Blogs from Portogruaro, Veneto, Italy, Europe

Our first job this morning was to get to the farm by 9am to farewell Diego and Elisa on their honeymoon to Turkey, Greece and no doubt other places. After photos and a catchup they were soon on their way with Piero taking them and Nevio to the Venice Airport. We then returned to the B&B to pack up our belongings and move to the farm for the next few days. We were astounded to find the bill at the B&B had been paid. Diego had somehow done this while we were otherwise occupied. Somehow we’ll overturn that decision of his as it was our pleasure to be there. After settling in we set the GPS for Lago di Barcis with Lindsay driving. We hadn’t turned off gravel roads on the TomTom and soon found ourselves ... read more

Saturday was the Wedding Day for Diego and Elisa but not until mid-afternoon. We visited Concordia Saggitarius to view the Roman ruins around and under the Basilica. There was a wedding happening at the Basilica so we skipped that but the surrounding area is managed as a Museum which is surprisingly gratis. We walked around below ground under the Piazza which had been dug out, propped up and paved over to show the original building remains. There is an area of 5000sq m of an old Basilica with the original mosaic floor. Amazingly we were allowed to walk all over it and see the site up close. The engineering that has been done to shore up the site is amazing. It’s well worth a visit. In the afternoon we went to the farm where the family ... read more

Apologies folks - we have been off-line for a couple of days, but we now have a vodafone broadband stick and are ready to roll. We are staying in the northern Italian city of Portogruaro with our Italian family, Perina, Prego and their son Diego. Perina is my father John's second cousin. The Santaliana family have been extremely welcoming and have kept us very busy visiting many destinations. All of them with an extensive history and story so well explained by Diego our guide and interpreter. On Sunday evening we visited Portogruaro's historic city centre and mingled with the locals. Like so many Italian cities, the city centre area has a character and intimacy that draws the local community into to the centre to meet, eat, drink and socialise. So many people get around on bicycles ... read more

Welcome to our first blog. Arrived to a very smoggie Hong Kong at 6.15am. The airport is HUGE and extremely busy. The Chinese certainly know how to do big well! It was refreshing to have a hot shower and a bite to eat at the airport lounge. Daph is totally relaxed after a full body massage and is hoping to get a bit more sleep on our flight to Frankfurt. Caroline - we picked up on your message, thanks for the update. How did soccer go on Saturday Sean? Dad is fit and well and has more energy that Daph and I combined. All is well, waiting for our Frankfurt flight, will blog soon. Jono, Daph & John Hey all how are we back in Aotearoa? We are still in Hong Kong and this travellers lounge ... read more

It's been so hot, all I could think of was a nice cool swim, so we factored that into our ride into town. It was Market Day so the town was abuzz with activity. I wanted to see the Paleontological Museum and again and have a good look. However, we managed to get ourselves completely disoriented and couldn't find the Park where the building was. Finally found, I had a very good time of viewing fossils slowly. Then to find the bikes. Once again, streets jammed with people and stalls and we could no longer orient ourselves by the town hall square. Finally found, we biked of to the baths for a swim only to find them closed!! Hot and bothered we biked home for a cool shower. The afternoon turned out to be more interesting ... read more