The Fazes in Italy

[Baz Faz]

We had a smooth transfer from Chipping Sodbury to Rome. We are staying in a good B & B with the curious name of Welcome Love. It is bright and well equipped with about a month's supply of biscuits, chocolates and snacks. A copious breakfast is brought on a tray. The only bummer is the wifi which wouldn't work. Mrs Faz and the hostess spent hours trying to fix this yesterday afternoon with no success (my screen always showed No Internet). This afternoon it has suddenly started working. I am sending this quick email in case we are condemned to purgatory again.

There is a brilliant restaurant next door where we had dinner last night. The menu is pages long but the service is swift. We were the only non-Romans until an American sat at the next table. His profession he was a drummer but that doesn't pay enough so he also was a builder. Only when we were leaving did we discover he was a Trump supporter who absolutely knew that the election was stolen from Trump.

Today Mrs Faz and I went our separate ways. She had a brilliant walk. I was confined to our room with foot trouble. When she returned Mrs Faz redid the dressing on my foot and the pain has gone.

All for now in case the wifi goes.

[tzarine]

ciao, fazes

[Baz Faz]

We have had another good evening at the restaurant next door. Great opportunities for people watching and speculating what they see in each other.

[Scrubb]

Glad it's been smooth, Baz, aside from the internet!

[Baz Faz]

Scrubb, the internet gives continual trouble. I wrote an update this morning but before I could post it the internet cut out. When we returned this afternoon my labours were lost. Now I only do very short posts.

[Baz Faz]

Tomorrow we are catching the train to Lecce. This is at the bottom of the heel of Italy. It is 5.30 hours and it is a high speed train. I think it makes a deviation at some point, probably for the benefit of some important person.

[auntieannie]

have a lovely time, Fazes! and I hope your foot will leave you to enjoy Italy.

[Baz Faz]

We did the trip from Rome to Lecce - but not withought incident. First there was a call first in Italian then in English for any doctor on board to go to carriage 3. Then there was a call for the police to go to carriage 6 - no idea why. Is it routine on Italian trains to have police?

The journey was scheduled to take five and a half hours and this was a supposedly high speed train. It became apparent why it took so long. In France the TGVs run on specially constructed lines so they can go really fast. Today we went on the normal line so there were frequent stops while we waited for some chuntering country train to get out of our way.Only for the last hour did we pick up speed. The train still arrived exactly on time - to the minute.

Our accommodation is in an ancient palace. We just have a small apartment but the housekeeper showed us part of the palace proper. If I tell you its dining room has a table that seats 14 you'll get some idea of its size. Ours is very modest except for its wonderful stone ceilings. In fact what little of the historic centre of Lecce is built from honey coloured stone like the English Cotswolds.

As usual the kitchen is going to be a challenge to cook in. For a start it is dark. Some of the appliances are brand new. Why didn't they leave the instruction leaflets? Google Translate would have told us the English for the Italian on the various white goods.

One plus is that the internet works.

[Scrubb]

Ooh la la! The Fazes in their natural environment - a palace!

[Netsuke]

Baz it all sounds wonderful! And a palace too! I am loving your description of your surroundings, it makes it come to life.

What did you end up cooking there? Just a thought, you mentioned the darkness, would torches help?

[Baz Faz]

I am approaching cooking with some caution. We'll eat out again tonight.

The housekeeper came in this morning so we could find out some things. For instance the heating is set to come on for 2 hours around breakfast and then go off until 7 pm. This is obviously not satisfactory in winter so we have learnt how to override that. The housekeeper has showed us how the shower works. It is obviously a state of the art model when all Mrs Faz and I want a simple one. Of the many knobs we now know which one is for the handheld shower - we don't want the overhead rainshower for 2 reasons: we don't wash our hair every day, and we don't enjoy standing under icy water waiting for hot water to arrive. There are also knobs we learnt from experience to have the shower come at you from the side. There is nothing that can be done about the lighting. The sitting/dining room has 2 wall lights that point at the ceiling. Granted the ceilings are works of art. The downside is that if you are sitting down then the light is too gloomy to read. The bedroom has one wall light pointing at the ceiling. There are small bedside lights so if we put a multiblock socket under the table with my computer we can move a bedside lamp here.

On the plus side the apartment has been freshly decorated so it looks good.

Now I can hear Mrs Faz returning (she has been out with the housekeeper to be shown shops). Mrs Faz has been learning Italian through Duolingo which is a real godsend since the housekeeper knows no English at all. No, the housekeeper knows OK but so do all Italians.

I keep saying (until Mrs Faz told me to shut up) that the owner whose principal home is in Rome should stay here on her own and see what needs to be done.

[Netsuke]

How many nights will you spend in the dimly lit palace, Baz?

[Baz Faz]

Five weeks.

My bedside light has been moved by Mrs Faz to the table with my computer so all is well from that point of view. We'll have dinners in restaurants for a couple more days and then I'll brave the kitchen. The market is not far away.

I am back to writing. Mrs Faz has taken her coffee up to the rooftop terrace which has a lovely view of the town. We'll grow to accept the defects here and focus on the positives.

[Baz Faz]

Five weeks.

My bedside light has been moved by Mrs Faz to the table with my computer so all is well from that point of view. We'll have dinners in restaurants for a couple more days and then I'll brave the kitchen. The market is not far away.

I am back to writing. Mrs Faz has taken her coffee up to the rooftop terrace which has a lovely view of the town. We'll grow to accept the defects here and focus on the positives.

[Voy]

Baz - if there are wall sockets, might it be worthwhile to by a cheap lamp, so you can read in comfort in the sitting room? and what about one of those "headlamps" to use in the kitchen??

5 weeks is a looong time for gloom !

[auntieannie]

hmmm... I guess it is thought for summer holiday makers who will "cook" ready meals and such ?

[Baz Faz]

Annie, it is. But we are working out how things function. Mrs Faz has done first year Italian 5 times. This year she has really punished herself with Duolingo and it has made all the difference. The housekeepr Raimonda really likes her and makes every effort to make our time here good. The basic problem is that the owner is not here but in Rome where her husband is waiting for an operation. But the housekeeper has told the owner what nice people we are and the owner must have said that we should be made welcome. For instance, when we arrived on Monday it was explained the heating came on at 7 in the morning for 2 hours and then at 6.30 in the evening Now we have been given the code to have the heating on whenever we want. As for lighting I take the lamp from my bedside table (which I don't need) and put it on my work table with the computer and then downstairs to the sitting room. Not ideal but it is a solution.

And bear in mind that we are living in an ancient palazzo - common folk like us. I found out that Lecce has 91 palazzos so it really means a rich family's house.

[Baz Faz]

Last night I braved cooking dinner for the first time. In truth I didn't do much cooking - just fried courgettes, tomatoes and garlic. We had bought a ready roasted chicken at the market and I dismembered that and reheated it in the microwave. We have decided that is to be the extent of cooking here. The available space in the kitchen for cutting food is not much bigger than a paperback. Annie is right - it is for holidaymakers who just reheat take-away things.

[Baz Faz]

Tonight we went to the restaurant close to us. We have to walk some distance to find another one open. They know us there now. They know what wine we order. They know we have two dishes which we share. For dessert we normally share one but tonight they had tiramisu (which has always been off the menu before) and they had two left so we had them both.

[Scrubb]

Mmmm, tiramisu!

[tzarine]

baz
have they given you a title since you reside in the palazzo?

[Baz Faz]

Jan 30, 2024 0:09:12 GMT 2 tzarine said:

baz
have they given you a title since you reside in the palazzo?

Who knows? Behind my back I am probbly called teyze.

[OnlyMark]

Mrs M is currently with a friend for a winter break in the Canary Islands. They are hopping between the islands and she's quite impressed. There are the very touristic areas but she's found a few nice quiet villages as well. Wondering if you've ever considered it.
Good weather to which is the main thing for her.

[Baz Faz]

Jan 30, 2024 20:49:14 GMT 2 OnlyMark said:

Mrs M is currently with a friend for a winter break in the Canary Islands. They are hopping between the islands and she's quite impressed. There are the very touristic areas but she's found a few nice quiet villages as well. Wondering if you've ever considered it.
Good weather to which is the main thing for her.

We have been to La Palma (not Las Palmas) for a week. Did some energetic walking (in the days before my left foot got cancer). Glad we went when we did because a year or two later a volcanic eruption made where we went impassable. I have found somewhere on Gran Canaria I like. When we go for a long winter break I need to find somewhere with plenty for Mrs Faz to do. I can always be writing.

[Baz Faz]

Tomorrow we are off to Gallipoli. There are a lot of ancient Greek settlements along the Med coast and this is one of them. The name would mean beautiful city in Greek. I hope it lives up to that.