The Vyne in Basingstoke

The Vyne is a 16 th century English historic house in Hampshire which played host the King Henry VIII on a number of occasions

The house retains its Tudor chapel, with stained glass. Also some 17 th century features 

When we lived in Reading in the late 90's, it was the place we always brought our US visitors. It was also a place for musical concerts.  It was a nice reminisce for us both  

This is my England

Spent this last day and half back in England amongst friends and                                                        the real British things I miss

Observations and thoughts

I have decided that 1/3 of the Italian population works for the government 1/3 work in the restaurant industry and 1/3 is everyone else. (Need to fact this)

Breakfast is brief, lunch takes 90 minutes. Dinner 2 hours and very late in the evening.  They don't care if you sit there all day. Once they serve you your meal, they are done and they can sit down, probably call someone on the phone.  They might return and ask about "un caffe?"

  This is a fact of life, accept it, live it, believe it.  

I am convinced nobody in italy ever gets fired.  Because some part of the day is sitting around and how could you possibly evaluate productivity.  

I have recently been told this statistic about Italy.   There are 70,000 employees within the Trenitalia system and only 20 new jobs a year. Thse new jobs are probably deaths.  

In Orvieto  garbage  is collected every day.  It may be glass one day, paper another, then organic.  It's all very organised.  Neat, clean no rats yet totally opposite is Naples

 

Having said all of this, it's not a lazy behavior, it's there life style. 

Americans are probably one of the most hard working cultures in the world.  

Germans get 6 weeks of holiday a year, the brits 4 at least often 6.  

Observations and thoughts

Casa San Giovanale Orvieto

Our place for one week

Lamborghini

What a find for us.. We were walking to the train station to take the train to Cortona when the noise of cars was brought to our attention. All sorts of men milling about, the police controlling traffic. All of sudden at the round about comes 3 race cars (Jerry had to tell me Lamborghini ). The pice would stop the traffic  and about 3-4 would roar by. I would say they were going about  40 but around a turn. With the straight away below we could see them going about 60mph. They has to share the road with the rest of the population. We decides to forget Cortona, this was way more interesting.  They later had a parade in

Piazza Popolo

Below I found on google
The Lamborghini 50th Anniversary Grand Tour is the largest gathering ever of cars from the “House of the Raging Bull”, organised to celebrate the Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary: a convoy of some 4 km long and 190,000 hp on the road. The 350 cars (320 registered participants and approximately 30 courtesy cars for the press and guests) are now arriving in the parc fermè at Piazza Castello in front of the Sforzesco Castle, (Milan ) with their respective pilots and co-pilots totalling 700 people.)

The 50th Anniversary Grand Tour, with more than 700 participants representing 29 countries, ” The first destination of the Lamborghini Grand Tour will be Bobbio, the soul of the Trebbia Valley, then the first day will be concluded in Forte dei Marmi, one of the most exclusive seaside resorts on the Tyrrhenian coast. After Forte dei Marmi, the convoy will arrive on May 9 in Rome, passing through the base of the 4° Stormo of Air Force at Grosseto. The morning of May 10 (Coincidently our chance to see this )it will restart again in the direction of Bologna, crossing the towns of Orvieto, Arezzo and San Giustino Valdarno, where all participants will stop for lunch at the Tenuta il Bobbio. On the 10th evening, the cars will arrive in the center of Bologna, where the city will offer a welcome in the prestigious setting of Palazzo Re Enzo.
The final little fiat ( full of simply a huge man)was simply in the wrong place at the wrong!

Civitadibagnoregio

We decided to take a bus to Civitadibagnoregio. it is a public bus that leaves from the funicular at the start of town. A total of €4. Return trip.

We had some time to tour another well. The Pozzo di San Patrizio (English: "St. Patrick's Well"is another other well in Orvieto. It was built in between 1527 and 1537, during the sack of Rome in 1527 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V because he feared that the city's water supply would be insufficient in the event of a siege.

The name was inspired by medieval legends that St. Patrick's Purgatory in Ireland gave access down to Purgatory, indicating something very deep.
It has a central well shaft with two spiral ramps in a double helix, accessed by two doors, which allowed mules to carry empty and full water vessels separately in downward and upward directions without obstruction. The well is 174 ft deep . There are 248 steps and 70 windows provide illumination.
I took only about 20 steps and turned around. It all made me too anxious, especially since I could hear an Italian school trip behind me and I knew their behaviour would create further anxiety. Surely one of them would throw something over or hang on the guard rail.
Also I was sure my iPhone would just jump out of my purse, or my glasses would spontaneously fall off. Thank god Jerry is very forgiving of my claustrophobic tendencies.

The bus trip was interesting. We stopped at a school and picked up some high school students. I think they attend until 1:00pm, take a lunch break and start again at 2:15 maybe 3:00. Ir was interesting as we dropped a few off at this small villages. I would imagine they somehow get the bus back. The trip was certainly nothing like the bus to Positano years ago but certainly interesting enough. In a strange why, I have begun to understand why so many race drivers are Italian. They may seem like crazy drivers, but rarely I have seen a accidents or or that matter dented or scratched cars.
Civitadibagnoregio, was founded by Etruscans over twenty-five hundred years ago but has seen its population dwindle to just 15 residents over the course of the 20th century.
At the end of the 17th century, the population was forced to move to Bagnoregio due to an earthquake
The town was placed on the World Monuments Fund's 2006 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites, due to the threats it faces from erosion. There were very few people there and wehad a great and very long lunch and yes I am holding on to the rail, clutching my hat, the fear of heights now!!!

Michelangeli Gualverio, famous in Orvieto

I recall this artist on our last visit to Orvieto. We both love wood. He began as a furniture-maker five generations ago, this 'Bottega' developed its now-famous two-dimensional, almost shadow puppet look under Gualverio Michelangeli. The sculptures in pine. The style—a quirky style of folk and contemporary art–is carried on in the work of his three daughters.
As we walked around Orvieto we began to see different shops have tiny subtle pieces.
We visited the workshop that included some incredible dolls

Is this is NOT a mosquito

Jerry continues to reassure that this is 

'Probably' not a mosquito (zanzara). They are at least 1/4 inch long and while he was BBQing at least 50 of them flew into the house and hovered near any light source.
I simply shut off most lights light some candles and simply could no longer see them. 

So far no bites however if I am hospitalized with encephalitis in Italy let the doctors know my suspect

A fashion contrast

She turned ever head on the cobbled stone street & with louboutin heels no less!
He simply was sunning with his blazer and white shirt on the bushes.

Tuscany and La Foce

We decided to rent a car today and make our way to La Foce in Val d'Oricia. On the way we had visited Pienza. This is a town in the province of Siena, in the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany (central Italy), between the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, is the "touchstone of Renaissance idealism"per Pope Pius II in the 1400's. Certainly a clean and small hill town, apparently one of the first really planned city.

Then we made our way to La Foce. It was absolutely worth it and the pictures do NOT do it justice.
A little tricky to find, ( thank you Penelope our voice on our GPS ) and it's only open on Wednesdays from 3-6pm. It really takes planning!

In 1924 the Irish-American Iris Origo - the famous author -( War in Val D'Orcia which Jerry read last year)and her Italian husband, Marchese Antonio Origo, acquired the La Foce estate- a combination of olive groves, widespread fields and woodland. The were obviously very wealthy. She grew up in Florence on a Villa that had been original to the Medici Family.
The garden at La Foce was designed by Iris Origo and the famous English landscape gardener Cecil Pinsent between 1925 and 1939. The gardener simply lived with them for those years.


We easily could of spent hours there but alas, thought it best to return the car before dark. Dark in Italy is not like dark in California!
Except for a brief drama of filling the tank again ( even with my language skills and google translate it was a bit counter-intuitive to fill it up ) we had a great Pizza dinner back in Orvieto.