Saturday, July 26, 2008

Info on "time is flying by" in Italy

The following was written by Martha S. Taccarino. It is just one of her many weekly email MSGs (messages) that she sends to friends and family.
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July 10, 2008

We went to a sagra [blogger comment: food festival] tonight near Arezzo. On the way home I started to think that what I like about Italy so much is the way it satisfies all your senses. I should list them and make sure I cover them all. Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. That is five. Have I missed something?

Sight - OMG Italy is such a visual country if you just open your mind, SLOW DOWN and look. There it is. The sunrise. The strong sun at mid-day. The setting sun. Which if you have read my emails I am totally enchanted by. Tonight at 9:45 as we drove home I didn’t take any pictures. You will have to rely on my words. As we came from the east heading towards the west I could see the strong outline of the hills and the trees lining the tops of the hills against the slowly fading light. I could see each tree outlined. I could see a blue of the sky that all my reading can not describe. It is a blue lit from behind, not light or dark or turquoise but sunset blue. Only the almost half moon shone. No stars yet. A perfect cloudless sky to showcase an ending to a very nice, not too hot day.

Hearing - today I realized I was no longer hearing the cricket choir. Their booking must have ended. Now it is the ciaciada ( I have not spelled that correctly. And I don’t know if they come every year or only occasionally). Besides hearing them there is our ‘entertainer bird’, the owls, the church bells and least we not forget, the bicycle riders chatting and the motorcycles.

Smell - Okay I won’t talk about food first. Just grass cutting. When I cut the grass I am overwhelmed by smells. These are plants I mow down every time I cut the grass. Wild thyme, Fennel, honeysuckle, clover, rosemary, and a couple others that I don’t know the names of but have very distinct smells. When we ride through the country I will often say to Ben, “Do you smell the fresh mown hay?” or “Ohhh very FARM!” (You can imagine what smell that is) Walking through towns it is “Do you smell that? Let’s go there. It smells like truffles…meat cooking on a spit… all kinds of things” He has learned to trust my sense of smell.

Taste - I can’t even begin to write about taste here. We are so bad. I feel like all I write about is whining about missing eating Thai or Asian food of some sort. Like we have been eating one level above dirt. In the 10 months that we have been here we have had such good food. We are so spoiled. And yet I miss trash. SEND ME CHEETOS PLEASE!

Touch - It comes every day. When I walk outside and see this great piece of property that I live on. I walk across terra cotta, marble and stone floors. I touch the earth that my plants are growing in to see if they need water. I touch my plants that I have wanted for years to be flourishing and lush and (until the hail) they are. I touch butterflies, lizards, and bugs that I have never seen before in my life. I touch laundry hanging out in the sun to dry. Every day I touch the earth and at night after the sun has finally set and I walk outside I feel like I can almost touch the sky….the stars are that close and so many.

So please come for a visit. But not to check list off this monument or museum but to check list off each one of your senses as you realize that life is about enjoying the minute, the moment, the now! We are lucky enough to have found that. And we don’t mind sharing.

We are very lucky people. But we will only be here in this great location with a guest house 2 years and 1 month more. Plan your trip now.


Photo #1 - Sunset



Photo #2 - Glass of wine
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That's it for Saturday, 26 July 2008: sabado, 26 luglio 2008

Please note: If you want me to reply to your comment or request for further information by email, please include your email address in a separate comment. I will NOT publish any comments with an email address in it.

Also, if you would like to be added to Martha's distribution list to receive her weekly email MSGs to friends and family, please post a comment with your request and email address.

Ciao, Ben

Moving2Italy2 – #1 source of links About, For or On Italy for those individuals moving, traveling or already living in Italy.

Today’s quote is an Italian proverb, author unknown.
"Roma non basta una vita."
"Rome a lifetime is not enough,"

Please note: The time listed below for this posting is Central European Time (CET)/ GMT+1.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Info on Golf in Tuscany

(LAST EDITED/UPDATED: 11 August 2010)

Here are some links for golf and golfing in Tuscany (Toscana):


GOLF IN TUSCANY (TOSCANA)

  • LIST OF GOLF COURSES IN TUSCANY (TOSCANA)
    • Sport - GolfPlease select one of the Tuscany (Toscana) provinces listed under "Province" for a listing of golf courses for the specific province in Tuscany (Toscana) Source: intoscana.it – "Official Website of Tuscany" – In multiple languages
    • Golf courses in Siena and Tuscany Source: SIENA Online ® "tourist guide to the city of Siena" – In English, Italian
MISCELLANEOUS
* = Blog entry has been updated.
For your specific interest, please search the web for further information using Google .

The above links as of this date are/were current. If anyone has any suggestions for any other additional web sites and/or links for reference, please feel free to post your comment and I'll update this blog entry.

Please note: If you want me to reply to your comment or request any further information by email, please include your email address in a separate comment. I will NOT publish any comments with an email address in it.

NOTE: If you want to leave a comment, please leave it in ENGLISH.

Broken links: Since November, 2005, I have written over 300+ blog entries with 1,000's of corresponding links/URLs for Moving2Italy2, covering a varied and wide range of topics. In the event if you come across a broken link or a non-functioning link/URL, please post a comment and report the non-functional link. I wish to thank you in advance for assisting me in the ongoing maintenance and the updating of this successful and informative blog.

Please note: I do NOT represent or endorse any of these links nor do I receive payment for listing them in my blog.

That's it for Saturday, 12 July 2008: sabado, 12 luglio 2008.

Ciao, Ben

Moving2Italy2 – #1 source of links About, For or On Italy for those individuals moving, traveling or already living in Italy.

Today’s quote is an Italian proverb, author unknown.

"Siccome la casa brucia, riscaldiamoci."

"Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves."

When you have a free moment or two, please read my wife's interesting and entertaining blog about our life in Italy with photographs:

Friends and Family in Italy


Going to Spain, read my new blog:

Info About, For or On Spain – a source of links About, For or On Spain for those individuals traveling or already living in Spain.

Please note: The time listed below for this posting is Central European Time (CET)/ GMT+1.

LAST EDITED/UPDATED: 11 August 2010)

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Info on Events and Festivals (feste or sagre) in Umbria

Here are some links for Events and Festivals (AKA feste or sagre) in Umbria:

(LAST EDITED/UPDATED: 18 November 2008)

EVENTS
  • LISTS
      • GLI EVENTI IN CORSO (Event)
      • GLI EVENTI SEGNALATI PER I PROSSIMI 30 GIORNI (Events in next 30 days)
FESTIVALS (feste)
SAGRE (FOOD)
SOURCES
  • Eventi e Manifestazioni in Italia (Events and Entertainment) – "Guida completa a feste, sagre, fiere, mercatini e manifestazioni." – By Region – Please note: The Italian version provides more detail and events. – Source: Paesi on Line – In English, Italian
  • Eventi e Sagre – "Primavera 2008" – "Eventi, Fiere, Sagre, Mercatini, Manifestazioni, Ricette..." – In Italian OnlySource: eventiesagre.it
    • From the home page, select Eventi
      • On the next screen, you can make multiple selections from Categoria (category), Sezione (section), Mese (Month), Regione (region), Provincia (province), Città (City)
      • For events in Umbria, please select the following:
        • Under Sezione, select Feste or Sagre
        • Under Mese, select the specific month you are looking for
        • Under Regione, select Umbria or another region in Italy
        • Under Provincia, select one of 2 provinces
        • Under Città, select the city of the event or leave blank
  • GIRAITALIA.it – "Un'Italia di Emozioni - Eventi e Manifestazioni in tutta Italia" – In Italian Only
    • From the home page, click on Umbria
  • sagreinitalia.it – "Il portale delle sagre, fierre e manifestazioni tradizionali" – In Italian Only
    • Under "Dove" (where), select "Umbria" or whatever region you are interested in
    • Under "A partire da :", select time frame:
    • oggi – today
    • questo weekend – this weekend
    • Il prossimo Weekend –next weekend
    • Il Messe Corrente – current month
    • Il Messe Prossimo – next month
    • Under "Che cosa:", select type of event, feste, sagre, etc.
STORIES/ARTICLES/BLOG ENTRY
FORUM TOPIC/DISCUSSION
MISCELLANEOUS
* = Blog entry has been updated.

If anyone has any suggestions for other sites and links for reference, please feel free to post your comment and I'll update this blog entry. For your specific interest, please search the web for further information using Google

Please note: If you want me to reply to your comment or request for further information by email, please include your email address in a separate comment. I will NOT publish any comments with an email address in it.

FYI: Wherever possible, I attempted to provide information about a specific event, festa or sagra in English. However, while a web site states there may be an English version of it, you will usually find more information about the specific event, festa or sagra in the Italian version.

For those of you that say there is nothing to do on weekends in Italy, you are WRONG! Before my wife and I moved to Italy in 2007, we had attended several feste, sagre and events in the years before our move. You can spend as much or as little as you want and get to meet and see Italians, their friends and other travelers and visitors celebrate various and sundry events in and around their towns. There is more to Italy than museums, historical sites, art, hilltop towns/cities, etc.

For events, feste and sagre outside of Umbria, please read my blog entry titled, Info on Events and Festivals (festa or sagra) in Italy and Info on Events and Festivals (feste or sagre) in TuscanyIf I missed any events, feste and sagre in Umbria, please send me an email MSG or post a comment.

When you are driving around or walking around the many towns and cities of Umbria, take the time to read the bulletin/notice/bill boards in these towns and cities. This is where my wife and I find about a specific event, festa or sagra in the town, city or somewhere in the surrounding area. Depending on the size of the event, festa or sagra, it may not have a web site or be listed on web sites that keep track of events, feste or sagre in Italy. You will find most of these notices for events, feste or sagre are usually printed in a bright color and sometimes only a week or two before the actual event, festa or sagra.

For events, feste and sagre outside of Umria, please read my blog entries titled, and Info on Events and Festivals (festa or sagra) in Italy and

EXPLANATION: The reason that I have provided multiple sources and lists is because there is no all inclusive listing for feste, sagre and events in Toscana or Italy. Even if an event, festa or sagra is listed somewhere, it may be dated or list information from last year's event, festa or sagra.

That's it for Tuesday, 1 July 2008: martedì, 1 luglio 2008

Ciao, Ben

Moving2Italy2 – #1 source of links About, For or On Italy for those individuals moving, traveling or already living in Italy.

Today’s quote is an Italian proverb, author unknown.
"Quel che non ammazza, ingrassa."
"What does not kill, it makes fat."

Please note: The time listed below for this posting is Central European Time (CET)/ GMT+1.

(LAST EDITED/UPDATED: 18 November 2008)