taxi bus donkey

Bitsa is old, well she is now anyway, Bitsa is also the town gossip merchant, political activist, cultural advocate and she walks with a really big stick.. which as we all know demands respect. If she ever stood up straight Bitsa would without doubt be taller than she is bent over, but Bitsa is as Bitsa is and we all love her curved up ball of a self.

Early on a day which felt like a sunday I heard a clear crisp heavily Macedonian accented voice booming across my grandmaother’s back yard. The sound made me stand up to see what was going on. I cracked open the ancient plastic fly screen hanging from gran’s backdoor and peered into the garden. (more…)

In the 25 years since I last dined there my cousin’s taverna has changed, but I returned to find many echoes of what once was.

His Father Yianni opened the tavern in 1975 serving small snacks for the townfolk to munch upon during their eveining promenades. The tavern was small with about 5 tables inside, a small delicatessen style freezer behind which were the heavy cast iron grills on which my uncle would place the number of souvlakia i felt capable of eating. (more…)

Feeling at leat a little better and with the “you are in Italy” meter ticking ever louder I decided to indulge in that great tourist with a plan activity “the day trip”. (more…)

It was still rather early in the evening so we took the opportunity to walk Lucca’s streets and attempt to achieve the “are we lost yet” heights of touristic utopia.

It was a postcard tour of about 2 hours duration, the amfiteatro, piazza napoleone, churches, puccini’s birthplace and even stumbling across the (its actually pretty big) aquaduct that supplies most of the town’s drinking water, and it seems most of the town’s empty beer bottles and other general refuse…. yeah but at least it was clean garbage, god bless italy.

We returned to trattoria gigi for another round of great food and bevvy, this time accompanied by good and varied conversation. (more…)

More positive tourist Karma at work with my fortunate choice of lodgings at Le Torre deep in da heart of Lucca. The owner Alfredo and his loveleeee wife are absolute characters. He spends most of the day sitting around Piazza del Carmine talking to the other locals, making smalltalk with the tenants that he likes all the while sporting a rather well worn pair of black trousers, the government issue dark brown sandals and a shirt (please note the use of the singular) which he, like a skilled catwalk model or experienced seamstress, transforms into various “looks”When in idle mode (this is his default mode), the shirt would be draped over the back of his chair or similarly draped over one or occasionally two shoulders. In the one full afternoon I spent with him, testing my Italian as we watched the shadows lengthen across the piazza his establishment (more…)

Lucca didn’t need fireworks, men on horseback or architectural feats to grab my attention, Why people stay in Florence when Lucca is only 90 mins further up the train line I dont know… why anybody would dream of staying in Pisa when lucca is only 20 mins up the train line is something that will baffle me for quite some time, but it is to my gain so why worry. (more…)

Having promised myself to return to Florence and try and find some love for the town the whole world bar me seemed to worship was… unsuccesful. I did my best, s

I tayed in a better hotel, went to the sights and wandered the streets, but there was so much I didn’t like about this town. There were several things i did like. Most of these moments happened when i walked to the outskirts of the town centre to areas like Santo Croce where the Calcio Istorico was played, here again the crowds were incredibly passionate thugs but you felt you were in the midst of something unique. The game itself is more brute force than brutality, not openly violent but men did whatever they could to stop the guy with the ball from getting to where he wanted to go, there werent too many moments of random violence… there were plenty in the crowd mind you, and a lot of them between the “women” i enjoyed a half of a game and headed off to listen to the cheers from the steps of the santa croce church whos piazza had been invaded by the game and its supporters. (more…)

Arezzo is Roberto Benigni land, and although he no longer lives there he has left many relatives behind. Walking the streets can be something of a head turning experience if you happen to be a fan of the man.

My favourite roberto lookalike was a guy who ran the newsstand near the station, one of the first people i saw in Arezzo and had the whole johnny stechino look going for him. I never asked him if he was related, it was just so unnecesary, but i did take to asking him stupid questions just to get a free of charge roberto benigni type response,.. he didnt have the lines … but he had those million dollar expressions down pat.

Some of the questions I asked him included

Vorrei parchare mio dischi volare qui… va bene?
I would like to park my flying saucer here… ok?

Vorrei il giornale per domani perche io preferisco pesche fresci
I would like tomorrows newspaper because i prefer fresh fish

Ho bisogno una caramello due chilogrami pesante
I need a 2 kilo lolly.

By the end of my stay he was giving it a go and would greet me with a wink and a buongiorno principessa …

Arezzo had gradually whipped itself into a frenzy over the giostra that was to take place this saturday night. I had watched the various pageants parades and also watched as they constructed the jousting surface across the centre of Arezzo’s Piazza Maggiore. (more…)

True to form after 3 days in a town the local bums and regular faces started saying hello to me, and me in my effort to be conspicuous placed myself in one of the main town squares and happily “buona sera”d passers by.

After a while a local gent came and sat on the wall near me, didnt say hello, but sat so close to me that it would have been rude of me not to make the initial effort…. “sssseeeera” i said… dying to be taken for a local. “Sei straniero?” was his reponse,.. hmm.. guess that pretend to be a local approach lasted an entire 0.0 seconds.. but he seemed to be ok with the idea of me not being frrom these parts and so i gave him my abbreviated life story. (more…)