We've spent the last 3 weeks in Umbria, near a little town called Montecastello di Vibio, which claims is one of the most beautiful places in Italy, there's an official sign making the claim, and I'm not one to dispute official signs. Regardless of official signs or not, it's a beautiful place, and this is just like being in Tuscany without the throngs of tourists.
There's a bit to update everyone on, so I'll get onto that in the next day or so, but in the meantime, just a quick post to say all is well, and life is great.
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Autostrade
Despite what most people think about Italian drivers, the autostrade aren't too bad at all...I wasn't driving mind you, but as a passenger I still observe a healthy respect on the roads compared to the aggression you see in Melbourne. Everyone actually stays on the slow lane unless they want to overtake, and after they overtake, they move back to the slow lane to let other cars pass - that's the early observation anyway.
It takes about 7 hours to drive from Biella to our place in Umbria and only two minor arguments about directions. My map reading skills are terrible and this is a vast improvement from our trip last year. I quickly realize that you can't turn an iPad around like a paper map much to my disappointment. Navigation is not my strong suit but we make it, and I'm happy to hear that Shane and I had a lot less arguments than him and Johnny did as they made their way to the tour de France.
Another experience of traveling in Italy is the AUTOGRILL, a Jetsons-esque monolith straddling both sides of the autostrade that serves as a one stop shop for food, toys, petrol, a dog park (I use that term liberally, it's a gated area of 4 x4 m), regional specialities (they do that pretty well actually), and Italian travelers all making their way to the beach drinking coffees at the bar. You can wait a while before you realize you need to pay for your order before taking the docket to the bar though...
Autogrill, Italy Highway Gas & Food Station - not sure if this link will work but hopefully it does and you get the idea.
It takes about 7 hours to drive from Biella to our place in Umbria and only two minor arguments about directions. My map reading skills are terrible and this is a vast improvement from our trip last year. I quickly realize that you can't turn an iPad around like a paper map much to my disappointment. Navigation is not my strong suit but we make it, and I'm happy to hear that Shane and I had a lot less arguments than him and Johnny did as they made their way to the tour de France.
Another experience of traveling in Italy is the AUTOGRILL, a Jetsons-esque monolith straddling both sides of the autostrade that serves as a one stop shop for food, toys, petrol, a dog park (I use that term liberally, it's a gated area of 4 x4 m), regional specialities (they do that pretty well actually), and Italian travelers all making their way to the beach drinking coffees at the bar. You can wait a while before you realize you need to pay for your order before taking the docket to the bar though...
Autogrill, Italy Highway Gas & Food Station - not sure if this link will work but hopefully it does and you get the idea.
Biella
Biella is a beautiful town near the mountains in north Italy, it's pretty small but is close to Turin, Milan and the French border.
Staying with Simon and Fedi has been great, the boys have had a chance to run around when we haven't been taking them to different offices, we've seen a little bit of the centre of town, but there's a lot to discover when we come back in September.Where is Biella? It's also been good to get to know Simon and Fedi a bit more - it's can be tricky having people stay with you, but they've been gracious hosts. I tell you though, it's pretty nerve-wracking cooking pasta for Italians. Happy to say it was eaten and kids who are the most honest critics seemed to like it.
Shane has been checking out the local riding scene and met a really nice guy called Andrea who owns a bike shop in Biella. He's lending Shane and his mate two bikes to take to the Tour de France and when Shane gets back, he's got his new love, his Italian OLMO to ride.
Lowlight of our time in Biella was waiting at the post office and Charlie telling me I have a big bum...I quote
Charlie "You've got a bit of a big bum mummy"
Elise "Gee, thanks Charlie"
Charlie "Well, mum you do, don't get mad at me, I'm just telling you the truth"
Mental note not to tuck my top into my pants EVER AGAIN....High waisted look not good for Elise, point taken, brutally. Needless to say, I did NOT look like this....
After 5 days we pack up and get ready to leave, no car or apartment yet, but we've got some bearings which is a bonus for when we return...
Staying with Simon and Fedi has been great, the boys have had a chance to run around when we haven't been taking them to different offices, we've seen a little bit of the centre of town, but there's a lot to discover when we come back in September.Where is Biella? It's also been good to get to know Simon and Fedi a bit more - it's can be tricky having people stay with you, but they've been gracious hosts. I tell you though, it's pretty nerve-wracking cooking pasta for Italians. Happy to say it was eaten and kids who are the most honest critics seemed to like it.
Shane has been checking out the local riding scene and met a really nice guy called Andrea who owns a bike shop in Biella. He's lending Shane and his mate two bikes to take to the Tour de France and when Shane gets back, he's got his new love, his Italian OLMO to ride.
Lowlight of our time in Biella was waiting at the post office and Charlie telling me I have a big bum...I quote
Charlie "You've got a bit of a big bum mummy"
Elise "Gee, thanks Charlie"
Charlie "Well, mum you do, don't get mad at me, I'm just telling you the truth"
Mental note not to tuck my top into my pants EVER AGAIN....High waisted look not good for Elise, point taken, brutally. Needless to say, I did NOT look like this....
After 5 days we pack up and get ready to leave, no car or apartment yet, but we've got some bearings which is a bonus for when we return...
Friday, 13 July 2012
Ci Siamo!!
We arrived in Milan Malpensa at about 8 in the morning - I felt pretty good after sleeping for a lot of the flight. Our Aussie friend who lives in Biella, Simon, had organized a car to pick us up from the arrival terminal...inspired move. So much better than trying to rent a car and navigate to Biella - the navigational part of my brain seems to be missing some pieces.
Pulling up to Simon and Fedi's house it's exactly as we remember it from our brief visit a year ago - AMAZING. Very nice to be able to put our suitcases down and give the kids some room to run around for 5 days while we get our bearings and try to organize schools, a car and an apartment for when we come back in September.
Pulling up to Simon and Fedi's house it's exactly as we remember it from our brief visit a year ago - AMAZING. Very nice to be able to put our suitcases down and give the kids some room to run around for 5 days while we get our bearings and try to organize schools, a car and an apartment for when we come back in September.
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| The boys made themselves at |
Red tape tango
Whoever thought 5 days would be enough to organize a car, house, schools and the infamous 'permesso di soggiorno' (stay permit) clearly hadn't considered how much red tape is involved in every official administrative task over here.
Here's a quick rundown, because if I explain in detail it'll take all day..
1. Permit to stay - Difficulty rating = 9/10 - this is the unadulterated joy of Italian bureaucracy. You've got to be willing to take the pain on this one if you want to get items 2, 3 and 4 and if you want to stay in the country longer than 3 months.
2. Car - Difficulty rating = 7/10 you can't buy a car in Italy unless you are an Italian resident. You can't get a friend to buy a car for you because then the liability is on them or it opens them up to more scrutiny from the taxman....you ALSO can't buy a car unless you have a permit to stay. We don't have our permit to stay so we rent a car to get us to Umbria and gratefully use Simon and Fedi's car to get around Biella. Simon and Shane drive to Milan to see a few cars, and after one car seller not giving Shane a good vibe and another confirming that they can't sell the car without a permesso di soggiorno, we are left waiting for our permesso. Unfortunately there aren't that many automatic cars in Italy for sale that fit what we want, so I'm going to need to learn to drive a manual on the RHS of the road...more on that later.
3. School - Difficulty rating = 2/10 (so far only because we have gone to a private school for a meeting, otherwise we need an address so we can enroll at the local school for Charlie.) This school takes the kids skiing in Winter as an extracurricular activity, every Wednesday afternoon for 10 weeks for 100 Euro (for the whole program) - Shane is all over that one, sounds awesome.
4. Apartment - Difficulty rating = 4/10 (as long as you can understand what real estate agents are saying) We found a great apartment overlooking a park for 1200 euro a month (expensive for Italy but dirt cheap compared to Melbourne prices)...the woman who owns it is really eccentric - she collects exotic animals and has them at her country house, she also has a house in Sardegna that she spends a lot of time at and keeps tropical fish in her apartment in an open air pond...you've got to see it to believe it, she is cool. We go and look at a few other apartments, that are really cosy and a lot smaller and spend the whole week waiting to find out if the one we like is available, to find out yesterday that it isn't. We need to make a decision on this other apartment, pretty quickly. Downsides - it's not cosy, but it's light and very comfortable, and the oven doesn't work. Upsides - it's overlooking a park, there's undercover parking for our imaginary car, the nice lady lives upstairs, and there's a toy pig in the bedroom (boys' upside not mine)....not sure if we jump on it yet, I think the oven is a deal breaker....especially for a LOOOOONG WINTER.
Here's a quick rundown, because if I explain in detail it'll take all day..
1. Permit to stay - Difficulty rating = 9/10 - this is the unadulterated joy of Italian bureaucracy. You've got to be willing to take the pain on this one if you want to get items 2, 3 and 4 and if you want to stay in the country longer than 3 months.
Most travel references for living in Italy recommend getting the right visa, reporting to the Questura (local police station - another fine experience) within 8 days of arrival, and then you more of less get your permesso.
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| This has to be better than waiting in a police station |
We front up at the Questura on day 2, with all our documentation and our friend who lives in Biella so knows a few people around town. The day we rock up it's for appointments only. We stand around (with the kids!) for about an hour, trying to figure out how to get into one of the doors that are closed and have no windows so we can find out what to do or how to get an appointment. Simon goes and chats to one of his mates, and finds out that we need to go to the post office to get an appointment. I take the boys to a local park for a bit of running around (there's only so much tiggy you can play in a government department courtyard) and Simon and Shane head off to the post office.
A couple of hours pass. The boys let me know that the post office gives the documents that need to be completed but don't give you an appointment unless you have filled out the documents and paid about $400 to file them. To get help filling out the documents we need to speak to Signora Jamilla at the local union office (?) or something like that but she doesn't work today, she only works 2 days a week. We come back the next day and speak to her. We make another appointment to come back the day after to complete the documents. We need to provide different documents that were filed for our visa because this is a different document to our visa...the visa itself won't do, because that was submitted to the consulate, this is a different department....and so it goes on. All the while the kids are being dragged around from office to office with the promise of gelati if they're good, no gelati if they're not so good. Shane is exasperated, I've never seen him get frustrated with this stuff...I'm amused by all this because I think I expected it.
We get the documents filled out after I don't know how many hours in Signora Jamilla's office with no air conditioning over 3 days - she tries as much as she can to help us and the help is welcome. Once we have the documents done, we head to the post office to wait in line for another hour, pay what we need to pay and get our appointment at the questura only to find out that because it's summer time we need to wait longer and won't get an appointment for another 3 weeks. We'll be driving back to Biella (a leisurely 7-8 hour drive) on the 19th July for our appointment to get fingerprinted and hopefully our permit to stay.
2. Car - Difficulty rating = 7/10 you can't buy a car in Italy unless you are an Italian resident. You can't get a friend to buy a car for you because then the liability is on them or it opens them up to more scrutiny from the taxman....you ALSO can't buy a car unless you have a permit to stay. We don't have our permit to stay so we rent a car to get us to Umbria and gratefully use Simon and Fedi's car to get around Biella. Simon and Shane drive to Milan to see a few cars, and after one car seller not giving Shane a good vibe and another confirming that they can't sell the car without a permesso di soggiorno, we are left waiting for our permesso. Unfortunately there aren't that many automatic cars in Italy for sale that fit what we want, so I'm going to need to learn to drive a manual on the RHS of the road...more on that later.
3. School - Difficulty rating = 2/10 (so far only because we have gone to a private school for a meeting, otherwise we need an address so we can enroll at the local school for Charlie.) This school takes the kids skiing in Winter as an extracurricular activity, every Wednesday afternoon for 10 weeks for 100 Euro (for the whole program) - Shane is all over that one, sounds awesome.
4. Apartment - Difficulty rating = 4/10 (as long as you can understand what real estate agents are saying) We found a great apartment overlooking a park for 1200 euro a month (expensive for Italy but dirt cheap compared to Melbourne prices)...the woman who owns it is really eccentric - she collects exotic animals and has them at her country house, she also has a house in Sardegna that she spends a lot of time at and keeps tropical fish in her apartment in an open air pond...you've got to see it to believe it, she is cool. We go and look at a few other apartments, that are really cosy and a lot smaller and spend the whole week waiting to find out if the one we like is available, to find out yesterday that it isn't. We need to make a decision on this other apartment, pretty quickly. Downsides - it's not cosy, but it's light and very comfortable, and the oven doesn't work. Upsides - it's overlooking a park, there's undercover parking for our imaginary car, the nice lady lives upstairs, and there's a toy pig in the bedroom (boys' upside not mine)....not sure if we jump on it yet, I think the oven is a deal breaker....especially for a LOOOOONG WINTER.
Monday, 9 July 2012
Singapore Nights
Singapore Ferris Wheel...nice ride, good view of the city. Boy do they know how to do a good queue. A one hour wait with a 4 and 5 year old isn't my idea of a good time. I was pleasantly surprised that there were things to do the entire time we were waiting in the line to get on the Singapore Flyer. Sam had a great time flirting with the Japanese girls in the line behind us, so it was pretty easy. |
| View from the Singapore Flyer |
Little India...Shane was very keen to get to Little India for a meal and a look see. Our taxi dropped us off and warned us to 'be careful and hold onto your bag, they aren't from these parts' which was a surprising dose of racism from the nice taxi driver who gave the boys lollies. We got out of the taxi and headed down a driveway of a nice hotel to see a crowd of Indian men amongst what sounded like a farm of geese. The change in noise and atmosphere was immediate.
Men everywhere (there were a handful of women in crowds that would surely be in the thousands)....noisy...fast...chaotic... I have to say I was pretty freaked out, after being in quiet areas with no crowds, this was an assault on the eyes and ears and I was worried about losing the kids...
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| Delicious fried chillies in chickpea flour |
Singapore Days
3 days, 2 and a half nights in Singapore was a great way to put the stress of the last few weeks behind us and adjust to the weather being warmer. Charlie was a bit out of sorts during these days, probably because he felt a bit displaced. I'm no psychologist but the moving out of our house, packing his stuff and heading OS probably had a bit to do with the tantrums. He still managed to smile for a few piccies though.
Shane was like a pig in mud in the food centers, noodles, dumplings, fresh juices, all for next to nada! He wasn't the only one either - the boys went crazy over mango ice desserts, and all the great fruit over there.
Huge thunder claps, lightening and lifeguards getting people out of the water because of the storm were the only things that could get the boys out of the water...despite risk of electrocution, it still wasn't a fait accompli to get Charlie Roy out of the water - look at the sheer joy on his face! Sammy had a great time and got into it too, he even went under the water dumping elephant.
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| Poolside |
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