A sad day for Sonia - it is a year since her mum passed away so we stayed in the village. We headed up to the town centre to the florist Pina for some flowers for the crypt and the florist shop was quite lovely. I bought a potted olive tree to give Zio as a small thank you for making me so welcome. It might be like bringing coal to Newcastle as he has an olive grove but I thought he might enjoy having a baby tree. It is a double tree and covered in olives and loo...

We've had a couple of interesting days here on the mountain, yesterday we hung the new curtains - as they were too long I cut and hemmed them by hand which was quite a job but enjoyable. Mili decided to make cushion covers from the remnants, one side of one cushion sewn, not sure if they will ever get finished though as her iPad seems to take preference over any other activity. Apart from that we had a quiet day which we enjoyed. There was some rain and storm act...

Friday 14th saw us taking a drive to Sapri to buy some new curtains for the Villetta. The traffic at Palinuro/Sapri was incredible. We finally arrived and Domenik's store was like Aladdin's cave. Any housewares you could possibly want are there. We found some nice ready made curtains and as they only had 2 sets we drove to the other store which is at Scario, at the other end of the bay of Palinuro. More traffic, Sonia was able to get the curtains and we then he...

Yesterday was a quiet day as Sonia's Zia Christina passed away overnight. The funeral was held late yesterday and as Sonia didn't know exactly when the funeral was she waited at the villetta for information. Mili and I walked up to the big local market which is an annual occasion. There were a lot of sellers along the road with everything you could think of if you wanted to buy. Last night there was another festa in the village - this time Festa des Immigrantes...

Sunday 9th was a rest day - we didn't venture out but caught up with household chores - washing clothes, floors etc. followed by a siesta in the afternoon. A tropeo came through again at about 3 pm (seems to be a daily occurrence in Summer) which lasted well into the night. It did cool everything down beautifully. I cooked pasta with zucchini and bacon in a creamy sauce, with a tomato and cucumber salad. Delicious! Monday 10th was spent in leisurely fashion, ...