Blogs from Piedmont, Italy, Europe - page 5

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Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Pettenasco June 25th 2017

What an interesting day it was going to be. It all started about 3:00 am in the morning with the mother of all thunderstorms. The sound of the thunder booming around the mountains nearby was deafening. We likened it to the bass section of the choir. Back in New Zealand the thunder is more like the soprano section. Today we leave our hillside paradise, we only hope it is dry when it comes time to depart. Our hostess has told us, no need to leave too early. We pack all our bags, luggage and groceries: unfortunately we have finished the wine and eaten all the blueberries. We stop a while as we pack the car and chat with a local. He is sad to see us go. We tell him we came for three nights and ... read more
Pradella above Bellano

Europe » Italy » Piedmont October 4th 2016

Geo: 45.4261, 8.09852This morning after breakfast dad, Michael and I went for a walk. We took a different route from yesterday morning. After about ten minutes we decided to turn back as we couldn't tell if we were walking along a private driveway or on a public road. Back on the main road we continued walking until we came to a fork and then choose the quieter road. This road was much quieter. About twenty minutes later we arrived in the centre of Dorzano. This is town next to Cavaglia. Along the way we saw a few people tending in their garden. Nearly every house has an amazing back and front vegetable garden including many fruit trees.The centre of town was very uneventful. There wasn't even a bar in this town, let alone a shop. The ... read more
02 Via Castello
03 Remains
04 Bell Tower

Europe » Italy » Piedmont October 3rd 2016

Geo: 45.4216, 8.07096After lunch Ilaria, Michael and I went for a drive with Zia Elenora. She had to go to the nearby town of Roppolo to pick up food for our dinner. Tonight we were having a local speciality – Fritto Misto. This dish translates as 'Mixed Fried' and consists of sweet and savoury food battered and deep fried! Zia parked outside the restaurant and came out a few minutes later with two large oval platters piled high with food. They were covered with foil, so we couldn't see the food, but it did smell delicious!We then had a quick detour to the local castle. It was a quick drive to the top of the small castle. Parked next to the castle wall was a small truck filled with black grapes. Zia told us that there ... read more
02 Rock
03 Entrance
04 View from the Castle

Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Biella October 3rd 2016

Geo: 45.5628, 8.05827Later on in the afternoon, Milena, Zia, Dad, Michael and I went for a drive to the closest, largest town of Biella. Dad had decided that he wanted to buy a cuckoo clock! We went at this time of the day, as the shops would now have reopened from their three house siesta. We walked up and down the main pedestrian street - Via Italia. Above us we noticed many large colourful umbrellas and on this bright sunny day the colours were very bright and stood out. At the end of the street, in between the buildings we noticed the nearby mountains were visible.Dad didn't have any luck with buying a cuckoo clock because the shop that had them was closed today due to it being a Monday! So we would have to return ... read more
02 Colourful Umbrellas
03 Colourful Umbrellas
04 Colourful Umbrellas

Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Cavaglia October 3rd 2016

Geo: 45.4084, 8.09455After breakfast this morning dad, zio, Michael and I went for a walk. It was a great walk and we only saw a few vehicles. We walked in the middle of the road and past large vegetable gardens. The only thing that worried us was when we heard dogs excitedly barking and hoped that they weren't going to attack us. Half way into our walk, the alps became visible. This was exciting as we could see some of the mountain tops were covered in snow. It felt really good to be walking, especially after being so lazy since we left Florence. Since Florence we have also been eating way too much! Our walk lasted about an hour and we didn't do much else this morning. Although soon after we returned it was time to ... read more

Europe » Italy » Piedmont October 2nd 2016

Geo: 45.6277, 7.97986After lunch Milena drove Michael, Ilaria, Emanuele and I to a nearby attraction – Oropa Sanctuary. Giovanni was going to ride his motorcycle there and meet us up there. I wasn't that interested in going there because I been there many years ago and it was a very religious place. Although I was happy to be going somewhere! It was a short drive up into the mountains and I prepared myself by wearing my warmest clothes.It was quite cool when we got out of the car and I tried not to think about the temperature. The sanctuary is a group of Roman Catholic buildings in a valley up the mountains built on a few levels. This is also a place of pilgrimage and there is accommodation available here for them. The clouds were dark ... read more
02 Sanctuary
03 Looking Down
04 Glimpse

Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Viverone October 1st 2016

Geo: 45.4248, 8.05439Over lunch we all chatted. Ilaria and Emanuele are learning English and it was great to speak to them in English. It has been hard work having to only speak in Italian to all the other relatives! After a delicious lunch we were shown to our rooms for the next four nights. It will be a very full house. Ilaria and Emanuele then took Michael and I for a drive to the local lake – Lago di Viverone. Once we were here I realised that it looked familiar. We were here over 20 years ago and took many photos by the water.The weather this afternoon was very miserable - grey clouds with light rain. Due to this we were walking around the lake under umbrellas. There were a few sail boats out on the ... read more
02 Jetty
03 Lotus
04 Lotus

Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Orta San Giulio September 10th 2016

Despite our return journey from Italy into France, through Switzerland, passing uneventfully (if you exclude the stunning scenery of the Simplon pass), the same could not be said for the remainder of our journey. We arrived in France, as planned for our overnight stop, ahead of the trip to the port for a 6pm sailing the following day. You will have seen from the entry above that our planned Aire stop was less than satisfactory. However, this was clearly an omen for the remainder of the trip, which we had calculated as being c4.5 hours. We agreed to set off at 9am the following morning and take a leisurely drive to the port, and to eat in Dieppe sea front on our arrival. We awoke at c8am (later than usual) and set off at c9.30am. On ... read more
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Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Orta San Giulio September 10th 2016

Well, what is our verdict, having spent over 2 weeks both travelling in and staying in Fugly, through 5 different Countries (France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy). Is it cut out to meet our requirements? Did we make the right choice? We were amazed to find that Fugly simply swallowed our not inconsiderable gear and, by keeping things in their place, we were able to both keep the van tidy and lay our hands on everything. A big improvement over our prior Race Van conversion (although I hate to say this...). The van was well equipped and, having made a couple of prior modifications, we identified just a couple of items that we could add to improve usability - not least the addition of a couple of additional waste bins - in both the bathroom and ... read more

Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Orta San Giulio September 8th 2016

What are the 'must have' store cupboard ingredients that no van should be without? We stopped for one night at an Aire in France, en route back to the port, which was 'star' rated for its village amenities. These included restaurants duly signposted... However, the one restaurant included on the map had clearly closed down some years ago, leaving a kebab house and a Carrefour mini market... Nice... Not! Our challenge therefore, on arriving back at the van after a fruitless trawl of the village, was to make something from our left overs / store cupboard, which we did. Paella. On opening the cupboard we were confronted with, amongst other ingredients, saffron, truffles and anchovies - not all of which were needed for the Paella, but which did make us smile. We were sure to be ... read more
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