Bye bye April and hello May. If today is the template then May will be brilliant. It's sunny 22 with a light breeze here today. Well it's a massive day on Italy today as Pope John Paul II's beatification ceremony is being held at St Peters square in Vatican City. The whole square and surrounding roads are crammed with people and I am glad we are in the Tuscan sticks today although the church bells in the village and surrounding villages are getting a thorough wo...

We awoke this morning to blue skies albeit a bit chilly. There is swathes of mist in the valleys and it really reminds me of home today and part of me yearns to be there but I realize what a marvelous opportunity we have and to suck up the negatives as who knows if it will happen again. I found out from Cagga that Monny have made it 2 from 2 in the local footy after knocking of Woori Yallock and Upwey - two of the Yarra Valley"s biggest guns in recent history. I ...

It's a rest day today as the girls are planted on the couch watching the royal wedding and I am cooking a batch of soup. I am feeling very sore today and I fear I may have re-injured my knee as it is very swollen and sore so I will be taking it very slowly the next two days but what a setting to rest up in. Hopefully it's just the Coreglian cobbled mountain climbing taking it's toll.  Thankfully the boredom of all the hoohah of the royal wedding was broken by ...

I had a very poor nights sleep and after pretty well hearing every hour announced during the night by the local church bell I gave up on sleep and got up at 6:44. The local Chiesa"s are stunning and dominate the town life and the vista. I even found a Chiesa S Paolo which has been renamed Changas House and my favorite church the Chiesa il Sambucca in the next village - wonder if we could have a church named Bundy, it would get my worship. I figured the poor nigh...

After a late night fueled by half a cow, chianti, limocello and some fairly competitive UNO games we only managed to crawl out of bed at 10. The night life here seems non existent and looks like it consists of goat pushing, getting hammered on the local reds, or surfing the 50 or so Arab satellite XXX channels. One thing I did notice this morning is my Italian is not that flash as the toilet paper I bought yesterday was kitchen paper towel. I did say to Mum when ...