Allan from New Zealand who are on their first trip to Europe. Positano is their first stop outside the UK and the trio fly into Naples airport on Friday evening and stay until Monday.
With so many things to see and do and so little time, picking the best activities is critical. At this stage there is definitely a trip to Pompeii on the cards. A walk around Positano is a must and a trip down the coast to Ravello or Amalfi is a good way to see the local area. But beyond that the weekend is an unwritten story.
Suggestions anyone?
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When thinking about where to take Isabel and Charlie, we decided to focus on the smaller places. They had already spent some time in Florence before arriving at our place and we felt that most people equated Tuscany with rural … Continue reading
Charlie and Isabel arrived on Saturday afternoon having travelled from north of Florence. I had suggested they text us when they got close to our place which, in this case, meant texting from the carpark “I think we are here”. The 3kms of dirt road make you wonder where the hell you are the first time you arrive.
We ambled out with the dogs and found them looking around wondering if this was our place or the home of some local family. Either way they would have been made to feel welcome.
Dinner that night was at our local Pizza restaurant Le Campannia (other summer visitors will know this restaurant) which does excellent pizzas and provides endless free entertainment watching the antics of the locals.
Next morning was the All Black quarter final game so the entire team headed to the Campo at 9am to watch the game. Clearly word about our World Cup venue is getting out as there were already two holidaying kiwi couples waiting for the game – and with us that meant the crowd swelled to a record eight people. Nine counting an elderly Italian gentleman who joined us to support the French. He was a day late but still enjoyed the game.
Ninety minutes later it was “job well done” by the lads. Well sort of well done as there is still some work to do before meeting Australia – and a chance for a wander around Siena before lunch in the sun at Osteria del Bigelli which, once again, did not disappoint with the food.
Jean made her famous kiwi roast pork with gravy for dinner and we washed it down with a very nice Chianti courtesy of our guests.
Rugby, beer, wine, sightseeing and roast pork with gravy. A top day and a half.
Arch in Monteriggioni overlooking Tuscan countryside
Gentle readers, you may have noticed a brief pause in posts to toscanakiwi. We have had visitors from home staying at our place and have taken the last few days to show them some of Tuscany.
We have revisited some places we went with others and explored some places that are new. Old favourites like San Gimignano have impressed and new places like Monteriggioni have surprised.
Autumn is an ideal time to sightsee as the days are still warm, but not too hot. In summer you sit in the shade at cafes avoiding the sun, but in Autumn you sit in the sun and savour the last of the good weather.
Pictures and stories of our travels will be added over the next few days.
Next week we have visitors. Friends from New Zealand are dropping by our place as part of a mixed holiday/business trip to Europe. Isabel and Charlie live in Melbourne but have spent the last couple of weeks travelling from Paris south and we are expecting them to arrive on the 8th. Isabel has a conference to attend in Parma (home of the famous ham) on October 12 so we will have a couple of days to show them the best of Tuscany.
Tuscany in three and a half days. Where do we start?
Yesterday marked a milestone for Toscanakiwi with our 100th post. Given we’ve been away from New Zealand since the start of April which means something has been posted roughly (very roughly) every 1.6 days.
Part of the package from WordPress, the people who host the blog, are statistics about how many people read each post each day and total visits to the blog every day, week and month. Since starting the blog we have had over 4,800 visits or an average of 30 per day. Through August and September the average has risen to around 40 per day and over a week we regularly get anywhere from 200 to 500 visits.
So as we pass the 100th post, we want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read our ramblings and share in our Italian adventure. It means a lot to us to know that the folks at home – and all around the world based on the country visitor stats – are interested in the odd things we get up to and the fun and games that go with living in Italy.
Through watching the statistics one thing has become clear – the publishing mantra that “content is king”. Our content is based on what tends to happen around us on a daily basis, but if there is anything our lovely readers would specifically like us to do, talk about, talk about more or explore, please let us know. In fact, you can leave suggestions on this post if you wish.
Once again, thank you all for your support over the last few months and we hope you will continue to visit in the future as we continue our Italian adventure.
Ciao
Graeme and Jean
This gallery contains 15 photos.
In July we spent 2 weeks in Positano on the Amalfi Coast taking a holiday from our holiday. During that time we were joined by Mike, Charmaine and wee James. Looking back, there were photographs taken that never made it … Continue reading
We were back in Siena for the second All Black game. Once again the staff at La Birreria performed their magic and found the game buried in the Sky TV menu – as always after the usual fussing and discussions – and we settled in for the duration.
Kiwi's make their presence felt for the RWC in Siena
We were joined by a young Dutch couple who were on holiday in Siena and who were also following the RWC. Given that the total number of rugby players in Holland is around 5,000 (including men, women and juniors they said) their rugby knowledge was very good. They were, however, a little surprised when we had the inevitable 10am beer and wine and beer and wine and …
But clearly we weren’t the only Kiwis in Siena watching the game as the photo shows. The flag was hanging outside the bar we had originally earmarked to watch the games at but which didn’t open early enough for us to able to watch them live.
Apparently the Kiwis had started knocking on the bar door at 10:30am and convinced the staff to open early so they could watch the remainder of the match. I wonder if a similar approach would have worked anywhere else in the world?
Our girl has shown a steady recovery over the last week. She’s gone from not being able to walk without falling over to something close to her usual waddle. She is still wobbly and when she tries to shake herself ends up flat on her stomach with legs splayed.
Her revised heart medicine has also kicked in and, touchwood, she hasn’t had a seizure in over a week. Mind you with Jean and I running around after her every need there hasn’t been a lot of stress on her heart anyway.
One thing that has fully returned is Daisy’s attitude. She’s almost back to her cantakerous old self, and seems ready to take on the world, or more likely, other dogs, children, anyone who dares to come near the cottage, anyone who looks at the cottage, anyone who comes near the car, you get the idea.
The movie started out as some footage to show the team at our Italian vet clinic her improvement over the last week but it got a bit out of hand. We have nothing else much to do, really.
When Mike and Charmaine and wee James were here we visited the small village of Greve in Chanti. Greve is built around a triangular piazza which has the usual assortment of shops and cafes dotted around it.
It also has one shop which we think is special. The sign outside says Norcineria – or butchery – but the experience inside is something else.
Looking out towards the piazza in Greve. Love the sign
Describing Antica Macelleria Falorni as a butchery is like calling St Peters in Rome just a church. Entering the shop, you are hit by complete sensory overload. Everywhere you look there are cured hams, cheeses, salamis, and more cured hams hanging, stacked, packed and displayed. The smell is overwhelming (I’m told as I have no sense of smell) and it strikes you like a hammer the moment you walk through the door.
The shop also sells wines to go with the wide range of cheeses available as well as the ususal Tuscan butchery mix of meats, game, and poultry.
In the usual Italian way, things can be tasted before buying – just to provide even greater sensory overload.
Inside Antica Macelleria Falorni in Greve
The shop stretches through 3 street frontages so as you move away from the front door you move from one small area to another, and in each the ceiling is hung with curing legs of ham giving the whole shop the feeling of a cave. For food-lovers, almost certainly an Aladdins cave.
If you visit Tuscany, you really should stop in Greve and marvel at this most unlikely tourist attraction.
La dolce far niente 