Pix…various and the final week

Old (Peglio and in the far distance) and new (outskirts of Urbania)

There’s some serious money in this town.
The blue and purple houses from the previous post  are just beyond those trees to the right.

A long walk took me into the country around Urbania

                                             

Where Dr Doolittle may have found his inspiration!

NEVER forget to take your camera with you, even when it's raining!

 The Gorge at Forli

Forli Gorge....My beautiful Megane looking tiny

Forli gorge - where Romans not only built roads, but also gouged out tunnels

Well, that 3 weeks went quickly and I’ve got just  4 more days of lessons.  Yup, it’s the final week and there is, without a doubt, an improvement in my spoken Italian..or at least I now speak alot more and unlike the first week at Florence airport where my utterances caused looks of total non-comprehension, now I  can get past the first few exchanges before I have to ask for the speed of delivery to be slower. 

So now I’m in the throes of buying presents…the bike shop has already had a nice surprise with me buying tops, socks and bidons,  as has the best ceramic place in town…

and all that left is the enoteca for some plonk although sadly this is not a wine growing area  so it’ll just have to be  relatively local wine.

Today (Monday) is the local saint’s  day and so the school is closed as are most of the shops.  I will be forever grateful for my local café..Sunrise Café for being open at all times, except on Wednesday’s, and for having free internet.  Once I realised they had free internet I was theirs, heart and soul.  I now don’t have to order my morning dose of caffeine, I just say ciao! and plonk 90 cents on the counter ……and when I say “local” I mean *really* local  almost next door in fact…a two minute walk on a VERY tired day is all it takes.    The newspaper shop also knows me well and the guy pulls out the pink sports rag when I step in the door, although now the TdF is over I’m not sure what newspaper to buy now.

No more TdF not only means no more newspaper it also means no more TV...I only get 2 channels and honestly even my desire to listen to as much Italian as possible wont convince me to watch soaps!  and I guess I'd better return to pm classes!  Since I've got 3 x 1hr private lessons too, I think this week should help solidify all I've learnt..I just hope it doesn't all disappear before I get to show off my improvement  at CIS in Melbourne!

Ah well..better cook something for evening meal...NOT pasta though!...had enough of that to last a month or so.