Australia vs Italy: Driving

Apparently this is the hottest, continuous weather for the month of November - which is still spring time here in Melbourne, Australia. We have had a taste of summer, with temperatures already in the low - mid 30s. It was 35 degrees two days ago, today is a cooler 29 degrees and it's back up to 35 degrees tomorrow, so we are off to the the beach! My grandparents have a holiday house by the sea where we always go, so we are packing up baby and all and having a break for two nights!

I must say that it is very nice to be back in such an orderly country - especially after being based in Sorrento which (since it is the province of Naples) is one of the most hectic and crazy parts of Italy. So ladies and gents, that brings us to the next episode of Australia vs Italy! - Driving!

I have already been driving back here in Melbourne and must say that it is such an easy, calming, pleasure. The roads are so wide, so straight and so empty! I keep getting distracted by all the people waving to say "thanks" when they drive.



I must amidst to being a waver. I like to show gratitude and for others to show me such respect when I let them push in front of me with their cars. When I first drove in Sorrento (with bel ragazzo in the car as my driving /make sure she does not kill someone instructor) he used to look at me and get impatient as I used to waste (precious) time waving.

Let me give you an example, as you may be thinking bel ragazzo sounds a bit nasty...but no - I soon learnt there is not point in waving thanks OR expecting thanks in the province of Naples. One day we were driving along the normally busy streets of Sorrento. The road has one lane going in each direction, and no parking signs line the busy street, but of course the traffic warden turns a blind eye as his mother double parks her old cinque cento on the curb out front of the supermarket. His brother-in-law has just bought a new car, so as he dashes to the bar for a (not so quick) coffee he badly parks the new car on the busy street. A young boy pulls up on a dangerous corner and the traffic warden is about to send him away when he realises that the boy is his wifes brothers cousins uncles godson - so of course he can park in that highly illegal and dangerous place! Oh - that woman is pretty with her short skirt - what's that? Just off to the post office for a minute. Sure, she can park there too. And the man who will only be a minute in the bank, and the child who looks to young to be driving a car anyway...and the.....

So you can imagine the scene as I am trying to navigate the car down the packed, busy street, avoiding hitting a scooter as they come whizzing from behind on my left and right. You need to look everywhere when you drive in Italy - especially in this part of Italy. So anyways...I was talking about waving. Yes, waving. In those early days I was nice Leanne. I remember a man stopped his car so I could turn, so being the nice Leanne that I am I waved. I however at this stage did not have the ability to wave and drive at the same time (I am not stupid but in Australia we drive on the other side of the road.) So here I am waving, and smiling thinking how nice this man is when bel ragazzo hisses - Vai, Vai!!! Go, Go!!! - are you crazy! He's letting you go so why are you stopping! Just turn. People were starting to honk behind me and all flustered I turn the corner.

At the bottom of the street I decide to return the favour as an old, hunched, can barely see over the steering wheel woman is trying in vain to turn onto the busy street. I signal for her to go, and give her a big smile. I am nice don't forget. Or I should say was nice. The old thing takes her time turning in front of me without as much as a nod of the head! I was angered...furious....stupid, old, ungrateful thing!


From that day on I changed. Nice, good, kind Leanne was left behind. My bel ragazzo driving instructor was shocked at my sudden change. You have become Italian he commented. Good. It is the only way to drive (or did he mean survive) here. From that point on we had a rule - no one and we meant NO ONE was going to get in front of us. No more letting people cut in front. Even if they drive straight at you...do not let them in. Pedestrian crossing...they are nothing but stripes on the road. No time to let the people cross either. Porca %$&*&^ Pezzo di &^%$# C%**& B&^%$#@& get out of my way!!!!!

So, now I am in Melbourne and the other day was happily waving to everyone who let me pass, and who was thanking me for letting them in. At one stage I was in a narrow street and there was an on coming car. We stopped for a good 10 seconds, busy waving back and forth as we were both too polite to go through first. Ahhh....that's what I call driving.

Wine festival!

Oh my gosh! My friend just logged me onto her work computer and it let's me down load photos and go on facebook!

I of course have none of my photo's from the wonderful places bel ragazzo and I have been since my lap top is currently with the doctor and I am waiting to hear if it will live or die...So for the moment here are some random shots that I have stolen from friends off facebook - so I cannot take credit what so ever!

Our season in Sorrento is quickly coming to a close so it has pretty much been party, after party after party. To say I feel like a little fat pig is an understatement but at least we are leaving in style!

This was the 1st official end of season party which was on Tuesday night at a local nightclub in Sorrento.



it was a free open bar...



A picture of us with friends for a night out in Sorrento:



And now onto something fun that we did a few weeks ago - something I did for the first time. You always hear talk of these food festivals known as a sagra which go on in towns big and small throughout Italy. You have these festival for everything: around Sorrento recently there has been the eggplant festival and a local spices festival and at the start of October there was the Uva in Sagra which is the Grape Festival in a small town up in the hills above Sorrento.



You probably think that after living in Italy since 2006 and having an Italy boyfriend would mean that I am the Sagra queen...but no my friends - tis not the case. I - for all my worldly ways - have never once been to a Sagra in Italy. It is not bel ragazzo's fault as I have just never been in the right place at the right time. So to say I was excited about attending a wine festival for my first event is putting it lightly!



I had always read about small, local sagras in books and they always describe how the locals have little stalls where you can try and buy local produce. There is always apparently food stalls which means you have to buy a ticket and then go and swap it for a plate of food.



It was really just like that! Don't get me wrong - it was not some massive event, but it was so exciting! Bel ragazzo and I got there relatively early as we had been warned that parking would be virtually impossible. We were in luck however, and starving when we arrived so bypassed all the little stores, and marched straight to the food stalls at the end. We bought a ticket for 3,50€ which we swapped over for a panino which was the biggest roll I had ever seen in my life. (I was annoying bel ragazzo too as I could not stop gushing that this was just like the books!) There were all of these locals cooking in the make shift out door kitchen. They all looked so happy as they laughed and handed over the food reminding us not to forget to pick up a plastic cup of local wine and to help ourselves to water!

We found an empty space on the wall to sit since most of it was already full of locals and tourists alike digging into their 'dinner.'

After that we went all the way back to the beginning of the town (which is small so it was only a short stroll really) and decided to pay 6€ for a 'sagra pack' with all donations going to the church. See that thing around bel ragazzo's neck?



Well we got one of them each. Inside there was a glass (a real glass wine glass too...not just a plastic one and it was ours to keep!) We could then go to the stores and sample as much wine and local produce as we liked...and let me just say that we got more, much, much more then our 6€ worth!

At 10pm the local band started to play folk tunes, whilst we ate free wood fried pizza and drank glass, after glass of (me) sparkling wine (bel ragazzo) red and white. There were locals dressed up in old farming clothes and they were standing with the children stomping on grapes - showing you just how wine was made years ago. There were stores with local cheese and after that night I am now addicted to cheese and honey (yum!) There were old wooden wines barrels on display, grape pergola's covering the town and a vibrant, energetic atmosphere.



So now I am addicted not just to cheese with honey, but to local Sagra's too!!!

Stupid tourist comment(s) of the day...

Yesterday something must have been in the air as I had SO many stupid, complaining customers.

1) Customers in Ravello for their wedding called me to complain they were not happy with their hotel. They had booked a sea view balcony twin room and one of their issues was they did not get the view that they paid for.
"Do you have a front view of the sea?"
"Yes but if we look down we can see a roof."







2) Customers had just got married in Sorrento, and now had moved to Positano for their honeymoon. They had booked and paid for a standard twin room which means it is the lowest of the range. They were not happy as the room was small, and they had not been able to sleep all night. Not because they had been 'enjoying the honeymoon' if you know what I mean...it was because the room was so small that there was hardly enough room to fit the cot. Oh. Did I forget to mention they had bought the baby along with them on honeymoon. Perhaps they should have thought about leaving the baby with the grandparents who had stayed behind in Sorrento. Or perhaps they should just pay for a bigger room. Or perhaps they should just not have bothered getting married in Italy at all!!!




3) An elderly customer checked into a 4 star hotel in Sorrento. He has been coming to Sorrento for the past 15 years and always stays at the same hotel. He rang me angry as he had asked for a specific room and did not get it. The rather rude, elderly man said that he could not be on the 1st floor which was where the hotel had allocated him since he has asthma - and the 1st floor is too humid. He said he specifically asked for the 5th floor at the time of booking.

I checked with the office then called him back.
"I am sorry, but we have no records of your being asthmatic on the system."
"Well why should I share my medical conditions with you?"

AHHHH.....If you want a stupid room on the stupid 5th floor because of your stupid asthma then...I don't know - maybe, just maybe it would help if you TOLD US THIS BEFOREHAND you stupid old fool.






4) This one has got to be the icing on the cake.

I had a young woman call me from a 5 star luxury hotel on the island of Capri, the terribly expensive, and terribly posh Island of Capri that is. She was not happy with the hotel and wanted to know if she could change. I was a little shocked as this is one of the best hotels on the island.

"So what exactly is it about the hotel you don't like?"
"Well, you see we just got married at the X hotel in Sorrento which was much better then this hotel."
The X hotel is a nice, but nothing special 4 star hotel in Sorrento. "Oh, ok then. What exactly though do you not like with this hotel?"
"Well, to tell you the truth as soon as I walked into hotel X I thought 'WOW!' As soon as I walked into this hotel there was no 'wow.' This hotel has no wow-factor..."

NO WOW FACTOR...what the...and I kid you not - those where her words...she did not like the 5 star luxury hotel in Capri since it had no wow-factor.

Amalfi

Bel ragazzo and I had a friend down from Rome this weekend. We jumped in the car Sunday mid-morning (none of us are really morning people) and set off for a drive along the Amalfi Coast. We were a little worried that - being a Sunday - the coastal road may have been grid-locked with traffic, but it was such a pleasant surprise to find near empty roads! Most of the Italian families must have already been heading home as their month long holidays came to an end.

We were so hot as we wandered around Amalfi for a while before going for a long awaited swim! It has been so hot - and not just lately but for the entire month. We keep having false promises of rain, but I still have not seen more then one drop in two months.



Bel ragazzo and I acted as tour guides, basically reciting what the tour guide had told us a month or so ago when we went on an excursion to the Amalfi Coast for work. The guide said that to get married in the main church there is a nine year waiting list, and most girls will put their names down - even if they are single - and pray that by the time 9 years has passed they have found a partner and are ready to use their church booking!



If the girls do end up getting married then apparently the first thing they do after the ceremony if walk down to the fountain in the main piazza below the church and rub the statues breasts as this is meant to make them nice and fertile! I must say that I did rub the statues breasts...but we did not enquire about putting our names on a 9 years waiting list to get married in the church!

Amalfi is a beautiful, little town. I first visited when I was on a holiday in Positano many years ago and was surprised at how small the town centre actually is. I am so glad that the Italians have finished their holidays as now bel ragazzo and I will be making many more trips down the Amalfi Coast!

My life in Sorrento

People always ask me: what do I do everyday? And what’s it like to really live in Italy? Both very good questions.

To answer these it really depends on: where I am living, what day it is, what month it is and most importantly what the temperature is like.

I currently live in Sorrento, Italy (for only another 10 weeks then I am out of here!) which is a strange place to live. Sorrento is not quite a city, but not quite a small town. It is a beach resort with no easy access to the beach...it's like I said - strange. Not necessarily in a bad sense, but in the sense that I would come back for a holiday, and I would recommend Sorrento to others for a holiday, but I myself would not choose to live here.

Where would I choose to live? I hear you ask. Well you'll just have to wait for that post to arrive!

I work for a large British tour company and my job role has changed slightly over the years since I have moved from Rome, to Sicily, back to Rome again before arriving here. I look after hotels here in Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano, Cilento and Ischia. This year especially my job is predominately phone based so I am on call 24/7 for my customers and hotels to call me with all their questions and queries. I recommend places to eat, sell excursions, handle complaints and basically everything to do with the customers. Each week the resort office (which is here in Sorrento) print me my new bookings which can range from 20-100 bookings per week. At the moment I have about 80 bookings here in Sorrento alone, so that is about 190 guests.

A large part of my job is liaising with the hotels to check the bookings, fax customers departure information and to help them out with guests’ queries and complaints.



Once every 2 weeks I go to the Naples airport, not really to meet and greet my guests as we don't have enough staff for that - but just to make sure my drivers are all there and that there are no problems.

Life here in Sorrento is quite normal really. It is not as romantic and quaint as some may think. Sorrento is a very touristy and a very busy resort so it can get on your nerves (well my nerves anyway.)For a smallish town Sorrento is full and I mean FULL of traffic. Driving here takes years of your life, as does walking here, plus there is no where to park. I nearly get run down by crazy moped drivers everyday!

Days off wise, what I do depends on who I am with. If bel ragazzo and I are off together then we either do lots of fun stuff...or nothing at all. Sorrento is so close to so many beautiful places, but the traffic and the actual getting from A to B is sooooo annoying that we have become hermits in the summer months. If you want to go to the beach, you cannot find anywhere to park. If you do find somewhere to park then you have to pay a fortune to leave your car under the watchful eye of some random, overly tanned and normally pot bellied man...a man who you are not sure actually works there. I have never figured out the random car parks around the area. I always assume that you sort of have to pay the man on the side of the road to 'watch' your car; as if you don't you'll probably not have a car to come back to!

If you do pay the random man, and do leave the car about an hours walk from the actual beach, then you have to fight your way to find a space on to the tiny centimetre of public beach...unless you want to pay an arm and leg on hiring a sun lounge. If you do not want to part with all of your money, then you just have to listen to the Napolitano families yell and scream by your sides.

If the beach is not your thing, and you want some cool, mountain air then you need to get into the car and leave Sorrento via the one road which is always grid locked with traffic. In most cases I can assure you, you will end up doing a dangerous u-turn and backtracking, since you get sick of sitting in the traffic knowing that you are no where near your 'cool, refreshing, mountain' retreat.

You often read books about people living in Italy and it paints this magical picture of peace and tranquillity. **Note to self: I must get organised and write my book list of good and bad 'moving to Italy' books that I had read as I have many to go in both of those sections.***

In many of these 'Italy' books, foreigners who have moved to some sort of town or city start to visit the local bar for their morning cappuccino...and by the end of the book they are best friends with all of the staff and get invited to their house for dinner - they have after all become part of this close knit family. Well...bel ragazzo and I do have our 'locals' but that is mainly because we get discounts there as it is expensive to drink and eat here. Most of the staff are only really nice to us since they know that we work with all of the tourists.

In these books, the foreigners who come to live in Italy are on first name basis after a mere 24 hours with all of the locals and batting off compliment left, right and centre. Ok, so I do get a daily 'ciao' from the sexy man who owns the scooter shop, but that is because he fancies my friend. Bel ragazzo does get asked the time by this old, orange haired woman everyday, but then we think she is crazy and asks everyone this.

So it seems I am not ticking off that many boxes. Oh, well I am batting off compliments left, right and centre, but when they come in the form of an ancient, missing toothed, unattractive driver, screeching "bona" at you whilst sweat is pouring down your back at the airport...I don't really take that as a compliment.

(Bona is more of a slang word meaning sexy but in a more vulgar way.)

So ladies and gents...that is what my life is like living and working in Sorrento.

Positano...

Say the name Positano, and you'd be hard pressed to find a person who does not know what or where you are talking about. Many say that Positano is the most beautiful and the most famous town along the Amalfi Coast...I'll leave that for you to fight out amongst yourselves, but one thing is for sure - this 'town of romance' 'town of artists' this 'vertical town' is amazing.



Bel ragazzo and I went on a tour with work a month or so ago to visit the Amalfi Coast. We had a little bit of free time in Positano, before being whisked away to Amalfi. Our guide (who was half Australian!) said that the name Positano derives from the word 'posa'. Apparently there was a boat that was transporting a painting of the Virgin Mary. Whilst out a sea, they encountered a terrible storm and started hearing a voice softly chanting 'posa, posa, posa.' The sailors anchored down in the nearest bay, and set the painting of the Virgin Mary down on the shore. As soon as she touched the shore...legend has it that the storm subsided and thus the name Positano was born.



There are many other stories about how the town got its name. Another popular story is that Poseidon, the God of the Sea founded Positano, for his love - the Nymph Pasitea.



Whatever you believe it is definitely a place to visit at some stage in your life.

Hot hot hot in Sorrento

It is so, so very hot that really I am over it now. It was 36 degrees at one o'clock as I was driving (very well might I add) back from the airport. When it is that hot I am in no mood to meet and greet customers...with sweat pouring down your face it is not such a welcoming site!



The heat is not such an issue for me, as being Australian we do have pretty hot summers (it got up to 47 degrees when I was there at the beginning of this year.)It is the humidity that I cannot cope with. I suffered through a hot and humid summer 2 years ago in Sicily and was so happy when the locals here in Sorrento told me that it is not normally so humid here in the summer...well that was then and this is now...now they are all telling me that this summer is the most humid in about 7 years so that's just great! Thanks Scirocco for following me here to Sorrento.

People just have no patience when the weather is like this. The humidity and hot winds make people go mad (me included.)

So to make myself feel better I have been looking back on my lap top of photos of the bel ragazzo and I in Malito over the winter...and it doesn't make me feel so hot anymore.

Commonwealth War Cemetery in Cassino

When we went to visit the Abbey of Montecassino, we paid a short visit to the Cassino War Cemetery. You may have read in my previous post that the abbey of Montecassino was bombed during World War 2. Most of the people buried in the Cassino Cemetery, died in that area during what was apparently one of the most hostile fighting areas of Italy.

There are now approximately 4,200 Commonwealth -mostly young Canadian, British, Indian, Australian and New Zealander soldiers - buried or commemorated at Cassino War Cemetery. 289 of the burials are unidentified. Within the cemetery stands the CASSINO MEMORIAL which commemorates over 4,000 Commonwealth servicemen who took part in the Italian campaign whose graves are not known.

It is a beuatiful war cemetery, if one can actually use that word to describe such a place. There is a perfect view of the Montecassino resting on the hill top above, and the grounds are so well maintained that it was indeed a lovely and moving site. It reminded me a lot of the war cemetery that I visited years ago in Brugge, Belgium.

Here are my photos:

The destruction of Montecassino

Back at the start of season, when it was still lovely, refreshing and cool (rather the sweat box that Sorrento is today) we visited the well known Montecassino Monastery.

The monastery was founded by St Benedict in about 529 and is well known today as the abbey that was built, then destroyed, built again and once more destroyed and so on.

The start of the abbey's destructive history began in about 577 when it was destroyed by the Longobards of Zotone.

It was commissioned to be rebuilt in the 8th century. It was rebuilt in all its original splendour...and some more but only lasted until 883 when the Saracens invaded and burnt the monastery to the ground, not before stealing all the valuables inside.

Slowly the monastery was rebuilt, and the monks (who had been scared off) returned towards the middle of the tenth century. Over the years the abbey was once again filled with beautiful, priceless objects.

The next destruction came in 1349. This time it was Mother Nature who destroyed nearly ever aspect of the monastery bar one or two old walls. That year there was a powerful earthquake that left the monastery in ruins.

Again, slowly the abbey was rebuilt and made ever more beautiful then ever. Do you think that it was stuck down again, or left in one piece this time?

On February 15, 1944, during the final stage of World War II, the unfortunately placed abbey was in the literal middle of two fighting armies. During the war the abbey had become a place of refuge and in an amazing three hours the whole abbey was turned into rubble, not even an old wall was left standing and many poor refugees and monks died.

Once again the abbey was rebuilt - the whole project being financed by the Italian State - and the original, ancient architectural patterns were used. Reconstruction took more than a decade and these are my photos below: