Japanese Day Chiang Mai

This city has so many fun events it is easy to see something magical every week, even daily.  On Japanese day the large community was out in national dress and their were also kimonos there for those who wanted to dress Japanese for the day and have their photo taken.

HOLIDAY WITH TERRY SEPT '13

This somehow went in to draft and wasn't published so don't know if it will go in by date of writing and happening or now after I am already in Thailand.  If it is out of sequence please know that it was in September 2013.
ITALY

Terry flew in to Florence from Pa and it was so great to have her and share many of the lovely places I had visited in Tuscany, Umbria and the Marche.  I had booked us in to nice Agriturismos or B&Bs that produce their own wine and produce so the food was excellent.  We stayed 2 nights in each one and lazed one day and went to nearby sites of interest on the other.  We also visited many Cantinas to try all those lovely wines like Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile and the Monte Falco wines.
The time flew by but we tried to live every minute.  We went to Greve, Bolsena again and areas around Lake Trasimeno and just enjoyed the lovely landscape, the food, gelati and friendly people.  Here's a few photos of the trip.

always the best day - the arrival full of happiness and anticipation

Chianti Classico Greve

Nice pool in B&B

stroll by Lago Trasimeno

Waltzing in Volterra

That favourite enoteca in Castello Bolsena

Landscape, Marche

Thailand Nov. '13

I've been back in my second home since early November.  Very lax about writing this blog as I notice the last post was from Italy and from there I drove to Ireland, to my home near Kenmare and that is where my camper van is now spending the winter housed in my garage.
Lovely to arrive back to find my little room all cleaned up with curtains washed and pillows etc aired out in the sun thanks to Khun Nei my wonderful landlady.  Slipped right back in to the easy rhythm of life here although it is, again this year, much hotter than in the past years.  Always around 30 degrees and a lot of humidity.
So many of the old friends are around and it is great to visit the little local markets and have a good bowl of various great Thai soups, roti, mango sticky rice and other favourites.  Of course things here change too like restaurants closed down or changed hands.  There's so much more traffic and there will be even more with the lack of city planning and several new malls erected in already jammed areas.  These malls are so glitzy and huge, all sparkling chrome, light and glass.  Monuments to materialism.  Awful places where the music is so loud and appealing to the young to spend spend spend.
I do love it here and stay in a little oasis of peace in the old city.  I arrived in time for a big fair and for the festival of Loy Kratong when the city goes mad for days with fireworks, hot air balloons floating through the sky, home made "Kratons" floating down all the rivers and moats - they are made with banana leaves and are alight with candles and burning incense.

Learning how to make the Kratong

mythical animal

japanese festival offering

Ready to perform the dance

RECANATI AND MONTEFALCO.

I was strolling along a little town named Recanati the other day and I saw a sign outside a cemetery pointing to the tomb of B.Gigli.  I was immediately carried back to the old days in Dublin when I never missed a performance of the Rome and Milan Opera when they came to Dublin every spring and I used to queue up to get a seat up in "the Gods" for 2/6.  I went straight from school and did my home work there on the side of the road while waiting.  Those were the days when young Irish kids would wait outside the Gaiety for such greats as Gigli, Gobbi, Clabassi and all those wonderful singers who came out smelling beautiful like no men we had ever met in Dublin in the 50s.  Among them Benamino Gigli who was so famous and yet took time to speak with all of us.  Once a group of them even invited about 10 of us to come to their hotel for breakfast on Sunday morning - it was to the Russell on Harcourt Street.  How kind and I have loved Italians and Italy ever since.

The tomb of Gigli

Outside the tomb

The town of Recanati and statue of the poet Leopardi

  I stayed in a parking place by the town as as so often happens in Italy I was invited by nice neighbours to share their evening meal with them.  That happens so often in camping places unlike staying in a hotel where there is no contact with any one else.  I went from there over to Monte Falco, a well known place for great wines and there happened to be a weekend festival of tasting - all the stalls were serving local specialties like olive oil, Sagrantino wine, truffles, salami's, cheese etc.  Great fun.

Learning to make pasta

A bride among the tasting stands

Tasting and buying the vino

Nice Enoteca

Sansepolcro

Sansepolcro is a quiet, safe, slow paced town renowned as the home place of the famous painter Piero Della Francesca and it contains some of his most well known works.   I came to the area mostly to meet up with a lovely couple, Anna and Fabio who I met a few times at Markets for Antiques.  They are world travelers who live among the lower slopes of the Appenines only 4 Kms from the city.  I was very lucky to arrive on the evening of a great party nearby.  Interesting people, beautiful surroundings, terrific food and vino.  It can't get any better.  Of course the weather in Italy helps so much when hanging precious decorations outdoors.

A terrific Yurt in the garden

Fabio and Frederico

With Anna and Fabio

Felice the host, he made the Yurt





Camping is so different to staying in hotels, one meets the most interesting people and they're all on holidays and in a great mood.  Here's just a few of those I've had fun with lately.

15 August celebrated by about 50 people at the camp site.  A three course meal was ordered in and the wine was flowing.  All that for 12 euros.

Graziano, the wine maker par excellance.

My lovely neighbours from Holland, Monique and Geerd Jan with Soren and Willeke.  We had such fun times together I missed them when it was time to move on.

A farewell grill at Anna and Antonello's (from dAquila)
with Birgit and Hubert from Germany.

Birgit and I at lunch in Pienza.

CHURCHES

So much of the beautiful Italian art is in the churches so have been visiting them on a regular basis for the first time in years.
This lovely little church is in Assisi.  Isn't it just the kind of place to encourage meditation and prayer.  No gilded pictures, no pious eyes cast upwards, no painted statues.  Just a simple, quiet, very old building.

The confessional

Another very famous church in Assisi is, of course, that of St Francis.  Although very large it is very accessible and free to roam around looking at the wonderful frescoes attributed to Giotto.  On the lower lever there is also the tomb of St Francis himself.

The steps up to the church

The nave and frescoes.



One of the largest churches is to be found in Orvieto, home of the popes during the middle ages.   It is enormous.

Orvieto Cathedral

LAZY DAYS IN TRASIMENO

Sitting or lying around under the hot Tuscan sun feeling very reluctant to do anything more energetic than reach for a glass of something cool  or stand under the cold water shower by the lake.

Here in this family campsite the children run around freely making friends regardless of the different languages spoken.  All the Nordic and Dutch little flaxen haired children mingling with the mops of dark curly Italian kids.  The lake is not deep and the whole area is very quiet and safe .

Trasimeno is close to many interesting cities but the call of site seeing is not very strong this August weekend.

I was recently in Orvieto, the town of Papal refuge during medieval times.  It has an enormous cathedral to rival St. Peters and it also has St Patrick’s Well – This is no ordinary well and was built down in to the Etruscan remains of the city.  Can you imagine it is vast, over 53 meters deep and 13 meters wide.  Back in the 1500s donkeys used the two spiral staircases one for ascending, one for descending and each independent of each other.  The donkeys carried the water up 248 steps to the surface.  There are 70 windows cut into the wall to light the stairs.  An unbelievable feat of engineering.