It was a long way back home, so we did it in stages, and stopped to visit a few places in Umbria and Tuscany. We had visited these provinces before, back in the late 90s.
Spoleto caught my eye for one very interesting reason.
No, it wasn't this fort at the top of the town.
It's what I'm standing in front of as I take a photo of the fort. It's an escalator! It goes up to several different levels in the town. Wow, now if only more towns built on hills could install something like this, I'd be a very happy bunny!
Archway with statue across the street.
The Duomo, or Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta.
We came out of the escalator at the Duomo level, but as we approached the church we were met by a lady who told us that filming was going on at the other end of the square, and that we couldn't go in that direction. We could only access the church interior, and then back to another level on the escalator, which was a bit annoying.
Anyway, the cathedral looked a bit plain upon first viewing. But then as we walked further down inside, it became clear that it is in fact an extremely ornate church!
Amazing painted ceilings.
And more...
Chapel of Sant'Anna, with frescoes dating from the late C16th, some of which have been carefully removed to uncover even older masterpieces dating back to the late C14th.
Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. I think this one is my favourite.
Back on the escalator we went up another level. I can't remember how many there were, but I think it was three.
Fontana di Piazza del Mercato (Fountain of the Market Piazza). We came out near this square and had a wander around.
Piazza del Mercato
Then up to the top level where the fort is, for amazing views out over the town and countryside. It's funny being level with the church tower.
The final access to the fort level was stairs, though I spied a lift (elevator!) saying it was only for use by the disabled. Well i considered myself an old lady with dodgy hips and knees who is perfectly entitled to use said lift, and so we did. Not that the fort was terribly exciting, it has a museum inside and we weren't interested in that.
And after that, we enjoyed taking the escalator back down, which took us to a level near to where we were parked. Perfect! 😀
Yet again I have come home with a cold, thanks to taking public transport. Just like the Italian covid cold last September, this also is a hardcore virus - it’s certainly not covid but is a very long lasting cold. Not only me, but Keith, who was totally floored. Then my brother got it, though two days in bed seemed to do him some good and he flew home yesterday. I kept telling him to change his flight but he was adamant he could cope. I wouldn’t have fancied it, especially after we waited 50 minutes in a queue at check in (and then they opened up two more desks as we got to the top of the queue, isn’t that so bloody annoying). By the way I am on day 15 and still coughing and blowing my nose occasionally and having to sit down after any burst of energy.
But, you don’t really care about that, and would much rather hear about our travels! Did we have a great time? YES! Croatia is fabulous, although it is bloody expensive. Diesel was much cheaper (thank god), restaurant prices were slightly higher than France, but the campsites were really, really expensive. So were entrance tickets to various places, and many churches charge to enter (so we didn’t). Food was good, though the portion sizes are ENORMOUS! I don’t know what that is about! Ok for K and my brother who have huge appetites, but a bit much for me. On the downside though, nearly every restaurant had pretty much the same thing, which was a bit boring - though at least there was a large choice of seafood, meat, pasta, salads etc.
The towns and cities we visited were for the most part lovely, though Dubrovnik was a disappointment. I couldn’t do the city walls and after the long walk from the bus stop downhill and including a number of steps, there is only a relatively small area that is flat. It’s a city more suited to fit people! There were loads of tourists of course, with cruise ships moored around the city, and lots of tourist shops with typical tat.
Going into Bosnia &H was fun. We had to get out of the van at the border to do the eyeball scan and fingerprint scan things, and we got stamps in our passports. Didn’t get any when leaving though, and Malc who has already done the scan things coming in from the UK, didn’t get a stamp at all, which was a disappointment. Anyway, Mostar was one of my favourite places. Loved all the old bits, and the modern town around peppered with unrenovated shell and bullet damaged buildings from the 90s war was an eye opener. I found it all so hard to imagine, how only 30 years ago war ravaged through these beautiful lands with their fantastic historical cities, yet now it’s all modern, tourist orientated and with typical Mediterranean seaside vibe.
We also loved Split and Trogir, and had a lovely time on Rab Island where I even managed to brave the cool water for a dip. Twice! But then I was coming down with the cold from hell. We also enjoyed the island hopping on ferries.
We were planning to visit Lake Bled in Slovenia at the end but the weather was forecast for rain and 14C, so we decided to go on from Rab to Krk Island for a couple of days instead, which was much warmer! So we’ll do Lake Bled some time in the future.
The three day journey home was tough though, especially for K who is the driver and was feeling rough.
I bought loads of fridge magnets and other bits and bobs. I forgot to include in the photo the pumpkin seed oil I bought at Piran in Slovenia, part of the small coastline the country has, and I’ve just remembered the Delft plate I bought at a flea market which is still in the van. K also bought an insulated water bottle covered in a Mostar print, with all the minarets etc. Oh and the Croatia T-shirt I bought!
The beach towel has a map of Croatia on it as well. It's the first new beach towel I have bought since the 80s - goes to show how few beach type holidays we have these days. But as there are three of us, and one of our towels has holes in it, it was a good excuse!
I do love looking at and occasionally buying jewellery and the bracelet on top is supposed to be Murano glass from Venice (probably a knock off, after all we saw loads of 'designer' handbags 😂) and the one below is blue coral from the Adriatic. How ethical this is I have no idea, I wouldn't want to be be aiding ruining the Adriatic's coral beds. But a bit late now as I have already bought it.
Now we are back and I am battling the enormous pile of laundry (which includes housesitter bedding and towels, M’s bedding and towels, and our Moho and tent bedding and towels. Haven’t even got to that little lot yet!😱
The garden needs a good water as there was a crazy heatwave in May with high temps, and now the same is happening and it’s hard enough keeping up with watering all the pots. The plants look lovely though, and my tomatoes are going crazy and look so healthy. The only problem is that my housesitter doesn’t know about removing side shoots (I thought it was too much to ask) so they are now multi branched and have swamped the poor chillies. I did remove loads of side shoots when we got home, but you can’t take off all the huge side shoots which have tomatoes forming on them, so I will just try to keep on top of the jungle. I have harvested the first two large courgettes, which was exciting! 😄
Ignore the weeds in the gravel, that's another job I need to get on top of. 😱 Also the bark was put down in the gaps to keep the cats off the soil! I had a grill mesh over the area to start with, but obviously plants grow. I had very poor germination of spring onions and something sap sucking ate the rocket, but it is just starting to come back to life again.
The lettuce stuff is a mesclun mix, i.e cut and come again lettuces and endives which are a bit past that stage now. I pulled out those that had completely bolted! There's plenty of dill to harvest plus it is flowering, which I love. I just hope some Swallowtail butterflies will lay eggs on them so I will have my favourite caterpillars to talk to. 😀 Also the coriander on the right is flowering, which is great as I want to save seed as there wasn't a lot of seed in the packet.
One courgette plant is far more sensible than two so I shouldn't end up with far too many! We have already had courgette and bacon fritters which were delicious.
Blogging friends, in time I will pop around to visit your blogs and say hello, in between the many things I need to do now I have a bit more energy, for example after six days most of my clothes are still in the Moho. Garden takes precedence!
First of all, this photo was taken at a local walk a few weeks ago, called the botanical trail. It's full of lovely wild flowers in the spring and usually, lots of butterflies too. However this time we walked to the end of the path having seen only one white butterfly! That was really very odd. At least there were a few more on the way back and we finally saw one Orange Tip, a few Cleopatras, a blue of some sort and a Wall Brown. Even so we normally see far more than this. What made up for it at the end were several Owlflies flitting about together, always a lovely sight. No photos of anything with wings as everything was too flitty. Oh, heard first cuckoo too!
Back home and I spent a fortune in both a garden centre and the local nursery buying plants for my pots, to replace all the ones I lost to the sudden freeze. It took ages to pot them all up.
I have put a few plant pots out the front of the house but there are plenty here and I hope by the time we come back from our holiday they should have bushed out and be a riot of colour! I've gone for more pinks and purples this time to make a change, as I had a lot of yellow and orange before.
I now have three plant stands in black cast iron (or faux cast iron, probably) which I have picked up from brocantes (flea markets) in our village, and the most recent one I found in a brocante shop. The most expensive was 5 euros and the most recent only 3 euros! Bargain! You can see the other two in the previous photos - they just take one plant.
Our Pyracantha hedge is covered in flowers, but it never seems to have as many berries. Possibly because it doesn't get trimmed until the autumn as we are not supposed to cut hedges during bird nesting season, which is a very good thing. Of course not everyone takes notice but if just some of us take note then that is a help for birds. Anyway, it then is not so easy to prune back without losing some of the berries. The yellow labels are marking where the orchids are - right now there is a mass of Pyramidal Orchids coming into bloom.
This is my Meyer Lemon which lost all its leaves after minus 6.5C and I thought it had died at first. However, there were some branches that were still green, not brown, and I was over the moon when it started sprouting. Now it has really healthy leaves all over, even on the trunk, and even one flower bud! It has never looked so healthy before.
We bought a new Kaffir Lime - I wasn't going to but Keith spotted one in the garden centre and we decided to get one after all - but from now on I am bringing it inside to an unheated room in winter. There isn't much room as my huge lemon grass goes in there in the winter, but I'll make space for it somehow.
I’ve planted out three cherry toms, one courgette plus two chillies which I bought - yet I'm laughing as self seeded tomatoes are appearing in the new veg bed from our own compost! I thought I’d try to keep a couple, if they survive this holiday, as they are too small to tie to a stake yet. The poor toms are shivering as it’s been really windy and we are going through the usual mid May dip in temperature.
Well they will either live or die, I do have a housesitter who I hope will water regularly though!
I don’t have time to finish the Italian trip before we go away as we’re off to Croatia (and briefly, Slovenia and also Mostar in Bosnia) for 4 weeks on Sunday. I’ll sign off now and see you in about a month!
