Monday, October 31, 2005

Hello from Rome

Bongiorno

We arrived back in Rome on Saturday and have been walking ever since it seems!

Since Venice we visited a hill town of Gubbio and then Assisi where we went to see St Francis' church but unfortunately it was so foggy we could not see 20 ft in front of ourselves! We did look at the inside along with about 12 other churches. I have seen enough churches, museums and religious art for quite awhile.

The fog has been persistent for thre last week or so but the sky is very blue back in Rome - hope it continues for our trip to Sorrento this week.

While in Assisi we spent an afternoon at a fancy wine tasting place. We were taught how to taste wine properly [swirl it in the glass, run it between your teeth, sip and suck etc etc] but most of us just drank too much and ended up quite tipsy. They did give us lunch as well but it was not very substantial. Can't even remeber the name of the wines now. Ooops.

Time for some more culture tips.

Most of our travel has been on the trains so feel qualified to share some do's and don'ts about train travel.

Do not be surprised to find people boarding trains [or buses] with their pussies under their arm. It is acceptable to travel with your pet in Italy, you can even take it shopping or into a resturant where they park the pet under the table!

Do not be alarmed if your allocated seating ticket says you are in carriage 4 but when you walk the òength of the train they forgot to put carriage 4 on [or the dining car either] Simply ask the nice man in uniform on the platform. He may tell you that it "is not his job" and tell you to wait until the conductor comes along.

Do buy your snacks on thr train from "Harry's cafe de wheels" his cart is very like an air hostess trolley but is equipped with a bike bell to warn you of his arrival.

The saying in Italy is "We can build the Coloseum and the Panthenon but we can't get the trains to run on time" This is very true, the tell you on the electronoc timetable that the train is "ritardo" and how many ninutes but sometimes they catch up time and then arrive earlier than expected!

Dining out tips.

Do expect to pay a service fee in every resturanto9f £1.5 -3.00 This gives you a seat at a table [with a tablecloth as it is a non si fa to go without one] and a basket of day old bread [no butter] and you still have to tip the waiter.

FASHION TIPS

Do wear the following labels, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Armeni and Gucci but never be seen in Versace, the Italians consider this label very tacky.

Do wear you leather jacket everywhere

Do wear you stillettos everywhere [except the Cinque Terre track]

Do not eat the froth off your cappuchino on the spoon, the waiter will glare at your basd manners.

Do not touch antything before you purchase it - there are signs everywhere that say "No self service" everywhere from the Venetian glass shops to the fruiterers. Took us awhuile to figure that one out but you soon find out if you touch! Had to keep out hands in our pockets!

Do not complain about the church bells ringing outside your hotel room every 15 mins keeping you awake at night, especially do not complain about the ones that have 2 clock faces with each clock set 2 mins apart gining double rings eg 24 dongs at midnight! Or the ones that have "lost their memory" and toll away with no rhyme or reason!

Do not question the hotel concierge when the towels in your room resemble your mother's best damask table clothe instead of the fluffy variety you are used to back home. Non si Fa!

Do not attempt tp gp shopping between the hours of 1pm and 4.30pm as this is siesta time and all shops close. Get it into your head that opening hours are 8-1pm amd 4.30-7.30pm or sometimes 9pm, sometimes 10pm, 12pm depending on business.

That must be enough for today, should get one more bulletin before we leave later in the week

Arrivederci

Vicki

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Hello from Venice

Hi all

Arrived in Venice yesterday, unfortunately the weather has been overcast for the past few days
but the only wet days were when we were travelling most of the day. Most of our travel has been on the local trains. They do not allow for passengers with anything bigger than a breifcase for luggage so we have been doing a lot of heaving and hauling bags on and off the trains which are quite high off the ground. After 2 weeks I have almost accomplished getting on and off with a little more decorum - for the first week it was a case of just about fall out the door hoping to land on the luggage and not the platform! Inside the train it is a real sport to find a place to stow your bag before anyone else beats you to the sparse racks and with 20kg packs it is quite a sight to see grown women standing on the seats trying to heave these monsters on a shelf just below roof level. Ah the joys of travel....

Venice is amazing and the canals are much cleaner than I expected and they don't smell as I had been led to believe. Have taken a trillon photos of gondolas etc. The gondola experience loses the romance theory a bit when you see them in a real traffic snarl in a skinny little canal. We are taking our serenade gondola ride tonight so hope it isn't raining.

Half our group departed yesterday so we are left with 5 aussies and 1 yank. We also have a new leader, Spanish-aussie from Geelong.

Before Venice we spent 2 days at Varenna on Lake Como. Really pretty, picture book scenery and spent a whole day village hopping across the lake by ferries. Went shopping in the famed Bellagio village with all the rich and beautiful people. - lots of them over here!

Italian culture for today.

As you know the italians love their coffee and sit around at street cafes sipping expresso all day. (Don't know how they make those little cups last so long) We have had great difficulty in procuring a plain old cup of black coffee. The first time we ordered it we got thimble sized cups of luke warm black (espresso)rocket fuel. Second time we got a glass of the same brand of rocket fuel with a dash of milk. Then it was suggested we should ask for an "Americano" this produced a large cup of extra strength rocket fuel that the spoon stood up in by itself and kept us awake for 36 hours. Of course, as you already know it is a "non si fa" to drink cappucino except at breakfast time so that is no help at dinner time. We have tried a latte but as we prefer black we have just about given up coffee for good!

To those very few people tht have bothered to reply to my emails, thank you so much - the rest of you get your s..t together and send me a note - god knows I might get homesick or something!

Till next time

love to all

Vicki

Monday, October 24, 2005

Book Printing

Did you know you can have your photos printed in hardback? I am waiting for one I have done for work. You can see a preview of the book here at the bottom of the page, clicking on the book allows you to see a low-res preview of each page. The software is free and is very easy to use.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

[Fwd: Hello again from Levanto]

This is a bit much - two emails in 2 days.

We don't always get the chance so got to grab it when we can.

The Cinque Terre walk today was great but it has been as long day, started out at 8am and have just arruved back at 6pm, been walking almost all day. The scenery was just fantastic and although it was cloudy at first the sun broke through about 10am. Tomorrow we move onto Prioche, a small country village between here and Milan. We are staying at a B&B and visiting a local winery, then it is on to Milano and Lake Como.

A little more Italian culture;

More "non si fa" [just don't do it]

Do not put parmesan on  your seafood pasta

Do not wash yourn hair everyday it is bad for your health

Do not take a shower after a meal it is bad for your digestion.

The Italian ladies love their fashion and are always chic and elegantly dressed - they do amazing things with scarves so much so that every lady in our group has felt the need to buy a scarf and tryto emulate them but to no avail - we will never do it like they do. They also love their stilletto heels and wear them everywhere; on the cobblestone streets, on their bikes and vespers BUT not on the Cinque Terre track because there is a sign at the start advising against it!

Ciao for now

 

Vicki

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Planes at Charlton






You may have noticed on the local news a few days ago one of the 'Bushmaster' vehicles built by ADI and a couple of old planes were in Charlton. I took some photos of the planes, I was fortunate there was no around at the time to get in the way.

Bendigo / Corio interclub comp.

Saturday night Bendigo host the annual competition with Corio Bay Camera Club. Congratulations to Corio who took home the Trophy, again!

The final results were
Large prints
Bendigo-146 Corio-185

Small prints
Bendigo-101 Corio-93

Slides
Bendigo-142 Corio-165

October Comp. night.

Congratulations to Vicki, she recieved 'Image of the Night' for her print titled 'Pinwheel Daisy'.

Thank you also to Rob Watson for judging on the night.

[Fwd: Hello from Levanto]

Hello all again,

the trip is going really well, the weather has been beautiful and sunny until today when it clouded over a bit.

Since last bulletin we have left Florence and all the shopaholics [don't worry Gaye they tell me Milano is a shoppers paradise so there is a chance i will lash out yet]spent 3 nights in Lucca - a medieaval town surrounded by a wall. Very quaint cobbled, narrow sreets. Spent one day bike riding in the country, went to a Puccini concert in the old cathedral. Yesterday we took the train to Pisa and actually climbed the tower. The view from the top was great but it seems like we have climbed every bell tower in Italy! Certainly keeping fit we do so much walking every day and I even notice they have junk mail over here!
Today we arrived in Levanto and took a quick trip down to Portofino! This is where all the rich and famous hang out. It was beautiful and hard to believe that people actually live there. Wish I could email the photos but you will have to wait!! It was a photographer's mecca!

Speaking of the rich and famous, did I mention that we saw the Pope? He wast the speck in pink and white at St Peter's giving his weekly address. The zoom lens confirmed his identity. The vatican Museums have such a wealth of art it is obscene.

Tomorrow we start walking the Cinque Terre, Five hiside villages linked by a walking track with great views over the Mediterranean.

Now for some Italian culture. There are some things in Italy that are just not done "non si fa"

eg.Never drink cappaccino after breakfast

Do not ask for coffee "to go"

Do not put your hands on the table or touch your hair at the table

Never ever blow your nose on toilet paper

more non si fa next bulletin.

The group is "interesting" we had a dinner party in our apartment in Lucca and did some bonding. With so many Americans we are all starting to sound like them but not as loud.

That's it for now, dinnertime.

Love to all



Vicki

Friday, October 14, 2005

Hello from Florence

Hi everyone

We arrived safely at 6.35am on Monday- 22 hours is along time to be slotted into such a small place. We had something like 4 meals on the way! After a slow start we finally found our way by train into Rome and watched the sunrise over the countryside on the way.

Rome was great, we walked and walked for hours each day and saw so much. it is so old and has so much history. The Colosseum and Roman Forum have to be seen to believed they are 2000 years old. We spent some time in the exclusive shopping district where Sharon Stone & Gerard Depeardiu were seen the day before.

Hace taken plenty of photos to bore you all with on our return.

Our group are a real mixed bag, 5 aussies and 7 americanos. >They are worse that whingeing poms!. Would you believe 2 of the other aussies come from Bendigo! Mother and daughter, Val and Gabby Lovejoy.The third is a guy from Melbourne. Ages range from 28 - 79 which ius proving interesting when we have to haul our bags 30 mins from the train station!

We arrived in Florence late yesterday and have been out and about today. This is the shopping place for leather goods and jewellery but so far I have resisted, so far.Tomorrow we move onto Lucca for three days to visit Leaning Tower of Pisa, wineries etc.


Well till the next bulletin, arrivedecci!

Vicki

--  _____________________________________________________________________ My other vehicle is a Galaxy Class Starship ...

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Central Victorian Interclub Photographic Competition



Allan and myself attended this years Quad. competition hosted by Macedon Ranges Photographic Society. There were many excellent prints & slides submitted by the members of the four clubs (Bendigo, Castlemaine, Macedon Ranges & Maryborough).

Print results were;
Bendigo 128 points
Castlemaine 111 points
Macedon Ranges 115 points
Maryborough 106 points

Slide results were;
Bendigo 121 points
Castlemaine 111 points
Macedon Ranges 99 points
Maryborough [no entries]

Bendigo have the trophy for the next twelve months, Castlemaine have held the trophy for the last three years.

Best slide 'Beating a storm' by Judith Pethybridge.
Best print 'The Great Wall #2' by Mark Fairbairn.