16 March, 2008

Rome Marathon, Sunday March 16th

For all the runners out there, here's a photo of today's Rome Marathon race as it passes near our office ....
The winner at a time of 2:09:36 was Ken Kemboi Chelimo of Kenya. The women's winner with a new record time was Souad Ait Salem from Algeria at a time of 2:25:07.

16 February, 2008

Winter in Meta di Sorrento

The winter months on the Sorrentine Peninsula and the Amalfi Coast is known to be very quiet and some say, don't go, it's all closed, so on a very sunny February weekend we decided to take a drive down to Meta di Sorrento to stay in one of our properties Apartment Sunset and take some photos and see for ourselves just how closed it is in February.

We arrived in Meta at lunch time as planned with thoughts of sitting out in the sun eating a bowl of steamed mussels and drinking a glass of chilled Falenghina ..... in the beach side restaurant underneath the apartment building that had been so fondly described by our colleague who had inspected these properties .... to our dismay the restaurant was under winter renovation, although the incredibly friendly owner was there serving free coffee to his friends who were sitting in the sun and he gave us a mouth watering description of his menu that would be offered from the first week of March... we were just a few weeks early .... Although there wasn't much doing in the town at all, there were a few restaurants open and the beach was a total sun trap and there were a few swimmers and sunbathers, but mainly there were a bunch of locals at the beach lounging around, chatting, reading the paper, definitely not a tourist in sight.

The accommodation was fabulous and had every possible amenity we could have dreamed of and we vowed to return in spring to enjoy a weekend of complete relaxation which is what I believe you could achieve in this tiny Sorrento town, breakfast on the balcony, a morning at the beach followed by lunch on the balcony, a afternoon nap followed by a dinner on the beach ....

17 January, 2008

1/2 Million balls roll down the Spanish Steps



TV cameras filmed half a million colored balls cascading down Rome's 18th Century - Spanish Steps, in the most recent stunt by the man who dyed the waters of the Trevi Fountain red, Graziano Cecchini. The balls rolled down the steps into the boat-shaped Barcaccia fountain in Piazza di Spagna below in a spectacle that stunned passers-by, who snapped photos and scooped up the balls as souvenirs.

The municiple police briefly cordon off the area whilst street cleaners shoveled the balls into garbage trucks while Mr Cecchini and his three accomplices were arrested once again - the stunt cost Cecchini close to $30,000. The guerilla artist told the Italian press the stunt "represented a lie told by a politician".

Watch the Video of the balls bouncing down the Spanish Steps