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Carlow town fights the recession but should the town be fighting the Local Authorities too?

A fine picture of Mr Crotty today in the Irish Independent. (30/8/10)
Crotty’s Bakery was and is again a Carlow institution. We’ve lived in Carlow for about 7 years and about a year ago, Crotty’s Bakery reopened in a brand new location on Potato Market. Everyone I had spoken to was nostalgic about it, I was almost excited as I love home baked produce, as you may know from my blog!
To be honest, I have only ever bought something from there once. Cream cakes for my Mum! Crotty’s is an old fashioned bakery, old fashioned in the sense that it produce factory made tasting produce Now, maybe it isn’t factory made but the difference in look and taste between the home baked produce from Hennessey’s of Carlow or the Farmers’ Market is huge. But who am I to judge? They seem to be doing really well and the co-owner Tom Crotty is working really hard on bringing some foot fall into the centre of the town so all praise to him.

Carlow Town could be bigger, could be better, could be more special. I blame whoever makes the decisions for the town, I am presuming this is the Carlow Town Council.
The biggest mistake for the town of Carlow was building the Fairgreen Shopping Centre in the location it is now. The Fairgreen Shopping Centre is a good shopping centre as shopping centres go. The problem is that it is located just off the town centre, the area of Tullow Street. Carlow already had a shopping centre, built in the old Carlow Jail with a bit of character and a great feel to it. There was plenty room to put some good shops in this building or possibly expand. It is also right in the middle of the town centre. Perfect, you’d think. What is happening is that most shoppers or visitors are drawn to the magnet of the Fairgreen and avoid the Town Centre unless they have to. The Fairgreen should have been built way out of the town or placed in the existing Carlow Shopping Centre.
Tullow Street has a Kilkenny City vibe to it. If I had full creative control in the Council, I’d open up Tullow Street and get some really good shops like local bakeries(okay, Crotty’s can come in!), cafes, delis and Irish boutiques. There are some pubs and restaurants on Tullow Street but they are of the student variety. My beautician( the Sanctuary on Tullow Street) tells me that be Town Council charge every business for putting tables and chairs out on the street. Very foolish of the Town Council.
Recently, with the opening of Visual Theatre and Arts Centre a funky little area has started to develop just off Tullow Street. Cathedral bookshop, Mimosa Wine bar, St Patrick’s College and Lennon’s cafe bar are what the Town Council need to encourage and support financially and any other way they can. I know the Council has put huge investment into Visual and it has paid off. It’s pretty amazing.

However, I totally agree with Carlow developer Johnny Harmon(of Harmon’s Pub), he recently had renovated his bar and it is looking rather fab. He blames the council saying that “the local authorities are not listening to businesses and charge very high rates…a building next to my bar(sic)is empty…the council wanted €187,000 to develop it.” Harmon is not just being pie in the sky, he comes up with some nuggets of advice for the Council. “The banks need to back off…abolish the parking fees in Carlow…our politicians should have more business experience.”

Ohhh, parking in Carlow Town, I’m ready to rant! The parking situation in Carlow is just horrific. You can park for free in the Fairgreen(another reason to be drawn to it’s magnet) for 3 hours but you have to pay for parking everywhere else in the town. The main car park in the town is Dinn Ri. Recently, they increased their prices to €1. I refuse to park here on principle as I’ve been clamped here twice. €40 a pop for the fine. On those two occasions, it’s been an innocent forgetfulness-shopping or coffee took over and when I returned to my car, a nice, shiny ticket was hanging in my windscreen. I park in the nearby Superquinn for one reason only. You can pay on exit.
On a recent stop off in Roscommon Town, I searched for a parking meter. There were none to be seen. I’d been caught out before so I asked a passerby. She informed me that parking is free in Roscommon. Brilliant. Every time we travel to Mayo(where I’m originally from), we stop in Roscommon and eat and drink for as long as we like. Well done, Roscommon Town Council. Could you speak to ours, please?
Carlow Town Council need to get real. They really have one aim. To bring business and people who spend money back into the Town. They also need to admit that the Fairgreen with it’s increasing empty units was a mistake for the Town Centre. They need to start listening to people like Tom Crotty and Johnny Harmon.
Of course, they won’t though. They’re too busy building an obsessive amount of pedestrian crossings and flashing lights so McDonalds can stay in business.

Rant over…until tomorrow.

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The sting of it all

I knew it was going to happen.
One day.
I hate wasps. I hate the look of them. Their thinness. Their pokey little stinger at the end of their body. The colour of them, bright yellow and black, the noise they make, the way they zoom in and out and interrupt a vey nice soirée outside, I hate them.
You might notice that I am not scared of their sting or the pain that comes with it.
Today, we were locking up and I had forgotten my keys. I went to go back in and Simon brought in the bin. There was a wasp hovering around the bin and I tried to ignore it. Next minute, I felt a tiny pinch of my skin on my shoulder. I knew it was a wasp straightaway, I have spent my life running from them so I knew.
I flicked it and felt it’s horrid little body, I squealed and stripped off my blouse and shoes. I don’t know why I took my shoes off! Simon immediately checked out my shoulder. There was nothing there but I could feel a slight pain. He went to google stings and what to do. Within minutes, the sting had grown into a small white lump with a little hole, like an empty black head. Simon applied white wine vinegar and then an ice cube wrapped up. The Internet is great! For a bee, you have to take the sting out but for a wasp, you just need to apply some form of acid, like vinegar, lemon or even tomato will do!
The pain was numbed but I was freaking out. The idea of it crawling on my shoulder and hurting me for no reason was playing on my mind. Simon looked after me while I reverted back to being a 7 year old and pouted with teary eyes.
A quick visit to the chemist was needed, just in case I was dying. The sting had totally gone down thanks to the ice and lemon but the pharmacist sold me a wasp eeze spray and an antihistamine tablet, in case I was dying.
I rang my Mum, I knew she’d understand. She hates wasps more than me and advised me not to wear any nice smelly perfumes or creams until the wasps die off.
This morning, I had used an almond scrub, almond shower gel and almond moisturising cream. The wasp thought I was a big almond flower of some sort. Happy days for him. He was still lurking on my bag when we got back in the car!

The moral of the story is simple and you may even learn something from this.
Do not apply smelly anything to your body. Do not go outside until October. If an evil wasp does sting you, apply acid and then ice cubes. If you feel funny, visit pharmacist.

I bet a bee would never it.

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Pescara, where the beautiful people go and Terry is age of Christ

Terry and Marion had popped over for a cuppa to visit us so we all took the train down early enough, grabbing a quick espresso at the train station. The journey took about 2 hours. Pescara train station is pretty big with plenty English magazines and books. We had no idea how to get to the Hotel so we took the chance to get a taxi, right outside the station. The taxi driver was a cool Italian guy who played some funky dance beats throughout our journey. The journey also took us quite a while and we realised later that we could have walked in about 30 minutes. Simon had booked a big room for the 4 of us. €150 for the night with breakfast. Not bad. Hotel Regent is right on the beachfront and was acceptably clean, cosy and orange.
I hate the beach. No, let me correct that, I don’t really hate the beach, I love the sea and the sand but the idea of sitting on the beach for longer than half an hour petrifies me. And bores me. I get a headche, I start to go mad, foaming at the mouth etc
The beach front in Pescara goes on and on and on, covered with coloured parasols, which you can rent for €9 a day. Lots of fabulously toned and tanned bodies with plenty male Italian posers, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Which I’m not.
The city of Pescara has a reputation for being a shoppers paradise. It is. Lots of beautiful boutiques, the usual European chain shops and lots of nice, simple and cheap Italian basic shops. There was a really nice shop called Tegrazzo, full of loungewear and basics in the stock colours, ladies and men! I stocked up on vests, tops and underwear. They seem really good quality. We will see.
Another lovely little shop I’ve came across in Chieti was L’erborolia”. There was a small more authentic one in Pescara. I treated myself to more almond stuff, a big tub of almond and olive moisturiser for €12. This would cost €40 in L’Occcitane! They also do really nice teas. I asked for a relaxing one for Simon as a present. Nicely wrapped up for me too.
Pescara is not just for women shoppers. Simon was very excited about the men’s clothes shops. He brought me around and showed me 120 different colours of shirts and ties. Beautiful clothes for men. I gave him my full blessing to press ahead and purchase loads of stuff. Terry was not excited by the shops or clothes. I tried my best but he was having none of it. He much preferred sitting, reading and drinking green tea.
As you may know, during the hours of 1-4, the Italians have a little rest for themselves. Pescara didn’t totally close but not all the shops were open. We sat in a nice beach cafe(of which there are millions) and drank copious amounts of espressos for 75c a pop. Well, Terry drank his usual green tea.
Over the evening, the green tea and espresso turned into prosecco for me and beer for the others later on. Really good prosecco.
We took a tip from our Abruzzo guidebook for dinner. Simon and the map led us to a restaurant that was gone on holiday. We went for the 2nd option and it turned out super well. It was called Cafe Jozz. We were welcomed in by the owner, Jozz. A jolly Santa like man in a big touristy red chef uniform. Jozz and the waiter had excellent English. He explained how it worked. You basically pay 1 of 3 prices, depending on how much you want to eat. We are not really big eaters so we all went for the €22 menu. Jozz wheels out the first course,a gloopy, green and eggy soup. Simon and Terry went for the soup and gave it the thumbs up. Simon hates egg but the green, healthy veg made him finish the bowl. There was plenty of salty bread with raisins left for us to munch on. Marion and I had gone for the pasta starter. Mine was delish and I think I won. Marion had some sort of creamy and pepper spaghetti thing while I had spaghetti covered in olive oil and pork mince and Parmesan. Good. Next up was the meat option. There was pork, chicken and lamb. Jozz kept giving me samples for free and Simon was convinced that we would have to pay as the samples were meal size portions for me! We didn’t. The wine was also excellent. I had a very dark, blush rose, which was v different from the usual sweet rose I’ve tried. The others shared a bottle of wine from the Montepuliciano grape in Abruzzo.
The dessert trolley came out. This was the only slight let down. Chocolate cake with marmalade liquor filling or Panna cotta type thing. Marion treated me for my birthday and we treated Terry for his birthday as he was the age of Christ that very day. The area of Cafe Jozz was thriving and very Spanish like. A really nice non touristy part of Pescara saturated with interesting looking restaurants. Cafe Jozz was really tasty, the hosts were very generous and the atmosphere was holiday like but not touristy like. Beautiful.
I wanted to get a taxi because I knew once we returned to Taglicozzo, we would we forced to walk forever more. The others wanted to walk, I tried to protest but the majority voted. We walked. The area around the Hotel was energised. I felt like going to bed so at midnight, We all took our beauty sleep. A lovely day in Pescara with more time for shopping tomorrow. Happy dream, Rozzie.
Breakfast was good. Lots of cake, ham and nutella items. We were catching the train back at 2 so Marion and I took a light saunter throughout the shops. The market by the train station was our first stop. We had read about this in the guidebook. The guidebook had recommended we haggle. I was so not going to haggle.
However, the bags were pretty amazing. Complete fakes. But really good fakes. The outside looked and felt like leather but the inside was bad quality. We had our eyes on a few Tod’s bags. All the others would be easily spotted as fakes whereas the Tod’s ones were a bit less in your face. Logos are not cool, real or not. The bag was worth €30 max. The man wanted €200. Forget it. We walked away and returned and tried again. I offered €30 again. He wanted €100. I told him €30 was my last offer. He was having none of it. He refused to haggle and got really annoyed and gave out about us. He put the bag back and turned away from us. We were shocked. No haggling. Fake bags for €100. Dont go. They won’t haggle. They’re far too expensive and the market guys just want to sleep and rip you off.
When we reached Tagliacozzo, the Piazza del’ Obelisco was busy out We seated ourselves in the hip Wine bar on the square. We all ordered cocktails, mine was a toxic fruit mixture of gin, gin, alcohol and gin. Some fruit liquor maybe too. It was served in a goldfish bowl. The others got smaller but lethal cocktails. Terry and Simon asked for the manly cocktails.
A big bowl of crisps and snacks of bread arrived to fill the gap before dinner. Simon had been raving about this very posh restaurant at the top of the square. He wanted to try this traditional dish of gnocchi and chickpeas. I had a feeling that this dish would not exist when we arrived there. This is a normal pattern of events for us. Simon reads about this amazing restaurant, off the beaten track. He gets hyped up about it and puts it on a pedestal and we find it after hours of climbing and getting lost. When we arrive, it’s either closed, not there or different.
Tonight, the dish was not there. Poor Simon.
We were lucky that they had many other wonderful things on the menu, we were not so lucky with the hosts. The owner should have been a computer technician, Simon noted. He had no personality or warmth and we ordered under pressure. The waiter was a lovely little( about 19, in case you think he was a primary school child working under slave labour conditions) boy who spoke only Italian. He was clearly and openly unnerved by me for some reason. He kept glancing at me nervously every time I said something scary like “Do you have rose wine?”
We all(but Marion) had a primo course. Simon and Terry had the gnocchi with truffles and cream and I had the ravoli with spinach and ricotta. I think I won though theirs was quite close. The main was plain lamb chop and but beautifully grilled and served with crispy, oily potato cubes. The dessert was possibly the best we have eaten in a long, long time. It had a long title but the word “chocolate” always glares at me from a menu. It was a small chocolate pudding with a perfectly, oozing and warm dark choc filling. Not too sweet, just yum. I told the little waiter that the dessert was excellent and gave him a big dramatic thumbs up. At last, his nerves vanished and he looked relieved and smiled. Maybe, this was ins first night and he was eager to please. Who knows? My bill with a glass of wine came to €30 for a 3 course meal with an exceedingly good dessert. The owner would want to grow a personality but if he did, more people might come. What would he do then?
Tomorrow is market day in Tagliacozzo.

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Roma!

Rome-the day in which we returned to the place Simon and I were engaged.

Today, we took off to Roma. We woke up at 8, which is unusually late and unlike us. We leapt up. Simon had tried to get a paper version of the train timetable but to no avail. It did not exist.

We had to study the main timetable in the train station well. We knew that after 8 in the morning, the train leaves from Tagliacozzo at 9:45 to Roma. The Train station in Tagliacozzo is situated about a 2 minutes walk from the main centre of the town. It has a nice, small bar where you can purchase an espresso for 75c! We stood like real Italians at the brand swigged back the beautiful liquid. The train arrived with no delays. The trains in Italy are ok. They say they are air conditioned but they aren’t really. People open up all the windows anyway. No air comes in. It’s quite warm but we both had good books so we didn’t mind. We arrived at Roma Tiburtina within about an hour and forty five minutes. The train into the centre of Roma(Termini, which is the biggest and the most central train station in Roma) was due to arrive shortly but it was delayed for some reason or another. It took us about 3 minutes to get from Tiburtina to Termini. Termini was pumping full of real tourists . Back in Tagliacozzo, we were really the only English speaking tourists. Now, we were surrounded by annoying sorts.
I glimpsed a newsagent selling many, many English papers and magazines. Ill be back, I promised.
We could have taken the metro into the area we wanted to go but as you know, we love walking. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to Campo Di Fiori. We bought a bendable map on the way and Simon felt at home immediately. He led the way rather well but I convinced myself I had a feeling where to go.
5 years ago, almost to the date, Simon had proposed to me in our Hotel Navona. We had dined out in “Heartbreakers Restaurant” that night. Simon had wanted to bring us to a special place that night but after lots of walking, we had discovered it was closed. And so to the next restaurant, which turned out to be “Heart breakers”, in Campo Di Fiori. Not the most romantic setting but we didn’t care, we were engaged!
So, we returned to this place, it was now called “Mercato” or so something like that. Gone were the pink, tacky lights and in was the cool, black and shiny worktops. Gone was the slimy, plastic table cloths and in was Burberry print tablecloths. Gone was the sleazy,good-looking waiters looking for a tip and in was…well, no that stayed the same.
The night we got engaged, we had bought pizza. I know this adamantly as the picture of the two of us was printed on our wedding invitations which were made by Simon. Therefore, we had to test the pizzas.
Yay! The pizzas still rocked and still were priced well. It cost us €30 for 2 feck off pizzas, 2 glasses of wine and bottle of water. The lunch was slightly ruined by a homeless, drunks guy washing his privates in a nearby water font but I’m thinking Campo Di Fiori has seen worse..
We walked back to our hotel and the Pantheon area. Swarming with tourists, we checked out the interior of the Pantheon, it was still the same funnily enough.

We headed to a cafe facing the Pantheon. Cost:€16.50 for 2 coffees and bottle of water. It rained for a bit and after we headed and retraced out steps to the Trevi fountain, this had been a must see for me. 5 years ago, Simon and I had our photo taken. A nice man had offered but when I checked the photo later on, there was a lamp in the way, wrecking the photo. I’ve thought about this a lot over the years and vowed to get revenge on this imbecile.
Today was a new day for the fountain, today was a new chance.
I spied some teenagers and took my chances quickly. Surely, they would know how to take a photo. They did. Relief. A good photo at last and one in which we can proudly display above our mantlepiece and not hide away in a box.
Thank you, teenagers.
We then sauntered down to the Roman Forum, where inquisitive Simon asked question after question. He wanted to know why the the ancient site was so low down. I tried to come up with many reasons but he was buying none of it. Eventually, the answer was found. The Forum, the centre and focal point of Roma had became quite uncool. The Romans scoffed at it and neglected it. Ground, mud and grass grew over it until some cool archaeologist got to work on it. Thankfully, for us. It is my favourite part of the whole city of Rome and the Colosseum is the icing on the cake. It stills rocks. I’m sure it will continue to for many years to come.
Our train was due so we headed back to the station, stopping off for ice-cream on the way. I bought loads of good quality newspapers like the Mail and the Mirror plus women’s and men’s magazines for tomorrow, our lazy Sunday in the apartment.
The walk up to our apartment is usually awful. After our day of walking in Rome, it was horrific and I moaned and gave out all the way. Who would want to live up here? Whey no taxis? Simon, will you carry me?
Simon just kept me going with “The house is just here, around the corner”
When we got in, I went straight to bed. Wrecked. Sleeping with dreams of Roma. Very touristy but still manages to be laid back, friendly and my favourite city ever.
Night, night.

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Roma-it’s looking a bit run down these days ;-)

Rome-the day in which we returned to the place Simon and I were engaged.

Today, we took off to Roma. We woke up at 8, which is unusually late and unlike us. We leapt up. Simon had tried to get a paper version of the train timetable but to no avail. It did not exist.

We had to study the main timetable in the train station well. We knew that after 8 in the morning, the train leaves from Tagliacozzo at 9:45 to Roma. The Train station in Tagliacozzo is situated about a 2 minutes walk from the main centre of the town. It has a nice, small bar where you can purchase an espresso for 75c! We stood like real Italians at the brand swigged back the beautiful liquid. The train arrived with no delays. The trains in Italy are ok. They say they are air conditioned but they aren’t really. People open up all the windows anyway. No air comes in. It’s quite warm but we both had good books so we didn’t mind. We arrived at Roma Tiburtina within about an hour and forty five minutes. The train into the centre of Roma(Termini, which is the biggest and the most central train station in Roma) was due to arrive shortly but it was delayed for some reason or another. It took us about 3 minutes to get from Tiburtina to Termini. Termini was pumping full of real tourists . Back in Tagliacozzo, we were really the only English speaking tourists. Now, we were surrounded by annoying sorts.
I glimpsed a newsagent selling many, many English papers and magazines. Ill be back, I promised.
We could have taken the metro into the area we wanted to go but as you know, we love walking. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to Campo Di Fiori. We bought a bendable map on the way and Simon felt at home immediately. He led the way rather well but I convinced myself I had a feeling where to go.
5 years ago, almost to the date, Simon had proposed to me in our Hotel Navona. We had dined out in “Heartbreakers Restaurant” that night. Simon had wanted to bring us to a special place that night but after lots of walking, we had discovered it was closed. And so to the next restaurant, which turned out to be “Heart breakers”, in Campo Di Fiori. Not the most romantic setting but we didn’t care, we were engaged!
So, we returned to this place, it was now called “Mercato” or so something like that. Gone were the pink, tacky lights and in was the cool, black and shiny worktops. Gone was the slimy, plastic table cloths and in was Burberry print tablecloths. Gone was the sleazy,good-looking waiters looking for a tip and in was…well, no that stayed the same.
The night we got engaged, we had bought pizza. I know this adamantly as the picture of the two of us was printed on our wedding invitations which were made by Simon. Therefore, we had to test the pizzas.
Yay! The pizzas still rocked and still were priced well. It cost us €30 for 2 feck off pizzas, 2 glasses of wine and bottle of water. The lunch was slightly ruined by a homeless, drunks guy washing his privates in a nearby water font but I’m thinking Campo Di Fiori has seen worse..
We walked back to our hotel and the Pantheon area. Swarming with tourists, we checked out the interior of the Pantheon, it was still the same funnily enough.

We headed to a cafe facing the Pantheon. Cost:€16.50 for 2 coffees and bottle of water. It rained for a bit and after we headed and retraced out steps to the Trevi fountain, this had been a must see for me. 5 years ago, Simon and I had our photo taken. A nice man had offered but when I checked the photo later on, there was a lamp in the way, wrecking the photo. I’ve thought about this a lot over the years and vowed to get revenge on this imbecile.
Today was a new day for the fountain, today was a new chance.
I spied some teenagers and took my chances quickly. Surely, they would know how to take a photo. They did. Relief. A good photo at last and one in which we can proudly display above our mantlepiece and not hide away in a box.
Thank you, teenagers.
We then sauntered down to the Roman Forum, where inquisitive Simon asked question after question. He wanted to know why the the ancient site was so low down. I tried to come up with many reasons but he was buying none of it. Eventually, the answer was found. The Forum, the centre and focal point of Roma had became quite uncool. The Romans scoffed at it and neglected it. Ground, mud and grass grew over it until some cool archaeologist got to work on it. Thankfully, for us. It is my favourite part of the whole city of Rome and the Colosseum is the icing on the cake. It stills rocks. I’m sure it will continue to for many years to come.
Our train was due so we headed back to the station, stopping off for ice-cream on the way. I bought loads of good quality newspapers like the Mail and the Mirror plus women’s and men’s magazines for tomorrow, our lazy Sunday in the apartment.
The walk up to our apartment is usually awful. After our day of walking in Rome, it was horrific and I moaned and gave out all the way. Who would want to live up here? Whey no taxis? Simon, will you carry me?
Simon just kept me going with “The house is just here, around the corner”
When we got in, I went straight to bed. Wrecked. Sleeping with dreams of Roma. Very touristy but still manages to be laid back, friendly and my favourite city ever.
Night, night.

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A day without the guidebook in Tagliacozzo

Our first full day in Tagliacozzo!

I had a pretty good sleep, waking at around 8 o clock, which is a bit of a lie in for us! Our bedroom opens up onto a balcony outside. Pushing out the glass doors and then the wooden doors straight out into the new day. I never tired of this view.
The view from our balcony is superb, again photos do it no justice. Steep mountains covered with trees in front to our right with the landmark of a sculpture of a cross on top. At night, this cross is lit up, guiding us from the town to our own special “estate”. Below and to the left of our balcony is the village estate we live in. Ancient houses sporadically thrown wherever they could find a rock or bit of ground in the steep incline. Flowers, plants, grapes and even boxes of cat litter boxes decorate the outside of the tiny houses. The front of our house is emblazoned with a golden picture of Mary, Jesus’ mother. In fact, on our walk down to town, we notice grottos and dedications of all sorts to Jesus and Mary.
I can smell something nice! Simon has got the coffee machine working. We set up the table on our balcony with bitter sweet peaches(like you’ve never tasted before!), crispy bread, creamy mozzarella, salami, soft cheese and ham. Divine.
I’ve been typing this diary up on my iPad. It must have overheated but it cleverly warned me and shut down!
An excuse, so, to go down town!
We spent the day just wandering. The guidebook for The Abruzzo region tells us to throw out the guidebook! We did just that and discovered pristine churches, outdoor churches, quirky shops selling leather, jewellery and pretty paper goods, outdoor markets, butchers, cake shops, delis and the most amazing gellato. It had the best ice-cream ever. I had a dark choc and nutella cone, Simon went for the yoghurt and coconut one. The owner was very proud of his ice-cream and brought us out to the kitchen and showed us how they were all made. He kept giving us spoonfuls of the stuff and rattling away to us in Italian, we sat at his cafe bar for about 3 hours, just reading and chatting.
We had our dinner here in the Square in ” Al Corradino di Svevi” which translates cleverly as “The usual place”. I opted for the ravoli with Ragu and Simon went for the Gnocchi mushroom thing. Who won? I think I did, just. We had starters of suppli and a healthy looking brushchetta. The starters were 1€ each! The whole bill came to €22 with a large glass of wine and 2 bottles of water!
We promised ourselves we would have a crepe nutella from this enticing stall. A very happy lady who loves her job makes crepes all night long here. When we wandered past the first time, she caught our eyes in a flirty way, beckoning us to come back But, alas, we were too full.
Tomorrow, we travel on the train to Sulmona, a large city of 25,000 about an hour away. It created the sugar almond things that you get at weddings traditionally and has a museum dedicated to these almonds. It has an open archaeological museum, which seems worth a visit. Also, some highly recommended eateries.
The walk back from the town up to where our house is seemed slightly more easier tonight. Probably, in the head but I feel my thighs feeling it already. I saw a woman jogging through our village today. Madness. Slow down, woman, chill out. Everyone else is!

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Arriving in Tagliacozzo, Abruzzo, Italia!

Our flight to Rome was problem free.
I spent the flight being spoken to by a little 2 and a half year old girl, who really was a doll child. Her parents were from Belarus, while she was born in Ireland. Her name was Arina, she was the most fascinating child I’ve met. A bright thing but she knew she was cute and blonde and pretty with her little stripy tights. All the passengers around her smiled at her immediately. She spoke at me for half an hour, in Russian mostly with glimpses of English, using her hands to demonstrate points of her story. From what I could make out, she was raving about friends, holidays, Mummy and favourite colour. Which was green.
We waved goodbye at Ciampino airport, Rome and were greeted by our new Italian family. I always wanted this reception. When you arrive at an airport and a person is waiting for you with a big sign ” Lewis”. At last, I got this! Federico is the eldest daughter, she was the only one out of the family that spoke English. We were welcomed to Italy and shown to our new car.
A left hand drive. A Mercedes Benz. Impressed but scared.
Simon wanted to do the whole car thing so he had to drive.
He did really well. We headed off following the whims of the sat nav, bound for the town of Tagliacozzo. This town is built into the mountain. The name itself means “cut into the rock” it’s about 70 km from the airport. No bother to us.
Simon seemed to handle it brilliantly, very calm and collected. I, too handled it well. It helped that he drove at a slow speed all the way. The scenery was amazing but we couldn’t really enjoy it as we were dreading the last bit of the journey.
The road from Ciampino to Tagliacozzo is straight down the motorway. Excellent.
However, when you take the exit for Tagliacozzo, off the motorway, the fun begins.
We had been told about the 5 hairpin turns. In fact, Federico had sent us a diagram if them. They looked mental. Imagine a hairpin, slightly pulled out. Now, imagine 5 joined Together.
When we arrived into the outskirts of Tagliacozzo, we had a feeling that we should take a left. It looked right However, b%#^* face( or our beloved Sat Nav) told us to go right. She meant bear right, we found out after. Which is entirely different from Take right.
On top of this, we were greeted with a learner driver’s worse nightmare. A hill start. On a very, very steep hill with 10 irate and pissed off Italian drivers behind us, telling us to hurry the frick on.
Simin revved the car to the max and we took that right, as suggested by b face.
5 km up the most mental of roads and steep hills and inclines we had ever seen, we realised that B Face was wrong. Very wrong. Her map showed us that had to keep driving to the end of the 5 km and turn somehow.
We carried on driving. Sorry, Simon carried on driving. I looked out the mirror and told him there was only one car behind us when in fact there were now about 15 more irate Italian drivers, mad to beep and overtake at any chance.
Poor Simon, but he did good.
We eventually reached the village of Trimente, which was of course, very Italian and very fab. We couldn’t really enjoy it as the next thing happened.
The next thing to happen was a big lorry tried to get through a small space. He got stuck. He told us to reverse or turn around onto the irate drivers behind us. Simon had proven he could make the car go forward but reversing off the edge of a cliff was a big ask.
A group of friendly Italians from the village had formed around the scene. I fluttered my eyelashes at one of the men and hoped for the best. Within seconds,he had jumped out of the car, reversed it and drive it back to us with a smile and saying something in Italian. All I understood was “sat nav”
The crowd of young people outside chatted away, one young teenager was eager to show off his English. He had been to Limerick last year to learn English. Well done, Limerick teachers. He was good. He loved Ireland but scoffed at our weather.
So, we were back in the car. Down the treacherous road to Tagliacozzo. Next the hairpin bends.
Simon did it with no major hassle, the ease he took them was probably because of two things.
1- he had hyped up these hairpin bends so much that the reality was always going to be better.
Or
2- the 10 km drive up and down to Trimente had prepared him for anything.
Who cares what the reason is? We did it. Federico had taken photos of where we should park. Apparently, we had to park the car and go a pied. By foot to our little house. As luck might have it, there was one space on a big line of cars at the side of the road. We parked the car and stopped the car and breathed.
Now the next bit of the adventure was to find this apartment. The place where we are staying is right on the hill. The houses are all typically what you’d imagine to be Italian, small and snug. The houses are all built into the hill with windy, tight roads weaving their way in and out down the hill. It took us a good half an hour to find the house. I sat and petted cats and read while Super Simon jogged nonchalantly to reach our final destination. I think he was so happy to get out of the car in one piece that he didn’t really care what happened after that. After about half an hour through the Labyrinth, we found the house.
The house is just gorgeous. Two storey. Two rooms downstairs. Bathroom and open plan kitchen and sitting room.
In the sitting room, there was a table. On the table, there was a note saying ” ha, ha, suckers! We have got your house now, we are take over it as squatters!”
No, really the note said:
” Welcome, enjoy! From the Nobili Family”
A bottle of prosecco lay on the note.
Score!
After investigating the house, two bedrooms upstairs and open balcony from both bedrooms, we had a glass of prosecco and a light lunch, that the family had left for us in the fridge.
Proper Parmesan( I.e not a rip off)
Bread.
Salami.
Biscuits.
Some kind of garlic ham.
We indulged and had a nap.

When we awoke, we were raring to go!
However, the electricity had failed. We rang Fedrico and she rang to get help. Help came in the form of a very, nice(again smiley) Italian family. The 5 of them traipsed into the kitchen, pushed the fuse switch up and down and opened the fridge door a few times. This worked perfectly and we all clapped at the fun of it all.
After a shower and oiling up of sun protection, we walked down to Tagliacozzo. A 15 minute walk down through the maze of houses left us breathless but amazed.
Real Italy, we had wanted. Real Italy, we got.
First, we just sat in the main square-Piazza Del Obelisk, a pretty square surrounded by bars, restaurants and shops. A fountain domineers it with a massive obelisk item coming right up through the fountain. The photos do it no justice. Just visit! I had a nice glass of cold white wine and Simin went for beer. As we soon found out, if you order any alcohol in a bar, you are presented with free snacks. Not any snacks. Enough crisps, bread, veg and biscuits for dinner for us! We sat there for a a couple of hours, chatting about our great luck with our house swap.
Later in the evening, the town really lit up with people and families out eating and drinking. We spotted a very charming looking restaurant called Alla Fontana. This is a pizzeria but also does a normal restaurant food
We filled up on a pizza and suppli( rice, parmesan coated in breadcrumbs and fried). Simon opted for breasolo, rocket, Parmesan, sausage, cheese on a tomato base. Mine was a white potato pizza. Both were excellent. However, Simon’s was the winner. I scavved many slices off him and I know what I’m getting later tonight! The restaurant “Alla Fontana” was packed with Italians, the real ones not those fake ones you might find occasionally. Actually, we seem to be the only non-Italians in the whole town! With a bottle of water and 2 beers, the whole bill came to €20!
Let me summarise, in Ireland, we are ripped off.

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The pre-hen night

My sister in law, andrea(Simon’s sister) is getting married in August. We had a lovely dinner in Bann Thai in Ballsbridge. A nice, relaxed and quiet evening to prepare ourselves for the strippers, oil, thongs etc of the real Hen night tonight.
😉