The French Italian Job. Wednesday

I seemed to survive the night; someone thought I might just be a pile of ashes after spending a night in a convent. The plan today was to walk to town, get in a bit of culture, do a little shopping (maybe a dress, maybe a trinket), have taglieri for lunch, eat ice cream (a sad omission yesterday), stay in the shade and walk home again. We did it all. We didn’t achieve our 21,000 step record that we got on Monday but we got to 13,000 and it was hot 🥵. So far we’ve seen the oldest covered theatre, been round the Palladio Museum, looked at some paintings and churches and generally wondered why on earth people don’t seem to go to Vicenza.

The French Italian Job. Tuesday

Another drive to our next stop, Vicenza, but we were there by 1.30. We were greeted by a wall of heat and a cacophony of crickets in the trees in a beautiful location near this church. The little hotel was lovely in itself but seemed a little sparse and basic. It wasn’t until I delved deeper online I discovered that it was or at least had been a convent. This would explain why there was only one mirror (in the bathroom), a very simple desk and chairs and a hairdryer on request. It didn’t explain why the shower was big enough for two 👍. It was a 20 minute walk into town, long enough in 30C. We ended our day with pizza overlooking Vicenza.

The French Italian Job July 2019. Monday

It was raining this morning so it gave us chance to sample the lovely buffet breakfast in our hotel. It was forecast to clear up at lunchtime, which it did, so we moseyed down to the town and had a spectacular lunch of a (very) large limoncello with tonic and a tray of nibbles. By the time we had walked back the weather was bright enough to take a boat ride out to two of the closest islands on the lake. We went back to town in the evening for a delicious meal of pork tenderloin stuffed with prunes and wrapped bacon, with Amaretti ice cream to follow. But although they did fit me, I didn’t buy these…yes Barbie pink Louboutins.

The French Italian Job. July 2019

Another long driving day through Mont Blanc to end up at Stresa, our stop for tonight. It didn’t actually seem so much driving today as the roads were very clear and apart from an unfortunate stop in Aosta services (don’t go there) and a few hairpin bends into Stress a very easy drive but finding the hotel wasn’t so easy due to a combination of sat nav and stupidity (I’m not taking all the blame for that). Parking was another matter with an “I can’t get my Porsche down there” moment. To be fair with all 4 sensors screaming there was a need for outside intervention (me); let’s just say we did get parked. A lovely afternoon and evening and the promised rain and storm never quite happened.

The French Italian Job July 2019

This day was always going to be a driving day and started as they often do, on the Tunnel early. Frosty briefly met a Ferrari 458 who ended up further back on the train. This overtook is twice at great speed on the journey but its destination was Belgium so we lost him. There was a moment in Beaune when someone thought it would be a good idea to have a book of “things we (I) did wrong” caused by my impasse with the sat nav, apparently solved in 10 seconds by someone who knew what they were doing. It might have been a good idea if at the point of the discussion we were not sitting at a junction on the wrong side of the road. We found the garage and ended our day at an old friend – the Beaune hotel, with a stroll into town and a lovely meal outside on a beautiful evening.

The Folly Revived. Spring 2019

Another catch up of some of our adventures. We are soon to begin an epic driving trip which will need to be updated daily in the proper fashion, so this is a chance to get up to date.

First a lovely day out at Madresfield Court for their Daffodil Sunday. It’s a beautiful looking house and although I’ve still never been inside, I am trying to get that fixed. This day though we were looking at their lovely gardens.In April we had a quick trip to the apartment in France and this was our first night’s stop in Bethune.The next nights stop was in this Chateau.where we had dinner on the library with the Compte and Comptesse de Boisseau in the library. We weren’t expecting that 😳.We spent a day in Monte Carlo where they were starting to get ready for the Grand Prix.

We spent a day at an old favourite beach,went for a long walk and ate cake of course.Once we were back we had a sunny top down day out with the Porsche club with a drive to Broughton Castle and lunch on the grass.

Porsche on the Prom at Llandudno with fish and chips.Finally another Porsche day out to Chatsworth which is a proper palace.

The Folly Revived – Moving on. Gothenburg 15-18th March

Firstly, my apologies for a very overdue catch up on my life. I am very happy and content in Beastie Folly, travelling quite a lot, eating cake wherever we can and generally enjoying life, because that’s what it’s there for. At the moment I am invigilating exams most days so I only really get up to mischief at weekends. Today it is a cold, wet day in June and the perfect chance to write up some stories.

We decided we would like to see Andrea Bocelli and rather than wait for him to come to UK, we sought him out somewhere more interesting. So Gothenburg it was. Our hotel had been a palace in the past; it was a lovely building.The first day we spent exploring and soon discovered it was a very expensive place. We wandered around and found cosy tea rooms and the tropical house in the park. It wasn’t as cold as we thought it might be but it was a long way from warm, so tea,coffee and cake made a welcome stop (we shared this one, it had some kind of almond goo in the middle).We dressed up and treated ourselves to a glass of champagne before the concert on Saturday night. It was a very big arena and although we did enjoy it, we decided we would like to see him again in a more intimate setting if we get the chance.Sunday was forecast to be a cold day, getting worse and wetter. It was and did, so after a brisk walk to an old look out tower, we scuttled into the museum. I’m not much of a museum person but this place was very good and kept us amused for a few hours, well until tea and cake time. 😁 Then it was the last day and back home to the land of wine at less than £10 per glass.

The Folly Revived – January Sun

At last then a long overdue catchup this time from St Lucia, where we are catching some rays and escaping from an English winter. I’ve never been to the a Caribbean before so it’s all new to me here and we have a lovely swim up room with our own little terrace.

Since October we’ve just done together stuff, like you do. We went to Vienna and Salzburg for a few days just before Christmas and Christmas itself came and went as it does. Pleasant enough but I was never really into Christmas and circumstances haven’t improved that, so post Christmas left us both a bit flat and this lovely break in the sun will recharge us.

I hardly dare say it but it looks likely that the apartment in France might actually become mine in not too long now. Only been waiting two years – the reason seemingly being inept English solicitors compounded with inept French ones.

So no dramatic changes, no disasters, just peaceful fun and happiness.

The Folly Revived- A Trip to Italy, part two

So this holiday was a dose of sunshine just because we could. We had a lovely room with its own terrace and a straight view across the Bay of Naples to Vesuvius. Sorrento is actually the town in the distance, our hotel being in Sant’Agata in the hills behind. The food in the hotel was lovely and there was lots of it but we treated ourselves to a couple of meals out in the village. One night it seemed like the whole village was out watching Napoli playing in the Champions League. It’s a shame they didn’t score, we were looking forward to some Italian excitement. We did a lot of walking, climbed a lot of steps, ate ice cream and had an eventful trip to Naples on the train. It was lovely.

The Folly Revived – A Trip To Italy, Part Two

I got home from Italy on Tuesday, just had time to wash my smalls, and then I was due back in Italy on Friday, this time to Sorrento for a very different kind of holiday. This second one was a lovely unexpected surprise with no choice of date because this time I was not going on my own. Worth never wanted me to live the rest of my life alone, he most certainly wouldn’t have done so if I’d left first. I still have moments, more so lately as there is a guilt thing lurking about, and sometimes it all hurtles back and there you are crying again, just for a minute or two, with no earthly reason why. But it soon passes and my “That was then, this is now” philosophy seems to get me through. I’m able to be very quick at judging what’s right for me these days and what’s wrong has to go, with great haste.

So my Special One is very right and of course, he has a Mini, but as he doesn’t live close we have days together then days apart, which is what we’ve been doing during the summer. I’ve known him vaguely for years and quite how it all happened is a mystery to both of us. I was only trying to be helpful after his wife died simply because I knew how bad people are after you lose your other half. He was not on Worth’s list of unacceptable companions for me ( oh yes, Worth had one, at least in his head. Failure to comply would have resulted in him haunting me 😳). It doesn’t seem right to drag him into this long saga but it’s my story too, so it’s enough that you know I have someone special by my side again.