Welcome Everyone.

Welcome to News From Italy, my blog about our Italian Adventure. Although this blog has now ceased publication I will be continuing to blog and I am sincerely hoping that my many followers here will move with me to Travel Tales blog to follow my next adventures wherever they may take me. The links to my other blogs are:-


I look forward to keeping in touch with you via them, thanks once again for all the support you have given 'News From Italy' over the years.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Our Latest Visitors


A wonderful few days were over far too quickly with our good friends John and Tricia driving down to spend sometime with us as part of a short Swiss, Italian and French touring holiday. We had been really looking forward to seeing them both and welcoming them to our new home. We value their opinion and are pleased to report that they approve! They know us well enough to be able to comment if they had any doubts about us having done the right thing taking on our renovation project.

We chilled out with them for the time they were with us with plenty of chat, drinking and eating.
Visits to Marta, Capodimonte, Montefiascone and Viterbo were fitted in although it was far too hot to do much apart from walks around the centro storico’s, stopping for essential drinks!
It is at times like this that I miss both the pool and hot tub that we had at La Fenice but at least we are only five minutes from the Lago di Bolsena and enjoyed a couple of cooling swims while they were here. The water is very inviting at around 28C, we used to struggle to get our pool much above that!
Apart from a BBQ on the first evening here at Campo delle Rose we ate out at some of our favourite restaurants, Il Pirata, Il Corvo and the Enoteca Wine Bar Il Velo in Montefiascone where we met up with our friends Viv and Nick.

All too soon it was time for John and Tricia to head north again homeward bound via a few days at Lago di Maggiore. Love them and miss them but really enjoyed spending quality time together.

More photos can be viewed on my page at www.flickr.com

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Apples and Pears


Our latest fruit harvest as the first of our Apples and Pears are now ripe.

Ferrogosto Weekend Part Two Sunday





On Sunday evening after supper we met up with friends in the main piazza of Montefiascone centro storico at 9pm. It was the last night of the Citta di Montefiascone’s 51st Fiera del Vino which takes place the first two weeks in August every year.
Our friends took us to sample the wine at some of their favourite cantinas. We found a rosso dolce that I particularly liked from an agricola based nearby in Gradoli, so maybe we will pay a visit there sometime soon.
The entertainment for the last evening of the Fiera del Vino was provided by ‘The Pink Puffers Marching Brass Band’ whom I though were brilliant fun. I have since joined their Fan page on Facebook and visited their website and would love to attend a concert if they ever perform locally enough. This week they are performing in Roma but we have other commitments so maybe another time. If they had such Bands in the UK it is just the sort of thing I can imagine Aimee becoming involved in with her trumpet!!
In all a very pleasant evening which rounded off the weekend nicely.

Do remember that if you want to see more photos I post many more on my Facebook and Flickr Profiles.

Ferrogosto Weekend Part One Saturday





Last weekend was Ferragosto the August Bank holiday that the majority of Italians plan their main summer holidays around, Marta is certainly at its busiest for the entire month of August.
The weather was absolutely brilliant and we had a very busy but enjoyable weekend.
Our celebrations commenced with lunch next door with our lovely neighbours Bruno and Annunciata, a great cook Annunciata provided us with a traditional Italian lunch of many courses. Some how food cooked in the traditional forno just seems to taste extra special! Lasagne was followed by thin slices of beef in a gravy style sauce with minted peas. Then a second meat course forno roasted chicken and garlic forno roast potatoes. My mouth is watering as I type! Two more courses, salad then fruit followed before one of Italy’s favourite desserts tiramisu. Coffee and liqueurs rounded off the meal. David and I normally only eat a very light lunch so by the time we got home we were ready to sit quietly in the shade for awhile. Not only eating so much but speaking Italian for three hours solid is exhausting.

That evening our friends Viv and Nick joined us for a quick and simple BBQ before they took us to Capodimonte for the Ferragosto Procession and Firework Display. We had a fabulous evening, the place was heaving with people, we had no idea it was quite so popular. For those of you that know it busier than Brockham Bonfire!! Obviously the thing to do is to arrive much earlier in the day than we did and have a picnic on the beach before the display at 11pm. It was a fantastic display which we watched sitting on the beach. Everywhere was so busy afterwards we decided to head back to Marta for coffee and ice cream, which took us about 45 minutes rather than the normal five minutes between the two places, due to the amount of cars trying to leave Capodimonte after the festivities.

We rounded off a lovely day with an ice cream at our favourite gelateria in Marta at 12.30am, it was surprisingly busy still but then it was a pleasantly balmy evening

Friday, August 7, 2009

Fruit



This week’s fruit harvest which we picked yesterday was a case of trying to beat the birds to the peaches and greengages which are ripening fast now.

Festa del Pescatore




Last Saturday evening August 1st we went to the XII Festa del Pescatore that is held annually in Marta. Table and chairs are set up under the trees along the lakeside, near the harbour and one of the local fish distribution companies provides the meals. For two consecutive evenings they cook a fish supper for anyone that cares to join the long queues that form. It is well worth the wait for the 10 Euro menu of local fish specialities. Pennette alla tomao, Filetto di coregone in salsa and frittura Filetti di Pesce. Along with the musical entertainment it was yet another local Festa, well worth attending.

Spettacolo Pirotecnico




Last Wednesday evening, July 29th we attended the second of Marta’s firework displays. This one was in honour of the Patron Saint of Marta and took place in the harbour area, with the most fantastic display over the lake. I have posted just a couple of my favourite shots here but if you would like to view the full set let me know. They are also online at www.flickr.com and I can send you an invite to view them there. Or if you are a friend of mine on www.facebook.com they are also in the Marta Estate Album.

Windsurfing!





A recent day at the beach, last week in fact.Delighted to report that I made a little progress with my windsurfing and wanted to share the results with you. I suspect I have peaked now but it is fun trying!