Buongiorno! Da quanto tempo (long time no see)!

Ciao miei amici!

Sono speranza! I am hopeless! But I’m sure you can forgive me! I hope! Transitioning back to life in New Zealand hasn’t been hard for me! But I think l’italiano marito (the italian husband) may be struggling a little bit! I can’t believe we have been here for nearly 5 months! And married for 4 1/2 months already! (And I still haven’t sent all my thank you cards out yet… oops)

But while I may have been back in Nuova Zelanda and for me it feels as though I never left… I haven’t let that stop me from learning italian! Because now that I’ve married an italian I want to be able to speak it even more! It has given me a new sense of desire to understand and communicate in this bella lingua!

Before we got married we had decided to write our own wedding vows, and because I knew it would be hard for Teo to get married in a foreign country that he had arrived into 5 days before I wanted to say my vows to him first in italian just for him, then in english for the benefit of everyone else. Since we only had one other italian at the wedding, standing by Teo’s side, his bello cugino Daniele. So with the help of youtube, some disney songs in italian with english subtitles, I even managed to get some rhyming in there, and I will share it all with you now 🙂

Oggi, per la prima volta
Proprio come per magia
Ho la vita che sognavo
Ho sperato molte volte in qualcosa per me
Come un fulmine sei comparso tu
Forse il sogno e già realtà
Chissa!
Abbiamo fatto un duetto
Che sembra proprio perfetto
Tu ormai lo sai più di me
Io ricordo in un attimo quel che amo
La gioia che provo pensando a te
Se la strada non è dritta e ci sono duemilla pericoli
Ti basti solo ricordare che
sono con te
I tuoi problemi sono anche i miei
E non c’è nulla che io non farei per te
Non dovrai scappare
Sul mio aiuto puoi contare
Non sei più da sola ormai
Se le forze uniremo
So che noi ci riusciremo
Mai nessuno ti vorrà mai bene quanto me
Perché il destino ha deciso
Per essere insieme
E nessuno la spezzerà mai
La mia terra e il mio cielo sarai
Anche chi non c’è più ci protègè da lassù
Sei la mia anima gemella
Non vedo l’ora di passare il resto della mia vita con te
Oggi io ho il mio nuovo sogno sente che sei tu
Ogni dubbio va via
Ti voglio sempre al mio fianco
Io ti proteggerò, non temere
Dì addio alla malinconia
Non ti lascerò
Perché lo so che tu sei tutto ciò che
Resto qui
Non andrò mai via
Da oggi tu sei casa mia
Ti amo

reading of the vows

and now in english 🙂

Today, for the first time
Just as by magic
I’m going to have what I dreamed of
So many times did I hope in something for me
Then you appeared like lightening
Maybe my dream is already reality
Who knows!
We’re a duet
That seems just perfect
And you know it better than me
I remember in a moment what I love
The joy I feel I feel thinking about you.
If the road is not straight and there are two thousand dangers
It will be enough only to remember that I am with you
You’re problems are also mine
And there is nothing that I would not do for you
You won’t have to run away
You can rely on my help
You’re no longer alone
If we join forces
I know we can make it
No one will ever love you as much as I do
Because destiny has decided
for us to be together
And no one will every break it.
You will be my land and sky
Even who is not anymore will protect us from up there
You are my soul mate
I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you
I can’t wait to grow old with you
Today I have my new dream I feel that you are the one
Every doubt goes away
I want you always by my side
I will protect you, don’t be worried
Say goodbye to sadness
I will never leave you
Because I know that you are everything
I’m staying here
I will never go away
Starting from today, you’re my home
I love you

con il miei due belli italiani!

It was such a lovely day for a beautiful kiwi-italian matrimonio! But gosh it feels like forever ago now, I guess because it was all so quick, after arriving back here to Nuova Zelanda on the Tuesday to getting married on the Friday, it all happened so very very quickly! But I wouldn’t change it for a bit! It was one of the best days of my life! (And I hope Teo thinks the same too! haha) I know it was hard for him being far away from all la famiglia, but maybe one day when we are a bit more financial we can have a renewal of vows in italy 🙂 that would be very cool!

My beautiful girls on my special day!

After our whirlwind wedding, and just coming back from Italy, we didn’t have much of a honeymoon, but went and saw some beautiful sites around the south island as much as we could before we had to get back into the grind and find jobs and have responsibilities again!

Stop over on the way to Punakaiki

Punakaiki – Home of the pancake rocks

super excited about this blue ocean Nuova Zelanda has!

Stopover on the way to Picton! Time for lunch!

The Picton foreshore!

Some people have too much money haha! But beautiful sunsets!

Charlotte Sounds – Picton

New Brighton Pier – Christchurch! A day where we celebrated Mamma Stefania’s birthday!

getting up close and personal with a Llama at Willowbank Wildlife centre!

So we have managed to do a few things since arriving back in this country! I am reminded how beautiful New Zealand is! Every Country is different and beautiful, but for different reasons. I mean, I LOVE ITALIA! I would move there in a heartbeat if the economy wasn’t so broken and Matteo would actually move home haha! And it is so beautiful because of all the rich history that is within the very walls of the things you see everywhere, and the sea and beautiful views. But then New Zealand is beautiful for completely different reasons, where we have seen, which is the South Island, it is still so untouched by people. Still so raw in its history, and beautiful in just simple everyday views that you see. I love both countries that I like to call mia casa but for different reasons. ahhhh! It’s very frustrating!

But I can now have a conversation in Italian, albeit a very broken, grammatically incorrect conversation, but still a conversation, and if they speak slowly, ho capito! (I understand), and that is thanks to my wonderful italian teacher Francesca! as soon as I got a job here in Christchurch, I went in search for an italian teacher, because let’s face it… Teo is a lost cause for teaching me, and he’s too lazy because it takes me about 3 times of repeating to understand it, and he gets frustrated if I don’t get it the first time! haha! So I have to then pay someone to teach me, and it’s paying off! I am understanding things so much better, even when I am naughty and don’t do my homework until just before I’m heading to my lesson… hehe, but she only talks to me the whole hour lesson in italian, and it’s only if I really don’t get something, that she will break into english. But she is fantastic! So bring on June next year, because we are planning a trip to Italy, and I’m going to blow everyones mind with how good my italian has gotten, even though I haven’t been there! hehe!

Plus I write letters to la famiglia in italy, and Matteo translates them to italian, then I rewrite them in italian, so that is helping too! I have a special box for all the replies I get. So far just Nonna, nonni and Chiappa! But that’s ok! They are all so wonderful! And I love sending special surprises to everyone over there! 🙂 hehe

Well I promise I won’t take so long to write next time!

ciao a tutti!

tua amica

Anna 🙂

Panorama – il supermercato and anything sounds cool if it’s not your language

Ciao a tutti,

Now I love supermarkets in Italy, I just think that all supermarkets should look like the supermarkets that they have here. I mean, you walk in and they have everything, from the cheap clothes, that you would probably only buy to wear around home, if you could even bring yourself to purchase “supermarket” clothing, to the electronics (I know in New Zealand you can’t buy electronics at a supermarket, or in England either), to then having a whole large section set aside for french local produce. And all the formaggi (cheese) it looks so good, and so much cheaper than anywhere I else I have seen to buy my beloved parmigiano, for i’m pretty sure today I noticed it at €1.49 per 100grams. Which is much cheaper than in England where it was about 2GBP+! I probably should of taken more notice of the other prices too. But I was too obsessed with running around decided to buy Nutella – not even to eat, but to take back to New Zealand, purely for the container, I love that over here, they have special edition containers that you can use as glasses to drink from after you have eaten all of the Nutella. I got two last time we were here over summer last year, unfortunately I accidentally broke one a few weeks before we were leaving London, and they didn’t have anymore when I went to check, I think it’s a “spring” limited edition out at the moment. I am a little bit disappointed that there was no italian writing on the glass though!

The Panorama! Italy’s adorable supermarket!

the olio e pomodori aisle!
Photo credit: Matteo Castellani

The pasta aisle!
A whole wall just of pasta! If only every supermarket in the world were like this haha

The book I convinced Matteo to buy for me to practise my italian! It’s full of little comics!

After hiding from Matteo in the supermarket, and then convincing him to buy me a disney comic written book, we finally left the supermarket and made our way back home. We then went to enjoy a beautiful dinner made by his amico that lives across the road (it’s a one way dead end road, so like 10 steps away), with a couple of other amici, as I was sitting around the table with all the beautiful italians that they are, I thought, to me, everything in Italy sounds beautiful, even something like melanzane which is an eggplant of aubergine depending where you are from, all types of fruits and vegetables when said in italian sound so beautiful to my ear, even pentola sounds amazing, and that is a pot you put on the stove! So I thought well if myself, coming from an english country with no much knowledge of this language I think is so beautiful, thinks that even the most plain words sound beautiful when said in italian, does that mean that italians would think the same about english. And it’s completely true. I mean Matteo’s email address is big_cash….. now granted he did make it when he was about 14, I remember when I met him, and teased him about it, because to me it sounds like someone is bragging about having lots of money, but for him, not knowing much english, he didn’t even realise until I came on the scene, that “big cash” is a real douchebag sounding email address. It is because all of his friends call him Cash because of his last name being Castellani, but I’m sure to him, only having a very basic understand of english at the time (like I have currently of italian) it must have sounded cool. Our friend Chiappa, was saying that his nickname when they were younger was called “The Vice” I then went onto explain that a vice was what you put wood in, to make it not move so you can saw a piece off of it. After realising what it was, he cracked up with laughter.

Selfie time with my two Matteo’s! Matteo and Chiappa!

I guess it’s quite funny, that really in any language, we could say the most stupid sentence and it would sound really cool in that foreign language, but quite silly to anyone that could actually speak the language! Languages are weird! Ahhhhhhhh! haha I just wish my brain would work itself properly and make me understand it so much better! I managed to get the mango languages app on my phone and have started to do my italian course on there again. I just hope that my memory will improve so that everything I learn, I can actually remember! Because I mean, I love to learn stuff, if I find out something new about a topic I am quite interested in, I will get on the internet straight away and learn so much about that place, or person, and I will then go on to tell everyone about it, and they will probably find it incredibly boring, but it interests me and I remember it all to go on about it to them, but when it comes to italian, it’s something that really interests me and I want to remember it so much, but it feels like it goes in one ear and out the other! Ahhhhh! Why is that? Why won’t it just stick!

Well it’s getting late and if I want to convince Matteo to do something tomorrow, I need to try to wake up before him. This morning I got a phone dropped on my face to wake me up (he says its an accident, but sure sure) haha.

Allora… buona notte miei amici!

A domani!

Ciao ciao

Anna

la famiglia e la febbre

Ciao a tutti,

Well my first week in Italy is over. And I haven’t done too much, I think the main reason really is because I caught a cold/flu of one of the friends we came to Italy with. So I haven’t been feeling too well. In fact I spent all day in bed today because of it, since I’m all blocked up and struggling to sleep properly at night time.

Oh the joys of being sick, it doesn’t matter where in the world you are, it’s still going to screw up your day!

On Saturday we had a nice morning at the family home, then went  out for the afternoon to catch up with a friend from London who was over for a week in Rome, as hi mother lives in Italy. So that was really nice to see him and meet his girlfriend who was here with him. We went to some places that I had never been too before which was really cool.

we met up at Piazza Cavour, which was just across the river from the Pantheon, about a 10-15minute walk from there. Matteo and I arrived about 1 1/2 earlier, so we could have a look around and take some photos, unfortunately the reality of Piazza Cavour, is that there is a monument, some public benches and some stairs to a building and that is it. It did have some cute fountains, which I noticed a gypsy looking lady tossing a coin into one of them. But I don’t think many people do that, as it wasn’t like being at fontana di trevi where the coins are over flowing!

fontana di cavour… I don’t know if it’s actually called that, there were two of them exactly the same.
Photo Credit: Matteo Castellani

The public building in piazza cavour

The big memorial.

At around 2.45pm we finally caught up with Roberto and Andrea, and went across the river more into la città! As we were walking we came across San Luigi dei Francesi or the French Catholic Church in Rome, From the outside it just looked like your usual churches that are everywhere, but from the inside it was incredible beautiful, (as all the churches here are anyway), they even had original artworks from Caravaggio and they were just stunning, I think that is definitely something that makes me love Italy so much more, the amount of amazing artists that came out of this country, and the amount of original artworks that are still in perfect condition that are around for all to see! I mean, I know a lot of people are quite stick in the mud about the artworks and gold statues and all the other fabulous items the catholic church possess, but what I don’t think they realise is that, yes they are already helping the poor anyway, and if they sold all their wonders, it would be a great loss to an already crumbling italian economy, for all the pilgrims and tourists that come to see these beautiful relics and paintings and artworks for free. If they sold them all, they would probably end up with a private collector, hidden away from the rest of the world to protect the item from damage, but at least this way, everyone that ventures to this bella paese gets to experience the wonder and awe of these items that have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years!

Inside San luigi dei francesi
Photo credit: Matteo Castellani

La bella chiesa
Photo credit: MAtteo Castellani

The inspiration of Saint Matteo – by Caravaggio

Then after la chiesa we around a few corners to a “special” coffee shop that was well known for being famous, called Sant’Eustachio. When we arrived there was already a line outside the shop. It’s rather a tiny little caffè for the amount of business they get, which was quite a pain, as it was very squashed once you finally made it inside the shop. But that being said, it was an adorable little caffè and I did enjoy a delicious un tiramisu caffè! 

Waiting outside the caffè
Photo Credit: Matteo

Goodies that you can buy to remember the Sant’Eustachio!
Photo Credit: Matteo Castellani

When we got inside!
Photo credit:
Matteo Castellani

All the sweeties you can buy
Photo credit: Matteo Castellani

un tiramisu caffè
nom nom nom
Photo credit: Matteo Castellani

After we had our yummy coffees, we headed over to the ruins of Torre Argentina where they have the roman cat sanctuary, and wow what they do is amazing, as I’m sure anyone who has been to Rome, understands that there is rather a large cat epidemic, especially in the summer, and What the Torre Argentina Roman Cat Sanctuary does is care for the homeless cats, feed them, spay them, attend to their every needs. What they do is amazing! If we ever move to Italy in our life time, I will definitely be going there to adopt a cat. The cats are so friendly as well! And beautiful! The ladies that worked there were so knowledgable and helpful, I would like to go back if we have a chance!

Enjoying love from one of the many gatti!
Photo credit: Matteo Castellani

Afterwards, we all had to depart, it was nice getting to catch up with some wonderful amici in roma! After we got back home, Papà arrived, in fact he bet us home, as we saw him on our way back from town. We then went to his place, to catch up with him and matrigna. We enjoyed a nice meal at a little pizzeria, where they had karaoke, so I got to sing 🙂 hehe, that was quite fun! Then we stayed at their place on bunk beds. I claimed the top one! It was like I was having a sleepover as a child again! haha!

The following day we went to visit Nonni Anna and Alberto! And we had a delicious lunch, and then got to go through all the old photos of their family. I love looking at old photographs, so much history in them! It was nice to be able to look through them, and see similarities in the family! We then went to the mall, and then it was home time.

Unfortunately I have ended up with a slight la febbre, I slept horribly last night, all blocked up, constantly waking in the middle of the night, so today I spent all day in bed trying to recover, unfortunately Matteo is not a sympathetic nurse, (I think he thinks I must be faking it), but I said to him today, we are in Rome, and I love Rome, if I wasn’t sick, I would be leaping at the chance to go outside and explore the city. I didn’t want to eat much today, but nonna being nonna made me! She even brought me food in bed, she is such a sweetheart!

well this has literally taken me about 5 hours to complete thanks to the joy of the italian internet connection!

I hope we get to explore some wonderful sites tomorrow!

Ciao a tutti!

Anna

Italia a domani!

Ciao a tutti,

I can’t believe these past weeks have crept up on me so quickly. I remember it being early December and finding out my bad news that my visa for England wasn’t likely to come through, and then making the big decision with Matteo to take the leap and move to New Zealand together, as well as push up the wedding and location to the end of March and in New Zealand as well. I remember the arguments, the fears, the pleasant surprises and everything else that eventually came with those decisions, and now that we are here, getting ready to leave London, it all is starting to suddenly feel very real.

I can say that neither of us are disappointed to say goodbye to London, it hasn’t exactly been a pleasant two years for us here, it’s all been mainly work work work, we haven’t been able to afford to see anywhere in Europe other than Italy because the cost of living is so high, and well the English aren’t exactly welcoming, so no disappointments to say goodbye!

I started attempting duolingo again to brush up on my italian, but as per usual when it comes to my language learning skills, I get very exciting for about a week, and go hard out, then I end up burning myself out and stopping. So that didn’t work, but hey 5 weeks in heaven on earth that is Roma, I better pick up something of this bella lingua! I did manage to write my wedding vows in Italian. I’ll show you after the wedding, because I don’t want particular eyes to look on here and have the surprise spoiled! I thought that when we get to say them, we can say them first in Italian, because at least then for Matteo it will be in his language, and he might be pleasantly surprised, and then say them in English for the benefit of everyone else. And thanks to the help of youtube, disney, and some amazing english and italian subtitles on the same videos, I managed to write my vows based on about 6 or 7 disney songs. I just wrote out all the lines I quite liked, then put them all together in a few paragraphs that surprisingly made sense. And then I asked matrigna or Matteo’s beautiful Step mother, if she could read through them to make sure I had the correct tenses etc, she said that her and papà read through them and had tears in their eyes. So they must be alright haha!

I’m currently sitting outside my studio apartment on my laptop waiting for the cleaners. I’m not a very good casalinga, I hate cleaning, I mean I will do it when I have too, but where we were living, it only takes maybe 10-20minutes to clean up, but it only takes like 2 minutes for it to get messy again, and now that we are leaving, there is no way I’m going to get stuck in and clean an oven! haha So we might as well pay someone to do it for us! I think that’s a much better plan! I’ve got all our suitcases packed next to me, unfortunately we are going on ryanair to Italy tomorrow morning, so that means only 20kg of luggage, so we have had to throw a lot of things out. I’ll be sad to say goodbye to my precious electric blanket! At least when we go to New Zealand I am pretty sure we are allowed to fit in 30kg! I’ve had to pack Matteo’s precious XBOX one, and that is just 7kg by itself! ahhhhh! bUt we didn’t want to put it in the 8 boxes that are being shipped to New Zealand, just incase something happens to them! ahhhh!

But anyway, not long now until we are on that little plane on our way to ciampino airport, I’ve never actually been to that airport before, so that will be a nice difference!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic monday!

Write soon

xx

Anna

Italia – Not so far away now!

Ciao a tutti,

I can’t believe it’s now febbraio! Only 12 more days until we arrive back in la bella roma… after 5 months! It’s a bit scary to think that this could be one of the last times we will actually be able to afford to go back, considering New Zealand is a lot further away than being just here in London! So we will definitely have to make the most of it. And I will have to make the most of the opportunity that these 5 weeks will give me to learn more of this bella lingua I have learned to love.

Some of la famiglia

At least this time in Italy will be more about la famiglia rather than the actual country, and I guess lucky for me, they don’t really speak much english. So I guess that is definitely handy as well, providing I can get out of my comfort zone, and not use Matteo like my english crutch that I normally do. I remember when I was last in Italy, I went a week before Matteo, so I could practise with the italian language, and I actually made a lot of progress. We managed to communicate, (I think largely to the help of google translate), but I was actually progressing, I could sit down and have semi conversations with everyone, and my listening skills were getting better, I was learning to understand what everyone was saying, even though it was a bit of a process of Italian -> translate to english -> decide what I want to say in english -> translate back to italian. I remember when Matteo and I first got together, he had the same problem with his english, now he thinks in english when he is with me, so no longer has this problem. It just seems like it takes a lot longer for me to understand and revise this way of thinking. And I don’t want to lose it when we do go to New Zealand, I think I will try to speak it more when I’m there, because I want to feel like I will have this secret language with Matteo, that no one else will really understand. But it will probably just come out sounding all wrong. 😦

I think one of my main problems is that I try very hard to listen to a conversation with la famiglia like on Skype or on the phone, I sometimes gather the general gist, but then end of getting lost in the conversation, which leads to me losing interest in trying, and then I give up. It feels like an ongoing cycle. Even when we are actually in Italy, I do the same thing, like sitting at the dinner table, trying to understand the conversations, then my brain hurts, so it decides to shut off, then I feel embarrassed if someone is trying to talk to me, and I’m lost in my little kiwi brain of mine, in a far of distance land, that isn’t anywhere near the vicinity that I am actually in that moment!

Let’s just hope in these next 12 days, when we are catching that plane to the airport in Rome, I manage to get some progress in this journey!

I will write again soon

A dopo

Anna x

30 things to do before I’m 30 – Go inside an Italian Castle

Ciao a tutti, I was lucky during my italian summer to get to visit a Castle, FINALLY. After our disaster in febbraio last year, when we tried to visit Castello Orsini-Odescalchi in Bracciano about 30km out of Roma (although I’m pretty sure it took us around 1 1/2 – 2 hours to get there) only to find that everything in Bracciano happens to be closed on a lunedi (Monday), I was finally going to be able to pretend to be una piccola principessa in a castello! And all we had to do was get a ride to the centre of la citta di Roma! 

The only view of the castle that I got to see in February 2014!

Castel Sant’Angelo! Finally I got to experience a historic Italian Castle! I remember always being fascinated by the idea of Princes and Princesses and Castles and fairytales. When I first imagined going to Italy, I think apart of the fact that all the historic buildings and structures seemed like something out of a fairytale, made the idea of going to Italy so much more appealing! (It probably didn’t help that as a child my mother and step father used to fill my head with ideas that I was dropped off at the doorstep in a basket because I was a long lost Princess haha) Italy, and it’s history and castles were just all so appealing! Not that Italy had exactly had a monarchy, after they managed to abolish the monarchy in 1946 and send Re Umberto II into exile! But Finally I, Anna (without the king) was finally getting to experience stepping foot into a 2000 year old castle!

My first look at this magnificent Castel Sant’Angelo

The Castle of the Holy Angel, as it is called if you translate the name in English, was in fact originally constructed as a mausoleum by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, in 123 the building works started, for what would later turn into a fortress and a castle for the catholic papacy in the 14th century.

Remains of what was clearly a strong fortress!

I guess when it came to the Papacy and the Roman Empire and what I imagine would be countless sieges, it definitely acted as a strong hold for the church.

All those little doorways had windows, so they most likely acting as a good place to shoot from!

Fun Fact! Castel Sant’Angelo even acted as a prison for the Papal State…  I guess when your whole country is the size of an ant hill, there isn’t exactly room for a prison. haha The views from Castel Sant’Angelo were just beautiful, from the views of la citta di roma to the Ponte Sant’Angelo bridge that leads towards the Castel. It literally felt like something out of a fairytale book. The type of stories that start with C’era una volta…. 

The view at the top of the castel! You can even see the tip of San Pietro in the distance!

View of the Ponte Sant’Angelo… I was a bit worried when taking this photo, there was a small hole on the ground, I thought I would drop my phone and it would be gone forever! ahhhh

From the artillery rooms, to the crazy italian cartoons from back in the day, there was so much to see in this Castel now turned museum. For €10.50 I definitely felt I got my monies worth!

Strange artwork in one of the museo rooms!

There was even a restaurant within the Castel (I can’t remember the restaurant name unfortunately) which made a delicious pizza (but come on, where do you find a bad pizza in Italy). We arrived at Castel Sant’Angelo just before lunch around 11ish, maybe a bit later. And as I’m sure those of you who have been to Italy know and understand that the italian version of “lunch time” is around 2pm. So after a few hours walking around the Castel we fortunately stumbled across this restaurant in one of the upper floors of the building. I remember Matteo being in the il bagno so I remember asking if the table was free in my horrid italian. Pretty sure I even used the wrong word, I can’t remember what incorrect word I used but it wasn’t libero or gratis. oopsie! But the waitress seemed to work out what I was trying to say anyway so that worked out to my favour! And I remember the prices weren’t that bad for a restaurant within a tourist destination!

Enjoying my italian coca cola at pranzo!

My little friend I made while enjoying my lunch! Must of been eyeing up my cibo!

My delicious pizza for the day!

After a beautiful l’estate day in a castel from just out of paradiso, We finally decided to make our way back to the meeting point to get our ride back to la casa.

Enjoying the view from Castel Sant’Angelo

I really hope that during this next trip to Italia, even though funds will be incredibly abysmal because we are having to move to nuova zelanda with practically only the bond money from the flat, I really hope we might still get an opportunity to explore a bit more and see some more castles. Even if they’re just around roma… I’m pretty sure there are more castles than just Castel Sant’Angelo in the eternal city!

All roads lead to Rome right? haha

Ciao a tutti!

Until next time!

Anna x

30 things to do before I’m 30 – experience the #Amalfi Coast

Ciao a tutti, Another wonderful thing I got to experience while on my l’estate vacanze in Italy was the amalfi coast (another item I can cross off my 30 thing to do before I’m 30, only made possible once again thanks to my soon to be father in law Stefano! And to think we only spent 3 or 4 days just out of Avellino… we didn’t even really go back into town once Papà and Mariangela picked us up! Just stayed up in the beautiful mountain side where Mariangela’s mother lived.

View from the street, just outside the door of Mariangela’s mother’s house

View from the street again

That was the first morning, just before we were starting out trip to the Amalfi Coast. To be honest we did get a bit lost, and went through a toll both for no reason. OOPS. Went in and then back out, when Papà realised we had gone the wrong way. We took a wrong turn unfortunately (and we all know what men are like with directions…. they don’t want to follow mister tom tom navman! hehe) Finally we managed to find the right path and get on the road again! And gosh, was the view breathtaking! We then decided to stop at a little town just beside Cetara, which according to the google maps stamp on my phone is called Maiori, which was just literally breathtaking. We managed to get to the public carpark which was up a very narrow hill, and we had to pull over to the rather small side whenever a car was coming back down the hill. But we got there in the end and made our way to la spiaggia! 

Walking down the hill towards the beaches

Finally getting to the beach!

Lots of lovely italians with their beach chairs and umbrellas

As you can see, there is rather a large about of sun umbrellas with lovely italians under them, so we decided to walk a bit further along the beach and found a quieter side of the mare (or sea)… In New Zealand I’m so used to saying Ocean, because it literally is an ocean, but turns out in Italy they only have the sea. I think for kiwis, we say that the ocean and the sea are the same, but turns out that seas are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land and ocean meet… Some fun facts for you. 🙂 We had a beautiful day at la spiaggia di Maiori, I had plenty of dips in the ocean … oops I mean sea (or Matteo would say he was having a bath in the sea) , and got a nice sun tan. I loved the fact that you could hire the umbrellas and beach chairs. Unfortunately I think that they were rather expensive. Like €15 or €20 and we got 4 of them. oops! But I guess that is what happens when you go to a tourist destination in l’estate in Italy! (Even if we were at a less populated beach). But just looking out at the ocean… gosh wasn’t it the life. If I didn’t know Italy before, I surely felt I knew if better after that day. Just relaxing by the beach, going for swims in the sea, putting the goggles on and seeing the fishes swimming below your feet. Even feeling the horrible sea salt in your eyes. It was something I really missed, I mean my summer in Italy was the first time I had been to the beach in 2 years, other than the rather windy time I went there in febbraio! It was the first time that I got to literally swim in the open sea in a temperature that made it feel like I was in the bath! It was just such an amazing reality that I was getting to be present in the moment.

View from my beach chair

Going for one of many dips in the sea for the day!

Getting to ready to enjoy some lunch before going back in for another swim

After having a delicious Caprese panino, when then enjoyed another soak in the sun, and dip in the sea, and then made our way around 3pm back to the car to enjoy another trip along the Amalfi coast to Amalfi itself. I couldn’t stop looking out the window at the breathtaking views. I felt like, if I didn’t look, I was missing out on an opportunity to plant some beautiful memories into my brain. We finally got to Amalfi and stopped in the car park, and I ran straight out of the car to the Pier. I didn’t look back, I wanted to experience Amalfi in all it’s beauty and fullness. Words can’t really describe the feelings you get when you see a place so beautiful, I mean it looks like something out of a movie, or out of a fairytale, it doesn’t feel real! But gosh it was. Definitely a place I want to be able to go over and over again. Somewhere I would love to bring my family (If I could ever get mum to get a passport and finally leave New Zealand haha). It was literally like Heaven on Earth.

One very excited Anna on her arrival at Amalfi

Walking onto the Pier in Amalfi

More beautiful views

Beautiful Views

All those houses that you actually see on the films!

Going to Amalfi is literally like finding a corner of the world that is what I like to imagine that heaven would be like. After I had my running away onto the Pier experience, I think put on my tourist hat and had to buy some souvenirs. Which, if you know me, I am the worst person ever to go shopping, especially because I take about 30minutes to decide on one thing, and I don’t think to shop around, I end up paying twice as much for something, that I find in another shop 10 minutes later for half the price… this girl is not a savvy shopper while on holiday! haha. But I did buy an awesome navy sweater with a anchor on it that says Amalfi (I wear it everywhere in London, obviously because it’s super cold) and I bought 3 different sized bottles of limoncello which I still haven’t drank yet. I’m trying to think of how I can take them with me to Nuova Zelanda, because I’m only allowed to take 3 bottles of spirits into the Country before I get stung with duty tax! I might just have to hope my tax refund comes through and post them onto my mummy! But they are awesome little bottles. One is all colourful, in the shape of a shoe, and the other has amalfi art all over it! They are just so cute!

Afterwards we went to the Piazza del Duomo to enjoy an ice cream on the steps of the church, the piazza was absolutely buzzing with life. It was so beautiful to see all the different types of people, foreigners enjoying the new sights, Italians enjoying their august holidays, just the every day little things were all experiences in themselves.

Piazza del duomo!

the men relaxing on the steps, doing typical italian things — ehhhh smoking! 😦

I really hope to return to Amalfi soon. I don’t really think that will happen just yet, but never say never. I will get to see you again soon Amalfi! Just watch out! Anna will be back! haha (I’m sure there a lots of Anna’s there already, considering Anna is one of the most common female names in Italy haha)

Quick Selfie! 

Well I hope you enjoyed hearing about my trip to Amalfi as much as I enjoyed reminiscing about it. I wish I had of kept a diary or something while I was there. Definitely something I plan to do this next trip in exactly one month!

Ciao a tutti!

Anna x

30 things before I’m 30 – Pompeii!

Ciao a tutti,

I was going through my list of 30 things before I’m 30 and realised that I actually achieved a few of them on my last trip to Italia. 

Although the more I read through this list, the less likely some of them seem, especially now that things are changing, and we are going all the way to the other side of the world. But I guess that when we do finally get to make those trips back to Italia, once we are in Nuova Zelanda, it will be much more special, and we will want to see so much more of this bella paese that I now call my second home.

But anyway you didn’t come here for the above, you came here to learn all about my experience of Pompei…. turns out in italian it’s only one “i” not two, like we english like to write it, it’s NOT Pompeii! but Pompei! I had big arguments with Matteo about this spelling… turns out as a native English speaker, you shouldn’t really try to defend that italians are spelling their place names incorrectly! haha oops….

Quick casual selfie in the carpark!

The view of Pompei from the line to get in!

 

The massive line!

I remember the excitement I felt finally getting to go to an iconic place in history! Considering I did really want to go to Naples, I think that Pompei may be the closest that I am going to get because Matteo is a scaredy cat when it comes to Napoli! It didn’t take long for the line to move, and then suddenly we were in! On a beautiful late agosto di mattina, Anna was finally getting to visit the ruins of Pompei! 

I remember just walking in that entrance and being fascinated straight away, because one thing that fascinates me a lot (which is rather strange really) are the pavements and roads. They are all so bumpy and old, and frustrate me a lot if I am a passenger in a car while driving on them. But then I guess that is part of Italia, and one thing I love so much. Keeping the old along side the new, and it makes Italy just beautiful, in the way it can embrace having both old and new side by side.

Seeing all the latin writings, things like sign posts, and random paintings, everything about Pompei just wanted to make me travel back 2000 years ago to that time, to see what it would be like in those days.

Street signs

The original roofing structures – which are used in most houses all throughout Italy today

Latin Street Signs

Eumachia – The public priestess of venus in Pompei during the middle of the 1st century AD. She funded the construction of a large building next to the public forum in Pompei.

Everything about this city of ruins was amazing,beautiful, fascinating, unbelievable, just to name a few ways of saying practically the same thing. It was just such a truly inspiring place to be in! And what a cracker of a day we picked to go and explore! I remember by the end of the day (we were there for probably over 6 hours) I was completely worn out, my poor footsies were hurting from all the walking we had done! And we didn’t even manage to see everything! I’m pretty sure there was still so much more! Between seeing the ruins of little cities and houses, to the graveyards and the vineyards, and the garden of fugitives in their plaster cast forms. When I first saw the plaster forms of real people killed in the aftermath of mt vesuvius’s eruption I wanted to cry. To see the forms of children, pregnant woman and men alike it was just heartbreaking to imagine what they must of gone through  all those years ago. To see some of them cradled in a ball, or some hugging each other. I had so much compassion just seeing those remains of all those destroyed in the volcanic eruption!

victims in the garden of the fugitives

Monte Vesuvio in the background

Now one thing I absolutely adored when it came to Pompei was the zebra crossings!  The blocks in the road allowed pedestrians to cross the street without having to step onto the road itself which doubled up as Pompeii’s drainage and sewage disposal system. The spaces between the blocks allowed vehicles to pass along the road. To think that 2000 years ago, they had systems such as what we know now as a Zebra crossing is just fascinating!

 

Me standing on the old school zebra crossing!

 

Well I can’t think of much more to say but I will leave you with some more photos of my trip to Pompei! 

I’m was getting very good at the art of the selfie!

The many tourists enjoying the site as much as we were!

My little (or large) italian poster

beautiful view of the ruins

a version of an oven in 70AD

More Latin

Relaxing against a pole from all the walking we were doing

My handsome companions, Papà and Teo

Another stunning view – and to think these were all taken with an iphone5!

Panorama time!

more views of the ruins

Cracker of a day

another temple or something

Artwork in Pompei

Casual selfie by the vineyard

Wishing I could take home some of those grapes

happy times for Anna, Teo and Papà

The site where the graveyard was

Being a bit creepy and taking a rest in a memorial

The amphitheatre of pompeii

Large view of the amphitheatre of pompei

Enjoying being such a small thing in a not very large, but still adorable amphitheatre… I guess it’s not colosseo!

Latin writings just before you walk into the amphitheatre!

Pompeii outside gymnasium! where the gladiators worked out!

The outside gymnasium again!

What would have been a shop or a bar!

Getting tired from all that walking!

More artwork!

More artwork!

Fun times with Teo!

 

I had such a lovely experience getting to view Pompei! And it wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for my amazing soon to be father-in-law Stefano! He is just the best! I am a very lucky girl!

And to finish of the day, I got myself a cute vase with artwork on it, which is currently in a box ready to be shipped to New Zealand. Along with getting to enjoy a granatina al limoni, which was like a fresh lemon slushy! It was delicious!

Me feeling spoilt with my granatina al limoni!

Well folks, that’s all for now!

A dopo!

 

Anna x

Buon Natale, Buon anno e Buona Befana!

Ciao a tutti,

I’m sure you can understand that this is definitely a busy time of year, which is why I’m only getting around to this post now. How was everyone’s natale, nuovo anno and my favourite holiday of all Befana! 

Unfortunately the holidays snuck up on me, like I’m sure they did with everyone. I have been going to a bellissima Chiesa cattolica italiana (beautiful italian catholic church) every week. As a way to improve the language skills, in a format that I am already very familiar with in inglese. It has definitely helped a bunch with understanding at least the mass. And it’s always such a bonus when I can understand the readings of the day. But most of the time that is a hit and a miss. I have been singing in the coro at St. Peter’s Italian Church , I was a bit worried when joining for the first time, as I thought “Oh dear, how am I going to communicate if they all speak italian the whole time”, but luckily only half of the choir is italian, and the other half tend to have italian family members but are english. But I do try to practise my italian whenever I go. As the little old lady who is the housekeeper opens the door,  and even though she see’s be twice a week, every week, she always asks me why I am there. So I always reply with a sono qui per coro, which is probably grammatically incorrect but she seems to pick up what I’m trying to say, or if she doesn’t she understands when I waltz into the choir room. We sang for messa di mezzanotte or midnight mass this year. It was really beautiful being able to sing the usual christmas carols in italian, and learning some new ones along the way. I grabbed a copy of the mass for the christmas season booklet that they had, so I can take it back to Nuova Zelanda with me, so I can so my old choir mistress back home to see if she would like to do any italian songs next year. I think it’s handy to be able to practise my singing in italian and latin, and I hope it will improve my language skills when we go to italian next month (o dio! Next month will creep up on us in no time)

the presepe in the church – pre baby jesus!

La messa finished at around 1.30am, and managed to get home at around 2am, thanks to our wonderful choir director Ricardo, who gave me a ride instead of me having to catch a rather expensive taxi home! Once I arrived home, I gave Matteo all of his christmas presents, and we skyped my mum back in Nuova Zelanda. It was around 3pm over there, as they are 13 hours ahead. I guess that’s what we will soon be, or 12 hours when it comes to Italian time zones! Crazy! Time Zones are so weird! haha. After that it wasn’t long until we woke up again on Christmas morning. And could look properly at all of our toys. Matteo was definitely spoilt! But I wanted to make this a happy christmas because we were both far away from home, and every christmas without mamma is always going to be much harder now. So he deserved it. Plus I had conveniently started buying christmas presents around June, so by the time I found out I was going to lose my job at the beginning of December, I had already bought most of his gifts, including a DSLR Nikon camera (because he didn’t want my preference of a Canon) so that was a nice surprise for him. And will give him a chance to take some beautiful photos in London while we are still here, in Rome before we leave, and then also in New Zealand once we get there! It was a nice quiet day. I am very much looking forward to being with my family for natale next year though. And giving Matteo an opportunity to see what a Nuova Zelanda Natale is like!

Nuova Anno was a quiet one for me. Since not working, I have become a bit of a night owl, because I get to sleep in, and tend to have naps in the afternoon (ohhhh the life), I always stay up until 1 or 2am. So I was up at home by myself, as Matteo had to work, doing a Mossa Fight fitness workout on the xbox fitness. I didn’t even realise it was the new year until I heard the fireworks go off in the park across the road! haha

Now befana didn’t really amount to much for us this year, which is a shame. Next year I really want to give Matteo a little befana stocking filled with candy. He was looking on Facebook at some of his friends and family’s posts, wishing that he had a befana stocking filled with candy. But unfortunately as only he is working, and I have a very limited amount of money that seems to be disappearing rather quickly, even though I’m not doing anything, I didn’t get to do the befana tradition that I wanted to! But hey, befana comes every year! So while she didn’t stop at our house this year, she might find us next year in nuova zelanda! because that is one italian tradition I definitely want to bring with me! hahaha

Arrivederci! 

I hope everyone is sticking to their resolutions this year so far! haha

 

Anna x

buon ferragosto! and my first day here!

I arrived at fiumicino l’aeroporto about 30min late as we were late in departing! I walked onto the ramp to the heat hit me! 28 degrees and I’m in jeans and a shirt! that will teach me! ha ha! after arrive at the luggage train I got a bit confused as to where my luggage was going to be as I had to take it to outsize luggage but it eventually arrived at the right place, and Bella Carlotta and zio Sergio were there waiting for me (I felt so bad, they were probably waiting for over an hour) but they said it was fine! and even though my italian was hopeless, I actually managed to communicate with them just fine and understand about 70% of what they were saying to me!

when we arrived at home, I said my ciao‘s and gave baci to everyone, and we went to Zia donatella‘s for dinner! we had a nice dinner of pomodori pasta and some fried courgettes and green beans! it was simple but delicious! and we spent a while around the table chatting! it was lovely! and I was actually able to chat away in italian with them! Google translate did come in handy when I couldn’t think of the right words but most of the time I did pretty well by myself! if I didn’t understand I would just ask them to repeat and then I would get it in the end! then after a while it was getting late so nonna and I went back to her casa and I went to bed in nonno‘s old room. and slept surprisingly well! I think the mattress has changed in the past two years, as it was quite soft and previously it’s been very hard so I was pleasantly surprised!

And I managed to sleep in this morning! I never sleep in! I am an early bird who wakes up before 6am ready to seize the day! but I slept in until 9am! I must of been tired from the travel and excitement! I got up. did my hair, then went to the Cucina for colazione! I had cornflakes for breakfast! it was fine! I think when I get a chance to go to the supermarket I might get something else though!

my view when I got up this morning!

I then went outside to plant my pohutakawa tree seeds or my New Zealand christmas tree! I think I will need to keep an eye on them as it’s so hot, they will need to be water, although I’m not meant to touch them for a week! but I guess I can spray the newspaper that is on top of the seedling trays!

As it is ferragosto or the assumption of Mary, it’s a public holiday here in italia, so everywhere is closed, and everyone here is working, or away at their casa di paese, so it’s just nonna and I left behind! so I have spent the morning looking through some old photos, and watching nonna make lasagna for pranzo! I can’t wait to eat it! it looks delicious! well I hope it’s for lunch! haha

well I did eat the lasagna per pranzo and it was buono!, nonna and I carried the lasagna downstairs to Zii Sergio è Donatella a casa and we all ate once Donatella arrived home from work! and it was amazing! and ate everything on my plate! and enjoyed a couple of vino‘s with zio to celebrate ferragosto! It was really nice!

now I’m just enjoying a lie down on the bed! It is such a beautiful day here in Roma! We are off to the beach tomorrow! we are leaving about 8am! I can’t wait! will be amazing! and I might get a tan! haha yaaaaaay!

ciao a tutti 🙂
Anna