Tonk'n around Italy

Back HOME in Melbourne!!

2009-05-04T05:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes...the rumours are true...I am back in Melbourne!!

And am being given lots of lovin' by all my friends and family!!

I have been a bit slack with this blog over the last 2 months of my trip and would like to finish it off so that you can all hear the rest of my tales...there are many to be told.

Watch this space and I will let you all know as I put more up.

And for those of you I havent managed to catch-up with yet, hopefully we will see each other soon. I am back on the same mobile number, or email me at j.tonkin@hotmail.com.

Ci vediamo

xox

Verona before Valentines...

2009-04-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

Despite all the worries and planning about getting back into Italy in order to meet up with Mike after my time travelling north along the coast through eastern europe, as I said at the end of the last post, I strolled (literally...or maybe it was more of a stagger with my big bag on my back and heavy load!! haha) back into Italy basically across an empty square...no questions, nothing!!

Once over the border though, the ease of it all didnt continue and I was reminded of the organisation of the Italians. The plan for the day was to catch a slovenian train from Bled to Novo Gorica in Slovenia then walk across the border and catch a local bus to the other side of Gorizia (the Italian side of the town)....which all went smoothly but this is where the easy ride finished...

Upon arrival at Gorizia station I was told I couldnt have a ticket to Verona because the man at the ticket booth didnt know when the trains were leaving and at that point no trains were running from there to anyway...classic Italians and their constant strikes!!

Eventually the ticket guy called me back over and advised me to get the first and next train to a bigger interchange station nearby and hopefully there would be more trains going further from ther...

I finally made it to verona at about 9pm, found my hostel (another almost empty one...just my luck!! haha) and all I could manage for dinner was to stumble out and find the closest pizza place and get a take-away...welcome back to Italy!! haha

I spent my 2 days here wandering the streets and looking at all of the classic touristy things...not to mention the Romeo & Juliet pariphenalia!! And all this was even more enhanced with it only being about 10 days before Valentines and so there were love hearts in every shop window and hanging all donw the main pedestrian prominade...

I went to "Juliets house" with the balcony that apparently is what Shakespear based the story and events on...and of course eveyone has wanted to leave their mark of love outside for their lover...

And to escape the cold middle-of-the-day drizzle one day I escaped into a great little trattoria and had a feast of a main dish, side dish/salad buffet, coffee and not to mention free basket of good bread for 10 euros...what a bargain...and what a belly full!!

I saw the castle, a few churches and climbed the tower to get a view of the centre of town which sits in the bend of the main river...

I did meet one young guy at my accomodation though, from New York, but he left the following morning. The night I arrived though we had a bit of a chat as I think he was feeling a bit lonely in the apartment style hostel as there was no one-else there not even the owner or staff...and he recommended a bar to me in the main square that did good house wine for 6 euros for 1/2 litre, and then a free aperitivo buffet of nibbles and antipasto to go with it which sometimes included a plate of risotoo too!! So I went one night and it was great for a cheap dinner and even ventured out to try in at another bar on my last night...it was a great way to save a bit of money on food...

Ci vediamo
xox

It's BLEDing snow!!

2009-03-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

Next stop...Bled in northern Slovenia.

It was a fairly epic journey all the way up from Sarajevo to Bled which is north of Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia). I caught an overnight train from Sarajevo to Zagreb (capital of Croatia) for which I decided it was well worth paying the extra 20euros for the LOCKABLE sleeper cabin when there were many dodgy looking Bosnian men hanging around...I then arrived in Zagreb at 7am and had a couple of hours before my train to Ljubljana, from where I caught the bus to Bled...straight into piles and piles of snow which didnt stop spewing down the whole time I was there!!

Bled. straight from when I arrived, was beautiful...but VERY quiet!! Particularly with the constant falling snow. You know how earily quiet it can be in the snow...

I stayed in a great little hostel which I was once again alone in for the first night but was then joined by 3 Manchunians (youngens from Manchester) on the second night...YAY...company!!

I had three nights in Bled and by the time I arrived after my trek there on my first day I was too exhausted to do anything but have a sleep and then head out for an early dinner before going back to bed.

I then spent a day walking around famous Lake Bled whilst the snow continued to fall and continued to cover everything in sight in thick snow...

I stopped to re-hydrate at one stage too...there was enough around!!

And stopping to escape the cold and snow...and of course to try the local sweet delicacies...

I tried to get one of the boats (written about in my Lonely Planet bible) across the lake to the famous pilgrimage church in the middle, but the lake was semi-frozen and I was advised that none of the boat drivers would be willing for any amount of money or people in that weather...I didnt really blame them especially with their boats looking like this...

And by the second day, the lake was well and truelly frozen...

So I took the trek up the hill over-looking the lake to the castle...but once again as I have told you from experiences in other European cities in the winter, most of the castle was closed...including the ancient printing works, which I was quite annoyed about. But I did get to see a great view of the lake and church in the middle.

I had a great dinner of grilled calamari (it was MASSIVE) for a very cheap 7euros on my final night and then caught the train to the border the following day and walked over the border without a sideways glance from anyone or a question or even a viewing of my passport...

I just walked across a VERY quiet town square on the Slovenian side of town.

Ci vediamo
xox

What can I say...Sarajevo!!!!!!

2009-02-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

I was pretty excited about heading to Sarajevo, a big and facinating city, after being in all of these quiet and lonely coastal towns at the wrong time of year, or at least when all the locals were having their break from the summer rush.

But I had a long bus ride in order to get there, which didnt bother me in the planning phase, but once on the bus and in the 5th of 6 and a half hours, I was well and truelly sick of being on that bus, especially as I could feel a cold coming on.

By the time the bus arrived in Sarajevo, I was feeling about 10 times worse than average but still managed to haul my body and all my extensive luggage to the hostel. I checked in and was shown my bed and couldnt fathom doing anything more than lying on my bed and sleeping. And this is when I started burning up with fever!! Yep, flu had set in and I ended up spending the following day pretty much in bed or at least inside in the hostel.

This was really hard because there were lots of really nice and chatty people staying at this very homely feeling hostel, and I had been by myself for so long with no one to talk to, but all I wanted to do was sleep and not talk too much (cos my voice was also struggling) and keep to myself!!

I was feeling much better by my second day and so ventured out into the cold streets of Sarajevo, with a light sprinkling of snow around and continuing to fall on and off, and covering all of the roofs...

The old town and the new town are right next to each other but are hugely different...the old still with its cute little shops all single story with tiled roofs and the new town like any other city with lots of shops and cafes and funky bars.

The thing I found most fascinating about Sarajevo, was its VERY recent history...the war and being under siege and how as a city they coped with that. I did what is called "The Tunnel Tour" which included a tour in a jeep first of the main sights around the new and old town and then being driven out to the "Tunnel Museum"; a museum created at one end of the small remaining part of the tunnel which the civilians and Sarajevan soldiers dug under the Sarajevo airport during the 3 year siege in order to get supplies and people in and out of the city, to describe how life was during the siege for all Sarajevans and how the tunnel was used to allow them to survive...

Being Australian and coming from a very stable first world country, I found this all VERY fascinating. Not to mention also that the guide was a young Sarajevan guy who had fought in the Sarajevan army during the siege, but by choice and was only 16 at the time!!

I bumped into 3 others from my hostel (an Australian couple and a Canadian guy) at the museum and so we all ended up spending the afternoon together and making a fantastic meal of lasagna, salad and plenty of cheap Bosnian beer for dinner in the hostel kitchen...

Jackie digging the masterpiece out of the pot we had to cook it in.

Nigel, Jackie and Justin eagerly waiting to start their meals whilst I take a photo!! haha

The following day, the four of us headed out together again, and to the History Museum which had a lot of information on and things to see from the years of the war and the siege and what events led to it all...once again all very interesting and shocking and hard to believe and understand...

But the lack of heating and the very cold temperature and snow outside, and thus temperature inside the building added the the oppressive feeling from all the information and displays!!

And the guns!!

Oh, and of course I cant forget some food photos to make you all hungry...

I HAD to try the coffee that the bosnians drink...basically turkish coffe for those of you kwho know how the turkish drink their coffee...thick, strong and sweet!! Made in a pot and then they pour it into the small cup over a sugar cube, or they put the sugar cube in their teeth and drink the thick coffee theough it...

And some Bosnian goulash, other traditional dishes and house baked hot bread at a really good restaurant with the others from the hostel...

The last thing I did before leaving was to climb up the hill on one side of the city to the cemetary (which is obviously quite extensive due to the recent bloodshed) to have a look at alll the white headstones stanidng tall in the snow and for a view of the city.

Ci vediamo
xox

Croatia...unfortunately not-so-sunny Croatia!!

2009-02-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

I had heard so many great things about Croatia from so many people that I just had to go and see for myself...imagining clear blue ocean and beautiful sandy beaches with the sun shining and lots of seafood to eat!!...which Im sure it could have been, IF I hadn't gone there in winter!! haha

I had already had the harsh realisation during this trip that winter wasnt always the best time to travel for many reasons...but that had been reinforced once again with my third stop on the coast in Eastern Europe and having to cope with wind and rain and almost everything being shut!!

So as I said at the end of my Montenegro post, it was raining on the day I arrived in Dubrovnik, and HEAVILY!! But the trip along the coast was beautiful, not to mention stormy...definitely the highlight of doing the coast of these countries, even in winter.

I had booked a guest house to stay in and the owners very kindly offered to pick me up from the bus station which was very helpful considering the weather!! But also for any of those of you who know Dubrovnik, it is very spread out and VERY hilly so I would have had quite a trek getting there with all my stuff.

The owners were an elderly couple and their son who lived elsewhere in Dubrovnik with his wife but helped with the running of it all mostly in summer. So it was the elderly husband who picked me up in his little Peugot and showed me everything at the guest house and to my room...and then a couple of hours later, the wife arrived at the door of my room with a plate of home-cooked croatian cheese and spinach pastry!! YUM!!

...it was still warm from the oven!!

I spent one day walking to the Old Town and wandering around, "doing" the sights haha. I followed the path set out in "my bible", the Lonely Planet, and most things were closed or being restored, like the church!!

But in my wanderings I found a path leading down to some rocks which they must have problems with nudists using....

And instead of nudists gracing this rocky outcrop at this time of year, I found a couple braving the wild seas and doing a spot of fishing...

For my second day I took a long walk around the wintery coast, which was great for appreciating the environment and flora even more...it is very beautiful!!

One evening of course I HAD to go out for dinner and try some of the local delicacies...

Fish brodetto with polenta...amazingly fresh fish of course, it was very nice!!

And "Dubrovnik creme caramel" for dessert....the only difference I could find from a normal creme caramel was that it tasted more citrusy.

And then leaving the restaurant which was in the Old Town, there was hardly anyone around and it had been raining outside, so the streets were all shiny!!

Then it was back on the bus again, to head further up the coast to Split...once again, the lovely man at the guest house dropped me off at the bus station too.

Split I also experienced mostly in a shroud of rain...well actually it was more on and off in Split and more calm there for some reason.

A bit like in Dubrovnik, there wasnt much to do in Split, and what was in the guide book...the palace mainly and some other bits...were mostly closed!!

Once again, I did a lot of wandering around the wet streets and went for a few walks up to the park on a hill above the city where there is a great view of the bay and further around, of the coast...

I also had the chance to be "in-charge" of a hostel for a night in Split!! Haha

The hostel I stayed at was very nice and comfortable and easy to find. The nice woman running the place also gave me a full run down with the map of where everything was in town and what there was to do, which was very helpful and meant I didnt have to ask many questions later...however later in the evening when I had returned from dinner and she was exasperated as the only other two people who were booked into the hostel for the night hadnt showed, and she had called them to see where they were and they said they had found other accomodation as they couldnt find the hostel, she came into my room and said "Ok, so I am off home now. There is another person booked to arrive tomorrow but they wont be here until 1pm, so I will be back around then...ok, goodnight!!". And she left!! Haha...So I was staying in this apartment of a hostel all by myself, banging and crashing around as loudly as I liked!!

Oh, and before I go...something I saw at the market, that I have seen before but made me think of something which my parents always used to say to us when we were little and asked "Whats for dinner?"...

"PIGS TROTTERS!!"

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

And the rain begins...in Kotor

2009-02-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

I hadnt really planned on going to Montenegro...cos I guess I didnt really know much about it. But then when looking where to go next on my way north, it was the logical path into Croatia and so why not stop in there somewhere to break up the trip...

By guide book didnt give me heaps on Montenegro apart from the coast being the "place to go"...obviously this wasnt hugely helpful for me in that Im not really here at the "beach time of year"...but I didnt let this deter me, did I!?! Haha

Originally I planned to head to Budva on the coast, but just before leaving Tirana I was advised by the young guys who ran the hostel that Kotor was much nicer...so it was decided, Kotor here I come!!

As I said, I entered Montenegro from Schkoder in Albania and this was an adventure in itself!! What with it raining heavily the day I wanted to leave and finding out that the minibus that I thought was going to take me across the boarder, didnt run in winter and then being offered to go in a taxi for 20 euro which I could share with others if there was anyone else who wanted to go but no one showing and then finally being offered 15 euro just for me...I FINALLY made it into Montenegro to Ulcinj, the closest town to the border. From there I caught a bus to Bar and then a bus to Kotor.

But what a drive along the coast...WOW!!!

I wish I could have taken more photos but photos dont always catch the natural beauty, especially out of a moving bus window!!

As I looked out of the bus window as we decended into the valley that holds the Kotor fjord (cos it is a town that surrounds a fjord), I knew I had made the right decision about where to go in Montenegro...

As soon as I got off the bus in Kotor, I had 2 men trying to convince me to go and stay in rooms at their houses (which I know what you are thinking, sounds VERY dodgy) which I was advise in Albania was the way to go for accomodation in Kotor, that people have rooms in their houses that they rent out to tourists.

So after a lot of indecision and negotiation, I ended up following a very sweet man to his house which was a 2 minute walk from the bus station, which made it very convenient. I met his very smiley and very blonde and very much wanting-to-please wife who showed me everything and I had negotiated a very good price with the man, so I said 'yes'. The only down-side to this house was that clearly both of them were smokers and smoked inside and so the house STANK but I figured this would almost be the case anywhere I went in Montenegro...especially when despite any new laws about not smoking inside, they still do and no one does anything!! haha

The gate into my adoptive home and their very cute little orange car out the front there...

So as I said earlier, Kotor is a town surrounding a massive fjord and then on one side is the very small and heavily enclosed old town. On my first afternoon there I thought I would go into town and get my bearings and have a quick look around, and ended up seeing pretty much ALL of the old town in that time!! haha

The following day I climbed up the Old Fortifications of the town that cling to the hillside behind the old town. I was told that it was about an hour walk up...so of course I did it in 30 minutes...haha

Once at the top, there was an amazing view of the whole town and of course the fjord and the surrounding mountains!!

Imagine what it would be like in summer...

I was definitely the "King (or Queen) of the castle"!!

Oh and I found some friends up there...

Mamma Billy Goat and her two very cute kids who wouldnt stop wailing!!

On my second and last day there I decided to go and check out Budva, where I had originally planned on stopping in Montenegro before I was advised otherwise. I had seen a little of it on my way through on the bus on my way to Kotor, and even then knew I had made the right choice!!

Lets just say that Budva isnt the prettiest of beachside towns, especially in the dead of winter when it is basically closed and is left to run down...(before what I imagine to be a very rushed clean up before the tourists start pouring in) because you could very clearly see where all the gimicks and touristy stuff is set up....it was all abit sad really and looked like a broken down and neglected theme park!!

Budva also had an old town which I also explored in an hour or so...or not even...
I ended up finding myself a restaurant on the water and having a BIG bowl of mussles!! YUM!!

And then when I went back outside to go for a walk along the water before returning to the bus station to catch the bus back to Kotor, the overcast sky of course turned into galeforce wind and rain!! Just my luck!! haha

I had torrential rain nearly the whole time I was staying in Kotor and so the fjord was brimming with water...and nearly overflowing!! I kept thinking how much home in Australia could do with all of that water which was just excess for the Montenegrins. I even passed a toad hopping across the footpath on my last evening!!

SO of course that meant that I left on the bus the following day in a shroud of rain and it was on and off like that all the way up the gorgeous coast into Croatia...that was SPECTACULAR!!

Ci Vediamo
Jo xox

"But why Albania?!?"

2009-01-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

This is what nearly everyone who I spoke to about going to Albania, said to me...especially the italians!! haha...and my response..."But why not?!?"

Despite all of the sceptics, I stuck to my guns, booked my 'sleeper' (by myself thanks to the lovely guys at the ticket booth who organised it with the guys on the boat), and hopped on the boat farewelling a very drizzley and wet Brindisi.

I boarded the boat about 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time and was shown to my cabin and wished a goodnight. I watched out the window of my cabin the endless line of trucks to be loaded...

And then I thought it best to go to bed as I only had about 5 or 6 hours of sleep available...I thought we were due in Vlore at about 7.30 or 8am but I was advised that sailing time was only 5 and half hours...so I hopped into bed and set my alarm and went to sleep...

I then woke every 2 hours or so and noticed all felt clam and flat and so checked out the window to see we were still at the port in Brindisi...we ended up leaving 7 hours late!!

By the time I was sick of sleeping on and off and it was a reasonable hour in the morning to wake up properly I noticed we were well and truelly rocking back and forth!! Well I had actually noticed it well before as soon as we left Brindisi but it continued endlessly for the whole trip and was a bit like a show ride in my opinion...I was just glad I have a strong sea stomach!!

I finally arrived in a very rainy and stormy Vlore!!

I made my way off the ferry with all my bags...a lone traveller...and was given a grilling by the young, female, english speaking guard. I think her aim was to scare me...and she did a bit...but I didnt let her see that!! Haha

I had no hostel or hotel booked and had planned to just find something when I got there which ended up seeming a lot more daunting when I arrived...

Thankfully, I had a lovely italian speaking Albanian man come to my rescue!! He drove me around and helped me to find a hotel, negotiated a price for me and then drove me to show me where I had to walk the following morning to get my transport to Tirana (the capital)...he was a champion and a real gentleman...thanks Nik, wherever you are!! Oh, and left me his phone number in case I needed assistance at any point!!

I didnt do much in Vlore for that afternoon and evening apart from walk back to the bus stop that I needed to go to the following day and find some food...

But I found the 'Luna Park' of Vlore...

I dont think it really has anything on Melbourne's Luna Park!! haha

It was a bit sad really with bad music blaring, no one in there and empty and broken rides!!

The next day I did the trek to the bus stop with all my bags!!...Well actually it was a "furgon" stop. And a furgon is basically minivan that line up at the stops and the drivers call out where they are going. When they are full they leave.

My destination was Tirana and I made it quite successfully...

And then I trekked through the busy busy streets of Tirana to the hostel I had booked (this time I knew where I was going...the one and only hostel in Tirana)...

And then I passed out for a while!! haha

I had a great first night out in Tirana with the other three people staying at the hostel...an Australian couple from Adelaide (My-my and Jason) who were in Albania buying an apartment in a southern coastal town (and having problems) to eventually turn into a hostel, and a Finish guy (Pekka), who I ended up spending a day and a few evenings looking around with...it was good to have some company!!

We went out and had some Albanian food and then funnily enough, we went to have some beers at an Irish pub!! haha...there is an Irish Pub wherever you go in the world!!

At this point, let me just say that Tirana is fantastic!! And I highly recommend it to everyone!!

The very interesting thing about Albania though and which I think made it so much more appealing to me (and can sometimes be a postive and sometimes a negative) is that the Albanians arent quite ready, used to or prepared for tourists yet. But they are very friendly and generally helpful people who are very proud of their country.

Tirana is a beautiful and very busy city surrounded by big mountains...and I was very fortunate to get some amazing weather whilst I was there!!

The very big and very busy main square and heart of the city...notice all of the people and cars...and this is only a corner of it!!

And lets not forget about the change in food which I was VERY excited about after 3 months of pasta and pizza...

Byrek, which is the very easily found and extremeley delicious Albanian (and generally Balkan, in all of the Balkan countries) fast food...

They also love their kebabs or souvas but I didnt try one of those with too much other good food to sample.

One thing I didnt sample was a Kolonat burger...yes, McDonalds has not penetrated Albania, but ehy have their own version!! haha...It is called Kolonat, something which I find very amusing...is it aluding to it not being very good for your Colon?!?

They have even tried to mirror the McDonalds logo...but they also serve pizza as they Albanians are also a little obsessed with italian food!!

Then on my second day, Pekka and I took the gondola up the biggest mountain to the west (I think) of the city and had a walk around up there. There were fantastic views of Tirana under its fog and pollution and we got to see many of the indestructibly designed bunkers from their years to war which are obviously still there as they are "indestructible"!! Haha...apparently many young Albanians have lost their virginities in them!! haha

Oh...and then there was many stalls on the street and a whole market dedicated to stalls of pre-used and preloved clothes and shoes...piles and piles of them!! Apparently they get it all from Italy and bring it back to Albania...and it all seems to sell as there are constantly people serching through the piles!!

Used stockings anyone?!?

Or how about someone elses' smelly shoes?!?

I sadly had to leave Tirana to keep moving and headed north to Shkoder also in Albania, just for one night to then head over the boarder into Montenegro the following day...

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

PS - Oh, and I cant forget the very cute line up of old ALbanian men in the main square chatting away in the Sunday morning sun...

WWOOF WWOOFer, I am in Puglia

2009-01-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

I left Napoli in a bit of a rush and a flurry...oh, and I stuffed up my train ticket in the process, so that I was going to have 3 hours at an outer suburban train station in Napoli from midnight...

Hang-on, hang-on...let me start from the start!!

I cant recall if I explained before, but since I had already studied for 2 months in Italy and had entered on a regular tourist visa where they just stamp your passport at the airport without many questions, I only had a month of travel time in Italy before I should legally get out at least for one day. Now Im sure no one would have chased me if I hadnt left but I didnt want to leave and then them realise and then say to me "Well now since you have overstayed your welcome you cant return for 10 years!!"...particularly just after I have begun to master the language!!

So by the end of my time in Napoli, I had only about a week left before I needed to leave (and the plan was to catch a boat across The Adriatic to Albania...but that is another tale yet to come) and wanted to see some of the south-east, ie Puglia or Basilicata, but I hadnt had any cities recommended to me and nothing was jumping out at me in the guide book...my Bible!! haha
Before I had left Melbourne I had an idea planted in my head and an organisation recommended to me as a different option for cheap travel and different experiences which sounded interesting to me...

It was WWOOF...Willing Workers On Organic Farms...and it exists in many countries throughout the world. So I researched and liked the sound of it and joined over the interent...it was all very easy.

Basically the deal is that once you join you are given a list of farms (for me all in Italy as I only joined the Italian WWOOF Organisation), in every region with a blurb about each farm and what they produce and who they are and then you, as a "WWOOFer" contact them with when you are wanting to visit them...the longer the better!! Once you recieve responses and decide which one to go to (if you get multiple responses that is), you head to the farm.

Once on the farm (or maybe I should call them rural properties as they are always in the countryside but sometimes an "agriturismo" is run from there also which is basically a farmstay type accomodation for tourists), as a "WWOOFer" as we are referred to, you help out with whatever needs doing, whether that be pruning trees or picking fruit or olives or nuts or weeding or tending animals or helping in the agriturismo with cleaning or cooking. In return you get accomodation (generally inside a house but it was clear that in summer it was sometimes in a tent) and all of your meals...and of course some time off to see towns and sights nearby.

After going through this process (and getting mostly negative responses as being directly after New Years and the Italians normally holiday from Christmas to Epifania on Jan 6th), I ended up at a farm in central Puglia (the heel of the boot of Italy).

I caught the train and was met at the station by the man in the operation of this farm, Toni, who I had spoken to a couple of times to organise my arrival. He drove me straight to the farm, and after arriving and having a small tour and settling in, I began to see it wasnt quite what I expected...

AND THEN, things only seemed to get worse!!

And the highlight of the tour...

The drop toilet!! Outside and in the cold with a flip lid and a bucket of compost that I had to put a shovel of in the hole everytime I used it...

Now before you start saying "Oh Jo, you princess..."...I dont think I am that precious and had thought that there could be these kinds of conditions...AND, as many of you know I was once a Scout and a Venturer and so am not new to this kind of situation, but what made it worse was the COLD (and I write that in capitals because it was BITTER!!) And whenever I went out to that toilet and squatted, the two dogs would come over to see what was going on and would nuzzle at me for some love and attention and some pats...really not the time!! haha

Bob...Toni's dog...

The neighbour's dog who spends all his time and gets fed at Toni's house...

And then there was Toni...I could say a lot about this man, but I think it better to keep it brief, also from the point of view of my karma!! haha

Toni is a man who lives his life the way he wants to which I think is very admirable, as he pretty much lives on basically only things which he grows or creates. Or swaps with friends who have other farms that grow and create other things. He also tries to use as little energy as possible by heating the house only with the fire, that then heats water for the wall furnaces and for the TINY hotwater system that he created...it creates about a bucketful of hot water at a time!!

Toni standing next to one of the other dwellings on his property...there are a few of these and I think that originally when him and his wife bought the property they hoped others would buy parts of it off them and they could form a bit of a commune...like some of their friends in other parts of the region.

It was very interesting to learn things from him about the way he lives and eats and prepares food and approaches life...but in my opinion he was a little TOO closed to other ways of life and other ways of doing things and thought his way was the BEST way...and wasnt very willing to accept the way other people lived and see the reasons for that!!

But the WORST part of my time there was THE COLD!!!!
And my terrible hand and feet circulation didnt help with this!!

I was assured by a few locals that the cold and rain and wet that I experienced was extreme for the region and for that time of year...

Me trying to warm up by the fire...it is very dark as he liked to avoid turning on the light.

But with the lack of heating in the house, it was particularly bad, especially when we returned in the evening, in the dark, and the fire obviously hadnt been on all day and there was NOTHING warm about the house.

This happened quite a few times, as another one of the good things about the time was meeting quite a few of his many friends in the region. A few friends dropped round to say hi and ended up staying for lunch with us, one of whom was a quite elderly german man who sounds as though he has been a bit of a nomad for all of his life and has done and experienced a lot...and he told me many interesting stories when Toni left him with me for about 45 minutes when he went to collect some olive oil from his wife's house.

We also had a meal at the commune which I mentioned before where around 20 people live (including children) and they all contribute to produce food and goods (bread, biscuits and wine for sale) and to make meals for everyone as they all eat together. This was particularly interesting to experience and to meet all of the different people living there...

And we also spent all of Sunday at another friends' house, a young couple who are reconstructing a trulli (traditional Pugliese hut) to live in, off the land...

Oh...and I was there at the farm by myself...so it was just me and him for most of the time...apart from when we were with his friends.

It wasnt all bad and maybe I am making it sound worse than it was, but let me just say I was VERY happy to arrive in Brindisi (from where I was catching the boat to Albania the following evening), to find a room, to have a long hot shower and to wash all my clothes...

The best description is that it was an "EXPERIENCE"!!

Here are a few photos of Toni's property...it was very beautiful and puglia is another very different region of Italy!!

All of the olive trees lined up with the circular clearings below each from the collection process of the olives...

Me and most of the animals...

Despite this experience not being the best, I can still see how wonderful WWOOFing can be and would love to give it another try, and maybe for longer, sometime soon...and DEFINITELY in warmer weather!!

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

Napoli for New Years

2009-01-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Napoli, Napoli, Napoli...Mamma Mia!! What a city!! haha

It is just as crazy as they say...or as I like to say, it is the Hong Kong of Italy...if it is possible!?!

With the fish tubs out on the street and all like Hongkers!!

People, cars, horns, rubbish rubbish rubbish, over-flowing bins and skips everywhere, scooters without helmets, smog, action, dark narrow streets, young people, old people, people from all over the world trying to sell you anything they could, trying to sell you iPhones by walking up to you all sneaky like and mumbling "iPhone, iPhone" in a strong italian/foreign accent, pizza (the Neapolitans' pride and joy and claim to fame!!)...and a fantastic hostel!!

Classic night time street scapes of Napoli.

Once I had decided that Napoli was the place for me for New Years Eve as I figured in a big city with such a big reputation, there must be something going on somewhere for me and there would definitely be a decent hostel that was in the centre of things with other people there for me to socialise with and talk to, I did my homework...

I worked out which were the good hostels and emailed them in italian to ask whether they had anythig special planned for NYE...the one that I ended up choosing, Hostel of the Sun, which had been voted 2nd best hostel in the world for the last couple of years running on the HostelWorld website, assured me that there would be fun to be had; a free dinner for all to eat together and then there would be a group heading out to see what was going on in the centre...

But of course, the first thing that I had to do when arriving in this overwhelming city was to try this thing that they were all so proud of and precious about...their margherita pizza!!

The next day I spent wandering around the crazy streets of the central storico area and watching everyone getting prepared for the evenings festivities of NYE...and this meant that every man and their dog was out and about...also because it was a beautiful day.

Setting up the stage in the main piazza for the free concert that night before and after the countdown.

Everyone buying their fair share of fireworks from small stalls on every street corner. And all day, but especially once the sun went down, the loud bangs throughout the city of fireworks of every shape and size being let off in the streets...and mainly by young children!!

Apparently every year the hospital in Napoli gets a huge number of people injured by fireworks on NYE and so they prepare themselves especially for this!! Haha

The constant bangs actually became a bit scary, especially once it got dark and you were in narrow streets on your own and you didnt know if someone was going to drop one near you as a joke to give you a fright!! But I was fine.

Oh, and on the issue of personal safety for NYE, we were also advised at the hostel to avoid the narrower streets, especially in the Spanish Quarter, around 12am as there was a tradition of throwing things out of the windows at 12, and not just rubbish and paper, but things like fridges and furniture!!

And of course buying that special red lingerie from a street stall for that special someone to discover at the stroke of 12!! HAHA...no jokes!!
Even my host Mum in Siena advised me that I would have to buy something new that was RED to wear for NYE as it was tradition...and she said as though I should already know this, as though this was obvious.

And of course on my wanderings I had to try one of the sweet treats of the region..."sfoglitelle"...which I ended up falling in love with...flaky but crunchy pasty with a thick custard inside and they are traditionally served warm...mmmmmmm!!

Then the evening itself...

Was a bit disappointing as there really werent many people that into the spirit of things at the hostel and so I started drinking by myself...oh what an alcoholic!! haha...until the crazy Napoletan guy working at the hostel started offering everyone wine and they started drinking.

We all had dinner together and I chatted to a few people and then a group of about 9 of us headed out to see the free concert in the main Piazza...and then the countdown and eventually the fireworks show on the water which wasnt until 1.30am!! WEIRD!! haha

Not only were there a few fireworks at 12 aswell but plenty of champagne being sprayed around!!

It wasnt a big or late night and by the time the big firework show started it was drizzling so straight after we headed back to the hostel.

But I did do a lot more whilst in Napoli other than NYE...considering I ended up staying at the hostel for 6 nights in all...(with a break in the middle)

I first took a day trip to Pompeii...woah, what an amazing site...a town that was buried by volcanice ash and a lot of it preserved in this way. Unfortunately most of the many interesting artifacts that have been found, including mosaics, have been moved from the site to the Museum in Napoli.

The weirdest and creepiest thing by far was the plaster casts that were made from the hollows left by some of the inhabitants of the town from their bodies when the eruption had occured...

I got an audioguide for all of the excavations and am glad I did as you wouldnt have known what you were looking at if you didnt. I spent 5 hours there and was absolutely exhausted and starving when I was done as there arent any food outlets within the ruins themselves.

The second day trip that I took was to the world famous Amalfi Coast!! And I was lucky enough to get an amazing day...

The best part of it all was sitting on the bus and driving around the coastal road (which for the Aussies is a bit like The Great Ocean Road but higher and cliffs without beaches...and more spectacular in my opinion!!). I was on a bus and had a ticket that I could get on and off with and so first got off at the town Amalfi...and ended up spending most of my time there sitting in the sun and enjoying the day...

I then reboarded the bus and got off in Positano but by then it was getting late in the afternoon so I looked around a little bit but it was a VERY steep little town and walking down meant walking back up so I didnt go far and hopped back on the next bus for Sorrento to then catch the train back to Napoli.

I think the best way to descirbe the day to you is with photos...so here you go...

And then the break in my Napoli stay that I mentioned earlier was an overnight trip back to Rome...the reason for this was two-fold in that the hostel was already booked out for my fifth night in Napoli and I had only booked for 4 nights and I had missed out on seeing a few things last time I was in Rome, in particular the Sistine Chaple and the Vatican Museums...

So I caught a morning train to Rome with my little back-pack and left my big bag in Napoli and then returned the following evening.

Unfortunately, but also a blessing in disguise I think as it meant I actually looked at everything with my eyes rather than through the lens of my camera, I left my camera in my bag which I had to put in the bag-check when I entered and so dont have any photos of in there, but I spent most of my day there the day that I arrived.

After 2 and half months of italian food I decided Rome was a good chance to have some different food and I found a great african restaurant...but not as good as the ones in Melbourne!! haha

The second day I wandered to the Spanish Steps which I had only seen breifly and from the bottom last time, and being such an amazing day with the sun shining, I had the chance just to chill out and enjoy the sun...oh, and watch all of the italians out parading up and down with their families as it was a Sunday,,,and not to mention all of the tourists...

Not to mention the old man asleep in the sun oblivious to it all...haha

Ci vediamo
Jo xoxo

Perugia...bring on the chocolate...

2009-01-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

Next stop on the "viaggio" through Italy was Perugia...the so called "university town".

I had originally planned on having New Years Eve here as I thought being a university town might mean that there was a bit of young nightlife going on and a bit of fun celebrating to be had. But when working out my movements so that I could cover as much of Italy as possible before I had to get out of the country (when I entered Italy. I only entered on a regular tourist visa which is what you get when you just arrive and they stamp your passport, and those are always for 90 days only and since Mike is coming over to meet up with me in Milan in mid-February, I didnt want to risk over-staying my welcome and then them not letting me re-enter in Feb), I realised that I would need to move south a bit faster than I had originally planned, and that was when the idea of Naples for NYE popped up.

In the end I am glad that I chose to pass through Perugia before and then be in Naples for NYE as perugia was nice but very quiet in that time between Christmas and New Year because obviously all of the university students had gone home to their families for the holidays!!
It was also extremely cold when I was in Perugia and I even woke on the second morning to snow!!

This was the view from the balcony walkway at the hostel when I stepped outside my door...

Talking about the hostel, this was another downer on Perugia and what made it not as enjoyable as other places. The hostel was a HI hostel which are notoriously large, baren, hospital-like and lifeless. They are often too big to even meet or talk to anyone also. This one was also outside of the main town. Thank god they have recently finished construction of the MiniMetro line which has a stop right near the hostel and takes you all the way UP into town...you definitely wouldnt want to walk.

The MiniMetro was little carts (almost like gondola cars) which ran on wheels and a cable on a track that ran above the streets. The carts arrived every couple of minutes and it was very efficient, so I was very impressed with that as the centre of Perugia is high up on a hill and something you wouldnt want to climb to and from everyday. But it was the best way to get back to the hostel and it stopped running at about 9pm every night!!

As with all of the other Italian cities that I have visited it was decorated up all nicely with Christmas lights...

I did a lot of wandering around and exploring when I was up in the town of Perugia and didnt go and see any museums (partly because there werent many, and none of interest to me). On my final evening there I managed to see a beautiful sunset whilst having my ear talked off by a very enthusiastic italian guy who was very excited about me being Australian and being able to talk in Italian...especially without an Aussie accent!! haha

OH...and the CHOCOLATE...so I heard from a girl I met at the hostel in Venice that the thing to do when in Perugia is to visit the Perugina Chocolate Factory to see the museum and do a tour and hopefully taste some choc!! Perugina is now a part of Nestle but is the brand under which Baci chocolates fall amongst many others.

So as soon as I arrived at the hostel (it was a Saturday) I enquired about this factory and the tours and was given a brochure and told it was only open during the week...so Monday my last day it had to be!! The hostel were nice and called and organised it for me and I had to catch a 45min local bus to get there.

However I got there and looked around the museum whilst waiting for some other people to arrive for the tour to start and it ended up that the tour was only of the museum as being holiday season the factory wasnt actually operating at that time. It was interesting though and I did get a few pieces of free choc and a free KitKat!! WOO HOO...haha.

The most exciting part about my time in Perugia was my day trip to Assisi...

Assisi is a beautiful city, but what made it even more beautiful and enjoyable was that it was snowing all morning and so everything was covered in white!!

And I even managed to get a few photos of me cos there were two lovely mexican girls also staying in my hostel room and the night before they invited me to go to Assisi with them the next day. So the three of us spent most of the day together looking around...but I also wandered off on my own for a bit too...

I'll leave you with Assisi train station...the sign just didnt feel right to me...but I know it is fine.

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

I need some gumboots...Im off to Venice for Christmas!!

2009-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well this is what I thought might be the case from what I kept seeing on the news and what everyone kept telling me when I told them that I was going to venice for Christmas...and not just italians and people in Italy but also family and friends.

Well I arrived ready to wade through knee deep water in all the streets and piazzas and there wasnt a drop of water in sight, apart from in the canals of course, where it was supposde to be!!

Apparently there HAD been a problem, and the only evidence of this was the piles of what looked like scaffolding everywhere, particularly in Piazza di San Marco (the main piazza), that I later worked out are what they had used for people to move around on above the level of the water. Apparently they worked out a way to open up the sewage pipes below the streets and drain all the water off. So I had a DRY christmas, never fear!! haha

Venice was BEAUTIFUL!! Everything that I had thought and hoped it would be, not to mention that I stayed in a very comfortable and very different hostel.

The hostel was a very interesting situation in that the owners had gone away for the holidays and left two 21 year old american girls in charge!! haha

One of them had worked there over summer for a couple of months and the owners had called her in The States and asked her to come back for a month over Christmas and New Years, and to bring a friend, to run the hostel and that they would pay them enough to cover their flights...pretty good deal I think!!

The reason that I chose this hostel was because I had had it reccomended to me by a girl I met in Florence who had stayed there and said it was good as it was new and it was a very old and highly decorated building (as you can see in the photos of my room above...not the room I booked mind you but since there were so few staying in the hostel the girls gave me this for the same price!!) AND they not only provide a cooked breakfast every mornign but also cook dinner for everyone every night and so everyone sits down to eat together and it is very social. I thought this would be good for Christmas, and IT WAS!!

Christmas day itself wasnt huge but was just nice. It was a beautiful sunny day but very crisp in the shade.

The girls had said they wanted to do something a little special for dinner, other than the usual pasta for everyone and were talking about a roast but had no idea about the meat as one of them was vegetarian...so OF COURSE, Jo came to the rescue!!

I went out for a wander during the day, knowing that obviously nothing, or not much at least, would be open. There was quite a bit open actually but all VERY touristy!! And obviously since Venice IS very touristy, there were lots of people out and about. It was clear that all the italians were indoors with their families and all the tourists were out having a special lunch!! So I sat by the water in the sun and treated myself to a very expensive and not the nicest meal of Spaghetti Marinara and a glass of wine at one of the touristy restaurants. It was very pleasant...

Later I returned to the hostel to prepare my turkey for roasting!!

I stuffed it with bread and herbs and prunes and roasted almonds, and made a gravy (with the secret ingredient of Vegemite!! haha) and the girls made mashed potato and salad. It all turned out perfectly and was A HIT with all staying at the hostel!!

Oh and I also bought a traditional italian cake 'Pandoro' to share with everyone on Christmas day and we had it for dessert...here I am hacking into it!!

Christmas Eve, some of us made the effort to go and line up for the big midnight mass at San Marcos, the big cathedral. And of course it was big as the italians are all very religious.

It was all very interesting and the singing from the choir was amazing...not to mention it being an amazing church as well...but it was VERY long!! I was very glad I went though as a different experience...also as I have meant to go the last few years in Melbourne but have never made it.

The rest of my time in Venice I spent wandering around the many windy streets which are of course very very narrow and carless, and getting lost, which is very easy!! And I also saw a few very nice museums...in particular the Peggy Gugenheim collection.

I also took the ferry across to Merano, one of the islands close by which is known for its glass making and craft...but it was a VERY cold day and being that time of year and the afternoon nearly everything was closed...

So I will leave you with a few other classic photos I took whilst in Venice...

Oh and my first night there was very foggy!! And if you took a photo with flash they came out looking like it was snowing!!

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

Siamo in arrivo a Ferrara...

2009-01-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

Yep, that is what I heard as my train pulled into Ferrara on Saturday afternoon.

I didnt know much about Ferrara, just what I had read in the guide book and that my host Mum said it was a nice city. I wanted to have a couple of nights in a place that was half way between Bologna and Venice, and I had thought Parma or Modena a good idea but had heard they werent that great from many people...I guess I only wanted to go for the possibility of a "parma" hahaha.

So Ferrara seemed like a good idea and it was close enough to Ravenna for a day trip and I had heard and read lots of good things about Ravenna.

So I did the long trek from the station to the hostel I had booked (the one and only in town), with all of my bags, as Im sure you can all imagine knowing me, ARE numerous, not to mention HEAVY!! (especially with this computer!!)

The hostel was nice enough but EMPTY!! Yep, I was booked into a female dorm and for two of the three nights that I was in Ferrara I was in this massive room all by myself.

Ferrara was a nice city but had nothing that special to speak of...oh, the church, but EVERY italian town no matter how big or small has a pretty impressive church or cathedral or duomo...and of course the closer and closer I got to Christmas, the more markets and people out and about as families I saw.

I had a recommendation from the guys at the hostel for a good local restaurant where they knew the owners and told me to say I was from the hostel. SO my first night being a Saturday night I thought what better chance to go out for a meal, so treked to the other side of town for some local fare and found 'Trattoria degli Angeli' and ate a nice local dish of sausages (skinless) and mash and had some lovely red wine and was looked after very well by the staff.

When I went to leave, the chef in the open kitchen asked where I was from and when I told him Australia he got VERY excited because he had a friend there in Ferrara who was australian and could play the digeridoo and did Aboriginal painting and had promised to come and paint one of the walls of the restaurant cos the chef loved it so much. So I got chatting with them (him in english and me in italian haha) and they made me promise I would come back on my last night in Ferrara for another meal. It was a very nice experience to feel known in such a small town, especially when I am by myself most of the time. I did return and had another very nice meal...oh, and I ordered 'Melanzane alla Parmigiana' (Eggplant Parmigiana) but was informed they were all out...I was very disappointed thinking that it was my chance to have as close to a "Parma in Parma" hahaha

I saw a very good Turner exhibition that just happened to be on, with his works from his time in Italy, some other very impressive galleries and some very wierd modern exhibitions!!

And of course every italian city at this time of year has a nativity scene that they are very proud of. The one in Ferrara was definitely one of the more impressive for where it was placed...in a cave in the moat of the old castle.

I also took a day trip to Ravenna which was magnificent!!!

Ravenna is know for its mosaics, its mosaics in the old churches and they were amazing!!!

Yes, that is ALL mosaic!! And the gold, is real gold!!

There were quite a few churches all with amazing mosaics but I was blown away most by the first one (in the photos above, but they dont do it justice!!). It all made me want to try mosaicing when I get home...Im sure it is not easy, particularly how detailed they had made it.

I had a beautiful weather in Ravenna, well the sun was out anyway. And I did the povo thing to save a bit of cash and had a picnic lunch...tuna, biscuits, tomato and lettuce, oh and water and a pear!! haha

Sometimes some of the best bits of my adventures are what I see when I am on the train between places and it isnt always easy to capture how beautiful the countryside is out a train window...

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

Bologna and beyond...the trip begins

2009-01-06T10:15:00.001-08:00

After some very regretfully hurried farewells at the train station to my beloved Sienese host Mum and Dad, Luciana and Roberto, I jumped on the train to Bologna.

I had had a bit of trouble finding accomodation in Bologna but ended up booking a B&B which seem to very popular in Italy at the moment. The guy who I spoke to about it said he would meet me there to show me in and it ended up that I had a small two bed apartment to myself in the centre of Bologna. It had a small kitchen with fridge and cooktop, bathroom and 2 flat screen TVs (one in the living area and one in the bedroom).

Here is me preparing a much needed meal of NON-italian food on my second night there!!
In order to create this meal, on my second day I went to the food market and bought some fresh fruit and veg and calamari!! I made a calamari stirfry, already had some wine and had some fruit for dessert!! YUM YUM YUM!!

My fruit for dessert was a persimmon which I have fallen even more in love with since being in Siena (well eating raw cos Dad has for a long time made a pretty good persimmon pudding). But here they call them Cachi which I think is a pretty good name for them cos lots of people I know think they are "cacky"...haha

And one day I just HAD to try the gelati of Bologna, and I will tell you it was VERY nice!!! If my memory serves me correctly I had fig and honey and a caramelised nut flavour...

Overall I loved Bologna!! There is a lot happening and a lot of different things to see and do, and it is a university town so there are a lot of young people around. I went to a few really nice bars too and Bologna is where I discovered the joys of "aperitivo". In many cities in Italy, but more in the north, when you go for a pre-dinner drink or an aperitivo, they provide a free buffet of nibblies on the bar which can range from peanuts and chips, to pizza, olives, cheese and small pastries. It is quite easy to fill up on this and not want much for dinner and I think this is what a lot of young people do in these cities as all you pay for is your drinks!!

But Bologna was all lit up with Christmas lights and there was a lot of action in preparation for christmas too.

I did the usual of seeing the Cathedral of the city (always magnificent) and saw a few great museums and galleries too. The best for me though was spending half a day in a VERY good modern art museum. And the main piazza was very large and spectacular...

I also took a day trip to modena but wasnt very impressed by it as a city. I looked at a few things but a few of the museums that I wanted to see were closed. It wasnt a very exciting city...I had thought about staying there for 2 nights but am glad I didnt!!

Oh, one other thing which I love to do in every city is simply wander the small back streets to see what I find and this was particularly good in many parts of Bologna...I even found something that no one had ever told me about...

No one told me that my Gran had opened a bar here!! ;-) haha
Or is it a bar for Grans?!? haha

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

Last week in Siena...no that was 2 weeks ago (or MORE!!)

2008-12-30T12:33:00.000-08:00

Hi all, yes I have been on the move for 2 weeks (or more now!! Ha) now after leaving my beloved adoptive home and family in Siena!! I have seen and done lots and moved quite a way but that will have to wait whilst I tell you about my last week in Siena...

It was a bit of a whirlwind actually, especially as it was a short week due to the public holiday on the Monday. I cant even remember what it was for...maybe all saint day?!? haha

But I spent that day doing some sight seeing around Siena...since I had neglected to do this up until this point....it is too easy to forget when you are living somewhere!!

It was a weird last week at school though, for a number of reasons;
1. There were only four of us left in our class; two older women (Liv from Norway and Susanna from Swizzerland) and another young girl (Mirjam from Swizzerland) and myself

2. We were all finishing on the Firday so our class would be no longer for the following week and so we were all gearing down
3. The school was only holding classes for one more week after we all finished before closing for a few weeks for Christmas and New Years holidays so it was extremely quiet there on the whole
4. The teacher who we had all had for most of our time at the school who was from Naples, had to go home at the end of the week before for a family thing. She was very quirky and took a while to get used to but wasnt going to be back for our final week and left in a very odd way...and so we had a different teacher (one I had had a few times for my second class) ofr our last week and she was great but very different

That is Chica pronounced "Kika" (or Christina), the teacher next to me

Then I had promised my family...or offered I should say, much to the delight but also the hidden concern of my host mother...that I would cook them dinner as a 'thankyou gift'. The response to this suggestion was "Will it be an Australian dinner?"...so I had my work cut out for me, but WHAT IS an Australian dinner I ask you?!? haha

So I cooked Roast Chicken with stuffing, roast potatoes, roast carotts, steamed beans and gravy for them all...and it was my brother Michael who gave me all the instructions for this (via Facebook of course!!), and this made them even more impressed!! It went down well but they thought I had served them too much cos I gave them as much as they would eat in their normal 2 courses, or less even, on one plate and in one course!! haha...BUT, the hit of the night was the Apple Crumble!!!! With ice-cream, or gelato as they call it of course. My host mum couldnt get her head around serving hot with cold, but as soon as her daughter who has lived in Oz and the US before, declared that this is one of her favourite desserts and her son and his girlfriend went back for seconds, she asked me for the recipe!! Unfortunately I dont have any photos of this night cos it was a bit crazy and even later dinner than the normal 8pm!!

For the rest of the week I did a lot of sight seeing in Siena...all the things I hadnt done for the 3 weeks I had already spent living there. These included climbing La Torre di Mangia, the main tour in the main Piazza which has great views of all of Siena.

I also visited the Duomo (big church...exact traslation I promise!!), La Pinacotecca (main art gallery), Museo Santa Maria Della Scala (museum in the old pilgrims hospital), and much more!!

On the Thursday night I went out to the locals' favourite restaurant in town with the women from my class and a few others as a farewell type thing before our last day of school...it was fantastic!!

The last day of school was a bit weird as it was the end of all that was planned for me!! AND I was saying goodbye to all of these people that I had become quite close to in a weird way.

But there was still more with school people on the Saturday as it was a big festival day in Siena...St Lucia's Day and school had organised an excursion to check it all out and to have a bit of an explanation of everything.

SO...St Lucia is the saint of eyes and we went to the church and I had my eyes blessed!! YAY!! As though they arent already stuffed!! haha
And then we wandered as a group through the market that was set up for the festival along the street...there were stalls with lts of bells that were hand painted with motives of the different animals that represent the different areas of Siena...

And many many stalls making the traditional thin chip type biscuits that had an aniseed taste, with automatic machines...

It is yet another festival for lots of sweets and lollies, but this was not a problem for me!! You all know me and my food.

Then Sunday I took a day trip to Pisa...and YES, I saw the leaning tower, but I must admit that the tower definitely wasnt the best thing that I saw in Pisa, I thought the Cathedral was much nicer and more spectacular. So I spent more time looking around in there and the baptistry rather than paying 15 euros to climb the tower.

And yes, like everyone else I had to have one of those photos of me touching the tower...

But are you impressed, they are ALL self-taken!!

Officially as part of what I paid for with the school I was actually suposed to leave my home-stay on Saturday but my host Mum insisted that I stay on to see St Lucias day festivities and then also offered that if there were more things that I wanted to see around Siena, to stay and do day trips...and she wouldnt let me pay her more money too!!

So Monday I then took a short day trip (due to the restrictive buses) to a small mountain village called Volterra which was very cute, but VERY cold and quiet!!

But I think the best part of the day was the bus trip to and from through the gorgeous Tuscan winter countryside!!

So my time in Siena came to an end; my host parents dropped me at the station in a rush to catch my train to Bologna, the start of my travels through Italy...

I think this final photo sums up my time in Siena quite well...umbrellas, wet pavement and christmas lights!!

Ci vediamo

Jo xoxoxo

Home sweet home...for now!! (or THEN!!)

2008-12-17T10:04:00.001-08:00

NEWS FLASH...I am no longer in Siena!! I left this morning...and am now in Bologna.

So now that I am no longer living there...I will show you were I was living all of that time!! HAHA...not deliberately, I obviously just didnt get myself organised enough to take these photos and post them before...

So as I think I have already told you, I lived with a family made up of Luciana and Roberto, the Mum and Dad of about 55 and 60 respectively. Then there are three grown children; Isobella who I think is about 32, has a husband and 14 month-old and lives in Birmingham with her family. She is a translator and so speaks english, but only once to me. She lived in The States and also in Oz for a while, in Melbourne. Then there is Morris who I think is about 30 but is with the military and so was rarely at home. And thirdly there was Ronald who is 28 and often at home for dinner with his girlfriend Elena, who was very nice, spoke clearly to me and was always patient with my slow italian!!

I had what I think used to be Isobella's room, with a single bed, a window, desk and a cupboard and some drawers in a massive wall unit...

And I guess the house was more of a townhouse or large appartment on the ground floor of a big Palazzo which, Luciana told me, is the old train station, I guess from a long long time ago...

The house was the last on the end on the ground floor...

The second window is mine.

And then my trip to school every morning...

Yes, there was lots of umbrellas most days!!

And then on Mondays and Fridays there was always piles of yellow and green garbage bags along all of the streets in the central storico. It was kinda quite funny!! But they were very prompt in coming along to pick all up and the streets were all cleaned very regularly too...Mondays out the front of the Palazzo at about 7.30am...I always knew about it!!

And then the school...

Another old palazzo...what Siena is mostly made up of...and apparently a lot of them are partially or fully empty because property prices are so high and renovation and resotration restrictions are so tight!! Sound familiar?!?

But the building was once a very important school for the area...for deaf and mute children.

And my classroom...it looks a bit plain and boring which is exactly what I thought on my first day but I came to love it...despite it being a bit cold and airy!!

Just to prove that I did study, do work and learn!! See my name at the bottom?!?
The headings say "Have to do...Dont have to do"...it was a set of ten commandments for a good teacher!! haha

I will write more soon about my last week in Siena.

Ci Vediamo
Jo xoxoxoxoxox

One more week of studies...

2008-12-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well actually this is not true, I actually finished at school today but I havent updated you all on week 3 here in Siean, so you are getting that first and then later I will post about my last week of studies...OK?!? Or as they always say here "tutt-ok?!?" meaning 'tutto ok', a mix of italian and english meaning 'is everything ok?'...

So as I said in my last post, the Tuesday after my weekend with Alex speaking aussie english all weekend, was a MASSIVE struggle!! But then the rest of the week seemed to fly by...but what did I do is the question!! haha...not even I can remember.

Tuesday late in the afternoon there was a seminar at school on a very famous and old author called 'Boccaccio' which was a bit of a challenge. He was a writer from the 1300s or thereabouts and so it was all old-school italian, a bit like how old school english is a bit weird and hard to understand even when you are a native english speaker. For those of you who went to school with me and did literature...or have read it...it was a bit like Franz Kafka, particularly in how wierd and gory the tales were...

Thursday we had good 'ol "Happy Hour" again like 2 weeks ago!! This time I chose not to join them all at the first bar with the 'free dinner' which I dont think you could classify as dinner and I dont know that it was worth the money. I stayed home and had dinner with the family, spoke to Mum and Dad on the phone and then headed out and met them all at the second bar 'Bella Vista Social Club'. I particularly wanted to go as one of the girls from my class (Anita) who I also had my fourth hour of school with everyday (and for some of the time just the two of us), it was the end of her last week and she was keen to go out.

Anita is from the north of Italy, so is Italian and has an italian passport but was at school learning italian because the part of Italy that she is from many, many years ago used to be part of Austria and so they still speak german there in majority. It was great with her as we were forced to speak italian as obviously I dont speak german and she only speaks a little english, so we were better with italian and it was good practice!!

Then on the weekend I was quite busy...

Saturday I took the bus to San Giminiano. I cant say that the weather was very cooperative...blue sky one minute, blowing a gale the next, pouring down with rain and next and then sunny and clear sky again!! This didnt effect my view of San Giminiano, I still loved it!!

I had spoken to one of the women in my class on Friday about going as she was planning to go on Saturday too, Suzanna from Swizzerland, and so we saw each other on the bus in the morning and then ended up spending the whole day together in San Giminiano.

We saw the Duomo (Cathedral) with lots of amazing frescos, the pinnacoteca (art gallery) and climbed the tower, we tried to have a gelato at the world famous gelati shop there but it was closed for winter and we wandered the streets and had a look at all the shops.

Views from up on the tower...

We stayed late enough in the afternoon to also see how much more beautiful the town became once the sun went down and all of the Christmas lights were turned on...unfortunately my camera had run out of batteries by this time!!

Then on Sunday...

I took an early train to Lucca...a town a little north-east of Pisa. Once again, Suzanna had the same plans and so we saw each other on the station in the morning and caught the train together but had some problems as we didnt know we had to change trains at the first Florence station and not the main one and so we missed our connection...and this lost us 2 hours in Lucca!! This was worse for me as I was only staying for the day but Suzanna planned to stay overnight. Never-the-less we eventually made it after a short detour in Florence (AGAIN!!) and then I spent the rest of the day by myself enjoyin Lucca as I wanted to move faster than Suzanna as I only had a couple of hours.

Lucca is another gorgeous medieval walled European city!! I loved it and there were a lot of people as it was a long weekend and all the italians had Monday (the next day) off too...so there was quite an atmosphere there...also with the lead up to Christmas and markets and all the rest.

I saw the Duomo...yes, another church!! haha...

The many markets and decorated piazzas...

Had a quick lunch on the move...

The Amphitheatre Piazza...a piazza and surrounding buildings built up on the foundations of an old amphitheatre...with a very interesting and very modern christmas tree in the middle...

And I had a "passeggata" around the old city walls which was beautiful as the sun was shining and then started to go down and it was a great way to see the locals of Lucca and the italian tourists out doing there thing as they were all also having a walk after their long Sunday lunches...

And then I found a slow food market before racing to the train to return to Siena!!

Then on Monday it was a public holiday for one of the saint days but there wasnt much happening in Siena apart from the regular Wednesday marjet, also being open this Monday. I stayed in Siena for the day and wandered the market...AGAIN!!...and then attempted to see some of the Siena sights...The Pallazzo Publico with its museum and the Duomo!!

Ci vediamo
Jo xoxo

Firenze, what a city!!

2008-12-04T07:19:00.001-08:00

So, another week in Italy down...but dont think I am wishing them away, definitely not...infact if anything I wish they werent disappearing SO fast!! But it is always the way...

Well it is definitely cold in Siena now and I am SO thankful for my new coat!! You may even be able to spot it in the following photos...I have been told by a friend from home, who will remain nameless but might be mentioned later in this entry, that it is "very italian"!! haha...I guess you can judge for yourself. But I am definitely curently living by the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!"...very appropriate I think!!

School continues to be challenging but I am definitely still learning and managing to take new information and vocabulary on board which I think is one of the biggest things for learning a new language AND being able to use it. The second most important thing in my opinion is having the courage to speak or at least try to speak, get it wrong and learn from your mistakes...I am happy to say that my spoken italian has improved out of sight and every day I am able to explain more about myself and my life in Australia to my host Mum, who is always in for a chat no matter what time of the day it is.

Luciana (host mum), continues to cook amazing and different food every night...I dont think I have had one exact repeat!! We have had soup as 'primo piatto' (first dish) many nights and also different kinds of risotto, and often for 'secondo piatto' we have some type of thinly sliced meat in a sauce with a side of veggies of some description.

So all of this good food, and having already done it in Sicily, inspired me to do some Tuscan cooking classes here in Siena. This was fairly easy to organise cos the school runs them.
So Tuesday and Thursday night I had 4 hours of cooking class which included preparing 4 courses and then eating it all with some nice wine with the other members of the class, each night.

Tuesday night there was 4 of us...Stefano (a Swiss banker...came good with the amazing wines), an Irish couple (for whom I had to translate at times cos the chef spoke italian and a few words of english) and I. Then on Thursday, there were too many of us and there wasnt really enough to do; Stefano (again), an Australian mother and daughter (from near Morton Bay...crazy Queenslanders!! haha), a family of four Americans from Boston (need I say more...) and I. Oh, and we had different chefs each night which was interesting...

Tuesdays menu consisted of...

Antipasto: Sformatini di melanzane (mini eggplant and roasted capsicum fritattas)

Primo Piatto: Ravioli di spinaci con burro e salvia (hand-made spinach and ricotta ravioli with butter and sage sauce)

Secondo Piatto: Pollo con limone (Chicken with a lemon sauce...much better than Lemon Chicken as we know it)

Dolce: Panna cotta con frutto di bosco (Baked vanilla cream with berries of the forest)

And Thursday...

A saying springs to mind... "Too many cooks spoil the broth"

The menu consisted of...

Antipasto: Crostini di fagioli (Bruschetta with cannelli beans and red onion)

Primo Piatto: Strattecini con funghi e pormodoro (hand-made pasta with a mixed mushroom, tomato and chilli sauce)

Secondo Piatto: Pollo in crostata con sformatini di finocchio (baked chicken in a crust with a side of a mini fennel fritatta)

Dolce: TIRAMISU!! (not as good as Mum's though!! haha)

Needless to say, I rolled myself home both nights!! My stomach has definitely expanded!! haha

My other big excitment for the week was having Alex come and visit me!!

She flew into Pisa from London (for those who dont know...where she is living at the moment), and we met in Firenze (or Florence as we call it...am a bit confused at the moment why we have to have a different name for it in english when the italians have a perfectly good name for it already...same goes for all the places in Italy?!?). Alex arrived early Saturday afternoon in Firenze and we stayed there two nights together.

I had booked a hostel for the both of us and this turned out to be one of the best parts of the weekend...it is definitely true that your accomodation choice can make or break a city for you, it can determine whether your like the city and shape your lasting impression of it...

So the hostel was nice and small and we obviously stayed the two nights...it was VERY centrally located too (only about 10 minute walk to The Ufizzi Gallery). But the best bit was that breakfast AND dinner was included. So both nights all who were staying in the hostel crowded into the little kitchen and sat down to share some wine and a basic meal that was prepared by the owner...

After Alex arrived early afternoon Saturday we went and had a classica Italian long weekend lunch at a restaurant and caught up and everything and then spent the evening wandering the streets of Florence and exploring before returning to the hostel to drink wine and eat with everyone else...As Im sure you can imagine, this turned into a night of too much wine!! haha

Sunday we did more exploring; more little streets and markets, the Duomo (cathedral), the marathon that was on throughout the city and finally The Ufizzi Art Gallery. We were obviously exhausted after The Ufizzi and felt that cheese and wine was a good idea!!

Oh and Alex found a bunching balloon lying around from the marathon and ended up holding onto it and playing with it until they took it off her at The Ufizzi cos she wasnt allowed to take it in.

And on Sunday, we stopped for pizza for lunch...Alex's aim for her 2 and half days in Italy was to consume as much good italian food as possible...I think we were fairly successful!!

Monday we did more wandering and exploring...oh, and of course had the classic italian breakfast of a cappucino and a pastry both mornings...walked up to Piazza Michelangelo where there is a great view over the city and hit the market for Alex to do a little shopping, before grabbing our bags and heading for a nice lunch spot...In fact we liked the one from Saturday SO MUCH that we went back!!

We then raced to the station for Alex to get a train in order to get back to Pisa in time for her flight back to London town...

Bye Alex!!!

It was a whirlwind weekend but SO GOOD to see Alex, a familiar face and be able to speak english solidly for three days....and not only english but Australian english!! haha...I speak english with some others at school sometimes when we dont have the words in italian but none of them are native english speakers...

So I wagged one day of school for the week...and let me tell you, I struggled big time to get back into the italian on Tuesday!!

Ci vediamo,
Jo xox

PS - Havent got around to taking photos of my new house...will do so for next blog.

Siena...it is COLD!!!

2008-11-27T04:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok...yes, I have been very slack with giving you an update since arriving in Siena, my new home!! IM SORRY!!! Grovel, grovel...

BUT, I do think that I have done VERY well so far keeping you all updated!! Agree?!?

I last left you all with me having just arrived in Siena on the Sunday afternoon and being "stanchissima" as they say here!!

The early morning action at Rome station...

Monday was obviously my first day of school, and rudely, I had to be there at 8am!! Yes, not very happy but I had to be there early to sit my placement test and do all the new student stuff...

All of this was fine...I passed with flying colours of course!! haha....but spent my first day, 3 hours, in a class that was too easy. Not a massive problem as the dirctor had said to me when she placed me that if it was too easy to let her know and she would change me. So day 2 I moved class to where I am now.

My class is quite big in comparison to that in Taormina, there are 10 of us this week (2 newies to last week) and there is quite a mix of ages and nationalities. I would guess that the age range is 23 to 55 and there are 3 Swedes, 1 Norwegian, 1 German, 2 Swiss, 1 Scot and...ONE Australian, the only Australian in the whole school at the moment...in fact there is only one other student who is remotely close in proximity to Oz, there is also a Kiwi girl. So this mix keeps things interesting in class with group discussions and comparisons of cultures and countries.

Here is the class mid-week 2...guess the nationalities!! haha...and the teacher!!

Then on Day 3, the director also informed me that I actually had a fourth hour that no one had told me about...there was a bit of confusion with this as I didnt know and was a bit annoyed I hadnt been informed earlier, but the following day I went along to this and it was great as it was with different students and a different teacher and also was more focused on communication.

So I have school every day here from 9am til 1.30pm with a half hour break in the middle...usually a coffee break for all (and a smoko for some)!!

As in Taormina, this school also has afternoon activities most days and in the first week I went to a seminar on the artist Pietra della Francesca (I hope that is how you spell it cos it has taken me a while to even remember this name)...this was very interesting in particular because of the excursion I then took part in Saturday, which you will hear about shortly.

Another afternoon I watched an old and famous italian film 'L'onerevole Angelina', from the 40's I think...in italian of course!! And then after a group of us went for a wine and local produce tasting session organised by the school which was great!!

We tried 3 beautiful Tuscan wines, each with a different type of food to taste.

First it was crostate:

Second was salamies and third was cheese (sorry I got a bit excited about the cheese and salami and forgot to take a photo when it first came out!! haha):

And you dont need to worry about if I have been eating well or not...I have also been having some great lunches and other chances to taste typical Tuscan food!!

Lunch one day...typical tuscan antipasto...and this is just a starter...haha. And of course the obligatory bread and red wine!! haha

AND, of course...my host Mum has been cooking up amazing Tuscan delicacies from further north where she is orginally from, every night for dinner. I am very happy that here I am eating a lot less pasta and more variety of meat and veg and lots of soups too...ooh, I love soup!! Paritcularly in winter!!

Then Thursday night was "Happy Hour"...notice something odd with this?!? Yep, in english!! They call it happy hour too and this is another outing organised by the school but later in the evening for an aperitivo, a little bit of dinner and then to another bar and the "discoteca"...haha

It was a good chance to get to know some of the other students in a less formal setting but still practicing my italian. First stop this night was a bar that also provides a bit of food free of charge when you have a drink...and this was dinner!! ha...yeah, not quite enough but anyway...

After there we went to "Bella Vista" bar...yep, same as 'Beuna Vista Social Club' in spanish. It was really nice and quite different to what I expected of the bars in Siena, but then again it is a bit of a university town. And after there, a few of us paid our 5 euros to go into the 'discoteca', which I had been warned was an experience to be had, at least once!! But luckily, for our 5 euro entry we also got a free drink...so we had our free drink and LEFT!!

It was a fun night and great to get out and socialise with the other students my age and to see some of the social scene. But it was also funny as to start with at the first bar, I was the only girl in the group!!

Then on the weekend:

Saturday, as I said earlier, I headed off on the usual Saturday excursion with a group from school to a town north-east of Siena called Arezzo, which is very quaint.

The reason that the seminar on the artist was so important for this was that we went to the famous church there to see many frescos done by Peitra della Francesa way back when, depicting many religious tales. The reason these are so famous is that Francesa was the first to use oil for a fresco and this made the colours very vibrant...and still to this day, hundreds or even thousands of years on!!

We also had a look at some other churches and parts of the town...and OF COURSE, had to look in the shops..."fare un'po di shopping" as they say!! haha

The main street closed to traffic like Bourke St in Melbourne, was all decorated for christmas already and at certain times, before lunch and then much later after when all the shops reopened, there were lots of italians out looking in the shops, wandering up and down and generally parading!! haha

But we had glorious weather in the morning...well sun anway, not that warm!!...which turned horridle in the afternoon with the clouds circling and a very cold wind.

We had a beatiful traditional lunch in a small Trattoria...pasta made in-house, bread, wine, coffe and even a bit of tiramisu!!

Here is the gang...with the teacher Andrea on the far left.

Then Sunday I headed off by myself to try to make it to some clothing factory outlets I had heard about just outside of Florence. My teacher had told us about them and that they were accessable by bus from Florence and were quite close, and it is all Italian brands for MUCH less!!

Unfortunately for me, I was unsuccessful in making it out there due to bad bus connections on a Sunday and I would have gotten back to Siena VERY late Sunday night. I did however acheive my mission for this trip, in Florence. In relation to the title of this post, I bought a NEW COAT!!! haha

Yes, I didnt bring a warm coat with me and now that the weather is freezing...and not even winter yet...I needed a warm warm warm coat, AND I found one!!! YAY!!! It is duck feather and down!!

I also found the Florence market and did a bit of shopping there too which was lots of fun...

But once I was done and my tummy was rumbling and my fingers had well and truely turned white, I headed to a locally recommended trattoria for a beautiful lunch...and a wine of course!! The best thing for warming up...haha!!

I returned to Siena Sunday evening feeling very happy with myself...new coat and all!!

My host Mum was very pleased to see that I had found something warm too...

Ci vediamo

Jo xox

Taormina...been there, done that!!

2008-11-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

Yep, thats right, I am no longer in Sicilia!!

After a 14 hour journey departing Taormina by bus at 10:15pm Saturday 15th November, I then arrived in Siena at 1:45pm Sunday 16th November.

I caught the local bus from Taormina down to the station in the town next door which is right on the water and then caught the over-night train to Roma. The train arrived in Roma at 9am and from there I hopped on an express train to Firenze (Florence). I arrived in Firenze at 11:20am and then had an hour before the local train to Siena.

I arrived in Siena to be met by the husband in my host family, even though I thought my "host Mum" would be there...as it turned out she had to stay home to look after her grandson...who is gorgeous mind you and now keeps following me around apparently because I am fair like his Mum...haha

So I made it and I am now exhausted!!

But prior to all of this I had my last week in Taormina, which was a bit of a whirlwind!!

As I thought might have been the case when I first decided to study in 2 places, I was just really feeling settled and in the groove of life in Taormina and I had to uproot myself for a new home...but at the same time, I am also happy to have a change of scenery and to have some new challenges ahead of me for the next month. I think I had also explored about as much of Sicily as is possible when you only have the weekends and are living on the eastern side.

So after a busy second last weekend of excursions and wineries and adventures, I planned out my final week with quite a few things that I wanted to do before I left Taormina...

Oh, and I also got another new house mate at Antonella's...Phillip, a 38yo South African now living in Swizerland who can speak very good italian from working in an italian speaking restaurant in Swizerland, but wanted to understand the mechanics behind it all...

This is him and I on my last night after dinner with Antonella's buddah...a story that will have to wait for another time...

We had beautiful weather nearly all week, so Monday afternoon I followed Danielle's lead and tried to go down to the beach in the afternoon for a swim after a bit of a walk...but as it turned out I took the wrong route, but still managed to find some beautiful views and scenery...which really isnt hard in Taormina!! haha

Tuesday, once again more beautiful weather all day and due to not finding the beach the evening before, I went for an early morning walk before school down to the beach and had a swim which was a FANTASTIC way to start the day...particularly when we were finding that the weather is always nicer in the morning and when we are in class and then by the afternoon the sun is gone and then it starts to get dark at 4:45pm!!

Wednesday morning I met Danielle outside her apartment at 8am and we walked up to the weekly market on one of the main roads to the upper outskirts of Taormina. It is mainly clothing and household items but also a bit of food and I had only heard about this market the week before and so thought it worth a look.

Oh and there was a VERY clear view of Etna on our way to the market...with snow on top now!!

On the way we stopped at the daily food market and bought a fresh fish for our dinner and then whilst at the other market werent tempted by any cheap clothes or boots but bought what we thought was fresh rocket and also some salted ricotta to go in a lentil dish which Danielle knew, with our fish.

Once again a beautiful day, so after class I walked up to a castel on one of the surrounding hills but unfortuantely it always seems to be closed to the public, even the grounds surrounding...but it was a nice walk none-the-less and i was able to do a loop back to my house.

So I got more great views of Taormina!!

The castel at the top of the hill that I walked up to.

So Wednesday night I cooked dinner with Danielle at her shared appartment organised by the school as I was curious to see what these apartments were like. It was very big but old and filled with miss-matched old furniture and was a bit on the cold side!!...even for Taormina!!

Our dinner was great though and we had bruschetta followed by the fish with the lentil dish...and some GREAT wine!!

Thursday afternoon before the rain hit once again, I went back to the Teatro Greco (Greek Amphitheatre) and sat and did a drawing of the magnificent view to give to Antonella as a gift to say thankyou...Im sure you all know how I feel about making gifts!! It is the best way!!

I then went along to a cheese tasting session at school which was fantastic!! We got to try about 8 cheeses and Pepe spoke a little about them and the differences and which were stronger and which more "dolce" (sweet, subtle).

Friday was obviously my last day of school and being amazing weather again, I went for another morning walk and swim. It was a little sad to say goodbye to school and all the teachers!! As they are all fabulous!! Friendly, helpful and very welcoming!!

I had hoped to go out for lunch with some of the other women who had been in my group for a while and were also finishing up but they had to go to Giardini Naxos, so after puddling on the net for a bit I went out for lunch with american Danielle.

In the afternoon I returned to the beach to search for my necklace which I had lost whilst down there in the morning for my swim...with no luck!! But I did get some nice photos...

In the evening Danielle, Danielle and I went to a restaurant called Tiramisu for dinner which is a favourite of the locals'. And it WAS great!!! I didnt take photos this time but I had pepper mussles which were AMAZING...and of course, I had to try the Tiramisu...another fabbo dish!!

My last day in Taormina, Saturday, was crazily stormy and perfect for being inside and packing bags and cleaning my room...

And then an amazing sunset, and clear view of Etna!!

I then had one last amazing dinner of pasta, fish, beans, salad and the mandatory bread with Antonella and Phillip whilst (as per usual) the two boys came and went!!

Antonella, buddah and I!! hahaha...I wasnt really looking at my prime with my red face from my hot shower in preparation to go straight to sleep once on the train.

Ci vediamo
Jo xoxox

I love Sicilian food and wine!!

2008-11-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

Ciao a tutti all’inizio della mia ultima settimana a Taormina...
(Hello to all at the beginning of my final week in Taormina....)

I have just finished having a cassata whilst sitting on my bed, writing my blog and watching ‘Grease’ the movie in Italian!! What a start to a week...haha

And what a jam-packed week I have just had too!!

I decided last week, what with my love of food and not having any opportunity to hang in the kitchen with Signora Antonella at my house since it is such a small kitchen, that it was high time that I did some cooking classes!! And as it turned out my school runs these too, separately to the language classes but with one of the Italian language teachers, Ketty, at her apartment in Taormina very close to school. Obviously the classes are completely in Italian but this just helped me with learning more of the language.

The classes began at 6pm each evening on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday...and each night I didn’t get home til about 10pm or later, which meant that I had to be organised with my homework (which we get every night). I planned to take photos every night of what we made but forgot...so you will all have to use your imaginations.

Each night we made three courses or three dishes:

The first night for the Primo Piatto (first course) we made Pumpkin Risotto with cheese melted through and for Secondo Piatto we made Cotoletta alla Messinese (lightly breadcrumbed veal schnitzel) and stuffed capsicums.

When all of the food was ready (which was quite late...but the Italians eat late in comparison), Ketty’s partner Nico, ate with us. We ate and drank some local wine and chatted over dinner...it was very satisfying to be able to participate in a big way in a conversation completely in Italian with two locals!!

On the second night, we prepared Pasta con il Cavolfiore (pasta with a cauliflower creamy paste...it sounds grose but was delicious!!) for Primo Piatto and then Polpettine Agrodolce (sweet and sour meatballs) and Zucchine Arosto (grilled zucchini) for Secondo Piatto. We also prepared a ‘dolce’ for the following night because it needed to spend a night in the fridge. It was Gelatina al Limone (fresh lemon jelly). And once again Nico ate with us.

On the final night we prepared Bruschetta for Antipasto, Pasta all’oeliana (Sicilian style pasta with tomatoes, tuna, eggplant and capers) for Primo PIatto, Pesce Al Cartoccio (whole fish baked in foil) for Secondo Piatto with a side dish of Frittelle di Cavolfiore (cauliflower fritters). Then for Dolce we ate the Gelatina al Limone that we had made the night before...quite a feast!! Not to mention also the local wine and the Marsala for after.

For the final night, the Director of the school came and ate with us at the last minute as he is friends with this couple. It was a bit weird having him there and definitely put the pressure on a bit but was also good as they talked normally to each other and it really tested me trying to keep up with a normal Italian conversation...but Nico was very helpful and often stopped the conversation to explain to me what they were talking about.

This is Ketty, Alessandro (the director) and Nico (L to R) preparing the Secondo Piatto and removing the fish bones on the last night, in Ketty and Nico’s apartment.

All up the classes were great and you will all have to come to my place for a Sicilian feast when I return. I will even have to track down some Sicilian wine as the wine here is wonderful!!

So cooking classes seemed to take up most of my week and also meant that I didn’t really get to spend much time with a new girl at school who moved into the same house as me on the Sunday before my classes. Christina is Portugese, 19 years old and speaks about 5 or 6 languages!! She only stayed for a week but this was about her sixth time here in Taormina and she always stays with this family...but I saw her every now and then at school and then we all had dinner together and went for a “passegiata” (the Italian style of going for a stroll, which is more of a parade up and donw the main street!!) with Antonella on Saturday night.

I did however spend a lot of time with the one and only other Australian at school at the moment, and Danielle is also a Melbournian but currently living in London. For the first time on Friday we went and had a granita at a cafe that had been recommended to us as the best granitas in town and possibly in Sicily (they are a speciality of Sicily). I had espresso and almond and she had strawberry and almond and they were fantastic...so fantastic that we returned the following day and both had a mix of raspberry and mulberry!!! They were SO good and clearly made from very fresh fruit!!

Saturday I headed off with Pepe and four others from school on the regular Saturday excursion, but this time we went to Randazzo, a small town a little north and west of Taormina, a little inland and on the northern side of Mt Etna, and also to Castiglione, an even smaller place close to Randazzo but perched up on a hill in a beautiful rolling valley.

Whilst walking around Randazzo we saw some great things like this elderly man having his weekly shave at the barber...

We also looked at some great old churches made from the lava rock of Mt Etna which is widely used for building in the area, and Pepe also told us lots of other interesting information. We then went and had a look at the puppet museum which was really interesting. There were with rows and rows of traditional Sicilian puppets hanging from the ceiling that were half life-size and over 100 years old!!

After Randazzo we hopped back in the car and headed to Castiglione.

There Pepe took us to a great local eatery where we ate fresh house-made pasta with mushrooms which are currently in peak season and again some great wine and coffee.

After our late lunch we then climbed to the highest point in town and looked at the magnificent view across the valley...

Spot the woman in the top floor of her house doing her ironing...I think I wouldn’t mind doing ironing if I had that view!!

On Sunday I hired a car with Danielle and another Danielle at school who is American from California and we headed off to check out some of the local wineries that had been recommended to us. It was quite the experience...

We picked up the car and started by having a classic italian breakfast of cappucino and a cornetto at a bar on the beach in the town next to Taormina, Giardini Naxos.

We had had 2 vineries reccomended to us by the teachers at school who organises all of the activities (Pepe). One was on the southern side and one on the northern side of Mt Etna, and then we had also discovered that there was a food and wine harvest festival on is a small town right next to Taormina.

We headed to the furthest winery first on the southern side of Etna and had A LOT of trouble finding it!! When we did eventually find it, we could barely find a park, even for our little blue FIAT Panda!! haha. When we went inside to a VERY full restaurant and asked to taste some wines we were told "Look at all of this confusion. Im sorry but there is no way you can taste wines now when we have 140 people here to have lunch" and the majority of them were on motorbikes or scooters!!

So we cut our losses and headed for the second one on the northern side of Etna and arrived there to a very QUIET carpark. We were starving by this time and followed the signs to the restaurant to only peer through the window to see what looked like a private function, so we walked away to only be chased by a man asking what we wanted...

In the end after a lot of negotiation and explain what we were after and them telling us it wasnt possible as they were having a family function for a christening, they then invited us in to join in with the family lunch!!

We sat down at our own table were poured wine and then broughyt endless plates of lovely Sicilian food!! We even got to have some christening cake (or proffiteroles to be exact)...and got to try two of the wines which were VERY nice!! We were stuffed and that was even with declining the main course!!

Needless to say, we each bought a bottle of wine to kind of say thankyou for letting us join in and also as the wione was amazing...and it was only 6 euros a bottle!!

Since this lunch went until after 5pm, we then didnt make it to the harvest festival...but we had a very nice and interesting day none-the-less.

Here I am with our little blue Panda!! haha

Ci vediamo
Jo xoxo

PS - Oh, on the Sunday I also found a very interesting product whilst we were in a food shop in Giardinin Naxos...

Yep, chocolate covered biscuit sticks called 'Jo!'...haha

Week one in Taormina...check!!

2008-11-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

REMINDER: This is an old post re-published because I was stupid and deleted the original!! haha

Ciao a tutti da Taormina... e si, penso mia italiano e meglio!! Translation for the non-italian speakers or understanders: And yes, I think my Italian is better!!

I guess you would hope it would be with learning new words every day and being forced to speak Italian (and no English) at home and at school...we get told off in class if we speak English as obviously not everyone has English as a first language.

There were 4 other women and myself in my class last week, but all from different countries; England, Japan, France and Germany!! But week two will bring a slightly different group as there are new people starting every week. I have had a fairly full week of settling in and getting myself sorted out but also trying to make the most of my free time from school;

On the first day of school, last Monday, I met another guy (Chris) who was also from Melbourne but currently lives in London. He was starting also but only for a week and didn’t know any Italian already...so we ended up hanging out a lot this last week and were each others break from speaking Italian.

He left yesterday (Sunday) back to London and so we went out Saturday night to a very popular bar with the locals, particularly those who enjoy posing, but I think this is nearly all Italians!! Haha. They were all very entertaining.

Chris and I also caught the cable car down to the beach on Wednesday as it was really warm and even contemplated swimming, but we took too long over our late lunch of seafood, salad and wine on the edge of the beach!! It is definitely a hard life!! ;-)

Otherwise during the week after school I was having lunch with and getting to know others from school and that is always good as normally we speak Italian the whole time as it is good practice and it is the only language we ALL share.

On Friday I went out for dinner to a fantastic restaurant which specialises in fish and seafood. A lot of Sicilian dishes are based around seafood as it is so readily available and SO fresh...the meal was amazing!! And Sicily has great local wine which is reasonably priced too!!

On Saturday I went out on a day excursion with a group that was organised by school. Each week they have activities organised for every afternoon, whether they be group lunches or dinners at a local restaurant, seminars or lectures on italian culture, group games like scrabble, watching an italian film or going on a walk or small excursion around Taormina. Then every Saturday they run a day trip to somewhere on the east side of Sicily.

Last Saturday we went almost to the most southern tip of Sicily to a Nature Reserve called Vendicari which is on the ocean and then after that to a small town called Noto.

Vendicari was beautiful and despite it being a bit cool when we left Taormina, it was quite hot by the time we got down south as the environment and climate is also quite different down there; more dry and arid.

We were driven to these places by one of the teachers from school, Pepe, who seems to know a lot in general about many places in Sicily, if not Italy. He acted as our tour guide and spoke to us a lot (in italian obviously) about the flora and fauna, what different buildings and remains were and what we were looking at. For the parts that I could understand, it was all very interesting!! haha

To begin with Bepe explained to us about where we were and about the landscape. We then basically went on a bit of a walk and a wander for a couple of hours and we stopped and talked about different things along the way, like this seaweed that is common in the area...

Yes, I do not tell a lie, this IS seaweed...or a seasponge...just different to what we get in OZ. But it looks very different where it has gathered on the beach, a bit like a bunch of pebbles...

Vendicari is a place where they used to have a tuna collection farm type thing, which they call 'la Tonnara'. Remains of this structure still remain and they are currently in the process of restoring it. Bepe told us a lot about this and the process for collecting tuna, which were then killed in a less stressful way for the fish than today.

We then stopped part way for our packed lunches...nothing like at home though. Mine was un panino con prosciutto, provolone, pormodoro e oregano made by the very sweet old man at the mini-mart for €2.80!!

After Vendicari we drove to Noto a small town a little further north with a lot of amazing old buildings which were constructed using the local stone which is a very rich yellow and ochre colour. A lot of these buildings have been restored in recent years and so the town looks even more spectacular.

The weather was quite up and down both with changing locations and just cos that seems to be how the weather is in Sicily. It was a long day but nice to see some areas outside of Taormina.

Then on Sunday afternoon I decided to do a bit of exercise and see where my street (the flight of endless stairs) took me cos it just continues off every map that I have...

I ended up walking all the way up to a small settlement nearby on the top of the hill behind Taormina called Castelmola. I had originally thought I would do that on Sunday but the downpour of rain put a dampener on that idea...literally!! But funnily enough I made it there anyway.

Since it is up on the hill behind Taormina, there were great views and it was quite a strenuous walk but only 20min for me. It was also beautiful as I got up there just before dusk and so saw it all start to get dark...needless to say it was a bit dangerous trying to walk back down again!!

Me wondering how much further it is...

Yes, that is a massive cruise ship parked in the bay at Giardini Naxos...

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

This is the ultra naughty “Cat” trying to climb up me and he continues to pester me whenever I am outside or tries to run inside my room or through my door at any chance...but there is NO WAY!

Oops...

2008-11-05T05:49:00.000-08:00

I accidentally deleted my post about my second week in Taormina whilst in the throws of trying to get the most recent one published!! :-(

I do have a copy of this post and will republish it in a few days once most people have read the latest and dont get confused when they come to the blog after seeing the alert and find the same entry.

So if you havent read the 'Week 2' post, come back soon as I will put it back up!!

xox

Moon Jumping...

2008-11-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

Madonna mia!! Ho ancora solo due settimane a Taormina!!

Yes, my god, I am halfway through my stay in Taormina!! As they say time flies when you are having fun...and ‘fun’ is definitely an understatement for the weekend that I have just had!!

First things first though, my week at school...

I had a good week and once again feel like I learnt a lot, but maybe not as much as the first week. Becoming quite sick with a cold on Tuesday and suffering that for the rest of the week I don’t think helped, even though I tried to have a fairly quiet week.

So Monday we had more new students start at school and our class grew from 3 to 6 which was a bit disappointing as it meant less one-on-one time for each of us, but good to have different people with different knowledge and experience in the group.

As per usual there were plenty of activities planned for the week and I took part in a walking tour of Taormina (which the school only runs on the weeks when new beginners start, which is every 2nd), went out for a group dinner, attended a seminar on The Mafia and wanted to go on the group walk to the beach one afternoon but missed out which I think was a good thing as I needed rest!!

For the last few weeks in town there has been a little bit of visible lead up to Halloween, but more importantly to something which Sicilians celebrate (or commemorate) the day after our favourite american excuse for eating lollies (haha...not!!). November 1st is ‘Il giorno dei morti’ or ‘The day of the dead’....which seems like an odd celebration to me, but basically from what I can gather it is a day to respect dead relatives, to visit the cemetery and to spend time with family.

I guess the only real visible sign that this day was impending was the traditional biscuits for this day in all of the pasticcerias, which you can see en-masse in the window of one shop I pass every day. These biscuits are supposed to represent the bones of the dead...weird!! But I decided I should try one and had it with a cuppa after dinner whilst doing my homework...it tasted very similar to gingerbread but was more chewy.

This one wasn’t in the shape of a bone like some in other shops but of a person?!?

Despite this public holiday for the Sicilians, Patrick, Danielle and I decided to hire a car for the weekend and to check out Syracusa on Saturday and then Mt Etna with another woman, Turid, on Sunday. Patrick is Dutch and Danielle is another Melbournian currently living in London and are at Babilonia (the school) with me.

Saturday morning we set off at 9am in our hire car for Syracusa with Patrick in the driver’s seat, what with having much experience on European roads, he was definitely the best candidate for this role!!

We had perfect weather...clear blue skies...and so whilst taking a minor detour, stopped to check out the ocean and it was amazing!! This is Danielle checking out the vast ocean and lamenting for Australian beaches!!

We made it to Syracusa and onto the small island, Ortygia, that is the old town which is were all the action is, and there definitely was action what with not only the usual weekend food and clothing market but also public holiday festivities.

We walked around and looked at all of the lovely narrow streets and windy laneways, had a look at the beautiful old cathedral, outside of which was a very cute little boy struggling to get his soccer ball out of the bag on the back of his bike...

And looked at the coastline of Syracusa with it’s vividly blue water.

After this we headed off this little island to look at the big park (which ended up being closed due to the public holiday), but on the way stopped to have a look at a very intreaguing looking building that we had seen on the skyline from Ortygia, which turned out to be a very modern and very large church.

We stayed and had a drink in the main square and then headed back to Taormina for dinner. It was a late return and we had some dramas with our meal but that story can wait for another day!!

Then Sunday, we started even earlier and headed off for the mighty Mt Etna at 8am!! It isn’t too far from Taormina and was a fairly easy drive there...thanks to Patrick having so much experience.

For those who don’t know, Mt Etna is an active volcano on Sicily. And the night before when we were driving back from Syracusa we could see the lava glowing on the top from the Autostrada!!

Once we had worked out what the options were for going up, who we needed to pay and what we needed to do, we booked into a 5 hours tour where you take the gondola a third of the way up, then take a 4WD bus up another third and then trek the final third to the top to see three of the main craters in action!! There was then the option to go down the way you came up or to walk down...Patrick and I convinced the other 2 women to walk down.

Fortunately, since none of us really had the right gear for this kind of trip (and I think this made the guide VERY sceptical of our abilities), a fairly serious mountain climb, and in 0 degree temperatures with 80km winds mind you, they provided us with snow jackets, and proper high cut walking boots...otherwise we would have definitely froze and the other 2 women would have had very sore feet in their runners!!

We left the bottom at 10:15am, caught the gondola and then the 4WD bus. Once we reached this two-thirds point, we realised just how much further and higher we had to go!!

How cool do I look in my jacket and sunnies...the hood was even a necessity at this height with the wind blowing quite strongly.

We climbed a bit...

It looks hot but DEFINITELY wasnt!!

And the guide spoke a bit...

And we climbed some more...

And some more...

And more still...until we made it up to the main craters that were steaming away and smelt extremely sulphurous!!

Patrick, Daniell, Turid and I at the first crater...

We were suffocated by suphur as we walked around the craters and were told by the sicilian guide with his thick accent in his broken english "No photo...from here, no stop and no photo...indian file, 50 centrimeters to next person!!"...he was literally yelling at us!!

Noted how small the people are in this photo and that gives you some perspective...

The craters were amazing...but the wind!!!...it nearly blew us off the lip of the mountain which was only a meter or 2 away...it was a bit scary!!

You can see how strong the wind is here by the direction of my hair!!

Then we headed down...possibly the most fun part and this is where the moon jumping comes in!! To get down the steeper and softer parts that are very similar to sand dunes, the best way was to run, or bound might be a better description!! If you have ever bounded down a long, steep sandune you will know what I am talking about.

Here is everyone running down in file...but the photo doesnt do the movement and fun of it justice, so here is a little video, I hope it works for you all and sorry for not being up right way.

During the run down with Turid following behind...

We walked back across the lava flow from 2002/3 to the hut where the bus originally dropped us and had the food we had each taken for lunch. Then we commensed the climbed down...well after a little detour UP!!! onto another smaller crater... (and I thought it was all supposed to be down on the way back!!)

This is on the edge of the crater looking down...what a view!!

The rest WAS down and we manged it all very quickly with "moon jumping" (the name I have given it) the rest of the way.

When we returned at 4:30pm, we were very black, tired and in desperate need of a toilet!!

I forgot to mention about the dirt and the terrain...obviously since it is such an extreme environment with having been burnt but also having snow up there all year around, the ground is black rubble and rocks and sand-like stuff with no vegetation or colour (apart from yellow in places from the sulphur). And this is why I took many photos in black and white as it didnt make much difference.

So by the time we got home later that evening, we were all looking very tired and dirty. Our clothes were covered in black dust... as were our faces!!!

Me back at home pre-shower!!

It was an AMAZING experience that I would reccomend to all!!

Ci vediamo,

Jo xox

Taormina...FINALLY!!

2008-10-24T00:27:00.000-07:00

I flew into Catania, which is about 40min south of Taormina in Sicily, early afternoon on Sunday 19th. I then had a transfer from the airport which had been prearranged and was dropped directly to the end of my new street.

The reason I was dropped at the end of my street was that the street is a long flight of stairs...

Then...to get to the house that I am living at, from the street (or flight of stairs), I go in an iron gate...

Up some more stairs...

And some more...

And more still...

And then into the gate on the terrace...

And my room is the first door on the right. So my room, which is kind of a Granny Flat downstairs from the rest of the house, is entered directly off the terrace. This terrace has a great view which is one of the first things I noticed.

Now, this is not an easy route and everyone that I have witnessed return to here is puffing and panting...And you need to remember that the first time I was doing this with a VERY full travel pack and day pack!! Plus it took me a while to work out which house I was going to and ended up climbing up and down all of the stairs a few times!!

And this is my little world in Taormina, mio piccolo mondo...my room!!

Taormina, as a later found out, is a town full of cats and I have heard many reasons for this but here are the two that live at the house. The little black one is called Negro I think but I like to call him “Cat”, which is fairly obvious in English, but in Italian cat is gatto and cheeky or naughty is cattivo and this gatto is very cattivo and thus...cat!!

So Cat likes to come into my room and be mischevious and climb things and play with things and I let him...he even curled up on my lap one night whilst I was doing my homework. But the way he repayed me, I discovered in the morning...I now have a trail of red dots down my arms...fleas!!

Cat gets inside love NO MORE!!

But, Taormina is beautiful!!
It is a quaint little town which sits on a hill and so all the streets are very narrow and reasonably steep. It is quite a touristy town and so the main street that runs east-west is full of souvenire, high fashion (trust the Italians), restaurants and gelatarias!!

Halfway along the main street is a big open piazza which looks out to the Gulf of Naxos in the Ionian Sea. It is a great view and this was one of my first impressions of Taormina when I went out for a walk in the town once I was unpacked and settled on my first day.

My walk to school every morning only takes 10 minutes and I am living quite out of town compared to most.

The walk is really nice, down through some of the windy, narrow streets that lead to the lower parts of town.

My school is in a nice old building on 4 storeys. It also has a terrace on the top floor which you can sit out on before or after class and have an espresso of cappuccino made by the in house barista from the local bistro. Through this bistro we can also order delivered lunch for discount.

Classes start at 9:30am, run for 4 hours and then finish at 1:30pm. We have 2 hours of grammar and then 2 hours of communication and talking. It is VERY challenging but constantly being surrounded by it does help but also makes it VERY tiring!!

This is the terrace at school...look at that view!!

Taormina also has a cable car that goes down to the beach which I went on for the first time the other day as it was sunny and warm and I headed down there for a late lunch and a possible swim which never eventuated.

And...the food...which Im sure you all knew I would have to write about!! haha

So the house I am living at is owned by Signora Pino and her two sons, 15 and 11, live there with her...oh and the 2 cats and 2 budgies.
Signora Pino puts breakfast out for me every morning before school which normally consists of bread of some description (but usually very fresh), butter, jam, honey and nutella, tea and now that I asked for it once, an apple also.

She also cooks me dinner every night which has always been very nice and different each time. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of any of this food because I think they would all think I was bonkers...which I kind of am when it comes to food!! Haha

Often there will be a main pasta dish of some sort and then there will be a meat whether it be chicken or veal or squid and another side dish like marinated eggplant. There is always salad and always bread too, so there is no way that I am going to go hungry!!

Often it is just me and her sitting down for dinner, but when they are home the boys too.

I have met some really nice people at school and there is also a constant turn-over of students as most only come for a week or 2. The school also organises activities for most afternoons of the week and also outings for the weekends. This Saturday we are doing a day trip to Noto and the Nature Reserve of Vendicari right near the southern most point of Sicily. I will report back in my next post.

I think that is enough for now. I will give you more details about Taormina as I learn it’s secrets myself.

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

This is me working on by blog on my laptop up on the terrace at school.

Roma

2008-10-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

After an uneventful journey from HK to London, some time at Heathrow and then London to Rome, I finally arrived at my accom at 11:30pm Rome time which was something like 5:30am my body clock time and was feeling on another planet!!

When I woke and could assess my surroundings a little better I was in not a hostel but an ex-convent with all women (mostly older) that was very clean, comfortable and quiet. It wasn’t your normal hostel experience but it was an experience!! It was in a good part of the city that was a walkable distance to everything.

After pulling myself together with a proper shower, breakfast and a proper coffee!!, and despite the drizzle, I dragged myself out to see some sights on the way to getting a mobile phone for my stay in Italy.

I saw Piazza Navona with the big central fountain covered up for restoration work and then the Pantheon. Who puts a McDonalds in one of the beautiful old shop fronts next to the Pantheon...they get into every nook and cranny, it’s disgusting!!!

Then with a late lunch of ‘una salume e provolone pizza’ (not the pizza we know but flat pizza bread used to make a sandwich) and a drink, I sat by Trevi Fountain and took it and all that was happening around me in. There were lots and lots of tourists and I think they were more interesting than the fountain...haha!!

Eventually I made it to the main shopping street which I had been sent in the direction of when I had asked where best to find a mobile phone shop. After wandering for a long time through many streets of very flash looking shops and stumbling upon a few other sights like the Spanish Steps, I found the Vodafone shop. After much waiting in line and attempting a little Italian, I now have a “telefonino” as the Italians call them but it is VERY confusing when Vodafone sends me automatic messages in Italian!! haha

So for those of you who want to text message, or even call me I guess but it will cost you lots, my phone number for you is +39 3405 670 465.
And I actually have a cool phone now rather than the little piece of hopeless plastic I had at home in Melbourne.

Day 2 was a day for the Vatican City. I decided to follow a tour outlined in my Lonely Planet which was great. I started at some castle...still not sure whose...ha!! Im sure many of you who have already been to Rome are yelling at your computer screens the answer right now!

I then walked up Via della Conciliazione, along with all the other tourists, to Piazza San Pietro. WOW...what a space!! Even more confronting with the queue to get into St Peter’s Basilica running almost around the complete perimeter!!

Once again, the other tourists in the line and around me were (for most of the time) more interesting than the buildings themselves. Well considering I was there, but thankfully moving steadily, for an hour, I had time to study those in front of me in the line...Im still not sure what possessed the guy in front of me to think he had a good haircut because he definitely thought he was pretty cool!!

Yep, a blonde curly mullet that was super short on the sides!!

And then once inside the basilica and looking around, I started to wonder if I was being followed by blonde mullets...or is it the flavour of the month in other countries?!?

But what an amazing building and space St Peter’s Basilica is. So much marble and sculpture and gold and fantastic paintings...oh, and MORE tourists!!
Oh, and by the way, of course I am not counted as a tourist!! Haha

After equal time to that queuing in there, I felt overwhelmed and knew it was time to leave. My book walking tour then directed me to a great local eatery where I feasted on antipasti misti served by the owner, with a beer of course.

And my great victory for the day was then talking in broken Italian and a little English to the 2 local men sitting at the table next to me about a variety of things. The way that got started was them offering to take the above photo for me.

With VERY full belly, I headed to the Vatican Museums to find that the Sistine Chapel (what I wanted to see most) was closed and so I figured even though the rest were open better to come back when I return to Rome.

So plan B was to head to the Colosseum. I caught the train there and once there I ended up getting roped into paying extra to do an English speaking tour but at the same time jumping the queue to get in. In the end this was a great idea as we also got a free tour of Palatine Hill with a great tour guide.

The most amusing and annoying thing about the few hours I had with this tour group was the older American couple with their grown son, all seen here in this photo with their matching orange Yves Saint Laurent Polo T-shirts!! I guess they had dressed this way so that they didn’t lose each other in a crowd, but let me tell you there was no risk of that!!

My lowest part of the day was being given a €50 fine for being on the bus with no ticket!! No matter how many tears I shed or how much I played the poor innocent Aussie girl who couldn’t understand Italian, they wouldn’t give. But I honestly didn’t know...but to cut a long story short, I paid it there and then and then a nice German man from my tour who was also on the bus with me and his family and had been let off, gave me €15 as they had been so lucky!!

Dinner that night was a quiet one by myself at a local restaurant.

I had a fantastic plate of Spaghetti con frutti di mare and a half cask of wine and salad...oh and this is only a ‘Primi Piatti’ serve (€7), or a first course serve when traditionally after this Italians have a meat course , followed be dessert!!

After my final night in my convent hostel I headed to the airport for my flight to Sicily. One last thing in Rome that caught my eye and was a classic Italian touch, to be showey and have only the best...

The regular waiting chairs were made of leather!!

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

Taormina e prima...

2008-10-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

Ciao a tutti da Taormina in Sicilia!!

No, don’t worry, Im not going to write this entire blog in Italiano...I wish!! Haha
Yes, I did make it here to my final destination (for now), but before I tell you all about my new home and getting here, we should start at the beginning...

Hong Kong

Well what can I say... Humid, busy, crowded, different, impressive, crazy, tiring, never ending...I could go on and on, as it does as a city!!

I arrived at a very civilised hour on Monday afternoon and wound my way through busy streets and freeways on the bus to find my hostel which was like a small oasis tucked away up high from the action of the city, but a small one at that. This seems to be the case for the rest of the residences in this crowded city also...up high and packed in like sardines. Every square centimetre of this city is being used in one way or the other, or maybe even in ten ways.

I was staying on level 11 of the second building along on the right side of the road. This is the main East-West road on Hong Kong island that the trams run along...and no, I didn’t know that Hong Kong had trams either until I got there. They are double-decker too!!

The night before I flew out of Melbourne my beautiful new laptop wasn’t being so beautiful and decided to stop connecting to wireless internet, so I spent 5 hours of my first day in HK on the phone in my hostel, to a guy in the HK HP computer call centre.

Here I am sitting on my bottom bunk at the hostel looking very unimpressed whilst attempting to complete the fix that my friend at the call centre, David Wong, gave me.

When I finally made it out that afternoon to have a look around, I caught “Peak Tram” up the steep grade of the main hill in HK to “The Peak” funnily enough!! haha. There were great views of the city from up there.

By now, you might have noticed that all of my photos of HK are in black and white and yes there is a reason for this. I decided that since there is so much action, colour and chaos in HK that black and white photos would simplify all that was captured... just the visual communicator in me I guess.

I then headed to a night market and of course despite already having a VERY full pack and still needing to get to Italy, I was persuaded to buy a few things...yes, they twisted my arm!! Haha

I had dinner at a small restaurant here that was well and truelly spilling out onto the streets of the market and was a buzz with market goers stopping for food. I was plonked on the end of a long communal table and had a great view of all that everyone else was eating.

Day 2 I was excited by a full day of sightseeing after my limited day out the day before. Whilst on the plane there I had been reading the Cathay Pacific mag and it talked about “cafes” that are well known and loved by locals and what they are know for. One that served chicken pies (Gai Pai) that regularly sell out as soon as they are out of the oven at 12pm, caught my eye. So I went on an adventure looking for it and obtained one of these pies for myself.

It was a very interesting experience, to say the least. It was about the size of a Christmas fruit mince pie and was still hot from the oven. The filling was just like a regular chicken pie with bits of chicken and a sort of gravy, BUT it was surrounded by a very short, sweet, buttery pastry that was quite thick...VERY interesting!! This kind of sweet and savoury combo seemed to be very common.

After this short fuel stop I headed to the fantastic HK Park on a whim and found a magnificent space with a Tai Chi garden (with tower within that had great views across the park), free Conservatory and enclosed aviary, lakes with turtles and Olympic amphitheatre. Generally it was a very nice and well designed space.

Next stop, the gold fish market...yes they have a street with nearly all shops basically dedicated soley to gold fish and keeping them. I guess they are easy pets for the tightly packed HK residents.

There were lots and lots of walls like these with fish in bags...poor fishies!! L

Then another market, The Ladies Market before heading back to the hostel for a break and to pack my bags for an extremely early get away to the airport the next morning for my long haul to Rome via London for 4 hours.

Dinner was a quick bowl of fish ball and sliced pork congee, a plate of chinese broccoli and oyster sauce and an iced tea at Congee Wonderland (I hadn’t tried congee before and so was intreagued by it) before going to see the evening lightshow on the city buildings from the edge of the bay. I only caught the end of the light show and then headed back to bed.

I was then up at 3:45am the next day to get a cab and then the night bus to get to the airport for my 7:35am flight to London and then onto Rome.

Jo xox

First test post

2008-08-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog which eventually will be filled with all of my fun and excitement of my time in Italy and beyond.
Please check back soon for more once I get myself more organised.