Finding the house in Camaiore; Tuscany, Italy

Without Laurel to referee on driving & directions Jim and I had to come up with a method of reading & listening to the GPS without getting into a fight.  We have finally agreed upon a way.  He listens to the directions and I look at the screen and give him hand signals on which way to go.  So far so good!

Finding the house in Camaiore was confusing.  Umberto, the homeowner emailed us and said to meet at Montemagno at 4.30pm.  Montemagno did not register on the GPS but the house address from the website did - so no worries, off we went.  5 hours after leaving Rome we are on top of a (precarious) hill at a three-way junction.  One of the signs is the street we are after but we can’t find the house, there are only three on the street.  We decide we better ring Umberto because it is now 4.15pm and he maybe at Montemagno waiting for us, wherever that is. 

His English is good enough for us to understand each other.  He says where are you?  Now that’s a good question.  We retrace our steps down the hill.  As you know we are not scared of driving mountain roads but this road is more like a single man-made path up a windy steep hill. 

We eventually meet up with him at 4.45pm at a café, as it turns out down the road from the house we are meant to be staying in.  He tells us the address on the website is incorrect, that is why he says to meet at Montemagno (further along the main road).  The street/road/track the house is on does meet up with the junction where we were at initially but it is up and over the hill on the other side.

 

The road the house is on is also a man-made road, a little wider than a single lane.  It starts off bitumen, then changes to concrete with moss growing out of the concrete – gives you an idea of how slippery the road is and densely overgrown the area is. 

Aside from the road to get here the location is amazing.  The house sits on the side of the hill surrounded by olive trees and grapevines.  It reminds me of the Kiewa Valley.  We are enjoying the quiet and solitude of the house.  There have been two amazing thunderstorms since we arrived, one the first night, which Jim slept through and yesterday afternoon.  It has rained a little this afternoon.  It is autumn after all, cool and slightly wet.

Umberto lives in this house in the winter and in a flat in Massarosa (a town at the bottom of the hill) for the summer.  He also has a bungalow (more like a garden shed) further up the track from here.  He has a rabbit and dog that live between this house and the bungalow.  Bunny & puppy are regular visitors.  Bunny comes and goes but enjoys us feeding him/her lettuce and pear.  Puppy, who is really an old girl, loves our company as we do hers.  She stays for most of the day and night except when she hears Umberto’s car climbing up the (makeshift) road, then she races back to the bungalow.  Last night Jim was looking up Italian phrases for puppy but she didn’t bat an eyelid.  Lost in translation!

PS. The Internet is very slow here so no chance of posting any photos, Skyping or downloading photos to Flickr.  It is good that the Internet is operating now so I can post this, it comes and goes.  

Goodbye to Laurel & Malta

Tonight we went out for a farewell dinner.  We chose the same restaurant we had dinner for Laurel’s birthday on Monday night.   It overlooks Spinola Bay.  We say goodbye to both Laurel and Malta in the morning.  Laurel flies back to Australia and we fly back to Rome.  It has been nice having a familiar face (and friend) with us.

Malta is not normally a country Australians would visit but a friend of Laurel’s visited here last year and enjoyed it so we thought ‘why not’.  I am glad we came.  The Maltese are a relaxed and friendly race which makes travelling here easy and enjoyable.  It is a Mediterranean country with a dry and rocky landscape surrounded by a rugged beautiful coastline.  The local food and wine have been yummy with seafood, roast vegetables, dips not to mention the delicious Maltese bread 'ftira'.  I would like to try to make it one day, similar to sourdough. 

For us, the past three weeks with Laurel have been like a holiday within a holiday.  It has been busy at times sight seeing but that is what you do when you visit new places with only a short amount of time.  

As usual time has flown and now we move on. 

Farewell to Laurel

Malta – our last day

Today is our last day in Malta.  We started off with a morning coffee at Tony’s then headed off on the local bus to Mdina, one hour away.

Mdina is the old capital, a walled city set on a hill in the middle of the island.  It is known as the Silent City and it was quiet within the walls.  Whilst in Mdina we watched the Malta Experience, a half hour film on the history of Malta.  The film was very interesting and I realized while watching the film that we had learnt quite a bit over the last few days on our travels around the place.  Malta is predominately Roman Catholic and with 365 churches there is one church to visit for every day of the year, not that we did.  I admit we only visited one church and one chapel.  

We had lunch at a café with a spectacular view over the countryside, looking out to sea, over to Valletta (the new capital) and St Julian’s – where we are staying.   

Here we are back in the apartment having a restful afternoon.  We were planning a swim in the bay but the sky is now overcast and the wind has come up and the swell is bashing against the rocks.

Before I sign off I forgot to tell you about our boat trip yesterday.  It was good fun.  It was a comfortable and beautiful sailing boat (with a motor), slightly overcrowded but lots of passengers disembarked at Gozo a Maltese island before our stop at Comino Island also known as Blue Lagoon.  The water was a beautiful blue colour and crystal clear.  It is heavy with salt so easy to float in.  Good for heavy boned people as Laurel would say.  We had a nice afternoon swimming and sitting on the rocks people watching.

While at Blue Lagoon we took a speedboat ride to visit three caves close by.  In one cave we were looking through the water at divers, it was surreal.  The snorkeling wasn’t worth it but apparently the diving is good.  The speedboat owner was Tony.  He was very funny, if not a bit corny but we were all laughing at his jokes.  He told us he was 65 years old and proud of it.  He said he started boats trips to the Blue Lagoon 40 years ago; he was the only operator then, now there are many.  We paid him 15 Euros ($22) each along with 4 Irish people, 2 French and 4 Dutch people and got a lift back to St Julian's in his speedboat instead of going back on the sailing boat for our return trip.  It was worth it for the entertainment value.  

Tony & his speedboat, notice his little dogs on aboard

Laurel & I at Blue Lagoon

Our sailing boat anchored at Blue Lagoon

Across the road from our apartment in St Julian's

Jim at Tony's Bar along with all the other tradies

In Mdina

Typical street in Mdina - narrow and windy, purpose built to make fighting difficult 

Mdina - the horse & carriage option

View from Mdina lookout

'Smart car' - my next car????? maybe not, it's smaller than the Mini

Malta

Malta

First impression - hot & sticky

Second impression - relaxed and rustic

Our apartment is in a residential street in St Julian’s.  It is a 10-minute walk down the end of our street to Spinola Bay.  The bay continues in both directions, right to Sliema and St Georges Bay to the left.  The bays are rocky outcrops.  The water is a beautiful blue colour and very clear.  The bays are ideal for swimming and lying on the rocks – beats sand in your swimmers.  There are ladders off the rocks directly into the sea.  It is idyllic.  Laurel and I joined the locals for a swim on Sunday afternoon and sat on the rocks in the late afternoon sun. 

We have been having our morning coffee at ‘Tony’s Bar’ before we hit the sights.  It is a local’s hangout.  Aside from the cigarette smoke (which is everywhere throughout Europe) it is an interesting place to sit and the coffee is good - Tony’s appears to be an institution.

On Sunday we took the ‘Hop on hop off’ bus tour – our favourite touristy thing to do.  We took the south island tour, which is more rural countryside.  We are staying in the north part of the island, which is more of a tourist destination with beaches and shops.  

Malta is a small island.  It only takes 1.5 hours (without traffic) to drive across the island.  The locals are friendly and English is their second language so getting around is very easy.

The countryside is a monotone colour of yellow due to all the buildings being built out of the local limestone.  I like the idea of a house made out of limestone, great insulation (the locals say) – cool in summer & warm in winter.  There is a layer of dust on everything cars, windows etc.  Apparently it is blown in from the interior according to the shop assistant I asked.  She actually said desert??????

We have been using the local buses to get around.  They run every half hour and a day ticket is only 2.60Euros ($3.90 approx) great value. 

Today we went on a harbour cruise.  Seeing the various creeks (as they are called) off the harbour.  It was good fun.  Jim especially liked it as there was a bit of a swell.  Hopefully it drops by tomorrow because we are going on a boat to Comino Island/Blue Lagoon for a day of swimming and snorkeling.

Spinola Bay

Continuation of Spinola Bay

Balluta Bay

View from the bus tour

Streetscape (typical Arabic verandahs)

Southern Malta view from bus

Coffee at Tony's Bar

View from harbour cruise

Notice the eyes & ears on the lookout - needed to protect the harbour

Rome

The drive from Florence to Rome was 4.5 hours.  Uneventful thank goodness until we hit the many large roundabouts close to the airport parking, then the confusion began.  Europe seems to have many large roundabouts.  It is a skill trying to manoeuvre through them, reading and listening to the GPS and dodging traffic all at the same time.  Our car will stay in the car park till we return from Malta. 

The shuttle from the parking station to the Rome airport was 10-minutes.  Our private transfer met us at the airport to take us to our apartment.  It was a 45-minute drive from the airport to our apartment.  The driver was a friendly older Italian man who loved Steve Irwin – how funny is that.  He said he loves watching him on TV.

Our arrival to our apartment was hilarious.  It wasn’t ready!!! The team of work people were carrying out last minute jobs like hanging curtains.

The building was in a residential area only two Metro stops away from the Termini station (main railway station).  The building was an old block totally renovated and modernised.  The apartments have just opened for inspection.  Our apartment didn’t have any bedding, cutlery or crockery until the manager asked if there was anything we needed.  The three of us were thinking the same thing ‘would you like a list’. 

The reason we came to be in this apartment was because the hotel we were booked into (within walking distance of the Colosseum) decided to shut for renovations so us and another Australian couple were moved to the apartment block.  It didn’t really matter as we were only in Rome for two nights.  It was a stop to have a look around before flying to Malta. 

Staying in residential areas has its advantages, one being finding family run restaurants.  There was one down the road from the apartment block.  We ate there for our two nights.  It was authentic Italian food and to make it even more enjoyable the father and sons would joke with us, well mainly Jim.

The afternoon of our arrival we could hear an opera singer practising, I thought that was pretty special. 

Our day of sightseeing we took the Metro to the Termini Station and caught the obligatory, ‘Hop on hop off’ bus tour.  We hopped off after two stops and spent the next two hours at the Colosseum and Forum.  The Colosseum doesn’t take long to look around but the Forum could take half a day.  It is fascinating but we had to move on, there was so much more to see on the bus tour.  Our last stop was the Vatican City.  By this time it was 5pm so it was a good time of day to go inside St Peter’s Basilica, not so crowded and cooler.  It was amazing. 

Rome was extremely busy with tourists as was Paris and Florence but along with the normal population it was a very busy place.  Now we are in Malta enjoying the more rustic slower pace of life, one we like. 

Our Rome apartment, Jim bought us flowers from the Bangladeshi flower seller  (they're everywhere at night in the restaurants, just like in Aust in the eighties)

The Colosseum

Tourist horse outside The Colosseum

Typical Roman street scape

Look at the dinky little umbrellas - I wouldn't sit under them if you paid me!

The Trevi fountain (without the crowds) statues

For you all RC's inside St Peter's

Tuscan Vespa bike tour

http://www.tuscany-biketours.com

‘Born to be wild’ that’s us riding pillion on a 50cc Vespa around the Tuscan Hills.  Climbing into the van to drive back to Florence after our Vespa bike tour that song was playing on the radio.  Jason, our young English guide turned it up so we could enjoy the irony.  It was very funny. 

The tour started with a 40-minute drive from Florence to Chianti in the Tuscan Hills to a castle owned by a count who also happens to be a wine and olive oil maker.  Ed & Stu you would love it here, all the red wine.  You would be proud of me enjoying it on your behalf.  We had a look around the castle and had a glass of Chianti (predominately made with the Sangiovese grape variety) and bread with olive oil for tastings.  I know you gasp we are meant to be riding bikes.  Well, we did in a fashion.

After the tastings we were fitted with helmets and drove back down the hill (not with our helmet on) in the van to have a riding assessment.  The assessment was to see if we were safe enough to ride on the roads.  The assessment was really an introduction for three of us who had never ridden a bike before.  We had to ride round a gravel car park a half a dozen times.  We all passed, 7 bikes in total.  Next Jason said okay now follow me out onto the main road starting at this (what appeared to be a large) round about– both Laurel and I were now unsure. 

Laurel was wary of the Italian traffic.  Italian drivers are impatient.  My problem was more of a confidence thing.  I didn’t want to spoil the other people’s day.  I was riding at a turtle’s pace and because Jason had me following him and everyone else single file behind each other, I didn’t want that pressure so I chickened out and rode pillion with Jason – he offered.  I was being very silly (it was the wine earlier) so I thought I better not talk too much to Jason while we are riding he might think I’m a cougar.   

Laurel decided to go pillion with Jim.  She said she felt sorry for him having to ride with a big lump on the back, she felt like a giant on a small bike.  I could only touch the ground on my tiptoes.  Jim kept veering into the grass on the side of the road to scare her – he loves being silly.

We drove for an hour or so stopping for a couple of photo stops overlooking the amazing countryside.  Next stop lunch.  We rode back to the car park to the restaurant hidden behind a garden.  It was a family run restaurant and appeared quite popular.

Lunch was fun.  It gave us all time to laugh about the mornings ride.  Lunch was salad & bread, pasta, panna cotta & coffee and more local red wine.  Jason was trying to encourage me to ride on my own in the afternoon but I declined – my excuse ‘I’ve had a glass of wine and I don’t want to drink and drive’.  Jim was very good he only drank water; he didn’t even order a coke. 

Our bike (Jason & I) was called Betty Boop.  After lunch we drove up a steep hill and poor Betty sounded like a dying mosquito.  I said to Jason Betty has no boop, he replied (in jest) can you lighten the load, I replied only by shedding my thighs. 

On the home stretch back to the car park Betty had a burst of power and I head butted Jason with the peak of my helmet.  I said sorry, the thrust of power threw me back in my seat.  He laughed; he said you should put that on Tripadvisor.

The view from the castle in Chianti

Wine & olive oil tasting

The castle courtyard

A photo stop

Jim & Laurel stealing grapes