Tourist guides extraordinaire, and loving it!

Salve!

Pam, Wendy and Janelle left a few days ago to see other parts of this beautiful country (see pic of Pam having her final gelati with Jan in Assisi) and were replaced by Karl and Fay, and now their friends Michelle and Phil. We've been to Deruta now 4 times and will be there again today. Pam reckons the shop keepers should give us a commission for the ceramics they're selling to our guests! Not a hardship as we love this small, charming town with its abundance of colourful ceramics.

We took Karl and Fay to Gubbio for another delightful day on Wednesday. The 1 hour drive is through the rolling hills covered with woods, olive groves, grape vines and towns. We had to take the bird-cage funivia up the mountain again, which Karl and Fay loved, and then had a simple lunch and beer overlooking the spectacular town and surrounding countryside and hills.

Jan, Phil, Michelle and I spent a short time in Assisi Thursday afternoon and stumbled upon a medieval market, something to do with celebrating one of their saints (San Rufino). There were stalls selling ancient crafts and medieval games. Jan tried the roll-the-walnut-down-the-chute-and-smash-it-it-with-the-mallet game for a euro. She enjoyed having her photo taken with the gorgeous Italians in tights the most though. And the kiss she got from the hunk in red. We hope to catch the final celebrations on Sunday afternoon.

Last night the six of us had dinner at Mr Grumpy's (alias Giovannino's) down the road, a delicious meal of antipasto, buschetta and home made pasta. Amazing food and so cheap. It was a balmy evening and lovely sitting outside on the terrace (see pic). Mr Grumpy was Mr Happy when he offered us all a taste of his wife's homemade limoncello liqueur and Phil bought a bottle. Michelle somehow managed to also walk out with the 6 shot glasses.

The household has begun to stir, it's another beautiful clear morning, cool before the heat of the day as usual, and we'll eat breakfast on the terrace before hopping in the car for another day of touring. We're off to Todi today, another beautiful but larger town down south, and maybe Spoleto if we have time. Oh, and Deruta, of course! Jan's having a day at home - she seems to have picked up a staph infection so will start on a course of antibiotics today.

Hope this finds you all well and happy.

Ciao

Our first week

We've been busy little beavers travelling the Italian countryside. The weather has been glorious - sunny, warm to hot (are all of you shivering in the Aussie winter envious?), with a lively storm one evening.

The food has been deliciously simple, and our cooks Wendy, Janelle, Pam and Marg have done a fantastic job (Jan can't face the kitchen yet). Of course we're making the most of cheap local Italian wine, sometimes for lunch as well as dinner.

We've only been here a week but it feels a lot longer. So far we have visited:

• Assisi (of course)


• ceramics-capital of Italy Deruta, where we were invited to join a local artist for lunch with her husband and friends which was wonderful (photo at top taken in the restaurant)
• lovely Spello, another hilltop town nearby


• Mount Subasio which towers over Assisi


• fascinating Gubbio where we all braved the 'funivia' (bird cage carriages which carry you up the steep hill to St Ulbani church - see photo of Janelle) - Gubbio is also the home of Don Matteo for those who are fans of the SBS show

• Santa Maria degli Angeli, the town below Assisi which has the supermarket and station


• and a charming evening in Cortona in neighbouring Tuscany.

Wendy and Janelle have headed off for a few days in Tuscany - yesterday in Florence, today in Pisa. Pam and Marg hitched a ride to Florence and spent a wonderful day exploring this exotic, old, arty and interesting city. Note the photo of Pam gazing in wonder at the dazzling dripping gold in a jewellers on the Ponte Vecchio. The 2 1/2 hr train trip home through the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside at dusk was delightful.

Today is a rest day which is much needed!

While we were travelling yesterday, Jan met an Italian couple who are moving into the other section of the house on Sep 1st and - wait for it - they have 3 dogs. Isn't God good to Jan!

Hope this finds you all well.

Ciao

PS. the fact most of the photos are of us at tables is simply because it was when we are all together, not because we are eating all the time. Just wanted to clarify....

Arrivare in Assisi!

After a very long but uneventful 34 hours from leaving home in Glenorie, we finally arrived at bellisimo Assisi. Pam joined Jan and me in a hot and steamy Dubai (Pam's glasses fogged up when she stepped off the plane). After a relatively short flight of 6 hours, we landed in Rome and were greeted at the airport by Wendy and Janelle who had spent 5 days being entranced by this ancient city.

We collected our cars and only made one wrong turn getting from Rome airport onto the ringroad autostrada to Firenze (Florence) - which we thought was pretty impressive compared to 2 years ago when we took a nasty detour into Rome before we found our way out an hour later. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to Santa Maria delgi Angeli (St Mary of the Angels) which is 4km below Assisi. We stopped for some supplies at the supermercati and then wound our way up through Assisi and onto Eremo Paradiso, arriving about 7.30pm. It's as beautiful as we remembered.

Although 3 of us had had very little sleep in the past 2 days, the adrenaline kept us awake, and we managed to devour a delicious meal of meatballs, spaghetti and salad whipped up by Wendy, and washed down by 'Mr Grumpy's' red wine.

(Joan & Alan - Senore Grumpy got decidedly irritated with me when I couldn't work out that sette cinquanta meant 7.50 euro, so we've some work to do to find that friendly side you managed to extract!)

We spent the morning in Assisi. Jan and I loved showing the girls around and seeing their delight in the charm of this beautiful city. It was a quick introduction, as it was hot and we were all still pretty tired.

We picked up some pane (bread), porchetta (delicious roasted pork seasoned with herbs) and formaggio (cheese), returned to the house for lunch with wine and beer, and all are now resting, writing or reading - except for me who has worked out how to set up the laptop for the internet. This will make communication so easy!

Thanks to those who have posted comments already!

Ciao

Marg and Jan

Now only 3 more sleeps...

Wendy and (a very excited!) Janelle flew off to Italy yesterday. Janelle took great delight in calling the night before to say "see you Rome!" We've felt showered in blessings from all the 'well wishing' from many people. I guess when Jan & Marg do something, most people seem to know about it. (We're not quiet about things we do, are we?)

Now only 11 sleeps to go!

We picked up our tickets and itinerary today, so it seems more real that we are actually going on this holiday to beautiful Umbria. Planning this for 12 months is the best way to build happy anticipation! Plus planning it with another 24 people who will be joining us over the 8 weeks we'll be at Eremo Paradiso of course.