News From Italy Blog Dedication

The best part of the last ten years has been spent with my husband  David living a dream life in Northern Lazio, Italy. Sadly his recent death has meant the end of this adventure. We were a close couple and I do not want to live full time alone in Italy. It is too early yet to say how much time I will spend in Italy every year but sadly I feel it will not be enough to warrant continuing with my blog 'News From Italy'

Thankyou for all the wonderful support I have had from all around the world.

I am dedicating 'News From Italy' to this wonderful man, who was a very special husband, father, brother, son, uncle and friend to all who knew him.

David Stewart McFall July 27th 1950 - May 24th 2013

Moving On A New Chapter

Last year in readiness for the next chapter in our life adventure we put the house on the market to sell. Since moving to Italy we have done up and sold two properties which has kept us very busy and also been great fun. We had decided though that in the future we would like to be able to do more travelling including spending sometime every year in the UK. With the olive grove and various fruit trees in the large garden which was almost a full time commitment this was just not going to be possible. It was time therefore to move to a more manageable property and hopefully the next one will be in the centre of Marta so that we do not have to get in the car every time we need to do something. Even a trip to the rubbish bins entails getting in the car if you live in rural Italy.

In November we set off for the UK planning to spend a few months renovating a property we had purchased in Wales. We were very excited as prior to our departure we had accepted an offer on the house here with plans for completion at the end of March 2013. This fitted in perfectly with our intention of being back in Italy by the end of February to sort everything out for the sale. However as the saying goes, the best laid plans!

Life started to go horribly wrong for us when just a few weeks after arriving in Wales my husband was admitted to hospital. What we had thought was a severe bout of gastric sickness turned out to be much more serious, involving three months in hospital and major surgery. Thanks to the extreme kindness of friends and family in Italy and the UK we were able to push ahead with the sale of the Italian house and it was all completed just before Easter.

My husband also came out of hospital on the same day so we can at least start planning the next Italian and other adventures. Although we are going to need to be patient with regards to our return to Italy in search of the next property to purchase as we need to get him fit first. We have a long road to recovery ahead of us after all he has been through.

Many of you followed the renovation project here on the blog but just in case you didn't and would like to see some of the work we did I have included links back to the various posts.

http://lindyloumac.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/our-house-renovations-kitchen.html

http://lindyloumac.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/our-house-renovations-guest-suite.html

http://lindyloumac.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/our-house-renovationsmaster-bedroom.html

http://lindyloumac.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/our-house-renovations-sitting-and.html

Renovation Project photos can also be viewed at Flickr if you are interested in seeing more photos of the work as it progressed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mctumble/collections/72157622204048678/

We are not going to be back in Italy yet awhile so I am not going to be writing any more posts about our life in Lazio until we do return for the next chapter of our Italian adventure. I cannot write about day to day life when I am not there to experience it sadly, although maybe I will be able to share other news from the region from time to time.

I will continue to share photos and posts from friends on my FB News From Italy page and if you would like to keep in touch with our life adventures you can do so via my other blogs. LindyLouMac's World in Photos  and Travel Tales  Also of course if you enjoy books I would love to welcome you to LindyLouMac's Book Reviews.

Buona Pasqua - Happy Easter - 2013

In celebration of  Easter I would like to wish all my family, friends and followers an enjoyable and peaceful time. We will not be with our daughters but we will be thinking of them, one daughter on holiday in India, the other in Salisbury.  Good news, though is that my husband is at last home from hospital, yesterday just in time for Easter. We may not be in Italy as we had hoped to be for Easter but at least we are together again. It has been a long three months as apart from a gap of two weeks he was in hospital the entire time. We came to spend some time in Wales last winter, which is where my sister and brother-in-law live. The plan was to work on the renovation of a little town house we have purchased in the beautiful town of Tywyn on the Welsh coast and the edge of the Snowdonia National Park. Those of you that follow lindyloumacsworldinphotos will have seen photographs. It is a beautiful place to for my husband to spend his convalescence until he is fit enough for us to return to Italy for the next chapter in our life adventure.

To each and everyone of you reading this post. 


                                               BUONA PASQUA



The video of  Easter images is set to  Povia singing 'Vorrei avere il becco' which translates literally as 'I wish I had the beak'  the original version can be found on YouTube.  Link to YouTube Video of Povia performing this song.


                        Easter Greetings set to Music -  Auguri di Buona Pasqua.

                                                  Uploaded by domy1292 on Feb 15, 2008


For those of you that have not been reading News From Italy for very long, I have posted about Easter in previous years, including some beautiful music and videos. I am including links to some of my previous posts, with a brief explanation of the information you will find if you visit them.


Giovedi Santo - Maundy Thursday
On this morning this the Pope carries out a mass known as 'Mass of the Chrism', in St Peter's Basilica. The chrism is a mixture of balsam and olive oil that is used in some of the sacraments after it has been blessed.  I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church but of the Church of England, but this post I hope does explain a little of what happens in the few days prior to Easter Sunday in the Roman Catholic church


Venerdi Santo - Good Friday
Good Friday is not a Bank Holiday here in Italy as it is very much considered a day of mourning. The Roman Catholic Church treats Good Friday as a fast day, normally in the one main meal only fish is eaten.
This post also includes a video showing one of the many Venerdi Santo Processions that take place in the evening.  We have witnessed a number now in various towns and I find they are very emotional occasions.


Sunday Song - Easter Sunday - Domenica di Pasqua
Amedeo Minghi, an Italian singer songwriter with his beautiful rendition of ‘Gerusalemme’  'Jerusalem' a piece commissioned by the Vatican on the occasion of the 'Jubilee 2000'.


Buona Pasqua - Happy Easter 
Last year I posted a general update of the Easter festivities saying that our thoughts were with all our family, friends both real and virtual where ever they were in the world for a Buona Pasqua – Happy Easter.


Enjoy your Easter Break may it be peaceful and happy.

NB: Those of you that have been following News From Italy for more than a year may recognise material in this post from last year. Forgive me but the internet connection in the beach house we are renting while my husband's convalescing is dreadful much worse than an connection we have ever had in Italy! This means posting is not easy, slow connections are just not made for blogging.

La Festa della Donna – International Women’s Day - March 8th 2013

Italy takes part in International Women’s Day, La Festa della Donna when women of all ages celebrate this special day dedicated to them with celebratory dinners or just get together with other female friends and are often presented with bunches of bright yellow Mimosa, the recognised symbol of the day here.

If you happen to be in Italy on March 8th and you are a women you may just get presented with a bunch of Mimosa. 

International Women’s Day is recognised and celebrated in many countries around the world and the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. Although originally a Socialist political event, the day grew in the culture of many countries, primarily in Eastern Europe. In many regions, the day has lost its political flavour, and become simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

In 2011 March 8th marked the centenary of one of the events that is thought to have been the birth of International Women’s Day. When in March 1911 more than one million women and men attended rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.

Every year the United Nations choose a different worldwide theme for Women’s Day and many events take place not just today but throughout March, marking the economic, political and social achievements of women. Their theme for March 8th 2013 is "The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum"   

Many other organisations develop their own themes that are more relevant to their local contexts. For example, the European Parliament's 2013 theme is "How women weather the economic crisis . The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day by the United Nations  is “Women and Men United to End Violence against Women and Girls.” The theme was chosen to draw attention to the Secretary-General’s wider “UNiTE to End Violence Against Women” campaign which runs through 2015, the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

On this day Festa della Donna International Women’s Day, let us give thanks to all those women who came before us and helped to grant us the freedom we all have in modern society.
Women are powerful these days and can help to to effect change and make a difference in other women’s lives around the world where they do not have the same freedoms that we enjoy.

If you are interested in finding out more about the history just click on any of the links that I used in my research.

International Women's Day,   International Women's Day 2013,   European Parliament Theme 2013
Some of the information quoted here is from my own earlier posts such as La Festa della Donna 2011 and the rest including the banner is quoted from the website for International Women’s Day.

We have many Mimosa trees in the locality and the photos used in the post are ones I took myself last year in the locality of our home in Marta.

The photos are  All rights reserved by LindyLouMac Photo Collection

Thankyou for all your messages of support concerning David and his health problems. He has now been back in hospital for a second stretch of a month and waiting for his operation when he is fit enough, hopefully not much longer now.