Forgot one of our favourite spots in Italy - CINQUE TERRE

So named because it is a national park comprising five (cinque) lovely wee coastal villages on the north west coast of Italy. Really a beautiful spot, so we'll let the photos speak for themselves.

How worried are the Venetians...

...about global warming then? I expect they´re bloody nervous, I would be if I were them.

Still, their city is pretty amazing. All the splendour of your standard old European city but with the added trick of streets made of water.

Neither of us had been to Venice before and even for the jaded euro-travellers we´ve become, Venice was pretty special. It didn´t hurt that we were staying in a very cool part of old venice at a B&B recommended by a friend (hat tip to Nige). The place only had two rooms, both overlooking a canal (luckily water craft seem to be prohibited from using little canals after dark otherwise it´d be noisy). We chose the one that had the slight 18th century royal feel about it. Our first evening there we just wandered around without a map, and eventually found ourseleves crossing the rialto bridge (who would´ve guessed that the Venetians would name a bridge after a cinema in Auckland?) and then stumbled across St Marks square, with hardly a tourist or pigeon in sight. Fair to say we were both a bit gobsmacked.

The next day was the feast of someone or other (unfortunately our host at the B&B didn´t speak a word of English and our Italian still doesn´t extend beyond a few (surprisingly useful) musical terms- we knew she was trying to tell us something important, but we didn´t know what (all the museums and churches were free - though we didn´t find this out till the next day - and here we'd thought we were saving money by not stepping inside any museums or churches). We did get caught up in the festival too (literally swept along some streets toward an enormous church with no chance of turning around). After passing through the church we found ourselves on a street with lots of food stalls selling sweets (including these lovely fresh deep fried donut type objects) and helium balloons. Call me a cynic but I think we weren´t the only people that had come for the donuts.

We were only in Venice for a couple of nights before flying to Spain; Girona (an hour north of Barcelona) to be exact. We chose to go to Girona only because the budget airline (Ryan Air) lands there and pretends its Barcelona. We decided to stay a couple of nights there because the Lonely Planet (guidebook) says its lovely - and they´re right.

Its a decent sized town (90,000 people) , and mostly fairly modern and sprawling, but it has an old medieval centre bit. They´ve also restored about half the old city wall, and you can walk along it and enjoy fabulous views and lots of little secret gardens with the requisite number of park benches for those with tired feet.

From the year dot until the year 1500 or so Girona also had a thriving Jewish community (as did several Catalonian towns). The old Jewish district (called the Call), which had started out as just the area where most of them lived, and eventually became the area within which they were rigidly confined, was right in the heart of town. By 1497 (?), in the shadow of the inquisition, the reigning monarchs and Christian clergy had decided to expel them (this happenned all over Western Europe apparently). Following various historical and archelogical investigations they´ve pieced together the story of the Jews in Girona and established a Museum of Jewish History right where their old synagogue used to be. I spent a fascinating couple of hours there before racing back to our hostel to meet Lisa and catch our train to Barcelona. If you ever get a chance to go to Girona, take it! (They also have the friendliest and most helpful people ever at their tourist information office at the airport and at the hostel/hotel we stayed at).

Florence by accident

Yep, we've moved on a day early (thanks to having completed the olive harvest and a spare day in our Eurail pass) - and having shut our eyes and placed our fingers on the map, have ended up in Florence.....but Ian will regale you with more news on that front....

I just wanted to add a few words about our WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) experience in Umbria - if you ever have the opportunity to WWOOF, do it - it's a great way to experience local culture and get to know local folk. Our host family included Rob (English), Rita (Italian), their three boys Lenny, Freddy and Sonny, labrador Charlie, three cats (Cat, Cat and Cat), bunny, and TWO roosters (whom I could have both quite happily throttled).

We spent a good 12 days harvesting olives and towards the end olives were featuring regularly in our dreams (and nightmares!). It was fun work, mostly a quiet, zen-esque kind of affair (although at one point dear old Ian was a trooper and bore my rather lengthy Abba tribute to keep us entertained!) Visiting the olive press and seeing the fruit of our labour was another high point and here are a couple of pics from that day.

But we are glad to move on - we enjoyed our time in Orvieto (a beautiful part of Umbrian countryside) but are ready to do our own thing again.

As a wee side note, we're VERY excited about the outcome of the US election (I can't think how that relates to olive picking AT ALL but thought I'd mention it). We're not surprised about the outcome of the NZ election despite our best efforts to influence it from our side of the world.

The blog bits we skipped while were in a virtually computerless land (not a bad thing altogether) were tales of our ferry trip from Greece to Italy (Bari), which was relatively painless as there were only about 40 passengers on a ferry built for 600, and a mention of Lecce (where we spent our first two Italian days).

Lecce was lovely. Our hostel (actually quite a flash B&B) was great - a cute apartment all of our own, and came with juice, milk and mineral water in the fridge and a selection of pastries for breakfast. The good folk of Lecce were especially good at that Italian diversion of strolling up and down the avenues of an evening; eating gelatos, gossiping, sipping wine and flirting depending on their age and inclination. We did our utmost to emulate them (especially on the gelato front). Lecce town itself (also known as 'the Florence of the South' according to our guidebook) is a lovely old medieval number with fragments of old city walls and the gates that led through them (actually its a lot older than that come to think of it cos there were a couple of Roman theatres within two blocks of our apartment). There were also more churches than you could shake a holy grail at and the place is reknowned for papier maché apparently (they even do church ceilings in papier maché). Anyway, it was old and pretty, take it from us. The only blot on Lecce's copybook is that they seem to have completely cornered the market in scaffolding and have used it (and EU money) to cover up parts of all their major attractions presumably with an eye to a bit of restoration. Oh yes, and it was also hosting an Oxfam sponsored poster exhibition in its main piazza- a nice diversion for the pennywise tourist.

By the way, thought I'd add that Umbria really is a LOVELY part of the country, and you can see why all the expats flock to it. Interesting topography with thousand year old towns perched on most of the higher hills and lots of super-cute villages nestled in the valleys in between. During the fortnight we were there the leaves on the frequent patches of forest, and on the abundant grape vines, all turned significantly more autumnal (from a general pale yellow to a deep-jaundice with a touch of pink sort of colour if you must know). Need to also mention that our WWOOFING hosts Rob and Rita really made us feel at home, including letting me drive the classic 1964 Fiat tractor and inviting us to a Guy Fawkes bonfire party at a friends place. Fabulous!

Anyway, enough rabbiting on. A new part of Italy tomorrow and the adventure continues.

PS Unfortunately we are yet again having technical issues which are preventing me from selecting photos from the portable hard drive we brought with us. Instead Here are a few shots that happen to still be on the camera. Those of you that we see in person in the next 6 months will, in due course, be able to enjoy the full 8427 photo slide show of our holiday.

Above (hopefully) is the Duomo in Florence. We went to a Vespers service hoping to find a choir but instead found some very out of tune chanting.

Above (hopefully again). The view west from the Ponte Santa Trinita along the Fiume Arno in Florence

Our House in Umbria

So we're in Italy then. Land of fabulous food, breathtaking scenery and hopeless internet connections. Just a wee post with no photos today on account of the ultra-slow dial-up connection we are using. Tried to use an internet cafe in town but we were thwarted by our lack of photo ID! Apparently. in the interests of homeland security, one isn't allowed to use an internet cafe in Italy without first producing your passport in case you do something dodgy online. Unbelievable.

Anyway, we arrived in Italy a week or so ago and spent a lovely couple of days in Lecce (the Florence of the south apparrently) before heading up here to help Rita and Rob with their olive harvest.

Well about 74 olive trees, and just over one tonne of olives later, the harvest is done and we're off to the press tomorrow. We've been sustained throughout by Rita's marvellous cooking, all so Italian and scrummy.

At the end of the week we head further north to the Cinque Terre region and more adventures. Hopefully we'll manage to post some photos from up that way.

Ciao.

Has anyone seen the NZ embassy??

Today Lisa and I tried to exercise our democratic right by stumbling off to find the NZ Embassy in Athens; armed with our Lonely Planet guidebook which clearly showed it in cell C2 of the map on page 347.

Well we found a few embassies and lots of policemen but it turns out they'd moved since the guidebook we have was printed and wouldn't you know it but none of the cops in the diplomatic quater had any idea where they'd gone. We eventually found the new embassy / consulate, sharing their 5sq metres of the 6th floor of an obscure surburban building with a dentist and two lawyers. I don't know where the foreign affairs budget goes but its not Athens. Still, it was a good day for the waistline.


As was yesterday when we Did The Sights (Roman Agora, Ancient Agora, Acropylis, Hadrian's Library, Temple of Zeus, Temple of some-other-god, Another Temple of some-other-god). We managed to find ourselves in Athens on a public holiday- when all the monuments are free. So we saved ourselves $50 by seeing most of them. The crowds weren't at all bad either. In fact we found Athens a pretty nice town to hang out in. We especially enjoyed the free entertainment provided by the 5-a-side soccer court (enclosed in mesh like indoor cricket).

We've had a great time here- except for the sleeping, which is pretty hard to do in this particular hostel.

Off to Italy by ferry tomorrow, provided we can find our way around the 24 hour traindrivers strike announced today. Anyone know where the bus station is in Athens? Hope its easier to find than the NZ embassy.

Cheers,

Ian and Lisa

PS we were kind of wondering if anyone out there read this blog. Please do us a wee favour and email one of us so we know who we are doing it for (or you can send us a public comment by clicking on the "post a comment" link somewhere on this page).

It's all Greek to us

So here we are in Mykonos, Greek Island number 2. But I get ahead of myself - let me tell you about Samos.

Samos is about 3 kms away from Turkey and was our first Greek stop. We stayed in a lovely little town called Pythagorio (birth place of Pythagorus for all you math folk or other folk who have always wondered what clever person came up with the theory of figuring out the length of the third side of a triangle).

CUTE wee town and lots of CUTE wee fishing boats. Also scores of cafes on the waterfront (now only frequented by smart people like us who have missed the busy summer season).

Spent one full day scootering around the island (about the size of Waiheke Island probably) exploring cute villages and marveling at the fabulous views we had of the Mediterranean which looked inviting but in all reality jolly freezing (Ian braved it - he says you never regret a swim. I don't believe it.)

Lovely start to our Greece experience and Mykonos is shaping up to be another lovely stop. Beaches here are a little more sandy and the weather is a little warmer. The town is an incredible maze of striking white buildings (to confuse pirates they say - we're finding our way around ok so we must be smarter than them). Highlight was seeing Mediterranean pelicans in the middle of town - they seemed to know their way around too.

Tonight we ferry to Santorini - look out for the next blog on Greek Island splendour!

Kicking back in Kusadasi

Many thanks to Karen Fifield and Scott Penhaligon for making this blog happen. When we were planning our trip I happenned to be having a drink with Karen one day (a friend through work) when she mentioned that she and her husband used to have a share in a house in Kusadasi on Turkey's Agean coast. Moreover she was adamant that Lisa and I should go and stay there with her friend Scott who still lived in the house. In fact Karen basically planned our whole Turkish itinerary (and didn't put a foot wrong with it!).


So it was lovely to get down to Kusadasi and do very little at all for 5 days or so. Scott was a fantastic (and well-practiced) host and apart from a day trip to Ephesus and a lovely day walking in a nearby National Park (thanks for the scooter Scott) we mostly spent our time doing washing, reading books, smoking water pipes (actually we only did that once) and, brace yourself, watching TV! All we could do in return was look after his dogs for 24 hours and drop him off a the bus stop one day.

















On Thursday 16th we caught the boat across to Samos and started our Greek Island leg....