Spoleto - the perfect hill town?

Up for a walk across the hills with the boyz at first light. Not a cloud in the sky and bright sunshine - a perfect day. After breakfast we opted for the 30 minute drive south into Spoleto for coffee and a cornetto. There are a number of unspoilt hill towns that run in an arc south of Perugia - Assisi,Trevi, Spello and finally at the end of the valley, Spoleto. The town ticks all the usual boxes - it is historic, enjoys a scenic position, has interesting museums and good restaurants but in addition it seems to be blessed with a town council that is bringing its infrastructure into the 21st century without ruining its charm. I can't think of any other town in Europe which has so efficiently invested in modern underground car parks linked effortlessly to the centre by a series of travelators. Park the car,stroll onto the walkway and hey presto you're in the centre of town face to face with the Roman amphitheatre, a host of small excellent restaurants, the cathedral, shops and cafes, all within three minutes.The municipality has also embarked on a major programme of restoration in the city centre bringing life, trade and jobs to the town. If we didn't live in the country Spoleto would be given serious consideration as a place to live. The reason it doesn't figure on more itineraries and is devoid of tourists at this time of the year is transport. Although only 80 miles away the journey from Rome by train takes forever. Better to face Ryanair and fly to Perugia which is 45 minutes by road.

Polish Lowland Sheepdogs in the wild.

Beautiful weather here. Sat outside in the sun for lunch. Since our return we have been happily walking around in shirtsleeves while the locals will only venture out dressed up for arctic conditions with bobble hats,scarves, padded jackets and gloves. When we went into town at lunchtime today the lady in the dry cleaners gave us a look that seemed to imply we were certifiable.

Every month the bank here sends me a letter saying that they have charged me one Euro for the privilege of Internet banking. The postage costs the bank 60 cents. Every month I go into the bank and say that I can't access their system and that the charge should be dropped. They agree. The following month the bank sends me a letter saying they have charged me one Euro for the privilege on internet banking. I go into the bank and say that I can't access the system etc.etc . After 36 months it becomes surreal.

Have spoken to Fortnum and Masons in London thirteen times this week asking when our Christmas cake and mince pies and all those other Christmas essentials that can't be found in Italy will be delivered. Have had thirteen different answers including the completely off the wall statement that they had been delivered two weeks ago - turns out it was another customer altogether. I'm beginning to realise that the farming out of customer services to external call centres benefits the retailer but not the customer. After talking to a director who guaranteed (twice) that the parcel would be with me yesterday a young man telephoned this morning to say the package is in Italy and will be delivered on Tuesday. Why am I not convinced? In 2006 the order placed in October was delivered in January. Watch this space. Is it a sign of ageing when absolutely standard purchases seem to require a disproportionate amount of effort to complete ?

Fancy a walk ?

Polish Lowland Sheepdogs and the ageing gardener

For some time I have been wondering where the boyz have been hiding the rubber balls I buy for them to play with. I've searched the gardens high and low,but with the exception of a few well chewed vintage examples they seem to have disappeared. Of late it seems as though I'm buying two new balls every week only to find within a few days that they've vanished into thin air. This morning the explanation presented itself.

When we first moved to the house we hired ( or to be more precise,inherited ) a gentleman of somewhat advanced years by the name of Enrico to help with the upkeep of the garden. He arrives and departs according to some arcane schedule that transcends the seasons and to which he alone is privy (and to which we foreigners will never gain access ).Enrico is also noted for dispensing useful but infuriating comments in thickest Umbrese dialect along the lines of " you'll need to do something about those moles " before racing off up the hill on his tractor not to be seen again until his next unannounced visit. Sometimes he arrives with a bevy of cousins who stand in the courtyard and pontificate on whether the grass should be trimmed this week or next ( next usually wins) and to wonder why the foreigners have done nothing about the moles. Today,Enrico arrived at first light to cut the grass - not usually a task I would have expected in late December,but what do I know about gardening in a climate where the soil alternates from being liquid mud to baked solid clay ?

Anyone who knows Polish Lowland Sheepdogs will know that silence from them usually accompanies nefarious activities such as digging, rolling in mud or retrieving unidentifiable matter from the fields - anything in other words designed to test their families sense of cleanliness and order. This morning Enrico's circumnavigation around the house with the grass strimmer was accomplished in the complete absence of any noise from the pups. Alerted by this unnerving silence to the possibility that the boyz were even then bringing a dead squirrel to the front doorstep , I went out to investigate. There I found the two of them sitting by the fence looking in frustrated silence out into the field. The gardener discovers the balls while he is strimming and throws them to the boyz. As I saw this morning his eyesight / aim is not all that it might be and the throws go sailing over the fence to land in the adjacent fields, tantalisingly out of reach , but within sight and smell of the two totally fixated dogs who view this game as the height of sophistication. A quick examination of the area around the house explains the mystery of the disappearing balls , a large number of which have now been collected and reunited with their two happy, and once again noisey, owners.

Gain shall take the place of loss ( part 3)

Interesting facts about the gathering recession gleaned from yesterday's papers

Japanese exports fell 26.7% in November 2008 compared with the same period in 2007. Exports to the US fell 33.8%, the biggest contraction on record.

In trade weighted terms the Euro hit its highest level ever last week

The Centre for Economics is now forecasting a 3% decline in British GDP next year and 0.7% in 2010.

15 British High Street retailers are expected to go into bankruptcy before the end of January. Sales in the pre-Christmas week were down between 10% and 30% from year ago levels.

700,000 transactions are expected in the British housing market in 2009. In 2007 the number was 1,600,000. The value of mortgage lending in November 2008 was £14.6 bn down 51% from the same month a year earlier.

An adviser to the Chinese government said 6.7 m jobs were lost this year due to the collapse in exports..

Italy is considering raising the retirement age for women to 65