When I last blogged about the saga of our TV journey, it was early January and Mauro, from T-Com had been out and had given us a glimmer of hope that we could, one day, have fixed line internet. Meaning we could one day, at some point in the future, have TV like we used […]
We often drive around the outskirts of Padova (Padua) when we travel back to Istria from Italy. We’ve always found it – even with Google Maps – quite a perplexing city to get out of. It’s not a big city, but the outskirts are a bit on the confusing side, so we generally use the […]
Apart from Easter in Seville – Santa Semana – we’ve not witnessed a spectacle quite as amazing as the Venice Carnival. Two years ago, we arrived in Venice on a cold, misty February morning, a stop-over on our way to take over our Istrian stone farmhouse. Because we were so consumed with the move to […]
We love Copenhagen. Everything about it just oozes understated style and sophistication. It is effortlessly cool. Bars and restaurants (or at least the ones we’ve visited) are contemporary without being up themselves. Shops are largely of the independent variety, and always seem to be owned by people with exquisite taste. The city is clean. Cyclists […]
On trips to Bergamo, we’ve regularly meant to eat at Il Circolino, just off Via Colleoni, up in Citta Alta. But, we’ve never done it. It’s always looked interesting. The menu has always appealed. It’s definitely inexpensive. But, in such a small city, with just so many options to explore, there’s always somewhere else to […]
Although we know most of the north of England fairly well, we weren’t aware of Brimham Rocks. How did we not know about them? Found on Brimham Moor in North Yorkshire, England the rocks began taking their shape roughly 320 million years ago, when water, grit, and sand washed down from Scotland and Norway to […]
No visits to Greece is ever complete, without numerous visits to local bakeries for the delicious spanakopita, those gorgeous filo parcels, packed full of spinach and feta and pine nuts. Back home from idyllic Greek islands, I’d never contemplated trying to replicate these, because I felt that if you didn’t make your own filo pastry […]
If there’s one thing that is consistent about The Well Room is that it is constantly in a state of renovation. Even when it *seems* as if it’s a room again, just off shot, is reno chaos… The problem with this room has a lot to do with what we now call it – The […]
One of the best things about living on the continent now, is that we can completely dispense with flights. I think there are few things, travel-wise, more stressful, than the whole airport experience, of checking in, security, hanging around, queueing – and then at the end of it, you’re squashed into a cramped seat, generally […]
Not too long ago, when we still lived in Didsbury, we often thought about having time away in London, but never got round to it, because, well – London was just too far away from Manchester. The traffic would be awful. We’d end up sitting on the M6 or the M25. It was over-priced and […]
When I ordered the SkyBox – the one that I thought would solve all of our TV issues – I hadn’t realised where it would be coming from. But early on Christmas Eve morning, I knew exactly where it had come from, as we’d brought it all the way back to England with us from […]
So, nine days after ordering, and paying for it, the Sky digi box and viewing card arrived. The UPS driver went away with a bottle of wine and we oohed and aahed over the delivery. A very exciting delivery and a very exciting day… Everything was connected, the card inserted, the screen changed to a […]