Italia here we come.

So, here we are in Pianopoli. We have met so many relatives I’m not sure who is who. But since there are only few family names to choose from I am quite safe. Good example – one of the cousins was asking how Pina was. I worked out it wasn’t Pina who belongs to Zio Ciccio. It wasn’t Pina who also came to dinner. It wasn’t Pina who has come back from Canada, and we had lunch with, but the other one. But we’d only met three Pina’s which made it really tricky – until Alf said she was fine and in Mandurah at their holiday house. (Josepina Jolly was who they meant.) I think it would have been easier if I knew some Italian. But we are all getting better. Alf can rattle along, almost like a native and Ash and I have picked up important words like grazie (thank you), ranocchia (little frog – don’t ask), aqua – naturale (that one is easy), dolce (sweet/little sweet cakes), abbastanza ( that’s enough - which is very useful around dinner time), caffe e latte (coffee with milk in it) and ciocolatta (which in this case means a mug of hot chocolate which looks like almost chocolate mouse and you can eat it with a spoon if you like). Actually, on that last one – I think we have cured Ashleigh of her need for hot chocolate. She has had either water or hot chocolate to drink for the last 2 ½ weeks and I think she is over it – especially since she has met the spooning hot choc. drink.

Anyway, enough of that….about out Italia trip. The best bit about going to Venezia (Venice to foreigners) in winter is that there is nobody there and you can walk the streets for as long as you like without bumping into anybody. (Sometimes though, that was because we tried to go out during siesta.) So we got to look in mask shops and glass shops and be the only ones there. We also got to go to Murano (the glass factory island) and walk through the streets on our own. Perhaps that was partly because we had to walk in the rain since it was winter. So firsts that we had in Venezia – Alf using Italian with the natives with them answering in English, water taxis, no seasickness for Justine (!!!!). San Marco and associated touristy bits and Alf driving on the other side of the road to get to Firenze (Florence).

To get to Florence, you can go two ways: the quick way down the Autostrade or through Padova which tourists with maps that aren’t quite complete do!!!! They are also the sort of tourists that buy themselves an Italian GSP before heading out of the city to the other end of the country.

Florence was spent having dinner with family (abbastanza became useful here). We caught up with Mario whom we had met already in Australia since he was studying in Melbourne and Alf’s cousin Nilde who is a teacher. (This year her children graduate from Year 5 at elementary school and go to middle school. So next year she starts with another group in Year One (5 1/2/ years old!!!) and works through with them until they graduate. For those who care about these things – they are not really aware of the Reggio Emilia teaching pedagogy and have quite a traditional teaching style – as they also do in Pianopoli in the south.) Anyway, back to the story – Ashleigh met her Second cousin(ish) Maria Gabriella and they got on very well. They like the same books and computer games and since Maria Gabriella can speak English they got to chat away for a long time. On our second day, Maria Gabriella took us around the sights of Florence. It was interesting since she went to the arts high school and so many of her comments were about art and architecture which made our tour different to usual and interesting.

We left Florence in the company of ‘Miss Jane’ (in 300 metres, turn right). And zipped down the Autostrade to Pianopoli in about 8.5 hours. Ash slept most of the way. I slept when I was sure Alf was going to stay on the right (and correct) side of the road – not really that hard on a divided road and Alf didn’t sleep at all, which was quite good actually.

Since being in Pianopoli, we have met lots and lots and lots of people, been on a tour of a local scuola elementare (if you can’t work it out – use bablefish) with a class of 6 year olds and spent a lot of money on two necklaces at the supermarket. We went with Nadia (a cousin) to buy something at Franco Scalise’s jewellery shop. I have always wanted to buy something there ever since Zio Ciccio brought some jewels over for our wedding. We went into the supermarket to buy the bread first, walked through the office where the staff were working and into the money vault which magically had turned into the jewellery shop. So Ash bought something that Zio Ciccio gave her money for and I bought something that Alf gave me money for (my card isn’t working so well!) Today we went to Reggio Calabria (the state capital) and looked at a pair of 5000 year old naked bronze men which weighed about 3 tonnes. Very impressive, I must say. Ashleigh is so cultured now she didn’t even bat an eye at the “expressive” art works today!

So tomorrow – more family for lunch and dinner – to visit not eat – and then to Roma. We will update the info then.