Been a busy week - though as always, busy is a relative term. We left our wonderful cleaning lady to it on Monday (afraid more than anything she'd either sweep us, polish us or put us in the bin... very efficient). Tootled into the village and started the day with more birthday celebrations - coffee & choccie croissants at what has since become our new favourite bar - actual cushions! and atmosphere! and the cleanest loo in the entire area. They even put up...

First of all, still getting used to being in a New Year. Second of all and wow - we're at the 9th already. We started the New Year with a guerilla shopping expedition on the evening of the 2nd when we'd finally had enough of our 'character building' mattress. All the experts these days agree that some padding is actually good for the soul (stuff the character). We had thought it would involve a 2 hour plus return trip to IKEA to buy a mattress topper. As it turn...

It seems counter-intuitive, but time seems to travel faster for when we're in the slow-lane - go figure. It's almost impossible to believe we arrived way back on the evening of 16 December. Our stone villa is smack bang in the middle of a nature reserve (in fact the only dwelling in the nature reserve since you can't count the Ghost City of Monterano/Antica Monterano that dates back to the Bronze Age). Probably can't count the two Etruscan tombs next to the tra...