Wednesday 2 October 2013

Adventures over for now ... e basta!

It is nearly a whole month since I last wrote up the blog. Been busy, busy doing and not having the time or the inclination to write about it!

As is pretty obvious, I love adventure. I enjoy the excitement of new places and new projects and am able to embrace change fairly easily. Well I now confess to you all that I have had enough adventure to last me a wee while... I am wanting to experience more of the quiet life. Yes, I hear you saying, "How long will that last?"

Alla scuola!
Just back from attending language school on Elba and I had a wonderful time. I was even upgraded by Hertz to an Alpha Romeo rental car. Totally unnecessary I can assure you to have that level of luxury car on Elba, especially on the ferry! The people at ABC Elba language school (click here) are wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed being with them again. Loved being re-aquainted with Cristina, Manuela and Debora and meeting a new teacher Alba, on the left of the photo, and Martina on the right, my fellow student who was a Swiss lady from Monaco!




And of course enjoying my own private swimming pool. It was too cold for everyone else! not beside the pool just in it and yes I did swim... 10 lengths every day!

Anyway why have I had enough adventure for the mo? It seems that I have been on a merry-go-round for the past year. Mega travels both at home and abroad and of course not forgetting the exciting skydive.

The bay at Porto Azzurro

My sense of adventure was severly affected by the Italian transport system. It started with the idea of accompanying my husband, Andy from Elba to Pisa on Friday the 20th September. Andy had joined me for the first week on Elba mainly to see what all the fuss was about... as I just love the island, especially Porto Azzurro where I stay. I don't think it was to keep me out of trouble but you never know. It was my birthday during the week and a great time was had by us both... delighted to report that he fell under the island's spell too.



Now to the Friday...

We had decided not to take the car off the island but to use Italian public transport instead. We needed to get to Pisa, stay the night in a hotel which was already booked, and Andy would fly home and I would return to Elba on the Sat using public transport again. Easier said than done as ferries, trains and buses all failed to connect.
Began my return journey from the hotel in Pisa at 9 am Saturday morning and one taxi ride, three train journeys, and a cancelled train, a Moby ferry trip and a bus later, I arrived back at my villetta on Elba at 7.30pm, somewhat exhausted with the phrase "never again" running in my head...

However we did stay at a 5 star hotel in Pisa. Andy is still not sure how he managed to book that... mega brownie points for him.
View of the leaning tower from the hotel!

So having experienced first hand the frustrations of the Italian public transport, I now know that our catch phrase "Life's a journey - enjoy" needs to be reinforced... over and over again whenever one needs to use the very adventurous Italian transport system.

I also love the statement "life is a journey not a destination", so perhaps it won't be too long before I pick up my adventurous lifestyle once more. Going to Sicily for New Year so that will be a bit of an adventure I think. Montelbano here we come!