Geo: 46.1445, 8.72654Having arrived late last night, this morning we did two things - slept in and said hello to the family. It was after 9am when Steven went across the road to the new patisserie at Porto Ronco and 10am before we a) saw Eurosia, working in the Tourism Office of Ronco b) had coffee with Zia Natalina and Zio Lucianoc) moved to our next meal of the day with Zia Teresa and Zio Romano, Tino, Eurosia and Raissa. A lovely lunch - Teresa made the best polenta and a pot roast with chestnuts from Il Monte. Then, after Teresa's delicious apple flan, we moved to Zio Marcello and Zia Gabriella's house - 4th coffee/meal in 3 hours!!We were exhausted - it had been a big weekend and then a long drive - so all ... read more

Geo: 45.9627, 12.655We spent the most lovely day enjoying family time with the Pordenone Perissinotto's. After breakfast at the B&B, Esio met us and we followed him to his house. We walked to Mass in the village (they live near Pordenone, Cordenons (Villa D'arco?)) where Esio sang and Paolo played guitar, whilst Matteo was altar server. It was lovely. Esio must have mentioned to the priest that he had cousins with him, because the very kind priest (26yo!) wished us a lovely welcome and Merry Christmas in his broken English from the altar. After Mass, we chatted with some parishioners who had family in Australia, and the boys played basketball - with the priest!!!! (Boys learned that dark marks on the concrete here are ice and super slippery!!)We walked back, leaving the boys (Tom, Matt and ... read more

Geo: 45.9627, 12.655We started with a delicious breakfast at our B and B, then drove to Zia Isseta's house. Here she tried to serve us a second breakfast of Panatone and juice! Zia also had a number of games for amusing kids, that didn't need language, so we played these with her and enjoyed it.We then went to Dad's cousin Renato's house and had lunch with his family. After a ginormous and delicious lunch we went for a walk around Pordenone. Then we went and watched Matteo (the other Matthew Perissinotto!!) in his piano concert, which was really good.We then had dinner with Anna-Maria and her family, so it was a lovely day spent with the family! We talked a bit to Zia Isseta about what Nonno was like at school (they were in the same ... read more

Geo: 46.1408, 8.72701To ItalyAthens to Pordenone (via Bologna and San Dona di Piave)We woke up early and drove to the airport, planning to have breakfast there. However, after bag drop, security and immigration we found that we had gone past all the restaurants! We were then siphoned into a small waiting room for our flight, with nowhere near enough seats for everyone! We ate a healthy breakfast of choc chip biscuits for breakfast!Our flight ran late as the three flights before us had medical emergencies on board! Luckily our flight ran smoothly and we arrived in Bologna! We went through the airport very quickly - advantages of open borders! Then we went and got in our hire car, planning to drive to Bologna for lunch. Once we loaded all the bags in the car, Dad turned ... read more

Geo: 37.9523, 23.852This was a bit of a travel day - it was a 3 hour drive, so we didn't have to start too early but didn't want to arrive too early at the B&B that we had found near the airport in Athens. We left after breakfast and drove through the next town (10 mins away) of Arachova. Frankly, we should have done this yesterday afternoon rather than exploring Delphi, as Arachova is much prettier. It is famous for its woven rugs etc and is a ski town. We didn't stop because we weren't sure of our timing and wanted to get underway - next time! ;)Then a lovely drive through mountains, with small amounts of snow on the side of the road. At one stage, a dark-haired man appeared on the side of the ... read more