Turin and home

Turin was lovely the hotel was one street from the main boulevards, they have a massive set up of old covered walks  and lots of cafes.

 We walked about for the second day visiting a museum about the history of revolution in Europe. It was really good with a lot about Napoleon Bonaparte.
There is a very high tower that we were going to go up but the queue was over an hour wait. The building was a movie museum.

Photos of Turin

We ate out trying to avoid pizza this week, I had some really nice vege meals with small vegetarian tarts and grilled vege.

There was an ice cream shop that made fruit ice blocks that you could have dipped in chocolate. the best was raspberry over frozen yoghurt.

We have had some great breakfasts from lots of different hotels ( all included) with the usual cereals, fruits and yoghurts. then you could make your own fresh orange or mixed vege juice. Because it is europe you get meat and cheeses and lots of cakes and tarts. Less about fried food and not much about toast.
Finally time to go a taxi to Turin airport, then to Paris then to Birmingham.

Home safe and all is well here , the budgie is still alive and the plants in the bath have thrived with a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes.

Driving to Turin

We left Pistoia and headed to Turin over a mountain pass that was a ww11 war area. We passed lakes and mountain villages and a large German cemetery on the top of Futa Pass.

We headed down the other side and off on the A2 autostrada when the car coughed twice and stopped, p managed to crawl into a lay-by thank goodness as the cars go by at 110 km per hour .

We waited a while to cool the engine as it has been a steady high 30's.
It wouldn't restart so we were at a loss and in the end called the UK AA , they were great they arranged a tow truck to come and pick us up and tow the car away. While we were waiting a motorway patrol stopped and checked we had called someone and to approve that we had the flouro vests on and the shiny  triangle on the road to show we had stopped.( a requirement in EU) .
We then sat off the road waiting, only 35 mins and the truck took us to the garage in Asti.
The mechanic said it was a blown gasket and quoted €1500 and 15 days to fix as is was the weekend and the main holiday month of the year so no one round to fix it.

Oh my god what should we do!!!!! We couldn't stay 15 days in a hotel and all our hotel bookings and the euro tunnel would be wasted.
We found a hotel and got a taxi there to ponder our options.
We spent the night cancelling the rest of the hotels, all but two gave full refunds and one has said we can keep a credit. The euro tunnel gave an open credit till April next year. Then we sat and looked sad for a while.
The city of Asti turns out to be lovely , they have a horse race here each year where they fill a piazza with dirt and create a race track. Each church and suburb has a flag and horseman. It has been going since the 1500's

Images of the race

Next day we decided to try a "no more leaks pour a bottle in" solution, after checking on the web, so we  walked to an auto shop and bough a bottle of radiator goop.

We went to the car yard started the car and then after a while poured in the goop. Sadly it didn't work and although the car started and ran for a while as soon as P accelerated the car stopped. We really had not choice then but to scrap it, as sending to uk to get fixed was too costly and fixing it in Italy then having to fly over collect it and drive back to uk was not a viable option either.

So we told the mechanic to scrap it, we bought it before my first chemo so we have had it 3 years and it only cost £2000 so I guess we had a good run. Thank goodness it was near the end of the holiday and not the start.

We then had to take everything out of the car, including our gumboots and tools and brollies and all those things that clutter up a car. We took them back to the hotel, went to a shop and bought a cheap suitcase and repackaged everything.

So then we had no car and no hotel bookings and no way back to the uk.
We looked at trains, buses, hire cars and flights. In the end the flights was cheapest and by far the quickest ( still £500) and we have booked to go to Turin for two days to finish our holiday and will fly from there,

Bit of a pain really, I don't get to go to Mont Blanc which was one of the highlights of the planned trip.

Perugia

we headed from Anzio , I will miss swimming in the wam sea and the lovely big terrace, and headed to Perugia.  I had stayed there 20 years ago with Shirley.

We stopped at a German war cemetery with thousands of graves.

We got to Peugia just as a the thunderstorm hit so went to our room and settled in for the night.
We had a nice meal of pasta in the hotel.

Next morning it was sunny and hot again. We left the car and used the hotel shuttle to get up the hill to old town Perugia.
It is a beautiful city lots of old buildings and all pedestrianized so easy to wander about.

They were filming a medieval movie about plague victims ( well it looks that way) the main piazza had dummy dead bodies, fire stacks for burning them, and a horse was bought out and dragged a cart up the hill. The actors were all in medieval costume a lot with plague sores and looking gross.

Fun to watch and wander about in, occasionally we were told to move so they could film. A lot of set up for very little action.
photo link Perugia



We spent the day in Perugia then headed off to San Gimignano which was a fabulous old town with large towers build to dry carpets down the sides.
But the thunder boomed and the rain fell as we arrived in the car park.
I put on my little gold gumboots that I bought in Crotia on an earlier holiday and a coat and brolly, p had a rain coat and jandals.

We headed into the town which had tourist huddling in doorways and under arches. The thunder was incredibly loud as it is a hill top town, the rain fell in sheets and flooded the alley ways.
second photo link
Then it stopped and the sun came out and it was 37 deg again and the tourists all headed out to buy gelato again.


The surrounding countryside was full of vineyards and winery tastings, P not the ideal person for this as he doesn't drink wine.

We then headed to Pistoia for the night.

last night in Anzio

Well it had to come to an end this beach side living, we breakfasted on the terrace.

read for a while

went to the port and watched the fish being unloaded and sold on the quay side.

a nice spinach omelet panino for lunch watching the boats including a sushi cruise boat, I guess you go out they catch a fish and make sushi with it??

then gelato and a sit watching the world go by.

home for a rest and read then off to swim in the lovely warm sea for the last time, I would think for at least a year?

dinner on the terrace, finishing off the wine and then I have packed ready to head to Perugia tomorrow.

photo link

Nettuno

today we had a slow start with fruit salad for breakfast. Then reading on the terrace.
At 11:0 we decided to have a swim and spent the next two hours bobbing in the warm water.

We were Going to hire two deck chairs and a brolly but they only do them for the month of August so it would have been 25€. So we didn't bother.

Lovely swim but when we got back we quickly noticed the difference to swimming at 6 pm when we normally go as we both have sun burnt backs.....it doesn't hurt but It is definitely a different colour than yesterday.

Then we had lunch and a siesta.

Later we walked to Nettuno the neighbouring town, I bought a sun dress so my shoulders are free to cool off and we had drinks and snacks.
The snacks they bought were cheese and ham sandwiches whole peanuts and roasted corn kernels

Then with the second round of drinks more nuts and ricotta cheese with a pot of honey!  And mushroom and cheese sandwiches . Actually all really nice but an odd combination. The honey was to eat with the ricotta which was an artisan product made locally, really tasty .

Now after a walk back along the beach in the dark I am on the terrace with a coffee and a book, it is still really hot and there are tiny bats flying along the street. We have a citronella candle keeping the bugs away.
Photo is perry bringing me coffee with the lit up kitchen showing behind him..

Anzio and the beach front apartment

We spent out last day in Sora matching war photos for a friend of Perry. We visited some nice hill top towns and medieval castles.

the next day we headed away from Sora to Anzio. We went via a Isola Del Liri to see the waterfall,

the town used to rich from paper mills and there were some amazing villas, now not so rich.

We visited Acquino and the roman ruins and dig where they are uncovering a villa and road.

part way through the journey we hit a thunderstorm and downpour and had to shelter under the road overbridge.  after a while it eased and we headed off, Under the next underpass a truck had smashed into a van and there was mess everywhere.

Finally we arrived in Anzio and went to the address on air bnb slip and we couldn't find the number of the house, the area was disappointing so Perry rung the owner. we met them in town and they took us to the real apartment which is one street from the beach with a really large sea view balcony. much more like the pictures.  It is a superb location with the main town about 2 streets away and the beach one street away. ( the owner needs to fix the location on the air bnb notification!

Today we had a private tour of the beach landing fields and the cave system used by the USA troops. the Guide was a local but his English was good enough for us to understand.  He had preferential access to some of the sites we visited. The cave system was quite large and lovely and cool, it is 35 deg here again and we are off for a swim.

photo link

A day in Sora

photos from Sora

A day spent in Sora.    P took photos and I explored and sat in cool spaces reading.

We went to the supermarket and got food for lunch and dinner and will have it in the room with the aircon on.

We have had to buy anti mozzie spray as we were getting eaten alive. (And the after anti itch cream as well.)

Last night we went out for dinner with two of Perry's Italian mates. To get there we drove over a mountain pass that said it was closed.....but the locals had told Perry you could drive over it. There was a church tucked into the mountain side. It was very high and lots of rock falls but we did arrive safely on the other side.  On the journey we had a thunder storm and torrential rain which cooled the night down, then back to 34 deg today.

This old lady (easily 80 yr old) walked 2 km in 34 deg heat along the main road to sell a few beans in the main street.
(There is no social welfare system in Italy after the first 6 weeks  so I guess this is how she survives.)