Monday 1 December 2014

Thanksgiving


It's an interesting time of the year when we still think about a harvest season, although many of us have no understanding of the land and its' bounty. Even working in any form of garden is probably getting more and more unfamiliar as we are fast becoming city dwellers.


Giving thanks is part and parcel of many of our upbringings when writing thank you notes after Christmas kept many a child away from playing with their toys! Thanksgiving is so much more than the token thank you... it's a heart felt expression of gratitude to Mother Earth for another year's crop that would not only feed the farmer and his family but would produce an abundance that was able to be shared by all. We call it a cornucopia ... and know that the word signifies that all our needs will be met.

There is also a harvest season in people's businesses and personal lives when the seeds that were planted many years ago reach fruition. Everyone needs to celebrate their annual harvest with a harvest thanksgiving... looking back at the previous year and celebrating what the year has brought.

What will you be grateful for this year? What is your offering of abundance? we all have our own individual cornucopia... so let's get this party started and share!

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Altogether...

View from San Gimignano
How many times do we set off on a journey and wonder how it will all work out? Not knowing the terrain or the road ahead. Then afterwords there is the sense of wonder when the plan comes together and you look back in amazement at the completeness of how the event itself came "all - together".

This is certainly how I felt recently as I marvelled at how the various strands of togetherness combined in a fusion of joy, namely our September Living It Yoga week.

Villa Brignole, Monteaperti
The story started last year when I took the initial bookings for the annual spring yoga week in Italy. Kenneth, elder son, and I had found the most amazing venue in Tuscany,Villa Brignole, Monteaperti and I had decided to book not just one week in April but a second week around my birthday time in September, reasoning that I always spend my birthday in Italy so why not make it a Living It Yoga week!!!

The logistics for the April week involved 3 drivers for a total of 9 people... however for September's week we only had Andy, my husband, and myself as drivers, so this meant hiring a 5 seater car and a Galazy 7 seater as we had 9 attendees and Andy and I made 11 people altogether. I just loved driving the 7 seater... yep I got the big car!

The September week was to prove a logistic challenge not just regarding driving and transport but the various attendees booking on the week were in flux. One minute we had a full complement then we had a cancellation or two... then another three interested. More appartments booked to accommodate increased numbers and then another cancellation... and so on and so forth. Then of course there was Mr Ryanair mixing it with flight time changes to Pisa!  All in all, it was an example of using the "living it yoga" approach to life to let trust come in, and that all would be well.

The week was full on with the day begining at 7.30am with a meditation followed by a morning hatha stretch before breakfast... various excursions organised, dinners in and out, hatha classes and deep relaxation techniques as well as a flexible approach to time. In fact I even slept in one morning and was late for my own meditation class! now that is being really relaxed...

Needless to say we had a ball, visiting many favourite towns, cities and places of interest... including a restaurant or two. Once the week was over I stayed behind to enjoy some more fun filled days with my pal, Anne who joined me and together we explored more places in Tuscany, such as Cortona and Arezzo and enjoyed being very, very lost while doing so. The secret to enjoying being lost is to know that you are where you are supposed to be and who you are supposed to be with. It's a great metaphor for life...

The yoga week was to be my swan song. The intention now is to find our own personal place in Italy that we can escape to and invite other like-minded escapees to share a journey or two together.

Complete with speed limit!
Whatever the road ahead... whether it looks easy or difficult, whether straight and narrow, whether clear or obscure or fills you with awe at the endless possibilities... it is worth looking back and seeing where you have come from. It's good to reflect on all those other journeys that brought you to the here and now. It's essential to notice how everything was working together and to trust that it will continue to do so until you reach your journey's end.
Life's a journey... enjoy!


Grazie mille mie amiche! September 2014


Friday 5 September 2014

Goldilocks and the Three Bears


The Three Bears
Photo taken by Goldilocks aka my husband, Andy  when we were on an impromptu visit to Canada last month. Gordon, the younger son, is working in Whistler, BC just now and his girlfriend, Lianne is now working there too. We were only in Canada for two weeks but managed to pack a lot in, including zip lining...  
... golf and spa. Well I was "spa-ing" with Lianne and Andy was golfing with Gordon!

Lots and lots to see and do in Whistler. We were there when there was an international mountain biking competition, Krankworks, and the town was buzzing. Everywhere you went there were people in plaster, using sticks and elbow crutches or just limping and showing off bruises and scars. Although those last ones may have been the ones dancing on the tables! Mountain biking is not a sport for the faint hearted or even the sane!

We included many gondola and chair lift trips into our schedule and saw the mountains from their best perspective, the top!  

Whistler town

We even had a fleeting glimpse of a brown bear and met many, many chipmunks and marmosets. Whistler is so called after marmosets who live on the mountain and whistle!

It was wonderful to spend time with Gordon and Lianne, meet their friends and get acquainted with the place they now think of as home. It was also wonderful to experience the expansive countryside and get some understanding of what the land means to The First Nation. This is the name given to the people, whose ancestors first came to that part of the world approximately 11,000 year ago... give or take a decade! They consider many of the rivers, lakes and mountains to be a spiritual expression of the land and recognise many places as healing sanctuaries. No need for spas for them. One such place is the series of lakes called the Joffrey Lakes.
 This photo is of one of the Joffrey glacier lakes and just looking at it makes you feel so much better!

The First Nation have so much to offer us... not just the sharing of the land - they don't believe in ownership of the land - but also the connection that they have with nature. Respecting it, by honouring and taking care of it. We can copy their example in our own back yard and cherish all that we have been given... and I include the opportunity to zip line amongst those gifts!

Friday 8 August 2014

The Friendly Games


What an excuse we had last week and the week before, to be friendly to complete strangers! At the Commonwealth  Games, my husband Andy and myself managed to attended various sporting activities including squash, rugby sevens and the athletics. We queued with the best of them and were chatted to by many an official... not just the Clydesiders but the police, the transport staff and everyone in between.

Whether grey skies or blue ... or the torrential rain that showed exactly what the cyclists were made of... and the spectators who didn't let the skies emptying stop them supporting the athletes... everyone was in determined mode. Some determined to finish... some determined to get a medal and some just determined to enjoy themselves.

I am working with that approach this week too... giving myself a reason to be friendly and determined to enjoy myself! I have taken a leaf out of the athletes' book... and aiming for my personal best!

Thursday 17 July 2014

Life's a journey - enjoying the journey from Fort William to Mallaig.

Glenfinnan Viaduct
This is a very famous viaduct, thanks to the fame of the Harry Potter films. However it has been around a lot longer than Harry's celluloid career and is inspirational whether you are enjoying the train journey or just admiring the scenery as you travel through some of the most breathtaking scenery in Scotland.


The west coast of Argyll is a place I was very familiar with, when growing up in Oban and holidaying every summer in various destinations on the west coast. All the views benefit from being seen on a sunny day but even on a wet and misty morning the scenery can still thrill.

Eigg and Rhum
The view of the islands on the day we decided to take the train from Fort William to Mallaig was superb and the combination of their shapes and the clouds made me smile. It is as if there are  smoke signals rising from the islands informing those on the mainland what is happening... and when you are in holiday mood, on a train, what is happening is pure pleasure. I can thoroughly recommend just sitting back and letting yourself get taken from A to B and delighting in every loch and lochan on the way.

 
Neptune's Staircase, Caledonian Canal

If travelling by train doesn't float your boat, how about making the time pass slowly on a beautiful yacht. These boats were travelling up the 9 locks on the Caledonian Canal. A short journey of distance but one of amazing engineering, as they travelled from one gradiant to another. Time was immaterial as convenience won over travelling around the north of Scotland. We learnt that the canal was built during the Napoleonic wars as too many ships were being shipwrecked by the storms that gathered around the north coast of Scotland.


Metaphors abounding, scenery astounding, I am now enjoying the latest home enhancement project - creating an en-suite bathroom off one of the guest rooms! and yes projects are part and parcel of life's journey, although they bring their own surprises and not the pleasant ones of Argyll's sandy coves and glistening waters. During the renovations, the joiner and the electrician decided that due to the uneveness of the roofs, they needed to come down!... and so they did and much to our surprise we discovered 5 wasp bikes in the eaves! They are now dealt with and work is progressing along nicely. It is just like the effect of building the canal... sometimes what we plan has unexpected long term benefits. We are now wasp free... and previously we didn't even know that there were metaphorical storms gathering overhead.

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Game, set and match


Wimbledon... the place where dreams can be found. Andy (as in Andy Auld and not Andy Murray) and I were lucky to get tickets for the No 1 court on Friday the 27th June. Andy had drawn many Wimbledon tickets over the years from the Tennis Club's allocation but we had never managed to get ourselves down to the famous tennis arena. This year was to be the year... whether we got tickets in the draw or not... and we did! The power of intention folks...

We went down by train.. 1st class of course! on the Wednesday and intended to experience the queueing system on the Thursday. It is some system, with people camping from the night before and others queuing for 4-5 hours in the morning. We queued for 2 and half hours and met some lovely people in the queue including an American oil man from Houston!

Once in the grounds we were amazed at the activity on all the courts with the players having to rise above the noise levels ... and focus on their games.

Yes the Pimm's was weaker than the kitchen measures and yes the champagne bottle had a tennis cover on it and yes the strawberries and cream were delicious and yes, yes we had a wonderful time.


How could we not with the sun shining and all the tennis players working at making their dreams come true.
viewing an outside court


It had been a dream of our's to visit Wimbledon, but how much more precious were the dreams of the players to reach the ultimate destination of the final. We saw Na Li's hopes being crushed and shared in the William's sisters losses. Discovered Mr Dolgopolov as seen below, who took Grigor Dimitrov to 5 sets. Alexander Dolgopolov, Dolgo to his friends, will be one to watch out for in the future I am sure.

No1 Court.
We were inspired by Ross Hutchins and Heather Watson, who although they lost, made the story of tennis and overcoming the odds, a heart felt experience. So many heroes and heroines and no we didn't glimpse Andy Murray but I did say hello to Anne Hayden Jones who is still trying to work out who I was!

Attending Wimbledon may well be a fixture on the calendar for us ... don't think it will clash with any of the Italy visits!

Cheers folks... even the champagne had a touch of the "Wimbledons"!


Wednesday 18 June 2014

Halfway down (or up ) the stairs!

The month of June is an important time in the calendar. It signifies the approaching halfway mark of the year... a time to look back and enjoy what has been and reflect on the successes and lessons that have been wrapped up in our memories.

Fiji
Castaway Island
These two photos are memories of the time I spent in Fiji at the Tony Robbins Life Mastery course.
The photo on the left is of Castaway Island, from the Tom Hanks film and the photo on the right is the view from my bedroom... bliss.

A halfway point is also a time to reflect on what the future could bring...
Tuscany
Budapest
It is my intention to visit Italy in September and Budapest in December. However, whatever the destination, whatever the direction, whether it will be blue skies or clouds, whether the road is straight or winding... what matters is that we have an idea of where we would like to be in the future.  We can start off with a three month plan, graduate to a six month plan and then who knows what we could accomplish within our allotted lifetime.

Most importantly, at the halfway moment, is to take time to reflect...
Holy Isle, Arran
The photo of the Holy Isle is a constant reminder of the peace and quiet that can be experienced in the present moment. The extended Auld family take time out every year for a holiday on Arran and the view of this Island is what we see every day as we practise being in the now.

Much like the deer in the photo below who took no heed of us golfers ...

deer grazing on the Lochranza golf course, Arran
Life is all about being in the now and breathing in all that the present is...what else can we really control.
An oft quoted phrase reminds us that the present is so called as it is life's gift!

So the recommendation for us, as we approach the end of June, is to unwrap our present..
and
Soak in it ... as if it was bubble bath.
Dance to it  ... as it if was your favourite song.
Listen to it ... as if it was the wisdom of Solomon
... or stop halfway on the stairs like Kermit's nephew, Robin, the frog who knows how, when and where to sit. Click on the alternative Robin below to hear the well loved song...

 Robin's song
Robin's song
... or bask in the sun's setting rays. There is nothing quite like a sunset to bring you into experiencing the "now".

Sunset over Siena, Italy

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Villa Brignole, Monteaperti


Some of us chillin' at Villa Brignole

Every time Living It Yoga visits another venue in Tuscany, we experience such hospitality that we are almost overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. From the welcome on our late arrival to the rearranging of rooms, nothing was too much bother for our hosts. Lorella had been Grainne's and my contact in March and now Annamaria was taking over the role of manager and making sure that everything was as it should be.  Andy and I were given a fabulous apartment and the original breakfast room in the villa had been turned into our yoga cum socialising room.


Yoga Room
 We felt blessed as we were living in a very historical part of Tuscany. Monteaperti is famous for the Sienese defeating the Florentines in 1260... and as many of you know Siena is one of my favourite cities. Our 2014 venue, Villa Brignole, is situated just 7 km from Siena, in this special of places, with the most outstanding views across Tuscan vineyards.

View from the villa towards the south.



We managed to pack in everything we wanted to do and some more. Meditation was at 7.30am every morning and the hatha morning routine scheduled at 8am, just before our scrumptious breakfast. All in preparation for whatever the day ahead would entail. Most evenings there was a yoga class on offer to stretch our bones and muscles and as the theme was the 5 Energetic Elements, we also got to stretch out minds!

Week's Programme: - and you really had to be there!
Sunday - visit to Monteriggioni and out for dinner at a typical rustic Tuscan restaurant.
Monday - visit to San Gimignano for the best ice cream in the world
The Maestro himself!
... returning home to the villa for dinner cooked by Andy and myself!
Tuesday - spa visit at Rapolana Terme. Only fabulous and then in the evening, out for dinner to an Osteria. I am still amazed at the number of antipasti that were produced for us.
Wednesday - for some of us, chillin' with deep relaxation practices followed by an at home/villa dining experience.
Thursday - Siena for its' "theatre", its' cuisine and its' atmosphere. Dinner was at a restaurant where not only were we fed extraordinarily well but mine host was also a bit of a comedian and entertained us thoroughly.
Friday - was to be whatever people wanted and so the decision was made to visit a small town in the hills called San Gusme that Grainne and myself had visited in March...  and they remembered us! We enjoyed wonderful coffee accompanied by Torta di Nonna (Grandmother's Cake)... deliciosa!
Our visit to Villa Brignole ended with a celebratory dinner on the Friday evening, with all of us from a wide range of age and experiences coming together to enjoy all that was on offer and to share in the joy that is Living It Yoga...
Grazie tutti miei amici... you made the week wonderful! Can't wait to see all of your photos...

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Blossoming

Not sure how it happens but every year the cherry trees decide to blossom and then shed their blossom every where...
The photo on the left is of three of our cherry trees in bloom, sharing their blossom like snow all around the garden, on the street, on the cars and when it is windy even on the people passing by.

The trees are a perfect example of how nature works. There is no vested interest in permanence and certainly no anxiety for the following year. No pondering whether by blossoming this year perhaps there won't be any blossom left for the following year!

As you can see on the photo to the right the trees even share their abundance on the bus stop outside our home. Lots of people comment on the cherry blossom, remarking that it is such a shame that it is here for such a short space of time. I don't think that this affects the trees. They know what they have to do and don't care about the quota of time required to do so. I am going to take a leaf out of their book... please pardon the pun... and enjoy their brief moments of blossoming. I am also going to copy their abundance strategy...

Thursday 20 March 2014

Great expectations and wonderful intentions.

You can tell I have been busy folks as it has been over a month since writing the blog... my belief/hallucination is that a blog is about sharing what you feel passionate about and finding out if other people feel the same... and I feel passionate about Living It Yoga

Venue for 2014's LIYoga week
Five years ago we launched Living It Yoga as a vehicle for learning how to incorporate the principles and practices of yoga into your life and so enjoy your life's journey whatever it brings and however rocky is the road. The intention was to run events here in Scotland as well as taking Scottish people to Italy to enjoy the Italian yoga journey...


It's a joy to comment regularly on the milestones, the sunrises and the sunsets and even a weather forecast or two and combine it with my adventures in Italy. What can I say, I always seem to have them. They are what I now call my "Great Expectations"

I set off on Thursday the 6th March with some trepidation, as I had booked flights for my friend, Grainne and myself  through a third party broker called "cheapoair". Yep the name says it all, however we did have seats on AirFrance planes and we did arrive at our destination safely albeit a trifle tired as we went via Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport!
Villa Brignole
Arriving at Pisa airport late at night and picking up a rental car in the dark was a new experience for me but one that I needed to be familiar with as next month's Living It Yoga students will be arriving late evening and my husband, Andy and I, and perhaps even Kenneth, our son, will be driving south from Pisa in convoy to the most idyllic place called Villa Brignole, just outside Siena.

My recent visit was to firm up any arrangements that we may have overlooked when Kenneth and I booked the venue last July! I had invited Grainne along as she had been Well Connected's very own organiser many moons ago and is now a 5 star organiser of events for Edinburgh Council's Libraries. Needless to say I had indeed overlooked quite a few things but thanks to Grainne's expertise and my halting Italian we successfully confirmed all the necessary arrangements for the two LIY weeks this year... and we had a ball doing it.

Now that isn't to say there weren't hiccups... like when we were stopped at a junction in a traffic jam for 30 minutes not knowing what was happening... and then a train pulled through. Lesson learned, so when two days later it happened again in another town altogether, we knew the score. Or when I ordered what I thought was salami and cheese and it turned out to be cheese and chilli! Another lesson learned!

The visits to restaurants and bars and even shops were full of suprises. We were treated royally as many of the places I had visited before... and guess what, they remembered me! Even staying in the hotels along the way were a delight, but the biggest delight was the Villa Brignole's situation with stunning panoramic views across the fields towards Siena.


Even the visit to the spa at Terme Rapolana, which was in itself fabulous, faded into insignificance when looking at the view on a fresh, sunny, spring morning with the mist rising and the birds singing and a feeling of "all's right with the world" seeping through the air.

Whatever adventures come along, I remind myself of the intention that I set myself... to enjoy life. Sometimes it is enjoying the view while driving through gorgeous Tuscan scenery or sitting, sipping a coffee in a wonderful small Osteria away from the madding crowd and sometimes it is the journey home...

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Saturday 8 February 2014

Blessings...

How do blessings appear to you? often they come to me in the form of crises, sometimes health ones and many times they come in the form of friends...

Two months ago, when Andy's car was stolen we were challenged to see the blessing but we did know it was there. In fact there were a few... I got to enjoy some time out as in some enforced R&R; Andy now has a lovely new car and we are both enjoying using the alarm system that we put in place nearly 15 years ago...

So that was a crisis, what about friends? It is wonderful when they rally round in a crisis or treat you to lunch or even take you as a surprise to the ballet. Thank you all...

I am feeling blessed just now especially as Andy and I were recognised as being in the top 10 business builders in Forever Scotland...
... number 8 in fact. Here is Bob Parker, the UK's MD presenting us with champagne and trophy. This accolade is due to the many friends who are now part of the growing team worldwide. Click here to see how you could join us...

So as recommended by all the sages, I am living in gratitude and saying thanks to the various crises and the wonderful friends that make up the many blessings in my life.
Grazie mille tutti... thanks a million everyone!

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Adventures!

Well I got it right in October when I wrote that although I was settling for a quiet life for a couple of months, adventures would soon be on the horizon and an adventure on Sicily at New Year was almost a given...

Our adventures started on Sunday the 15th December, when we found out that we had been broken into on Friday the 13th. We were on our way to Aviemore, having spent a couple of lovely days in Perthshire celebrating our 39th anniversary, when we got a call telling us that we had uninvited visitors on the Friday night. They had stolen ipad, TV, cameras, money, food from the fridge and freezer and in fact nearly 3 weeks later we are still discovering other things that they took. The biggie was the fact that they stole my husband, Andy's car!

Not so much an adventure, as an experience of how vulnerable you feel when someone steals your possessions. However they were only possessions and we were determined not to let it spoil our Christmas and we still had our visit to Aviemore to do.

So Sunday the 22nd saw Andy and I travelling to Aviemore through snow and sleet. He drove up, we delivered the parcels, had lunch and I drove down. Driving in snowy conditions doesn't give me too much of a headache. I was used to it when I first learned to drive. However this was not going to be my last experience of travelling in a white-out in 2013...

Christmas Day came and went and was a wonderful time shared with family in situ in Scotland and skyping other family members from all over the world.

Friday the 27th was the day for us to leave the UK climate and travel to Sicily via Gatwick. Sicily was an unkown country to us but one that has a lot of mystique including the fact that we were staying at Taormina and our hotel room had a balcony with a fabulous view of Etna, as seen below.

 The rain lashed in Glasgow on the Friday and as we went to deliver my car to the long-stay car park we saw the flashing blue lights of the police behind us. We stopped and Andy was politely asked to leave the car and join the police in their car. We didn't have a clue what was wrong. However it seems that when I got my new personal registration, AP51 FLP, I had omitted to tell the insurers and the police obviously had nothing better to do that day than come after us.

Anxiety set in and we were now running late... Insurance information cleared, we set off, parked the car, arrived in haste at the airport to find that our plane was delayed! And 4 hours later we found out that they had found a fault on the plane and had grounded it. Another plane had to be found. Gatwick at 1 am is not a recommended time or place to be!

Now surely Saturday the 28th is going to be better? Well, Easyjet managed to have many delayed flights that day as the weather was still not conducive to flying, so we finally arrived at our destination at 5pm to be met by Angelo, our driver who was very well named.

He drove us safely to our hotel and assured us that we would have a wonderful time in Sicily and we did...
... and this is where the real adventures begin. "Le avventure!" We explored everywhere, went on a funivia, local bus, walked the amazing festive streets, even visited the famous Taormina Greek amphitheatre seen below with views of Taormina nestling under the volcano, Etna that has decided to wake up.

It sends plumes of smoke that resemble clouds. It rumbles, making the sound of thunder in the distance and spouts lava down through its' snowy covering. We are enchanted and decide to...
 
 ... book a visit to Etna on New Year's Eve! The trip was to include wine tasting and visits to local tourist attractions ending up at Etna with a funivia trip to see the lava flow. What wasn't on the itinerary was a blizzard and the bus losing its purchase on the road and the driver and guide not managing to get the snow chains on! So we all stood outside in the snow and watched the various exploits of driver and guide trying and failing, to get the bus back safely on the road. Eventually we were towed by a snow plough to the funivia cafe with all the Italian rescue cars and helpers in attendance. It seemed like just another day to them!

All of the passengers had functions to go to that evening; however the adventure just seemed to be part of the festivities. Once safely back at the hotel, and a warm bath later, we were royally treated to a nine course gala dinner that just went on and on...

Corso Umberto, Taormina

New Year's Day and the sun is shining and Etna's snow-covered peak is looking festive. We are happy to stay where we are and parade the streets with the multitude of Sicilians enjoying New Year's Day "passiagata" and filling the town with cries of "Tanti Auguri" to all they know. Angelo has told us that in the spring you can ski in the morning on Etna then visit the beach in the afternoon for a spot of bronzing! However perhaps that could be another time...





Castelmola
 Thursday found us trying to get a bus up a mountain to visit another village.

Castelmola by name, sitting precariously on the top of the mountain behind Taormina... however no bus appeared! The hotel told us there would be a bus every hour and yet the bus stop sign said no bus at 10.45am... it was "pausa caffe" time we think.

However we did meet up with Maria, one of the other passengers on our fateful bus trip to Etna and so we shared a taxi drive with her to this famous local village.  

As luck would have it our old camera had decided to shut down on us on the trip to Etna so I am hoping that Maria will be able to send me some photos of our eventful New Year's Eve.


Maria and Eileen

Now the adventures aren't finished yet as our driver Angelo has been booked to take us around and about various non-touristy sights and a tourist visit to Savoca where The Godfather was filmed.

The house on the left was in the film and the photo below is a metal sculpture dedicated to Francis Copola. and then there is ... us, two tourists who stopped for coffee and the owner said to me in a broad Irish accent:  "Well you can just stop talking that Italian and tell me where you come from!" High in the Sicilian highlands we had found a wonderful Irish woman in the most idyllic spot imaginable.


... and on the non-touristy sightseeing Angelo took us to visit to his cousin, Angelo!

Welcome to paradise



Angelo and husbandry!
Andy picking an orange or two





What a blissful place. A veritable paradise. Full of everything that a garden can offer including trees laden with pecan nuts!
There was a pig, a pony, chickens, goats and geese and every fruit tree imaginable.. even bananas... although bananas and mandarines weren't ripe yet ... the oranges were and we were given a big bag of oranges, and a generous bag of pecan nuts, a colossal grapefruit and a bottle of home made olive oil!

The holiday continued to enchant with fabulous views of the coastline and the countryside from every corner of this exquisite spot.  The spectacular town of Taormina and the land of Sicily itself has spread its charm and we feel welcomed in every way possible... until it's time for Angelo to takes us to our flight home on Saturday the 4th January, 2014. He wishes us well and hopes to see us in the summer, when he will arrange a BBQ at his cousin's house and a visit to Commissario Montelbano's police station... a presto Angelo! Grazie mille per tutto.