Week 7: Tuscany

Sunday:

Beach day! We arrived at the beach at around 10.30 then Alessandra Stefano and Bea went grocery shopping whilst me and Fede stayed on the beach. They got back around 12.30 and we had a picnic. The sea is wonderful, not clear but warm and the waves are huge and powerful it's great fun to swim in. We stayed until 4.30pm and then went to see a friend of theirs who they had met in the supermarket. 

The beach

Cucumber for the sun burn!

Monday:

Another day on the beach. By this point I have rather bad sunburn on my shoulders and back, despite wearing factor 50 sun cream. The sea is nice huge waves to jump over and when it is calm it is great to swim in. 

Tuesday:

It threw it down with rain so we went to visit some mines. Il Parco archeominerario di San Silvestro. It was good fun. We got a guides walk through tour through one mine and then on a train through the second. It was very interesting. We also went to look round the village of Bolgheri and found an olive tree planted in 1720. 

The mine train

Inside the mine

The guide

The olive tree

Wednesday:

Still raining. We stayed in the house all morning it rained so much and then in the afternoon went round Marina Castagneto. Took ice creams and ate them inside the restaurant because it began raining heavily again. Went to the beach on the evening to watch the sun set. 

Thursday:

Went to an archaeological park in Baratti on the gulf. It was very interesting all roman remains of temples and streets and Etruscan houses. We also went to Necropolis to see some burial tombs of the Etruscan tribes (pre roman) that were dug up. Then we spent the afternoon on the beach. 

Pirate ship in the gulf

Foundations of temple A had a secret underground passage 

Remains of the baths

On the Roman road

Me and Fede on too of an Etruscan but

The castle

Etruscan burial tomb

Sarcophagi

Friday:

Last full day in Tuscany so we spent it on the beach. We stayed for the morning then spent the noon hours back at the house because the sun gets too hot and then went back for the afternoon. We made friends with the adjacent people who have a cute little dog called Pino! Went our for dinner at a pizzeria. 

Saturday: 

Packed up to come back to Rovescala. Went home via a terracotta shop - Tuscany is known for making terracotta. They bought a sundial and Fede chose a beware the cat sign. I picked up some little starfish. Hopefully they will make it back in one piece. As soon as we got home it started raining. Also thunder and lightning. 

Day 32: 33 Degrees

Today was meltingly hot. As proved by the increased melting of the ice creams me and Fede got from Massimo's as soon as we stepped out of the cool interior of the store. Today was my last ice cream from Massimo's. It was the best ice cream shop ever!

This morning the same routine English, homework, clean and tidy. I went to the post office to stamp my post cards. Instead of giving you stamps they put them through a machine which printed a coded stamp on them. 

Fede and Stefano went out to a motorcross shop in the north of Milan to pick up some gear - helmet trousers and gloves. So me and Bea spent t rest of the morning doing some English work. 

After lunch me and Fede went to get ice creams and Bea went to visit her friend Valeria who is going on holiday tomorrow. 

We also packed up for the hills as tomorrow afternoon we leave. Thankfully I managed to get everything back into my suitcases! 

Two jam packed ones! 

We will spend a week in the hills and then we go to Tuscany. It has come round so fast. 

It was so hot we had the air conditioning on all day. It's a cool machine it sucks all the water out of the air and condenses it into a bucket outside. We had to empty the bucket like three times already. 

Day 4: Technology

I slept in a little later this morning, the long days and warm weather make me more tired but I am coping well with it.

This morning we went out to the big supermarket. The local one is called 'Pam' the big one was about the size of the Asda in Wakefield/Tesco in Leicester. They have smaller frozen sections and larger fruit and vegetable bits. Also, they have very large meat, fish, bread and dairy counters. The meat is huge!! 

At the supermarket there is a holder on the top of the trolley to place a machine you can pick up as you go in. This machine scans the barcodes of the items in your trolley and keeps a running total of the cost. I think they should do that in England it's a clever idea especially if you are shopping on a budget. 

We drove to the supermarket and it was very strange sitting on the right seat of the front of the car without a steering week being there! But Alessandra says that when we go to the hills there is a empty parking lot where Stefano can help me practice driving the left hand drives on the road. 

After the shopping me and the boy went to the larger park. It has a jogging circuit and play area and lots of green open space. It's not far from the flat so it's possible for me to jog there on a morning with Bea. We didn't stay long because none of Fede's friends were there, and a pre natal class were using the play area for young children. 

On the walk home we practiced speaking sentences in English. For example 'io mangio pane' (ee-o man-gee-o pan-e) is 'I eat bread' and 'Loro sono donne' (lo-row sonn-oh donn-e) is 'they are women'. 

At home we practiced more English/Italian with the phrase book and the learning app. Fede is getting better at pronunciation which is great! I keep forgetting how to pronounce January in Italian - gennaio (je-nye-o) instead I say jan-ee-o oops! 

For lunch it was penne and pesto it was very nice. Also salad with a vegetable called focchacio which is a root vegetable and tastes like aniseed, also cherries and chocolate salami (doesn't contain meat is just the shape of a salami). 

After lunch Alessadra had her Arabian language class again. Bea had a friend round so whilst they had fun me and Fede went on the wii again. Still learning English - Livello = level. We unlocked ninja and dinosaur level on the shooting game. 

When Alessadra came back we went to Massimo's patisserie again for ice cream. It is so nice! They make it all themselves. €2,50 for a two scoop ice cream, this time I had mandarino (mandarin) and crema (cream) it was very tasty. However they melted quickly because of the heat - about 28 degrees. 

After the gelati (ice creams) myself, Bea and her friend - Matilde, went back to Matilde's house, she had to pack for a church holiday camp. After that we watched a movie in English with Italian subtitles. The Alessandra and Fede went to the park. 

Then we came back about 7:15pm for dinner. We had chicken, courgette and beans (pollo, zucchini e fagioli). And after that fruit (frutta) cherries and watermelon. It's such nice weather we get to eat outside on the balcony. 

 Bea, me and Fede

After dinner I google hangouted my family  and when I called my dad I saw some of my friends too! It was nice to speak to them and for them to meet the family I'm staying with and them to meet my family. 

Ciao.