Italy really is so very different to what we know our daily life to be in New Zealand. We take for granted the space we have… when you consider that Italy has about the same land mass as NZ but has about 60 odd million people in the same space well you realise that we are very lucky to live where we do with lots of wide open space… for our family homes, to explore, to just have room to be in and enjoy. We have the space, well mostly unless you live in Auckland to have our own homes with grass around you… space for your kids to play outside. We don’t have to live in apartments unless we choose to… our kids get to run a whole lot more freely than the few families we have seen here… I guess it has a whole lot to do with the heat we have encountered… you certainly couldn’t let your kids run riot out in the bright strong sun for too long before they became dehydrated!

I am not saying that Italy is a bad place to live… its certainly a very beautiful country and the people are so welcoming… even in the face of blank stares when they talk to you and you have absolutely no idea what they are saying… or when you accidentally try to drive up a one way street the wrong way… no wild hissy fit temper tantrums just a gentle shake of the hand to indicate no and then pointing in the right direction so you can haul your sorry butt out of harms way. And when you consider that August is the month that nearly all Italians take off on their own holidays there is very little animosity towards the tourists like us who knew no better and booked their own holiday during August. We had heard differently, but I guess it just goes to show you that you need to make your own mind up… and that its how you treat people that makes the difference!

The country side is just amazing… we have been on the flat flat plains between Milan and Venice and into the grape and olive covered hills of Tuscany where any spare land not used for vineyards or olive groves are burnt dry from the lack of rain and now here we find ourselves in the beautiful wooded mountains of Liguria before we head north to the Italian Lake District. I am sure we will see plenty of changes in the trip between the two also.

The hotel we are in at present has the most amazing garden out back… lovely and cool to sit in the shade and just watch the world go by… and have to say the windows are just amazing… we seriously need to look at windows like this in NZ… Not only can you open them like we normally do but you can also tilt one of them from the top… which allows a glorious breeze through but still offers some kind of privacy. I am going to have to try and get some photos of them because somehow I think unless you have seen them yourselves you will think I am going totally doolally… which wouldn’t normally be too far from the truth. The little village is full of houses with beautiful lace curtains… but not the nets that we are used to at home these are more like hardanger or cut thread work… on the finest of linen or cotton and all beautifully handmade.