That Time In My Life Again – 2

The experience continues — as I couldn’t resist and I’m going again tonight!

This morning my voice was nowhere to be found, which lasted for a few hours. I am going to have to try to keep my lungs intact tonight.

Read the comments from this article to get (even) a slight idea of just how awesome last night’s show was…

Anyway, from Eddie:

“I wish I lived in Adelaiiiiiiiiiiiiide
Take a break from the USaaaa
Write some songs and catch some waves
Walk on the beach and get laiiiiiiiiiiiid”

That Time In My Life Again…

What went wrong?
Walking tightrope high
Over moral ground
Seeing visions of
Falling up somehow
Oh do come down
With the living, let
What is living love
So unforgiving, yet
Needing forgiveness first…

Yes, I’m ready to re-live the Pearl Jam Experience (this will be the fourth time I’ve seen them.) Yeah! The concert is tomorrow night and they will be fabulous like they always are…

The above words are from Marker In The Sand. I don’t have an emotional connection to those lyrics but musically it’s one of the best melodies I’ve heard from them; consequently I can’t get it out of my head. If you know the song, then think of me when you listen to it. Just because.

See you soon, Ed!

Twenty Things I Discovered In Italy

1. I would move to Italy for the food alone.

2. I would move to Italy full stop.

3. I loved to shop at (United Colours Of) Benetton.

4. Italy makes/made me more fashion-conscious.

5. Train travelling or waiting for one is not so bad when you can play Scrabble against your husband on his PDA.

6. Italian women are beautiful.

7. Italian coffee is perfect 99% of the time.

8. Travelling on a train on the top of a mountain is not the coolest feeling in the world. (I’m such a baby.)

9. I pray that one day my local Woolworths will have even a fifth of the awesome food selection that I saw in all the local Italian supermarkets.

10. I’d forgotten how much I love anchovies.

11. Never, ever, take my salsiccia.

12. You know you’ve struck gold when the local Mcdonalds makes fabulous espressos.

13. People have a fascination with standout spectacles in Italy. It was kinda weird to see the carabiniere (policemen) wearing thick, maroon Gucci specs.

14. Travelling light is not overrated.

15. Pushing in is the done thing. Shop assistants and the like don’t care who has been waiting the longest.

16. If you want to irritate the locals, ask them if they speak English.

17. If you want to please the locals, ask them if they speak English but then speak in Italian. They’ll be rapt that you’re making the effort — even if they can only half understand you.

18. I didn’t think it was possible to love cheese any more than I already did. (Caciotta, I miss you.)

19. Italians love their sneakers. Good quality ones. I never wear sneakers. But I bought two pairs while I was over there and wear them all the time now!

20. I would move to Italy. (Oh, did I already say that?)

The European Itinerary

Now that I am back, I will detail where we went and how we got there. (Note: everywhere we went was wonderful and yes, there were some itinerary stuff-ups and other frustrating moments… but they didn’t compare to the fabulous times we had.)

We left Australia on the 5th October and flew into Rome on the morning of the 6th. We instantly got a train from Rome airport to the city and then spent 8 hrs (two trains later) getting to Bovalino in Calabria. My dad’s relatives met us there at the station and they drove us to their hometown, Benestare. We stayed there for 3 nights. We were then headed for Sorrento and so we caught a train to Naples first, which took about 4 hours and then we got a local train out to the coast. After one night in Sorrento, we took a ferry to Capri and spent the day there. The next day, we took a bus to Positano. On the fourth day in Sorrento, we took a train to Rome where we were to spend 3 nights. After Rome, we were headed for Punta Di San Vigilio, which is in Garda (Lake Garda). To achieve this, we took a train to Desenzano and then a ferry to Garda. We spent one night in San Vigilio. From Garda, we were off to Venice and so we got the ferry to Peschiera Del Garda first and then the train to Venice. We spent one night there. We then travelled to Turin and stayed for two nights. On the third day, we got a bus to Milan’s Malpensa airport, which took 2 hours, to fly out to Paris. After two nights in Paris, we flew back to Italy, landing in Pisa. At Pisa airport, we picked up our hire car and drove for 1 hour to our cottage in Casole D’Elsa which is in the Tuscan region of Siena. We spent 6 nights in Casole. We were then headed for Cinque Terre. To do this, we drove back to Pisa, dropped off the car, took the train from Pisa airport to Pisa central and got another train to La Spezia. From there we caught a train to Vernazza which is one of the towns that make up Cinque Terre. We spent 3 nights in Vernazza, which included a full day at La Spezia. Then we were to return to Rome and so we caught a train from Vernazza to La Spezia and then spent 4 hrs on the train to Rome. We spent another night in Rome, and the next day my cousin took us to the airport where we learnt we were supposed to fly out the day before. We spent that night in Rome again and flew out the day after, which was on the 2nd of November.

As you can see, there was a lot of travelling time and more visiting time needed in most places. Although I know this for our next trip, we still got a great taste of each of the towns — even if we didn’t explore them from top to bottom. (And thank God we travelled lightly.)

The whole trip was just brilliant. I took about 2000 photos. I am slowly uploading a portion of these (from each town) to Flickr.

Well, I Have Returned…

from the best holiday in my life. It’s going to take a while to get back into the swing of things.

‘That’s all,’ I say in my best Miranda Priestly voice…