Photos!!

As promised, here are the photos I took on my adventure last week (plus a few extras I thought might be nice to see)!

 Cute dogs that I get to see on my way to work each day :)

 Views from the top of the belltower

 There's my house! Middle right, the bright yellow building :P

 Temple of Dionysus, reconstructed using scaffolding!

Exploits in cookery! Four-tier chocolate cake, layered with chocolate buttercream...

 Chicken korma with homemade flatbreads :)

 Pineapple upside-down cake! The first legitimate one I've made with pineapple

Chocolate, cranberry and vanilla shortbreads! Took these into school and they went down a storm with the other teachers :P

Hope you liked those photos, probably more to come in the future! 

The Italian Connection

Hello! I realise it's been a while since I last posted, and this is for two reasons. One, remember when I said my Internet connection in my flat would be sufficient enough to update this blog? Yeah...it isn't. I can never load the page before it dies, so I am writing this at Claudia's instead. Two, besides various lessons and excursions to the shopping centre, not much happened since the last post, but now stuff has so I have lots of things to write about! Yay!

Mum and Dad came to visit me last Friday - there was a holiday from Thursday-Sunday in honour of All Saints and All Souls - and that was lovely! They brought me lots of things from home; warm snuggly jumpers, my favourite fluffy gloves, many scarves and a fetching beret for when it gets colder (as it has been slowly doing over the past few days). Also, they packed lots of Christmassy things, like tinsel, trifle ingredients, Christmas cake and pudding, Quality Street, Roses and Fox's Bisquits (thank you Vinnie the Panda). Once I have bought a tree - they are on special offer in the local supermarket between 15th-18th of November, so I'm going to grab me one - and the year has moved into December, Christmas will hit my flat. I hope Marine is prepared...

Anyway, the first day Mum and Dad were here we went to visit the ancient ruins - we popped into Giovanni's shop to introduce him to Dad first, and he managed to ring up a friend of a friend and get us in for free by using the back entrance. He seems to know pretty much all of the people in town (meaning he can walk down the street and shake hands with a policeman without getting arrested) and by giving me a little piece of paper and an abundance of maps he saved my parents about €30 in entry fees, which was greatly appreciated! That day we also went to a lovely little pizzeria near the Circumvesuviana station, where we had a meal for three for €25, instead of going somewhere with a 'tourist menu' and paying €15 each! It pays to shop around.

Saturday I showed my parents the shopping centre, La Cartiera, and we had a good wander through various shops, including H&M and somewhere that translates as ShoeWorld; in the former I exchanged a jumper I'd bought for Gary's birthday for a bigger size, and in the latter I got some high-heeled lace-up ankle boots that are probably some of the comfiest shoes I've worn! Whether that's just what shoes are like in Italy, I don't know. That evening I cooked dinner for the three of us plus Marine; pork chops with pancetta, onions and apples, carrots, an improvising creamy sauce and what were allegedly the ULTIMATE ROAST POTATOES (I can definitely say that they were pretty darn delicious, but not as nice as my Mum's :P). Everything went down well, and we had apple upside-down cake and custard for pudding, then prosecco and tortilla chips while Dad channel hopped and Mum and I did the washing up.

On Sunday, after a little wander around the Santuario (and the discovery that in Italy, when somebody dies their family will frame photo of them, a lock of hair, or a rather graphic drawing of how they died, and put it on one of the walls in the church corridors....there were some interesting depictions of people getting hit by cars, falling from trains or dying on the operating table), we had what can only be described as a MASSIVE lunch at Claudia's flat. Bruschette, mozzarella and ricotta, tagliatelle alla bolognese, escalopes in Marsala wine sauce, then cakes and fruit. Claudia loves to cook, and she loves to cook for lots of people, so this was a great opportunity for her! Needless to say, we were all stuffed afterwards, so while Claudia was chatting to Mum and Dad about my new timetable and other things, I sat on the sofa with Simone and helped him build the most complicated Lego aeroplane I have ever seen – although it did look great when it was done.

After our long lunch we went for a little amble around town, popping in and out of shops (I got a really nice bag in one, much bigger than my usual handbag as I need to be able to carry papers and folders and such to work!), having a small dinner at McDonald’s – because we’re classy – and then we discovered the Eden Park. Now, the Eden Park is basically a small version of Great Yarmouth arcade, just down the road from the ruins of ancient Pompeii.

I know. Massively incongruous, right?

Still, it was actually a lot more fun that I thought it would be! Dad had a go at playing Tron Legacy pinball and got annoyed that he isn’t as good as he was in his youth :P and then he had a go at the grabber machines – an obligatory action whenever we encounter one – and won Mum a cuddly Tigger sitting in a honey pot. We used the fortune-reading machine for a laugh too, which told me I am as healthy as a fish, and I need to get out more. I disagree with the healthiness thing at the moment, as I have a horrible cough, but there we go.

After the amusements, we got late-night gelato, one of my favourite things about living in Italy! If I want ice-cream at ten o’clock at night, then all I have to do is take a five-minute walk to the nearest ice-cream shop and I can get two scoops of different flavours, topped with cream or chocolate, in a cone or cup for €2. Magic!

Monday saw my unfortunate return to work, and Mum and Dad leaving to fly back to England, and honestly not much else happened that day. However, on Tuesday I decided to be a tourist and have an adventure! I packed a bag with umbrella, sunglasses, purse, camera and keys and set out into town to find interesting things to do. I went back to the Santuario briefly, mainly because it’s a b-e-a-utiful building and the decorated ceiling and walls are amazing. I also wanted to go up in the belltower, which reaches 80 metres above the ground and lets you see all across the city, and further. So, I paid my entry fee to the nice old lift operator, who took me up to the top and chatted to me on the way. He said his name was Vincenzo, and we shook hands, then he told me to stay up there as long as I wanted and ring the bell when I wanted to come back down. I took lots of photos while I was up there (which unfortunately will not upload on my slow connection, so I will edit this post at some point in the future and add them onto the end), and was legitimately able to say that famous phrase, “Hey! I can see my house from up here!”

When I returned to solid ground, Vincenzo very kindly handed me back my €2 entry fee and told me I was welcome to come back for free whenever I wanted! It seems I now have friends in high places (*badum-tish*) – not quite as many as Giovanni though, who seems to be one of the most well-connected people I have ever met, but then I’ve only been here for just over a month. I do have some acquaintances though, like the shopkeeper lady in a shop round the corner from one of the school buildings, who always smiles and greets me when I pop in to buy milk on my way home. Hopefully I will keep making friends with people, which could be very easy as Italians are really friendly.

Anyway, until next time,