Tuesday, 20 August 2013

Village life

is great !  well, apart from the Italian love of church bells and their need to constantly ring them at every available opportunity - ESP in the morning.  In Montefalco I even took a wee video clip of the bell tower when it was going flat out just to remind me, because it was quite literally at the end of the garden !  Plus, to add insult to injury there is a rooster somewhere close in the neighborhood here in Greve.

Days here consist of food, wine and the pool !  Very simple and highly enjoyable.  With temperatures around the mid 30's you'd think that the pool would be warm - well no !  It takes my breath away each and every time I dive in (no incremental wading in - just wouldn't work on so many different levels).  Wendy has so far dangled her legs in, and it's not looking likely that anything else will even get close to getting wet.  Kids on the other hand just love it and once you get over the first 30 seconds of 'shock and awe' it is wonderful.  The owner of the apartments sells her own wine - €3 a bottle and it's highly quaffable !  So you can picture Wendy and I on the loungers with a wine reading and watching the children jump and splash and having a great time.  Other guests don't tend to hop in until after Grace and Kate get out !!!  Not sure what our plans for the next few days are - Florence, Assisi, pool lounger :)
Truly wonderful garden and pool area
Adorable children :)
Speaking of which, I was in the pool with the girls the other day and heard someone say " that sounds like a Kiwi accent". Amazing - 19,000 km's away in a tiny Italian village in the back of nowhere and here is a Wellington couple in the same building - ha.  They are probably around our age and they've eloped !      Their kids are over and they are getting married in the local town hall on Thursday !  It's a small world.

Amazing thunder and lightening last night - went on for about an hour and lit up the sky.  The street lights even went out for a short time at one point.  Reminded me of the lightening shows that happened reasonably regularly in Wellington.

Wendy's birthday today and it started with a phone call at 4:30am this morning - a friend got the time zones wrong !!  I'd better go and ensure that her every whim is catered for :)
Posted by at

9 comments:

  1. Jules B20 August 2013 at 14:39

    Buongiorno! Fabulous to hear you are having a wonderful break and your description of the pool is spot on Dev! I LOVED our pool at St Remy and I don't usually like water, I was dipping in every day and the cool water after the hot, hot sun was delicious, I can just imagine it and I am loving the updates, ciao bellissima, mi piaci Borth x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jules B20 August 2013 at 14:55

    Oh, sorry forgot to wish Wendy a happy birthday and many happy returns of the day,Buon compleanno e molti felici ritorni del giorno Wendy, ciao bella, Borth x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown20 August 2013 at 15:56

      Hi Borth - thanks for birthday wishes. It's tough having a birthday in Tuscany :). Went out for dinner and then had quite a number of wines with a NZ and Australian couple who are both staying in our apartments. The Aussies are off tomorrow and the kiwis who have eloped to get married on Thursday asked Andrew to take some photos - so we are off to a wedding 5pm on Thursday - how great is that :). It's been a great day. Xx

      Delete
  3. Jules B20 August 2013 at 14:56

    Dev, are you getting my comments on your blog? Not sure if they are getting through, can you let me know thansk, Borth x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown20 August 2013 at 15:47

    Hi wee Borth, and yes we are getting your comments and loving each and every one of them. I set up the blog with a 'moderate before publishing' function on .... Coz that's what the instructions said ! I think that I'll change it coz a wee bit of a pain and haven't had any naughty comments sent through :). Hope you, BIG Borth and whanau are all well !

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jules B21 August 2013 at 15:11

    Ciao Dev's, I have just been having a gander at your digs in the Cinque Terre and having a "tour virtuali" of the area, what a prego place, tutto bene! It is opening up my eyes to all of that region and I made Big Al take a look and we both decided sunscreen and a good hat will be the GO when you are all walking, love it though and the water, the Med is magnifico, for some reason I float really well in the Med, given I don't swim or usually even like the water, I bobbed around to my hearts content and have been eyeing up the water where you are heading, sigh....you will need a dip after walking in the sun, how wonderful, how Italiano,che e fantastico! Loving the blogs and the photo's, it is great to be able to live my life vicariously through my dear friends, love to you all, Borth & Big Borth x P.S. Enjoy the wedding and steady as she goes with the photograpy Dev, that's just a bonus and a great story x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown22 August 2013 at 00:57

    Ciao Borth - yes the wedding is today, we had drinks with the couple last night and they were busy composing their email to all of their friends and family to let them know when the deed is done! We are looking forward to the Cinque Terre - I can't wait to experience the Med, apparently Manarola has the best beaches of the five towns. We have loved chilling this week kicking into village life. I Ciao my way to the supermarket this morning, I almost felt like a local :). Pizza evening tonight after the wedding, the apartment owners put a night on for all their guests and sell their own wine .... Looking forward to that as well. Lovely to hear that the weather is heating up in Chch. Xxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous8 September 2013 at 19:37

    Ooo... that phone call sounds familiar... and I didn't even say Happy Birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown9 September 2013 at 10:33

    Had to laugh to myself - imagine getting woken up at 4.30am and not even receiving a Happy Birthday!!!! Just made my special day more special as I had more hours to enjoy it in :).

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)