Back to Britain

We left Guardia on June 8 on a slow journey to fly to Heathrow from Lyon on Friday June 12. We first stayed in a wonderful Bed & Breakfast in the countryside near Canali, which is close to Reggio Emilia.

This is the front of the house that we reached by driving along a very narrow road from the hamlet of Canali. Our hostess, Francesca, had spent time in Miami, so her English was very good. She was quite taken with our story and we found out she had shared it with all of her FB friends. It turns out, traveling light and free is a goal of hers.

The house is beautifully decorated with many Asian touches which we, of course, enjoyed.

There was also a pool and the weather was hot, so this was a nice touch. The only downside was a massive amount of star jasmine around the area, the scent so strong that we both had significant allergy attacks.

A really nice location to try and get the blog moving, if ever so slowly.

This was a cute sign on the door to Francesca's kitchen where we had breakfast. We found it through www.booking.com, which has served us well on this trip.

We decided to take a trip into Reggio Emilia and searching for parking on mapquest, this looked like a good choice, good name association, close to the center of the city, and it was. The only thing we did not take into account is the city is over 2,000 years old, is walled, and designed before the invention of the car. The GPS got us there OK, but through a maze of narrow, one way, high walled streets. The good news, it was close to the main piazza's.

We had been eating so much, that eating another dinner was one meal too many, so we opted for gelato. When in doubt, eat ice cream!

This sign was next to the fountains in the piazza and I thought it rather fun, it might have been easier to indicate just what you could do.

We had an invitation to visit a friend, Caroline, in Switzerland, near Geneva, which she told us was only an hour from Lyon, of course, we just had to go. An added bonus was that we had to go through the tunnel that goes under Mont Blanc.

To get to the Mont Blanc tunnel we had to drive through northern Italy, the above photo gives some idea of the scenery.

Castles and churches always dominate the high ground.

We were hoping for a nice coffee shop or restaurant somewhere in the mountains near the motorway, this is all we found. How about that table!

The approach to the tunnel and border check point.

That is not the height of Mont Blanc, but the tunnel length, I think.

In the tunnel, not much of a photo, but gives some idea of what it looks like under Mont Blanc.

It was hard to get any photos as we exited the tunnel, but Diane did a great job of catching a glimpse of this glacier flowing down the mountain.

Don't know the name, but an impressive peak.

Driving along the lakeside in Geneva on our way to Caroline's.

The famous Jet d'Eau in the background.

Caroline has two dogs in her care, this is Charlie.

And this is Maclan, who is a very large and gentle dog.
After a lovely overnight visit with Caroline, we drove to Lyon airport,  just over an hour's drive through beautiful countryside. Spent the night at the airport hotel, and took a BA flight to Heathrow on Friday morning.
Next stop England.

Guardia Sanframondi

We spent the first 9 days of June in Guardia Sanframondi, which is close to Benevento and is N.E. of Naples. We stayed with an artist, Clare in her Air BnB.  We met over Facebook after watching a House Hunter's International episode that featured her house purchase in Guardia. We have been in touch for more than three years and decided that we should meet her in person on this trip.
Guardia is a hill town whose historical center was badly damaged in an earthquake in the 1980's, so many of the houses were abandoned, but Clare courageously purchased one and has been renovating it single-handedly ever since.

The approach to the town of Guardia. It is a wine region and so there are often tractors in the streets.

This is Clare, left, with Nicole who was volunteering to help Clare with some work in her house. This volunteerism is through a program called WorkAway.com, where the host provides room and board in return for volunteer help with projects.

The "streets" of Guardia are not suitable for cars in many areas, so we had to maneuver our luggage down the steep alleys as well as walk up and down them everyday!

This is the view from the balcony of Clare's house, it really is part of a collection of old houses all connected together in what must have been an evolving fashion.

This gives an idea of how the historic center looks from below.

There was a town market and it had to be perused.

Clare and Diane considering some kind of bargain.

Even more choices to be made.
Early in our visit, Clare had an invitation to a wedding reception from a family whose daughter was getting married. We were promptly included in the invitation. The reception was just fantastic, we did not understand many of the conversations that we were involved in, but we really felt included and part of the celebration.  It was a bit like being in a Fellini film with no subtitles.  It was also our wedding anniversary so everyone was congratulating us as well.

This is the father of the bride.

The mother of the bride, who was a bundle of fun.

There was a buffet table that always seemed to be overflowing with food and drink.

The bride getting all of the wedding photographs completed before the ceremony.

The marriage ceremony took place in City Hall, officiated by the Mayor. All of the guests congregated outside after the ceremony to throw confetti and rice.

This wonderful moment occurred when the bride hitched up her wedding dress and the groom whisked her away on his motorcycle.

This was the "Blues Brothers Bar" at the top of the parking lot where we walked every day. In the evening it is a happening place with many of the town's young folk hanging out. They were all very friendly, always greeting us with "Ciao" or "Buona Sera" as we passed by.
All of the folks we passed on the street exchanged this kind of greeting, which we found refreshing and delightful.

These "streets" are really steep and narrow!

Clare took us to one of here favorite spots in a wooded river canyon where we picnicked.

She also took us to a high point that overlooked the whole valley where Guardia is located.

We were up pretty high.

Clare is a wee Scottish lass and she was telling us just how far away her home was in Arran.

We also took a trip to another hill town, Torrecuso, which is across the valley from Guardia and located in a very precarious-looking location. Our journey there was a bit of a challenge when our GPS wanted us to go up a fairly steep street that became narrower than the car. Reversing out was a little white knuckled at times.

From Torrecuso we went to Benevento, which is the capital of the province we were in. It is an ancient Roman city with a number of significant structures remaining. It is also a city with wide piazza's and many fountains and flower gardens.

Some old bits remaining after the Romans went home.

Diane holding down the fort!

I noticed this poster mentioning an Aerospaace conference in Benevento the day we were there.

We then ran across an exhibit of an Italian Army drone. I just had to go and ask questions, as a result I had  a nice conversation with a soldier who described much about the system and the drone (or RPV) itself. Felt like I was back at work!

We found that most Italian drivers had a relaxed attitude toward driving. This attitude covered lane keeping, tail gating, choice of which side of the road to drive on, overtaking, signaling etc. The above photo shows someone overtaking a tractor with a load of hay on a bridge culminating in a blind turn. We chose to follow the tractor for a while.

We were fortunate to be invited to a Cantina lunch, through Clare again. The lunch was provided for a group of University of  Rhode Island students and their Professor. Many of the students were studying nutrition, permaculture, and social sciences and were in Italy to get a flavour of local village activities.   The lunch was in Cantine Foschini, a local wine maker, http://www.cantinefoschini.com/index2.htm

The cellar in their very old building.

The URI group, the host owners with their family, plus a few others.

The URI group also got to visit artist studio's in Guardia and here they are in Clare's studio, here is a link to her blog http://claregalloway.com/

We did so much and took over 800 photographs which has made it hard to choose what to include here. The people of Guardia left a strong impression on us, making us feel a part of their community.

Arrivederci Guardia, we will be back one day.