In six months, one of my sisters and I will travel to the UK
and then on to Italy. Our trip has already been 3 months in the planning, which
can be almost as exciting as the travel itself! Lindy lives a 3 hour drive away
from me but with the advantage of email, we can ‘discuss’ our options and agree
on plans. The internet makes it all so easy; our air travel is booked and paid
for and we’re now onto the stage of researching a hire car in the UK and accommodation
in both countries.
In 2006-2007 I spent 3 months in the UK, researching our
family history. That took me through Wales to Ireland and back to Scotland. I stayed
for a month in a cottage attached to a farm in Lancashire (pictured below) and then taught
English at a summer school in Chester.
In 1996 I had spent 2 weeks in Italy (part of a 2 month
backpacking trip through Europe) and loved it so much that I had always wanted
to go back. So I flew from the UK in 2007 to Italy, where I lived with an
Italian family in a medieval village in Tuscany for a month’s intensive language
course, which included the culture and food. The photo below the one of the school door plate is of me learning to cook Italian style!
I followed this up with another month living in a little cottage
attached to a large villa, surrounded by olive groves and acres of grape vines.
I ended my 3-month long Italian holiday with a 4 week stay in a little
apartment in Florence. It was at the top of the building, a total of 50 stairs to climb, but worth it for the view of the famous red roofs.
I was withing walking distance of everything I wanted to see and do, and I soaked up the art and the history. I took buses (and sometimes the train) to other places. I spent days in the Boboli Gardens and still didn't see it all.
A year or so later, I returned to Italy. On that visit, I
stayed with a young couple I met on the internet (she wanted to learn English
and I wanted to improve my Italian) in their home in a little village outside
Bologna. I lived with them as one of the family, met their extended family and
friends, and saw life as an Italian as opposed to a tourist.
Since the late 1990s, all of my travels have been researched
by me, using the internet. I pay for everything possible before I leave
Australia, and – touch wood – I have never had any problems. This blog will
follow us as we plan and then as we travel.
