My Italian Blog
Mood:
lyrical
9th Aug.Well didn't get around to actually writing anything.
Got lost driving to villa. Have now driven on most of the Sorrento Peninsula. Climbed EXTREMELY steep hill into Termini. Found lovely restaurant full of Italians. Live music and many of locals dancing, cha cha cha, waltze and tango. Fantastic
11th Aug.Sorrento yesterday. Nice, but parking quite hard and most shops closed because it was Sunday. Returned to same restaurant and saw more dancing with different band. Have been invited to house of nice retired gent called Antonio on Wed at 18:00. Hope we can find it OK.
12th Aug.Pompeii. Fantastic. Guided tour by chap who spotted us as we arrived, got us to entrance booth without queue. Discount of 500per cent cause British. Succeeded in speaking enough Italian to buy parking card and stuff for barbeque. Didn't get TOO lost navigating. Discovered a proper boules pitch with boules and but in garden. Maybe play tonight when cooler. temp in mid 30s.
No OU work done :( .
Friday 15thBusy time. Drove down Amalfi coast as far as Praiano. Wanted to park in Positano but impossible. Ate lunct at lovely restaurant on cliff and went back to villa to swim before isiting home of 83 year old avocat Antonio and Rosa his wife whom we had met at the restaurant in Termini. He was waiting at gate at 6pm as arranged so we could spot his villa. Drank iced tea and had wonderful time. Those hours spent listening to Learn Italian CDs in the car for past 4 months really paid off. Showed us around their enormous holiday home where they spend 6months a year and bought 25 years ago. Went back to play boules with Stephen and have barbeque again.
Iralians all tramendously friendly and helpful. Sorrento, Capri, Positano, Amalfi all gorgeous.
Saturday 16th
Went back to our favourite restaurant in Termini last night. Just a short 1km vertical climb! As arranged, met up with Antonio and his wife Rosa. More dancing and it was hard to say goodbye as now on 1st name terms with staff and locals. Hop everyone as friendly in Maratera.
Overall impressions of the Sorrentine peninsula.
Locals extremely friendly and helpful to foreigners despite it being a very touristy region. Locals must also have calf muscles like mountain goats due to near vertical nature of most roads and tracks.
Towns very cute and tiny. Was a bit of a culture shock to find that alleyways we would consider too threatening to enter at home ie narrow, tatty or grubby looking, are major thoroughfares in these steep coastal towns.
Car parking is difficult and expensive in August but we discovered a nice boatyard on outskirts of Sorrento at Marina Grande beach. Looked a dump but was actually friendly and kept car safe. Also always had spaces.
Region feels very safe and trusting. Went on boat trip yesterday and left car in center of Marina C with keys in so attendant could move it. Was still there on our return and wedidn't haave enough change so we just gave chap the coins we had.
Italians really appeciate my attempts to speak Italian. Am sure this partly accounts for our really friendly reception.
Water shortage means water cuts most days. Tedious. Italian plumbing extremely noisy when water comes back on.
Mosquitos very annoying. All covered in bites despite my having taken 2 plug in mosquito killers, 2 different brands of repellent and a spray. Thank goodness I brought the clicky thing from Boots. You click it on a bite and it passes a tuny electric current through the bite which seems to stop it itching. We use it all day long to the amusement and curiosity of onlookers but it does seem to help.
Still no OU work but have finished latest Harry Potter and have high hopes of doing some next week. Keep seeing internet cafes inthe unlikeliest seeming places but family have forbidden me from touching a computer.
Managing half hour stretches using PDA without eyestrain keeping this remote blog so we shall see.
Now off to Basilicata region.
Sunday 17 th
Our villa for the next two weeks is a converted fortress tower in the grounds of a B&B with 4 double rooms. The tower itself is quite something! All on one level, the floors are tiled in shiny white tiles, some with patterns. Two outside terraces with patio furniture, a glass dining table outside. Inside both bedrooms have air conditioning which is a real luxury and both bathrooms have fabulous suites and constant running water. This is quite an improvement.
The owners invited us to a live music party in their extensive grounds last night at 10pm. We listened to them practicing while we ate our barbeque but by 10 we were too tired and went to bed.
This morning we walked down through the grounds to the rocky shoreline and swam off the rocks. It was beautiful with crystal clear water. We could make out exotic looking fish & plan to buy some snorkelling gear. Both kids loved it. Esther did a bit of safe sunbathing (with factor 50 and factor 20 cream). Light lunch when we got back and ever since Stephen has been in their lovely & large pool.
Have collected tourist info for this undiscovered region, but I don't think we'll be doing as much sightseeing as we did last week. Just chillin' by the pool seems very satisfactory.
Tuesday 19th August
Bought a couple of masks and snorkels on Sunday eve. and yesterday had a fantastic morning snorkelling around our rocky cove watching the beautiful fish. One type seems to have an almost luminous blue tracery around its head with a greenish yellow stripy body with hints of red.
Chilled out for the afternoon and I actually managed to spend an hour or so on H806!
Did some reading on the digital divide. Before leaving I saved the LO and all associated web pages as word files. I read these and highlighted key points. I would have preferred the documents in either Microsoft Reader or PDF format as that would be easier to annotate. I decided to make notes in a separate file, however this was rather laborious. I need to produce a 300 or so posting about this subject, but it seems quite hard to do this in tandem with the reading. Perhaps I shall read through everything I have downloaded and write up my thoughts at the end.
I am sitting so still here on the lounger in the shade that a lizard has just scampered down the back of my chair and wandered around the floor looking cautiously at me. I could even see his little ribs moving as he breathed.
Yesterday evening we found our way into Maratea old town. Basilicata is known as a relatively undiscovered region of Italy and I can see why. The tourist maps we've got are either too detailed for us to be able to identify the roads or not detailed enough. A few road names on the streets that we could match up to the map would be nice.
Still, we had a pleasant evening.
Today's activities include more snorkelling (once the kids have woken up) a bit of shopping for fresh veg and a nice barbeque.
Side note: I'm a bit disappointed by this IPAQ's battery usage. I know I have the screen brightness set to maximum to minimize eyestrain, but I get the "low battery" warning (down to 38%) after only an hour and a half. According to the specs, battery life should be between 12 and 18 hours. I look forward to upgrades that will perhaps improve power management.
26th August
Am really getting into a relaxed state. I succeeded in buying 12 minutes of internet time the other day. The tourist internet access point is only about 3 minutes down the road by car, but the problem is that the rest of the family have to sit and wait for me in the car. I think l'll try for 30mins (costing 2 Euros) and send them off to Fumicello and walk down to join them when I've finished.
Have done all the reading for the Digital Divide on my PDA. Have formulated my 300 word posting in my head. I may jot down a few more notes. Being here in this most rural region of Italy has affected my perception and interpretation of this question. As Mark W. points out so firmly, it is not only the availability of equipment and support services that affects uptake of connectivity affordances, put also the context and sheer 'usefulness' of that connectivity. In the context of this idyllic, beautiful and rural spot, I find myself wondering why we feel that it is so important to apply 'connectivity' to all? Is it for their benifit or for our own? Before coming here, I wished that Basilicata had more information available on the web. Now that I am here I can understand why it didn't. Who would benefit most from increased connectivity. I'm no longer quite so sure.
Last night saw a most impressive and loud thunder and lightening storm. It woke me up which was impressive given the thickness of the walls of our 'Tower'. I ran outside to watch and the wind was incredible. I wanted to go up to the battlements but chickened out as the trees were rustling and swaying quite scarily. Not a drop of rain mind, but quite exciting.
Sunny again today but a little windier.
28th August
Spent 30minutes on the internet yesterday at the internet access point. Trouble was there was just too much to assimilate in such a short time. Far better would be the ability to log in using my PDA and mobile phone, download my selected conferences, read them offline at my leisure (by the pool perhaps) and then compose my postings offline and log in again via bluetooth and mobile and PDA to upload. The cost of an international call from my mobile is 58p per minute but given the cost of the course, I think I'd be prepared to factor in the extra cost for the advantages that the online access would give me. Currently the UKeU online environment doesn't support access from PDAs, not even PocketPC (windows). I consider this to be a serious oversight considering the content of the course.
We are now sitting here waiting for our barbeque. this a.m. we drove up the windy and hair raising path to the Christ Redeemer statue. Once there the views were spectacular and it was well worth the terror of the dr ive.
Italy is so beautiful and relaxing. 17t the start oj my two weeks in Basilicata I couldn't
imagine what I would find to occupy us for two whole weeks, as the tine went on l began to realize that perhaps my normal life is far too busy. My current daily routine of a bit of shopping for daily essentials followed by swimming or just lying around reading contrast starkly
with my usual activities of up early, drop Stephen at bus stop, drive to work, back home to housework, washing, OU studies, gym then evenings of hobbies such as Morris dancing or music, not to mention ferrying the kids to various appointments. Maybe once I’ve finished this course I’ll ramp down the activity a bit.
Friday 29th August
Well, tonight was our last night so we spent it in Maratea.
Yesterday evening’s meal at Maratea port at the 1999 restaurant was one of the best, but the steep winding allyways of Maratea with their weird shops that spill out onto the walls and steps surrounding them are too charming to miss. A quick beer watching the crowds wandering buy, a quick souvenir and pressie shop and we sat down to a lovely pizza restaurant. The only one we had not yet tried in Maratea.
We drove home at about 10pm (most Italians stay out until midnight or 1am but we get too tired after a hard days lying in the sun). The villa is built into the lower slopes of a mountain (most of the coastline is cliff) so we drove along the road and were surprised to be stopped by the emergency services. There was a “blaze” on the hill and no cars could pass. Nobody had any idea how long it would last for. So, we returned to Maratea to sit in the square and drink a coffee for a while. The owners of our villa, Christiana and Francisco, owned a small shop in the town and we had seen them earlier sitting outside the café, but they were no longer around.
An hour later we tried again. I walked up to the cluster of irate Italians all asking to be allowed to return home. The official was adamant. It was too dangerous, indeed, I could smell the smouldering and see the smoke. Eventually the official seemed to be saying that people could walk along the road but not drive. I asked the woman sitting on the wall next to me if I had understood correctly and she asked me where I was staying. As I explained that I was only 500yds along the road Francisco emerged from the gloom and said hello. To cut a long story short, he checked that it would be alright to walk and then told us to follow him back to Fumicello where he showed us to a safe parking spot for the car right next to the police station. He then drove us all back to the start of the fire.
We stood around while a man argued that his wife and their young son be allowed to walk back. Once the official had agreed to that, Francisco had a word to get us permission to walk back. I asked him what he would do and he said his wife was on her way with the kids from a birthday party and that they would do the same as us, i.e. drop the car and walk. He would remain behind until the road was cleared.
We started to walk along the road with the woman and her baby, but it was extremely dark. Although I had the foresight to bring a torch, I had left it in the villa. The officials told us to stop and one of them accompanied us carrying a torch. As we walked it got warmer and warmer (the temp was already in the 30s although it was by now quite late). We could hear the fire smouldering and eventually could see workmen in orange uniforms on the hillside dealing with glowing orange outbreaks. We had to stay to the left (the seaward edge) away from the hill. Apart, that is, from one detour around a one meter cubed boulder that had detached itself from the hillside and fallen in the road. That was the reason they were not letting cars through – the hillside had become unstable.
Eventually we got through to the other side and walked the extra 100 yards to the steep windy drive leading to our converted tower of a villa. Again, it got darker and darker but the official had left us at the edge of the danger area. Fortunately, both gates and lights were radio controlled so I was able to shed a little light on things.
We were back by half past midnight. For a while there we wondered if we would be able to make it back.
Saturday 30th
Francisco drove Dave to collect the car from Fumicello. Arrived at Naples airport with no problems. Will be glad to leave the mosquitos, but will miss the heat (alleviated at night by the air conditioning in the villa bedrooms).
Back at Gatwick to really cold weather. Did I say I was ready to come home.
I’m missing Italy already!!!!!
I shall use the next year to really improve my Italian and am determined to return.
spacey
celebratory
happy
chillin'
on fire
party time!
quizzical