Mark,Helen, Harriet & Lucy Star
The Star family of Hamilton Brisbane Australia are off on a "long service leave" tour of Turkey, Italy & Singapore.Stars on Tour
The family consists of Lucy 9yrs, Harriet 12yrs, Parents Helen & Mark.
We are all looking forward to our advertures during this trip.
Travel Blog Posts
June 21st 2006
Sadly we had to leave our piece of paradise and do some serious sightseeing! We left Minori on Sunday early and headed for Pompeii. It was about 1 ½ hours away on our way to Roma. Pompeii is filled with history. Unfortunately we had chosen one of our hottest days to visit but we lasted long enough to get the general idea of the long history there. Mt Vesuvias must have really blown her top when she erupted. 1000m of the top of the volcano was blown out to the surprise of those around it. This is why there are so many people were killed. The shapes of bodies from the eruption were amazing. We have been very spoiled on this trip seeing Aphroditus, Ephesus and here showed us how clever early civilizations were. ... read more
June 20th 2006
Il Paradiso Minori is a small village filled mainly with locals and not too many tourists. This was great for us as we became part of the community very quickly. The fruit and veg shop, the butcher, the baker, the entoca(wine shop) all became our friends as we shopped daily for our needs. Every day we would hit the beach for a few hours and swim in the crystal clear Mediterranean. The kids had a ball on some kayaks while Mark would do his gelati swim a lap across and back of the bay front, once finished he felt he deserved a gelati. The beach was about 500m long. We never needed a watch because the church bells went off every 15 minutes which we really loved. Mark and I found another wonderful pasticceria where we ... read more
June 15th 2006
We had decided to head across to Sicily for a week as we had heard it was an interesting place. On our way to the ferry we stopped at Palmi, another coastal village. My grandmother used to go there for her holidays from Plati. It was a beautiful spot but the town was very busy! We were a little sad leaving Calabria as we felt we should have spent longer there. Sicily was a new adventure…in more ways than we thought. We arrived in Messina just after lunch and had planned to head down the east coast towards Taomina and Siracusa. We drove along the coast disappointed at the beaches and towns we went through. Taomina was very busy and situated on top of a very high hill. We drove briefly through and decided it was ... read more
June 14th 2006
Week 5 in Italy We left the farm after four wonderful weeks discovering Tuscany and all the great adventures it had to offer. Lia and Franco, our hosts and their daughter Francesca and her family were wonderful to us. Francesca’s travel company was able to give us great connections while we were there. Franco provided lively discussions on various topics and it was like having my father on my doorstep! The next part of our journey headed us south. We had to go to Matera for our business so Mark could look at a machine. We had grand plans of driving to Caserta, a city where the allied command set up headquarters in the palace during the war. We drove in…looked around…not one of Italy’s more beautiful cities…we drove out and decided to head to the ... read more
June 2nd 2006
The past 4 weeks of our trip has been spent living on an Olive Growing & oil making farm near Castellina in Chianti. The owners Franco & Lia Lombardi have been growing olives and making oil for the past 15 years. Prior to this time Franco was a engineer and project manager throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Since moving to Pornanino Franco has become passionate about olive oil. He conducts talks and information sessions on his farm for tourists and also travells to America to give presentations and sell his oil. 95% of his 5,000 bottles of oil are sold into the US, the remainder are sold in Japan, Australia and China. Franco is 69 and a real doer, he is always full steam an action man-not unlike Helen's dad Domenic. During our stay ... read more
June 2nd 2006
It is hard to believe we have come to the end of our time at Castellina in Chianti and will head to the south of Italy tomorrow. We have had a busy week fitting in the things we wanted to do before we left. We revisited our shopping mecca-The Mall on Monday and purchased a few more items to add to our already excess baggage. It’s lucky we don’t have this in Australia! Tuesday we had a scenic drive to Volterra which lies in the hills of Tuscany. It is a walled town and is the major producer of Alabaster, a white stone. It has Etruscan origins which makes it a very touristy place. From there we drove to San Gimignano which was a favourite spot. It too is a walled town in the hills and ... read more
May 25th 2006
Week 2.5 15th May A new week and more discovering! After our hiccup on Friday we hit the road to Lucca and Pisa. These places are about an hour and a half away. Lucca was an amazing walled town with many laneways and beautiful shops. There were very few cars inside the walls which we were thrilled about. We have had a few close shaves as pedestrians. Another magnificent church and picturesque squares scattered with restaurants and cafes. Puccini, the composer was born here so music is very much a part of this town. We were fortunate to find a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition there showing some of the amazing machines he invented. The girls had a great time playing with them. After a beautiful lunch we headed back to the car for our short drive ... read more
May 14th 2006
We arrived in Italy on Sat 6th May. We’ve had a great week…getting into another culture, new easier language and great food and driving on the wrong side of the road! The girls are loving the familiar tastes. We are at a wonderful farm just outside of Castellina in Chianti. We are about 30 min south to Siena, 1hr north to Florence. We are in the centre of the Chianti Classico wine area, hence we have an enormous choice of fantastico vino! We went to Siena last Monday. It was very busy and very interesting. Visited the Duomo which is magnificent and showed the girls the Piazza del Campo which has a horse race in it every year. Driving anywhere here has amazing WOW factors. The pictures and movies really don’t do it justice. There are ... read more
May 2nd 2006
Steps for a Turkish Haircut 1. Wash hair bending forward over the sink 2. Cut the sides and back with a No 3 hair clippers (20mins) 3. Then feather in the No 3 area from zero to No3 with clippers (10mins) 4. Check finger nails and suggest a manicure 5. Say yes to a manicure (happens at same time as hair cut by female) 6. Cut top of hair with scissors (20mins) 7. Use thinning scissors to reduce “fooff” on top (10min) 8. Manicure is progressing a. Cut nails b. File nails c. Clean under wicks d. Soak in something e. Cut wicks and dead skin from around nails f. Soak in something else g. Clean fingers and nails h. Apply moisturiser i. Apply something else j. Finished (40mins(Meanwhile)) 9. Go all over with the mini ... read more
April 30th 2006
We were thrilled to see Michelle and meet her partner Adnan and don't forget the huge but placid dog Lottie. They live in a Mandarin Grove just outside of Bodrum.They have a beautiful cottage on there property where we are staying. It is just perfect. We walk down to the shop and get our bread and fruit in the mornings. We have had some fantastic meals at some great restaurants. Last night we went to their local…a rustic cottage with fantastic Turkish food. We have walked down to the beach a few times and enjoyed the Turkish sunshine. Bodrum is yachting heaven. Hundreds of magnificent boats are lined up ready for cruises in the holiday season. This started on May 1. Yesterday, Wednesday, we went on a great cruise around the peninsula. Stopped at a few ... read more
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