Ciao from Umbria, Italy

Its been a week since I last blogged! Too busy living the Umbrian life and getting the most out of the lovely villa and area. It has been a magic week with Julie, my cousin Wendy and Steve, Warren and Deb. Each time Julie and I leave a place and go elsewhere it's a new adventure which just seems to get better and better. No wonder I watched 'Under the Tuscan Sun' that many times before I left. I was getting myself prepared for buying property here and living here evermore. I wonder how Jackie will like flying? The dogs all have very big smiles here so I'm sure she will like it. It's rolling hills as far as the eye can see. A lot have been cut for hay so we have a patchwork quilt effect everywhere, brown, green and sunflowers everywhere. Dotted with occasional houses and cypress trees. In the week we have been here we have not seen one farm animal, neither sheep nor cow. Goodness knows what they do with all the hay? We spent a day in Cortona, another in Florence and another in Siena. Florence is lovely but I really did prefer the smaller hilltop towns of Cortona and Siena. Got a lovely leather jacket in Florence and a gorgeous bag in Cortona (after I purchased my new home). The weather is hot, the pool is amazing and a welcome start or finish to each day. We had a lazy day at home today. The furtherest we travelled was 5kms to buy our wine, 50 metres to the local restaurant for our lunch which was so good we are going back there for dinner! It's now 8.23pm so dinner will likely be about 9pm as the Prosecco wine has been opened and is being consumed while we check out everyone's photos and swap stories. This has been one of the best weeks of my life. My darling friend and travel buddy extraordinaire left today to fly back to NZ. We haven't spent this much time together since about 1984. What an amazing trip together we have had. Thanks Jules, again in 2 years? So sad to see you go. We drive down to Positano tomorrow. My suitcase is now ridiculously heavy and the expander zip is being used. Thank goodness we have a car to get to Sorrento and don't have to train it. We are going to get a taxi from Sorrento to Positano (approx €60) to save having to lug our cases on the bus. I'll try and blog a bit more often in Positano but can't guarantee it as my friend Ali is coming and I haven't seen her in 21 years!! So many stories, drinks and games of backgammon to play. Xx