Well we had a scout around Italy at the beginning of the month...the weather was very good, we only experienced rain once when walking around Pisa - it was wet underfoot but we didn't get wet. We are maxed out on frescoes (frescos? sp) churches, basilica etc....my favourite was Florence where the Cathedral is absolutely breathtaking and having travelled the world it takes a lot to make me stand in absolute awe of a place. The food was so so....in the first hotel it was not so good and the portions were so small I felt sorry for the menfolk. In the second hotel it was beautiful as was the third and last hotel. I was looking forward to the ice-cream but I can honestly say that apart from Lemon and Black Cherry (not together folks) I was not terribly keen. We have a shop here in Cookstown, run by the Sheehy family and they sell Movenpick ice cream (Swiss) which is far better than anything I tasted in Italy. I now understand that we would have got more authentic Italian ice cream in non-tourist areas..hmmmm...bit late now and even then we were with a group and had to stay with the group etc. But the cappucinnos - oh my - I really miss those....you get them in a small tea cup - no big 'bowly' cup over there - the taste is divine.....prices vary of course...the cheapest we found was 1.80 Euro for 2 standing up at the bar....the most expensive was 2.50 each standing at the bar.....2 coffees and 2 danish sitting down was 13 Euros altogether...so you see sitting down is much more expensive. Ice creams vary too...a little tub is fairly economical - say 2.50 Euro each but one day in Rome we were hungry and en route with a guide we dashed into an ice cream shop....pointed to two waffle cones and shouted out our flavours....went to pay....DH handed me 10 Euros....she asked for another 10!!!! We had to pay up and run....we were taken for a big ride....oh my....we were careful after that....we laughed about it so much!
I did buy some wool in Seinna - half the price of the same sort of quality hereabouts. I did find a paper shop in a little village and bought quite a lot but that was the only paper shop I came across...that was a disappointment to me.
We came home with horrible colds....several of our group had had the cold - I'm blaming it on the extremely cold a/c at the last hotel.....we turned it off in our room but during dinner we were frozen...I wore an extra layer the next night.....so have been coughing so much since our return and still bouts of coughing.....
We lost a phone a few days ago....looked everywhere for it...rang it but couldn't get any idea where it was....and today was 'bin day' (the day the trash goes out) so last night quite late we thought maybe it might have gone accidentally into the bin....so out with the cell phone and stood beside the bin out at the road ringing the number but there was no ringing in the bin....DH got up early and brought the bin down to the back garden and dumped everything out of it and still no phone (he thought perhaps if the batteries had gone there would be no ringing in it) - I decided to have one last look this morning......and there it was under a cushion (pillow) on the sofa.....it was not 'heard' ringing as it was in the same room as another phone...and you can only hear one ring even from two phones. Augh, the time we've spent wondering where this phone was....if you are like me you spend more time looking for stuff than anything else. Just one of those amusing things which happen frequently in this house.....it is usual to lose the favourite little black knife which I use to do a lot of work with in the kitchen....have I thrown it out with the potato peelings? Sometimes....have I left it in the cake tin after I've cut a peice of cake...most probably....so it's either back to the bin or search the cake tins....
Well I have chatted long enough and hereabouts it's time for bed so until the next time take care everyone!
