Italia...bellissima!! Valdirose B&B...squisoto!! (?)

Three weeks in Italy now...sooo beautiful. (slowwwww internet..hence no blogging! :(... )...BUT..today we arrived in Florence and so I had to persevere to say I am now sitting on the terrace at the FABULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL VALDIROSE B&B...OH...MY...GOODNESS!!! Irene..you have made the most heavenly place on earth here...just gorgeous. (especially after some rather tired and sad hotels etc on our travels..pompeii, viterba...sigh)...but here!! And Irene sadly isn't even here! Away at a wedding...but her dad is the most welcoming, lovely host...nothing too much trouble. So fellow bloggistas!!..when in Florence, this is the place for you!!....photos will be coming when we've been here more than a millisecond!...but they take an age too so maybe when I'm home in 10 days. Just wanted to say, if you haven't seen Irene's beautiful B&B...check it out here...Valdirose ..bellissima, mi amica...bellissima!...Thankyou Irene and family for being so great with my on again, off again booking!!!!
So we love Italy...but the driving!!...went into Florence city itself then spent about an hour getting back out to get to this southern area of Florence!!NINE LANES MERGING WITH NO LINES...INSANE TRAFFIC HERE!! ( nothing like little ole New Zealand!) But Steve has practically become an Italian now when it comes to driving (on the WRONG side of the road, i might add!!)...did the Amalfi coast and now he thinks he can take on anything!! ;)
Ciao bellas..time to sleep after our long day...Buon notte...
jessie xx

Yay..pics loading...Sulmona, Introdacqua and Pacentro

Ah so finally my pics are able to upload...just a few snaps from our first week in Italy...incredible to be here...just incredible!! (no crafting of any kind to be seen tho!! Tho we managed to source a glue stick to 'scrap' the cover of my journal..which Ive yet to write in!!aaghh!!)

This is amazing detail of one of the churches in Sulmona..not the greatest shot, with the sunshine, but hey ;)
Another church...this one with the bell that chimes on the hour, quarter hour, half hour, threequarter hour..and plays another whole tune for each hour change! Loud for houses around it!


Steve contemplating how he'll fit in the rental.. ;) lol...not really ...Bambinas are EVERYWHERE! SOOO cute!

Gorgeous balconies in neighbouring village, Introdacqua

Also Introdacqua

And a street in Pacentro..another smallish village nearby. All villages have their own castle it seems! This town was quite beautiful..well, most of them are! Thats Steve just past the local nona wandering down with our friend Catherine.

More tomorrow bellas...ciao for now...off to Pescara to the beach...hope the weather holds out!

love and blessings Jessie xx

CIAO BELLAS!! FROM SULMONA, ITALY!! WOOOHOO!

Ahh..Italia! Can't belive we're finally here. (sadly internet is expensive, slow and intermittent..hence lack of blogging! :( ) We have been here a week and seen the most delightful buildings, walked amongst castles, watched medieval parades, eaten lots of very chewy bread,drank quite a few luke warm coffees, and had lots of early morning walks amongst the cobbled streets of Sulmona. It's so amazing here. The history...I love it! Amazing churches everywhere...can't imagine much Hillsong/Jesus Culture/Chris Tomlin etc is played in them tho! lol. Very beautiful tho. All the churches have magnificent bell towers...and they all seem to be in working order! Clocks striking on the hour, on the quarter hour, half hours, three quarter hour!! Could be hard to get used to!

Ah what else...oh yes...there are so many old men everywhere. Really...EVERYWHERE! Sitting outside caffes, walking, chatting on corners...not so many women - Steve says they're all at home cooking and cleaning as they should be!! haha...whatever! ;) But it is really interesting. We've visited lots of outlying villages...Sulmona is a central city with many small villages around it, leading up to the Rocarosa skifield and the area of the National Park...And in all the villages...old men everywhere! They're very social these Italians. And EVERYONE smokes! No drunks, apparently no drunk teens/young people around the streets at night either (must be something in this drinking wine with meals while you grow up!)...but all the young people seem to smoke..really young ones some of them (maybe 14, 15?)..makes me realise how nice it is in NZ to have nearly all public spaces smokefree! The locals are very friendly...and the boys/men are all finding our lovely Beth..well, lovely!! Surprise, surprise! It is quite funny to watch..they all just take a l-o-n-g second look! ;) It's not yukky so that's good..just funny really.

Tomorrow we head to Pescara on the adriatic coast to lie on the beach...tho we've had four seasons in one day here..for two days in a row! The locals say it's very unusual so we're hoping it's a passing thing...SUMMER, WHERE ARE YOU?? Not quite prepared for cold and downpours...and downpours they have been...yesterday got drenched and you'd swear the rain had been poured on us in bucket loads! like drowned rats we were! ...ah well...had sunshine again this morning tho.

Went to Ginos Restaurant for lunch today...VERY nice place..but bit pricey for lunch...the 'side' of vegetables was 10euro! each! delicious array of veges...but 10 euros??!! ouch! Off out to Biffi's tapas bar for dinner tonight with our friends as they prepare to depart Sulmona tomorrow, after the beach, and head off to Bari and Napoli before heading back to Roma and home to Christchurch next week.

Can't upload pics at the moment...grrr
Back with some tomorrow I hope!
Well..better get ready for dinner...
ciao bellas! Wish you were here!! hehe
love and blessings
Jessie xx