Nadia’s Mum had a total hip replacement which was both a difficult time and also a real boon. It has been a while coming but will really improve the quality of her life as she was in considerable pain prior to the operation. She recuperated quickly thanks to many of the family taking turns to travel to Bundaberg and assist – mainly by stopping her overdoing things like push starting the car (yes, she tried to do this but was stopped!).

Towards the end of November Nadia’s Dad had a fall and broke one arm and the other wrist. Again with the help of the family, her Mum and Dad are now both recovering well and we are looking forward to catching up with them during our week in Bundy just after the start of the New Year.

For Rob, the year hit a real low point in mid November when his Mum, Helen, passed away. She had major surgery about 18 months ago but recovered well and enjoyed, for her, really good health until November. She was admitted to PA hospital with some bronchial problems (these were perennial) and appeared to be recuperating well. Fortunately the consultant on her case was very conservative and stressed to us that she was very ill which prompted Bruce to travel up for her birthday. The day after spending her birthday with all the family (albeit in hospital) she passed away peacefully from heart failure.

Since Helen’s passing, the year has been frantic with her funeral in Brisbane and memorial service in Canberra to say nothing of tidying up her affairs etc.

Rounding off 2005, Rob just received news from the USA that Betty Allington passed away. She was a very good friend who took him under her wing when he first travelled to the States. At 89 she had a very full life and had touched many people’s lives in wonderful ways (not unlike Rob’s Mum). We will be toasting both Betty and Helen this Christmas for Lives well lived.

As we mentioned at the beginning, 2005 has not been all bad. Through the year, we had a great social schedule which included catching up with many friends – local, interstate and international – and attending a number of wonderful events.

One notable event was the annual Rotary Opera in the Vineyard in Stanthorpe in May. This event is held on the first weekend in May and just seems to get better and better. As always, a great time was had by all.

The trip south for Rob’s Mum’s memorial service was sweetened by being able to join in the 20th wedding anniversary celebrations of our very good friends, the Goodmans. We were also fortunate to be able to catch up with some of our friends in Canberra as time permitted.

Probably (definitely) THE most notable event for us was attending the wedding of our very good friends Paul and Jodie in late October. Following a wonderful ceremony in the Botanical Gardens was a spectacular reception across the road in the Royal on the Park. The most outstanding aspects apart from the perfect flow of the event were the speeches (no, we’re serious! they were all spectacular) and Paul’s nephew, Arnie’s, wonderful tenor rendition of The Prayer. The next day we packed up and joined the crowd going up to Noosa for the honeymoon (that’s right – they’re really good friends!) where we spent a great week relaxing, eating, drinking, fishing and catching up with friends.

What was the best part of 2005? That would have to be our friends and family. There have been some pretty hard times this year but we have been seriously blessed with great family and wonderful friends without whom it would have been a very rough year. As it is, we survived and are really looking forward to 2006.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, safe and healthy New Year.

She searched the web high and low (not a trivial persuit for a technophobe) and found Tara the Red-Brindle Bullmastiff pup. She is 20 weeks old and we are just talking with the breeder to arrange transport to our home from Ballarat.

Here are some pics of our new family member…

Tara as a new born	7 weeks old – how cute!!!	7 weeks
still 7 weeks	15 weeks – ignore the dates	Still 15 weeks
Tara just before Christmas

So … happy birthday mate. Hope you have a great time, and I look forward to celebrating with you when you get back!

-Dean

In Rome, if you can’t fit six or seven cars into three lanes along with various motor cycles, push bikes and a bit of traffic debris, you’re just not trying! The 1/4 hour trip around the “ring-road” takes nearly two hours when what looks like a ring-road on the map actually turns out to be a car park!

Of course, about 50m from the airport turnoff when Rob needed to get across a lane or two was when traffic sped up. Still, we didn’t hear any crunching of metal as such so it must have been all right! And, we’re sure they’re over it by now, anyway!

Having returned our car to Avis, we set off to find the train into the city (and to find out just why you shouldn’t carry around any more luggage than you absolutely have to)! The train was great but the change to local trains, of course, involved walking a fair way. Not as far as getting to the B&B however which we made OK but swore that, when we left, we were going to get a taxi!

Arriving at the B&B, we encountered the Italian version of the Concierge. This was a really lovely lady who guarded the front door to the apartments. She immediately spotted us and said (in Italian) you must be the Australians. She then popped us into the lift and sent us up to the 7th floor to meet our host.

The actual B&B was great and run by a middle aged lady who was about the most hospitable host we had encountered. Rob waited a while to find out what her angle was and whether she was going to be another B&B Nazi, but she was entirely genuine and just lovely.

After a simple lunch at the local bar, Rob was absolutely shattered (actually, as he was a bit ill, this was the case before the lunch but worse after) and Nadia was getting worried about the number of clean clothes we had (about a pair of sox between us and nothing else – not a good look in a big city). While Rob crashed on the bed, Nadia set off on a mission to find a launrdomat that was “somewhere in that direction” and returned a few hours later with a bag of freshly washed clothes. We finished off the day with a reasonable pizza (not as good as Luigino’s but not bad) at a local pizzaria.

Next day (Wednesday) saw us heading for the Vatican City. We had heard that the Pope addressed the general rabble every Wednesday and wanted to be part of it. From our B&B, getting there was quite a pleasant 25 minute walk if you don’t include waiting at a Post Office to be ignored, insulted and ignored again by the worlds most incompetent postal official (which was neither part of the 25 minutes nor pleasant).

Despite the postal official’s best efforts to stop us, we arrived at Piazza San Pietro and made it through the metal detectors in good time to see the Pope who was quite amazing for a man his age. The appearance lasted probably an hour and a half or more during which he responded and prayed in five or more different languages. Not surprisingly, the place is pretty well set up for the appearances and, even though we were about 100M away, we had a great view on the huge screens and could hear just fine.

After seeing the Pope, we headed for the Sistine Chapel. You get to this by degrees by going through the Vatican Museums. These are immense and filled with the most stunning collection of art and antiquities. The collection was started in 1506 by Pope Julius II and is a serious 4+ turtle collection with paintings, statues, furniture… There is a separate “room” (and by room, I mean pavillion) dedicated just to maps and globes of the world. Yes, it’s THAT big and even more impressive. Even the steps are an artwork. The main spiral staircase was created by Bramante and could be ridden up on horseback in case of Papal emergencies.

After about an hour of following the route (one of the routes) through the museums, we finally came to the Sistine Chapel. This was being cleaned (just about finished) when Nadia last visited some years ago and to say that the colours are bright and vibrant is an understatement. The traction you have to go through after standing there gawking at the ceiling is well worth it. The best thing about it being packed was that you would need to really search to find room to fall over from looking up. We’re sure that a serious art student would have gotten more out of the experience, but we know what we like and that is definately included!

Another hour saw us out of the museums (and fed and souvenired) and off to St Peter’s Basilica. The line was immense but moved quickly and any wait was well rewarded when you get inside. The first Christian basilica was built on the site by Emporer Constantine in 324 AD. Pope Julius II comissioned Bramante and Raphael, amongst others, to rebuild it in 1506. Michaelangelo also worked on it sporadically and it was consecrated in 1626. This building has to be seen to be believed. The 150m cupola tops the largest brick dome ever built (more traction required!). The highlights for us were the Piet

Didn’t really realise just how the whole region was layed out even though Weeden and Jenny tried to tell us. After finally finding the train station (did you know that in Italy, only the street signage has less rules than the roads!) and having an abortive attempt at parking in Stresa (Stresser!) we wound our way down a small mountain goat track to Riomaggiore (well not really Riomaggiore but the parking for it which was a short walk and about 200M uphill from the main township). When I say small mountain goat, it needed to be both small and of the mountain variety to get there and an Opel Astra was a real challenge, especially when we met some larger mountain goats (or other cars) coming back up!

Being the start of the day, we had great plans to walk off all excess kilos we have put on on the Italian (not to mention American) travels. We headed off on a 1.5 Km trail that talked about being an historical trade route (straight up a bloody big hill) at around 10am. The day was hot and after about 3/4 Km we found a sanctuary and decided that was where we were heading.

From Riomaggiore, we took the local train to Vernazza and had a look around. Like all of the Cinque Terra, it has stunning coastal vistas and more bloody stairs. Really though, this area is, as everyone who has been there says, not to be missed. We again took the train back to Corneglia and then to Manarola before walking back along the via d’amore (lovers’ walk) to Riomaggiore. Truly a memorable and wonderful day!

That night, Rob cooked a few of our Aussie favourites for our hosts who made some sounds he hopes were of approval.

Leaving there, Rob felt a bit crook and the car was making some interesting grumbling noises, so we decided to head straight for Florence and an Avis agency. Dredding the inevitable fight about cars in Nadia’s limited Italian (she doesn’t know enough expletives), we found our way (eventually) through Florence’s maze of one way streets to within a walkable distance from the agency and then just gave up and parked. Five minutes walk was well worth it when we found the agency not only cooperative but English speaking and suggesting that we just take another car.

Having finalised this, we headed for the next destination, our B&B. About one hour later, we arrived (after what should have been a 10 minute drive, and no, it wasn’t our navigator’s fault – rather the maze Florence has instead of roads and a map that bore little resemblance to the maze) at the B&B to be told “Oh yes, they make the roads like that to stop tourists driving on them”!!!

After settling into the B&B, we packed all our dirty laundry (all our clothes minus what we were wearing) into plastic bags, we headed off to get some lunch and then to a “Wash and Dry”. Sounds too easy, doesn’t it! TRUE!!! Nadia had this image of a relaxing lunch in a nice green park. She chose a nice green spot on the map and we headed off, buying a nice Chianti on the way. WELL, the green patch may well be nice but wasn’t open to any of the public, tourists included. We ended up finding a patch of greenish stuff beside the cemetry which was in the middle of the road. We sat on a park bench, eating our paninis and guzzling from the bottle (we forgot glasses) looking like a couple of winos and feeling very self concious until the couple of girls that had sat just opposite us eventually left.

Not withstanding the manner in which we dined, it had the desired effect and Rob’s stress levels (from a road system that was designed to make stress levels soar) dropped to manageable levels and we headed off for the laundromat feeling much better.

A shower (sort of), a sleep and we were off to find a spot of dinner in the streets of Florence. It was a lovely atmosphere in the piazza, music playing, old buildings lit and after deciding the house wine had seen better days so a bottle was better, we had a reasonable meal. We really had been spoilt during our stay with relatives and food that’s around most major tourist sites isn’t quite up to scratch. What did make this evening and the next very memorable and beautiful, was music performed in a church we stumbled upon on the way back to our B&B. Organ & flute the first night and Organ, violin & oboe the next night was truly gorgeous in the confines of the church who had found a great way to source funds for renovations.

The next morning after an exercise by our hostess (whom Rob has dubbed the B&B Nazi) in thrift……otherwise known as breakfast (minature dried toast biscuits, butter & jam with coffee), we were off to see the real statue of ‘David’ by Michaelangelo (another contact with teenage mutant ninja turtles). Nadia had only seen the copies in the Piazza overlooking the town or in one of the open piazza’s in town. One the way, we found a beautiful garden spot quite close to where we were staying (too late).

The line which slowly (we’re talking geologically here) moved towards the Galleria’s entrance eventually paid off in spades when we got in. The original statue is housed in a spot specially built to highlight Michaelangelo’s genius in transforming marble into flesh. I bet the Florentine’s are happy that Michaelangelo persuaded them to let him use an old block of marble that was lying around near the Duomo to do the carving! For all its brilliance, the rest of the galleria was an anticlimax in comparison.

For the next few hours, we looked at the sights of Florence which included Ponte Vecchio (the only covered bridge in Florence that escaped Nazi bombings in WW2), more churches, Piazzas, statues, more churches, the city walls and the Piazza Michaelangelo at the top of (you guessed it) more stairs. This area gives the best view of Florence and we will drop some pictures in here when we have the opportunity to download them.

After all that walking, we headed off to another church, but this time it was the Duomo which neither had been through on our previous visits to Florence. Seeing the lines in the morning, we were anticipating a good rest while we waited. When we got there, we thought it must have been closed as there was NO line (a momentry lapse of reason on the part of all tourists in Florence, we’re sure). Like all “churches” in Italy, this was a truly impressive and beautiful structure. Unlike most of the churches, we were allowed to take photos in the building with a tripod and/or flash. The small flash on digital cameras is useless in a building of this size so Rob spent a good deal of the time there grovelling around on the floor getting the best shots from the only stable platform. Here we really need to thank Gianni and Angelica for their gift of the pocket tripod. It really was the only thing that made our pics here possible. Again, however, you will need to wait until these pics are not confined to our camera.

The next day saw us leaving the B&B Nazi and heading off toward Montenero (just inland from the south west coast of Tuscany). On the way, we called into Lucca which is a beautiful little walled city with all battlements still intact. A couple of hours wandering and we had seen most of the city so we headed off to Pisa so Nadia could see some tower they have there. A most unlikely park (just across from the major attraction) saw us just wandering in the highlight area at about 4pm. We decided not to climb the tower (more stairs and 15 euro EACH!!!) but went into the Duomo (another church) which was again just stunning and we’re sure responsible for encounters with another teenage ninja turtle or two.

Montenero saw a new low in findability. It was nowhere near where the instructions said, instead being at the top and then just down the other side a bit of a place that the mountain goats just shake their heads at and avoid. That being said, our hostess, Eugenia (the grand daughter of the original owners), couldn’t have made us feel more welcome in the palacial 3rd floor apartment of the “fixer-upperer” villa. On top of being most hospitable, she let Rob use the kitchen and, after a visit to the local Co-op (with directions written by the same author as those to the villa), he really enjoyed experimenting with the local mushrooms and other produce.

The next day saw Sienna and San Gimignano and heaps of winding roads (as if we needed more challenge!!!).

Sienna is a huge version of Lucca – another walled city that was a real treat to wander around. Eugenia had told us about the local horse race run twice a year in the “Il Campo” which is a clam shell shaped piazza. Apparently, in true Italian style, riders representing all twelve segments of the city get random horses and STAND on them in a race around this cobbled and slippery area three times. The first horse (rider or no) wins! This is so chaotic that the owners of adjacent buildings strap matteresses and the like to the walls to minimise collateral damage (they should try this for the cars too!). There was no mention of deaths but we’re not sure whether this is just because there was no MENTION of deaths.

San Gimignano is a small version of Lucca on the very top of a hill and surrounded by typical Tuscan countryside. You park the car outside the city and walk (no cars allowed at all – yes, more steps). This small city is just great to wander around with no real agenda. We found ourselves in all sorts of picturesque and interesting locations that reminded Nadia of Meg Ryan’s words in French Kiss while looking at the scenery “OH, OH, BEAUTIFUL!!!”. Vineyards, olive groves, and patches of earth that (from all the paintings for sale) we believe hold sunflowers at some other times of the year.

The next day (sunday) saw us up early (well 8:30 is early on holidays) and heading off to Pompeii. This is a more serious trip of about 650Km but is mostly on Autostradas. We left at around 9:30am and, after numerous stops, got to Pompeii at around 4pm thanks to the 130(ish)km/h speed limit. This was with minimal assistance from road signs to Pompeii. There was one about 50km before and another about 500m before the exit. Odd for a major attraction!

We checked into Hotel Forum which has been very good to us. It is great to shower in a shower recess. It is great to have privacy. It is great to have free Internet access. It’s great to have eggs for breakfast. No B&B Nazi’s for us, it’s just great to be in a hotel!!!

Pompeii is a not to be missed experience. We spent most of today walking around the dig and being emersed in another culture and time. It is really astounding just how much has been preserved considering how it ceased to proceed. They have even made plaster casts of people whose bodies left cavities in the lava and you can even see their clothes and facial expressions! It is amazing to see whole streets and to go through peoples’ houses and public buildings seeing how they lived. A tip if you visit… get the Audio Tour. It is only 5 euro and is WELL worth it.

Seeing archeology students painstakingly working on the dig, we have decided to not include this in our career plans for the future! We can’t believe the city has been excavated using paint brushes and trowels!

Tomorrow sees a mad dash for Rome to get the car back by 10am. We are following some advice given to us by an American in Florence at the Avis counter “DOOO NOOOOT DRIIIIIVE IIIIN ROOOOME!!!!!!!!! Drop it at the airport and take the train!”

Hopefully photos for this section will appear in the next few days. Next update should show our travels in Rome!

Just to let you know, we DO read and enjoy your comments, so keep them coming!

The idea of opening an Australian destination here in Italy is VERY appealing except for the communication (Nadia is finding it constant being the only one who speaks any Italian). We could yet be talked into it though!!! Looking at real estate offices where ever we go!!!

We will get back with more soon.

Love to all…

Sirmione was our first stop on the shores of Lake Garda. Being on peninsula within Lake Garda, we expected it to be picturesque and perfect for a lunch stop. Unfortunately there was a blanket of nebbia (fog) and we couldn’t see more than 50 metres out from the shore. When we went walking by the lake to take in the atmosphere, we were attacked by clouds of midges which led us to beating a hasty retreat to the car. What the heck, we thought, we’ll try the next lake!

A short trip towards Lecco, which is on the shores of Lake Como, showed us some beautiful scenery and allowed the (what we would soon realise was typical) Italian traffic signage to mislead us. We eventually found Lecco (and shortly after, Lake Como) and had lunch looking out over a very beautiful lake (fog mostly lifted by this time). After a stroll through a (mostly) junk market, we were off to catch up with another of Nadia’s Zias at Como (or so the plan went…). More Italian signage and extremely vague directions saw us driving in varying circles for about an hour before we gave up and headed for plan B -Lake Maggiore and our accommodation in Arona. Finding our way back to an Autostrada with only one postage stamp for signage took us around another hour but once we did find it, another hour saw us in Arona and REALLY ready for some of the Italian wine!!!

Next morning we wandered into Arona and headed straight for the ferry terminal to get to Isola Bella. On inspection of the timetable, we found that we could get there soon but could not return until about on dark – not good with a drive to Tuscany to go that day! So off we headed to Stresa (halfway up the western shore of the lake) where ferries ran half hourly all day.

As we drove into the terminal car park at Stresa, we received directions from a very helpful and very official looking “gentleman” (one of many in the car park) showing us where to park, where to get parking tickets, where to get ferry tickets… How helpful we thought. Well, it turns out that we purchased a ticket using a water taxi and not the ferry (10 metres away and a quarter of the cost!). Never-the-less, Isola Bella was well worth it. Palazzo Borromeo is a stunning palace with equally stunning gardens famous for it’s grottos and white peacocks.

After returning to Stresa and wandering through the streets taking the sights for a while, we headed off to Fosdinovo, our gateway to Tuscany and Cinque Terra. On the way, we passed Genova on the elevated autostrada. While travelling on Autostrade always involves a fee, one look at the alternative routes and this could be double or triple the cost and we would still pay it happily! Genova looked like a huge kids project that had been carefully planned by several disagreeing ADD sufferers. On the Autostrada, we happily sailed over it all and through never ending tunnels to come out at our destination with sanity still intact (relatively).

Another week over and more driving practice…

Italy has only one road RULE, if you’re doing less than 200km/h on the autostrada, KEEP OUT OF THE LEFT LANE UNLESS PASSING! All the rest of the “rules” have now been downgraded to remarks.

After trying to do a U turn the wrong way, Nadia has decided that driving on the right is another rule. “That’s pretty strong” she commented.

Luckily Rob seems to be managing autostrade and city confusion with only the occasional coffee (corrected, of course).

As well as making it possible for us to access the Internet and update our site, Angelica and Gianni took us to Gorizia and Trieste last weekend for a great tour of two very different but equally stunning castles. The one in Gorizia, within a stone’s throw of the Slovinian border, was a very old (medieval) fully defended castle complete with weapons of destruction.

Castle in Gorizia

In Trieste, the castle Miramare was the home of Maximillian Ferdinande (brother of Archduke Ferdinande) who eventually became emporer of Mexico and was killed there. This latter was very grand indeed set amongst about 50 hectares of botanical gardens of his creation and perched on top of a low cliff over the sea.

Miramare in Trieste

Trieste is where many cruise ships are built and is also home to about 5 major coffee roasting houses including Lavazza (we were impressed!). The local market was fantastic especially after Rob got over his confusion re carne sassichia (meat sausages). He had memorised the word for Dog earlier (cane) and it sounded awfully like what he was reading (carne)!

Watching the making of pizzas by Luigino was a great experience. This was less fun than eating the finished product but only just. Here they are not just mass produced things on pizza trays, rather each one is hand made to order on a granite bench with a great deal of skill (and a secret tool – we are definately not allowed to mention the green bottle used to roll them before hand stretching).

The Secret Tool

Stretching the “pasta” (pizza dough)

Topping with pomodoro

The chosen toppings

…and into the oven

Over this week, we have seen some of the tremendous amount of preparation that happens behind the final assembly process. Hours of work happen every day getting ready for the meastro’s performance!

Wilma barbequeing radichio for toppings

Zia at the special pasta balling machine

…and still more work after the machina has finished!

…and, of course you can’t have pizza without the vino!!!

Another trip into Venice took us to Murano where the famous Venitian glass is made. We had a visit to one of the factories that produce this very fine glass – each piece by hand.

Glass making on Murano

We continued on our visit by wandering through the island and along the canals, looking at a miriad of glass stores, before finally having some lunch at a local bar (very good) and making a couple of purchases.

Wandering about the canals on Murano

We were set to go onto Burano when Nadia had a coffee crisis and so we ended up back in Venice for coffee. After doing some necessary email communication with accommodation agencies, we were strolling around thinking we had half an hour to kill when Nadia spotted Florinda (the sister of a very good friend in Australia) who was over for a wedding. The world truly is a small place!

Nadia with Flo in Venice

The last few days have been filled with visits to various small towns nearby and with a trip yesterday to Padua (a walled city about 100km away). Padua has a gorgeous basilica dedicated to St Anthony. We initially went to another basilica thinking it was St Anthony’s and apparently weren’t the first. We were accosted by a kind priest/brother who set us straight and explained we could take photos there (but can’t in St Anthony’s). This church was also very beautiful with many antiquated features including the corridor of martyrs where 6 martyrs were found buried in a well. This is all painstakingly preserved.

St Anthony’s, when we got there, was no anticlimax. It is a repository for much art and we had our first brush with one of the Ninja Turtles – Donatello – (family joke) who apparently spent a good many of his most creative years there working on the basilica.

Basilica St Antonio – Padua

After many emails/calls/confusion, our accommodation plans in the Italian equivalent of B&Bs (caffelletto) are FINALLY confirmed for the rest of our Italian stay. We look forward to sharing some of our experiences in the next update. Today is finally cold enough for Nadia to wear a jacket although Rob still has enough of his own insulation. Autumn (Fall) has finally sprung (?).

Well, since the last update, what