It’s time for a holiday from our holiday. That’s right, the whole Mowday clan is moving from Tuscany to Positano (on the beautiful Amalfi Coast) for a fortnight. We’ve rented an apartment which is owned by the lovely people who also own and run Eden Roc Hotel, our favourite hotel in Positano. Updates to follow.
Poppie ready for the trip to Positano.
In the last few days summer has really arrived in Tuscany. Temperatures have been around 30 degrees and the pace of life has slowed accordingly. Today we spent the middle of the day beside the pool and only when the temperature had dropped in the early evening did we venture out.
Jean and the girls at a cafe in Buonconvento
About 15 minutes down the road is the town of Buonconvento, a delightful place with an old town centre that has been developed over the years. We stayed in a villa only a couple of minutes from the town in 2004 and remember the town as utilitarian at best. Now it is a thriving tourist and artistic centre and definitely worth visiting if you are in the area.
The trip there and back is through farmland much of which is now planted in Sunflowers which are starting to bloom. When our visitors arrive in mid July, they should be looking great.
The girls
When we arrived back at the cottage the daily display that is the sunset was well underway. Although a camera can never do justice to this spectacle, here’s my best attempt.
Sunset over Siena - June 28
I thought I had posted this photograph before but looking back, I haven’t. It’s the day the whole family went to Siena. And in true form Jean is looking lovely, Poppie is looking cute and Daisy (partly obscured) is, well, see for yourself.
The Mowday family in the Campo, Siena.
I used to think it was noise cancelling headphones. But I was wrong. Headphones might be good for the luxury traveller taking short jaunts to foreign climes but for us long term, hard core, down to earth travellers the perfect companion is a Leatherman Blast.
My "must have" travel accessory.
I was given the aforementioned tool for my 50th birthday – thank you Charmaine, Mike and James – and it has proved invaluable. It can cut, screw, saw or slice pretty much anything. Whether it’s mundane tasks like tightening a screw on a wobbly pot handle or more exotic uses like an ice pick to de-ice a dodgy fridge, it’s ideal.
Recently it was put to use erecting some temporary wire fencing around our terrace to give Daisy and Poppie some indoor/outdoor flow without the chance of them doing a runner.
Mission accomplished thanks largely to the Blast.
One warning, if you bring something like this on holiday don’t pack it in your hand luggage. The 4 inch knife blade might be a bit tough to explain to those nice gentlemen from Homelands Security.
Poppie meets the new fence.
The concept of taking our girls into a bar or restaurant in Wellington is inconceivable. Here it is the accepted norm, in fact hotel and bar staff are quite surprised that we would even ask if it is possible. “But of course” was the standard response matched with a look of surprise.
So for the last week (and in the UK also) the girls have learnt about eating out. We always thought that Poppie would be good around other people, food, noise and the bustle of a bar or restaurant. We weren’t quite so sure about Daisy.
Our friend Andre nick-named her Walter (after grumpy Walter Mattau’s character Oscar in the TV series The Odd Couple) because she would sometimes greet him or the kids with a growl and a nip at any hand that was in reach. It’s fair to say Daisy isn’t good with people.
In a bar or restaurant she potentially was dynamite. And the first times we went into assorted pubs in the UK she had her moments – and a fair bit of time out on the street being walked up and down to cool off. On one occasion she exceeded herself and christened the pub carpet but, as someone pointed out, it was no worse than what happened to the carpet on a Friday night anyway.
By France she had the whole thing under her belt (or should that be collar) and no matter whether it was a half full local bar or a packed fine dining restaurant she behaved herself perfectly.
Up to a point. The only thing we have to master now with Daisy is other dogs. Daisy plus any strange dog means chaos because Daisy clearly thinks she’s a German Shepherd. She has no fear of other dogs and barks and snarls at them, anytime, anywhere.
It’s good we have something to work on over the next few months.
Having got the dogs here and then having had them treated for various things that might affect them in the UK and Italy, Poppie’s body finally said – enough.
One unhappy little dog
It was the most innocuous treatment – essentially an English version of Frontline – that proved the last straw and saw her transform from a happy little dog to a very agitated, unhappy and unwell dog in the space of 2 hours.
For the last 5 days she has only wanted to sit on someone’s lap or hide herself among the pillows on the bed. The world has held no interest for her and she just wanted everyone to go away and let her be.
After 3 trips to vet and a total bill of £250, we were none the wiser but were armed with skin washes, antihistamines and antibiotics, all the things that might help.
But in the end it was time that did the trick. But it’s fair to say we will be looking for an alternative treatment for fleas and other crawlies for Poppie in the future.
“You’re taking your dog? No, really?” was pretty much the standard reaction we got when we told people the whole family was travelling to Italy. For these of you who don’t know, our family consists of Daisy and Poppie – Bichon Frise dogs which can best be described as small, white, fluffy with attitude.
Thanks to the team at VenturePet in New Zealand, Jean’s diligent research on moving dogs around the world and around $5,000 they made the trip to the UK.
Heathrow's Animal Reception Centre
After we arrived at Heathrow, collected our bags and collected our new Peugeot lease car we drove to the aptly named “Animal Reception Centre” to collect the girls.
This was where all the paperwork, vaccinations and research came together. The wait seemed eternal as other people received their dogs or cats but there was no sign of our girls. There was nothing we could do, we just waited.
Waiting, waiting, waiting ...
The process was complicated by a computer failure at the centre, but eventually we signed everything we needed to and two noisy happy dogs emerged from the bowels of the building.
In true Bichon style we heard them before we saw them but when they arrived the reception centre lobby turned into a sea of swirling white Bichons much to our relief and the amusement of everyone else.
They're here!
A week later they are displaying no ill effects from the trip apart from a little jet-lag. In fact as I write this, they are both spread eagled on the bed beside me snoring happily.
Jean was so organised before we left that we had an appointment with a vet in our local village. They have now had check ups and we are going through the process of ensuring they are safe from all the bugs that we don’t have in New Zealand, but they do have here – and in Italy.
They also have been issued with genuine EU Pet Passports – so roll on Italy.
Italy is about as far from New Zealand as you can get – both geographically and culturally. We’ve experienced wonderful holidays it Italy for the last decade and the nagging question has always been – what would it be like to live there?
The only way to answer that question was to step out of our comfortable lives in New Zealand and into whatever a life in Italy has to offer. We did that on Wednesday April 6, 2011.
It sounds easy if you say it quickly. But it meant leaving behind family and jobs, renting out our house, storing our precious things and, most importantly, bringing our girls Poppie and Daisy along for the trip.
Poppie and Daisy are our dogs. Small, furry, white Bichon Frise. And they are definitely part of our family.
So what sounded so simple to say turned out to be a tad more complicated and I’m sure the fun is only beginning.
La dolce far niente 