Tag Archives: holidays

Alice catches sea spray

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Tuesday 29 December 2009

The saga of the missing suitcase goes on.  Giuseppe phoned the number in Naples airport to get an update but there was no answer.

We went to Scario this evening and I finally got the chance to go to the internet café to update my blog.  The internet connection at my in-law’s is only dial up and even that is not reliable as it keeps disconnecting me, so I simply gave up on that.  It really is great to finally get back onto broadband, although the prices for the internet café meant I had to try to keep my time very limited.  As a result I did not get a chance to check my emails, but I will try to do that another day soon.

As we parked our car at Scario, we came across an old friend, Veto, who we had made friends with at our wedding last year at the Hotel il Giardino in Scario.  It was a fabulous surprise to meet up with him again, and he looked very well indeed.

Fortunately for us it had stopped raining, and so we took this opportunity to take some photos of Scario lit up at night.  I just adore being in Scario, it is such a beautiful little seaside town.  I often dream about someday having a little apartment there, wouldn’t it be a great place to live.

Alices returns to Salerno …… without her camera

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Monday 28 December 2009

Torre Orsaia

I forgot to mention that yesterday we went back up to Torre Orsaia in the evening to take my Mother-in-law and my Grandma-in-law to Church.  As we had already been to so many services already this week, we decided not to go in.  Instead we took this opportunity to walk around this mountain village at night time to take some photos.  The houses and streets were lit up with festive Christmas lights and it was very pretty walking along the cobbled lanes. 

    

We bumped into my nephew and sister-in-law while we were taking photos.  At first we didn’t recognise each other.  Pina explained she thought we were just tourists, and was surprised when we turned around to see it was us!   They were on their way to visit Pina’s sister up the road.  So after we finished taking our photos we went up to meet them at Pina’s sister’s house.  Pina’s sister has three little girls and a baby boy, and it was cute watching them at play.  I tried to hold the baby boy but that didn’t last long as no sooner was he on my lap and then he started to scream.  I guess I’m not baby material after all! He he  J

      

Train to Salerno

Today we got up early to take the train to Salerno.  It was an enjoyable day out, and I admired the rows of beautiful shops, until of course they closed for lunch.  Our stomachs were grumbling by that time anyhow so we decided to follow suit and popped into a small bar/café.  The quality of the food and the prices were superb, we had French fries, a ham and mozzarella calzone, and a sausage and mozzarella pastry, all for just 6 euros.  Not bad for the two of us.  Not only that but it was so filling, that we couldn’t even get to the calzone, and ended up packing it up to take away with us. 

After we finished our lunch we noticed the shops were still closed.  Signs on the shops varied but most said they would not open again until 5pm or 4pm at the earliest.  So we headed away from the city and walked towards the seaside.  On our way we passed this magnificent pastisserie.  I asked Giuseppe what the many varied items were but he told me he had never seen most of them.  So it was an adventure for both of us.  I ended up choosing a little sponge circle thing that had been soaked in brandy or something similar and coated with chocolate mousse and then hard chocolate and chocolate hundreds and thousands.  It was very rich, but most delightful, it certainly got my tick of approval.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos to show from Salerno as we decided not to take our camera with us since it is heavy and we were taking the train.  We knew we would be busy walking up and down everywhere.  It was a relief that we didn’t take the extra baggage, because we were both exhausted by the end of the day.  We did an awful lot of walking, so it was fabulous exercise, but it was very tiring.

While in Salerno we went to the music shop and I tried out a digital piano there.  I practised my Fats Waller and Brahms.  I had been looking for a book on Ravel.  However, the shop owner was very rude and curt with us.  So we walked out without buying anything because of his attitude.

Alice overwhelmed by New Years

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Sunday 27 December 2009

Today we went back to church again, this time back to Torre Orsaia for the 11am service.  By the time we got home again the whole family were waiting for us to serve lunch.  It was fabulous to come home to a cooked meal, I shall certainly miss this when I return home and things go back to normal.

I am trying to lose weight again, I think this will be another new years resolution together with learning Italian.  It is terrible when there is not enough time to do everything you want to do.

Alice gets new clothes

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Saturday 26 December 2009

We went into Scario to take some ‘night’ photos of the lights at the seaside.  The shops were open though so I decided it was time I try to find some skirt or trousers.  I have been wearing the same trousers every day now since arriving to Italy.  There was very limited selection.  However I was very lucky to find a pair of white trousers that fit perfectly and a cute little shirt that fit me like a glove.  So that was a good find, especially since they were both discounted items. 

Unfortunately for us the good weather had made an exit while we were inside the boutique, and the rain had come back again.  It started with a drizzle and then soon it was hailing.  That put a stop to our plans to take photos with the tripod, and we had even forgotten our umbrella in the car.  So we took shelter in the church.  The service was due to start at 6pm, and it was only 5.30pm so it wasn’t really that long to wait.  The Priest was sitting in the box to our left as we entered, and he was taking people’s confessions.  Inside the church there were already about 30 people and they were chanting together their Hail Marys, Rosario.  One lady from the front came down to the back where we were sitting and asked me to come to the front to read aloud the prayer.  I did not understand this of course, but Giuseppe translated to me later and he answered on my behalf to the lady to explain that I could not understand Italian and therefore could not assist.  It was a shame, as I would have loved to have taken part.  Then I resolved I must go home and memorise the Rosario. 

It was a very enjoyable service, as there was lots of singing.  They gave us a hymn sheet, as there were no hymn books in sight.  However, the songs on the sheet were not used during this service so we guessed they must have given us the wrong song sheets.  But I recognised the tunes, they were singing the traditional carols in Italian.  I did not know the words in Italian, but I knew them in English so I joined in singing the English version.  It was a lot of fun!

Alice celebrates Christmas 2009

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Merry Christmas!  Buon Natale!  I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! 

Today we went to the 11am church service to celebrate Christmas.  We stayed behind after the church service because I wanted to speak to the Priest.  The Priest was my age, so I heard.  He is also the same Priest that married us last year.  He is such a lovely person, so happy and friendly, and we wanted to thank him again for the lovely service.  It was really good to see him again, especially because it was someone whom I was familiar with.

Then it was home for the big Christmas dinner.  There was far too much food, so much so that I felt really bad in the afternoon.  This reminded me of their many courses served at weddings.  I tried so hard not to overeat but I was not very successful.  Oh well, it could have been much worse, that is my only consolation!

Alice’s Christmas woes

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Wednesday 23 December 2009

We telephoned the number in Ireland for Easy Jet that was on the form to inform them our luggage was still missing and to proceed with the claim.  The guy told us that from his system the suitcase had been picked up by a passenger on the 16th of December 2009.  We advised him this was not the case, as our suitcase never arrived and we had gone to baggage services to claim.  The guy told us to telephone this number at  0039 081 78 96 237  Naples airport to speak to them about it.  Giuseppe telephoned this number.  However nobody answered the telephone.

By this stage I was keeping my eye on the clock, and I was very excited about going to Sapri for the festivities.  I was feeling much better by this stage and had completely recovered except for a nagging cough.  Unfortunately Giuseppe now had a headache and was feeling really tired, so we had to cancel our plans, and stayed home instead.

Monday 21 December 2009

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Giuseppe phoned the number on the form from the Naples airport and gave the application number for the lost luggage.  It was a recorded system that answered and when Giuseppe entered our application number it said that the luggage was still lost.  What an absolute headache!

Today was Pina’s birthday.  Her present had been lost because I had packed it in our suitcase, so I did not have anything to give her.  So we had gone down to the hobby store in Policastro a couple of days before and bought some supplies for me to make some jewellery for Pina to replace her present.  I made some cute little earrings and a necklace and then wrapped it up with music paper.  I was very pleased with the result.  I gave it to Pina this morning together with her birthday card.  We had lost our entire pack of Christmas cards from England in our suitcase, but fortunately I had packed the single cards in our hand luggage.

   

Today we went to my nephews school, Lorenzo, to watch him perform in the end of year school play.  It was a great experience.  The decorations and outfits were cute, the little green elf hats, the angels with their gold wings, and the red santa claus and Mrs Santa Claus.  You can see the place was absolutely packed with proud parents.

  

This next picture is taken just up the road from the school.  I was intrigued with the gate of this house because its shape reminded me of that of the entrance of Maraes back home.

Alices gets ready to party

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Sunday 20 December 2009

Today we went to church in the morning.  On our way home I saw a poster that advertised a festival in Sapri on the 23rd of December starting at 6pm.  I showed it to Giuseppe and he agreed we could go to it.  There were going to be bands, music, and I was really looking forward to it.

During the last few days we had our mobile phone with us at all times, and we always had it with us when we left the house. We were hoping to get a phone call from Naples airport to tell us they had found our suitcase.  But we did not receive any phone calls or text messages about our luggage.  There were no phone calls to our home either.  Today was the last of the five days that they told us to wait before we could buy anything to replace our lost items from our luggage.

It was Lorenzo’s birthday today and he had a few friends coming over for his birthday party. We were busy today as we spent half the day in the kitchen cooking these pastry party things.  I can’t remember the name.  They were sort of like sweet pastry canneloni that we wrapped around a bamboo stick and fried in the pan until golden crisp.  They come out looking like what I think are soft brown brandy snaps.  They then get filled with a custard filling, either with chocolate added or without.  If I had my way however I would simply add fresh cream and leave it at that. 

Later in the evening Giuseppe and I went down stairs to blow up the balloons and hang them up.  I was very pleased with the result it looked very good.  It was an enjoyable evening, plenty of food, and lots of noise!