Buon Giorno ....

.... after the mayhem of work on the house, we escaped to Italy for four days.  Had such a good time, packed an awful lot in, but did some really good relaxing in the times when we weren't doing other stuff.  The weather was perfect for us, bit of rain (warm rain!) on the first day, then the sun came out, but it never got higher than 26 degrees, thank goodness.  I've been doing Italian lessons over the past 9 months or so - got a chance to practice a bit on this holiday.  My son's friend, who is only four but has a masterful command of both English and Italian, was only too willing to correct me at every occasion!!!  We took a lot of very random photos, here's a small selection:

The view from the playground of our friend's son's school:

 

My son on the climbing frame:

 

I'll take this one, Mum!

Whilst we were there, the Mille Miglia vintage car race actually came through our village.  Fantastic old racing cars, racing on normal roads.  With typical Italian disregard for safety, the roads aren't closed, there are no safety barriers or crowd control - it was great fun!!!  There were over 400 vintage cars in the race, and they were preceded by a load of modern Ferraris - my son and I were standing roughly where the small group are, but on the wrong side of the barrier, when the Ferraris came through - we were flattening ourselves against that barrier, glad we didn't get our toes run over!!Here's a few old cars coming through, see the guy on the bicycle crossing the road behind them!  We were heading into Rome that night, and ended up driving in the race for about 10km, right behind a stunning 1954 Mazerati - what a memory!

Cappucino time - spot the tourists under the awning!

La famiglia!

Laundry day in Narni:

Spot the whitest person in the village:

We came back to cleaning up the house after the workmen had finished, and to major reconstruction of our garden that's still ongoing.  I finally have my craftroom back, just have to get some time to make things!

Thanks for looking!

Off gallivanting again ....

.... we're just back from Italy - we were away for four days at a friend's wedding, and it was the most gob-stoppingly amazing weekend.  The location was a flippin' castle in Tuscany, if you please!!!  It was a small wedding, about 30 adults (plus assorted toddlers and babies) - nobody with older kids wanted to bring them!

We were staying in Cetona, the hill-top village that belonged to the castle.  We had a gorgeous room, with air con - that made me so happy.  I don't do heat very well, being a very pale-skinned Irish person, my comfort level usually peaks at about 25^oC and above that I go into a decline.  It was 33^oC at the hottest part of the day all weekend, but somehow it was OK - bit of a breeze, lots of shady areas, and the delightful air-con at night.  Happy me!!!  I'm going to overload you with pics now - have managed to cut hundreds down to eight!!

Here's a view from one of the streets up to "La Rocca", the castle/villa bit:

It was such a magnificent place, we were laughing about how unworthy we all felt to be there - it would have been no surprise if George Clooney or somebody of that ilk had come walking across the grass and told us to get off his land!!!  Here are the beautiful gardens looking up towards the castle:

The pool in another area of the garden:

The food was divine, both at the wedding and in the village for other meals.  We ate and ate and ate all weekend.   Table all set for dinner - bit dark as it was dusk but you get the idea. 

Here's where we stayed, just off the main piazza, lovely shady terrazza - and then a view of the old castle beside our place (that's me on the left with the whitest legs in the universe!).

Another view of the street heading from our place up to the town hall and thence the castle:

And here's our hire car - of course it had to be a Fiat 500!

We are lucky to have other friends who live about half way between Cetona, where the wedding was, and the airport in Rome, so we called in to see them on Sunday - had more lovely food, a refreshing dip in the pool and sit in the shade, and then we came home.

I came back with several impressive mozzy bites, no sunburn (hurrah!), and a feeling of wanting to be fed at least once every hour or so!!! Ho hum - back to reality!!!

Thanks for looking!!