I discovered that nightclubs are called discoteche here, not nightclubs, as nightclub means strip club in Italian. I only made that mistake once and luckily didn't take Lucy to see something she probably would rather not. I was so sad to see her go, it was lovely to see someone from my French life as we all miss it so much.
A week later I blagged a week off work and took a 7 hour train to Tuscany! This time it was for a week's holiday with the family minus Matt, our family friends Vicky, Paul and Georgia and two friends of Ben and Georgia's, Angus and Paisley. We were a houseful and what a house it was. Super Mum had found a villa in the Tuscan hills with both a pool and a tennis court. Swoon. Not only could I inflict my bikini body on my nearest and dearest, I could also humiliate them with my amazing tennis ability. Unfortunately for me, I gave that ability to my brothers at birth, very kind of me I know. I wasn't quite as bad as I thought I would be, but I wasn't far off. Well at least it was entertaining for onlookers. To entertain the wine lovers of the group (everyone except the not so littluns) we visited Le Miccine, a producer in the Chianti hills and a client of Paul who imports wines. Le Miccine is ran by an inspiring Canadian Paula Pipini Cook who showed us round her beautiful vineyard and let us taste vast quantities of her beautiful wine. Cue very happy bigguns. I then took the not so littluns to Florence to spend a day getting some culture like. My family don't really do museums and art in a big way, so visiting a museum was quite an achievement for us kids. Fine, most people don't go to Florence for the modern art but we never have been very normal anyway. The Nove Cento museum was surprisingly good and not too big so perfect for us. I also introduced them to my favourite gelaterie. I have my priorities straight.
In Florence we picked up cousin Billy and his two friends who were interrailing and in need of a place to crash. We had a great evening with them being educated on all things film. They all went to the Brit school so are very creative. Billy is a film-maker, and although I'm admittedly biased I think he's rather good. Here's one he filmed at our house back home, I now blame him for any sleep problems.
The Cat Sitter (SHORT HORROR FILM)
Back to less creepy things, a picture of the outrageous sunsets. We were not blessed with good weather on the holiday, in fact I had to borrow Ben's clothes as I was so cold all the time, but it did make for some beautiful evenings. No filter, no kidding.
It was tough leaving my family again, I'm feeling quite ready to go home now. I love it here and in many ways I don't want to leave, but home is home.
To finish I thought I would tell you a bit more about where I live, seeing as British people have no idea where or what Abruzzo is and the locals keep looking at me in a very odd way asking me why I'm here. My favourite was a man asking me if I was lost. Ortona may be small, but boring it is not. It was the scene of a fierce battle in WWII where many Canadians lost their lives. Accordingly, there is a war cemetery close by and a museum in town. I should probably go there at some point. Also, there's a castle!
If castles aren't cool, I don't know what is.
The region of Abruzzo is famous for its Arrosticini, basically meat on sticks. They're lush.f In my previous post, I mentioned how strong the local dialect is. I wasn't exaggerating. I've been learning a bit but it's tough, particularly when I'm learning a weird combination of ortonese and crecchiese as I live in Ortona but most of my friends are from Crecchio, around 10min drive away. Yes the dialects are distinct and different. Here is an example of ortonese for you to attempt to decipher.
Translation in the next post. Ciao!