August 17 - "dove è il Internet cafè?" "Where is the internet cafe?"

I have decided that the titles of the posts from now on will be phrases or words that were useful during the day. (or those that WOULD have been useful, if we had known them!) Who knows, maybe these will help some of you if you come to visit us! Unfortunately for us, cafè(cafe) and caffè(coffee) sound pretty much the same, so most people thought we were asking for coffee. but we did find the place, and now here we are. Today is the last day of an important long weekend, so we are hoping to have internet at the house in the next couple of days. It is pretty stinking hot in here, and I would rather not come back!! As usual, the newest posts are at the bottom, so you may want to scroll down to start at the beginning!

Aug 15 – “dove possiamo trovare un arca?” “where can we find an ark?”

Today was Ferragosto, a huge bank holiday, and all the shops were closed. So we decided to try again to find the landlords’ other house. It was a bit overcast and windy in the morning, but still very warm. This time we had a map that they had drawn for us, so we made it there and enjoyed a nice dip in the pool. Terry and Meryck also brought their laptops so they were able to check emails and catch up on news. I brought my laptop bag and the power cable, but left the laptop beside the tv in the cottage. So I didn’t get a chance to get online much at all. No problem, I just hung out in the pool! We planned to go to a festival in a nearby town tonight, so went home to shower and get ready. Before long, we had a fullblown thunder storm. We lost power and Terry had to reset the breaker. Meryck and I watched the lightning for a bit and listened to the rain pour down the street. We got a few pictures, but of course they arent as good as the real thing!

August 14 – “Che cosa significa il mio GPS non è infallibile?” “What do you mean my GPS isn’t infallible?”

Today was another hot day, so we headed to Perugia, hoping to find some things we couldn’t get in Marsciano. Found a store that had a charger for Meryck’s Nintendo DS, and we had already found a handy power adapter, so now we’re set! Meryck had to try out this snack pack – there are so many varieties of nutella here that he thinks he’s in heaven! This one had three sections, one with iced tea, one with breadsticks and a little bit of nutella for dipping. Meryck said it was surprisingly good. We tried to find our way to the landlords’ other place, which has a pool, but the GPS took us to the wrong place, so we went to the public pool in Marsciano instead. Spent some time there, then came home and did laundry. So boring, but I guess it’s not really supposed to be a holiday, even though some days will seem that way. We still don’t have internet access, and since tomorrow is a public holiday, we’re not likely to get it until at least Monday. I had no idea how much I would miss the internet! Every little question we want answered that we would usually google – now we have to actually try to figure things out on our own!!

August 13 – “Che cos'è questa strana creatura, e lo fa bere sangue umano?” “What is this strange creature, and does it drink human blood?”

Spent the morning in Marsciano. Had lunch at a little coffee shop where we saw a strange hummingbird crossed with an insect. Marsciano is the nearest town – it’s about 10km, mostly downhill. Might be a decent bike ride to town, but in this heat, I think it would kill any one of us to try to ride home! Even driving home in an air-conditioned car pretty much knocked me out – I had a nice long nap in the afternoon. Then after dinner we sat out on our little patio. Our neighbour is determined to communicate with us, and even resorted to French when he learned we are from Canada. Obviously, that didn’t help at all! He seemed so sweet, I wish I could speak Italian fluently instead of just understand a few words here and there. Since I’m not usually much of a napper, I wasn’t surprised when I woke up at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep for a few hours.

Aug 12 – “Come faccio a utilizzare questo damn bancomat?” “How do I use this damn bank machine?”

It took us about 40 minutes and 5 bankcards to get enough money to pay for our rental house, but we finally got it. Took the train from Rome to Perugia, about 2 ½ hours north. We passed by some beautiful ancient towns that we will go back and visit one day – the most amazing was Assisi. In Perugia, we picked up our rental car – we had reserved a Ford Focus, but ended up with a BMW. I was pretty impressed, but it seems the standards here are a little different - our garbage truck is a Mercedes! We checked in to our little home for the next 7 weeks. It’s definitely no bigger than we expected, and even more remote. It’s a real old-country neighbourhood. All the residents seem to be elderly, and none of them speak English. They all sit around at the end of the day playing cards and calling ‘buona sera’ to everyone who passes.

Aug 11 – “Mie dita sono come le salsicce” “My fingers are like sausages”

We arrived safe and sound in Rome on Monday at 11am. We briefly had internet access at the hotel, but didn’t have much time to spend other than Terry’s brief post. After a quick freshen-up at the hotel, we hopped on a train headed for downtown Roma. It was probably 35-40 degrees Celsius, but we stayed alive long enough to see the Colosseo, Arco di Costantino and Circo Massimo. We didn’t make it as far as the Trevi fountain – thought we’d leave that for the next time we visit. Maybe a cool spring day! There were a few (much smaller) fountains throughout the area where you could wash your hands and splash your face with water. (at least that’s what we did, hopefully we didn’t offend anyone!) Finished off the day with a much-needed swim in the hotel pool.