Gio

So, what do you all do for recreation here in Italy. Surely not sitting in bars, dancing at a club, going to the cinema, watching lots of t.v, shopping...all u.k stuff. Have you brought your relaxation habits to Italy or have you accquired a new lot since living here ?
Ernie

indiebird

Well as a family we have discovered Mountains!! We love 'em and we love that we are so close to the Alps here. In the summer we go into the mountains nearly every weekend where it is fresher and do a lot of walking. Our fave idea is to go to the ski resorts, go up the mountain on the ski-lifts and then walk back down again. This is the best way we've found with a couple of kids, one of whom is 5 and is not a natural walker. Last summer she regularly managed 10miles back down!!

The kids and my partner are also keen skiers but I must admit that for me personally I have only just embraced walking on the snow. May sound strange but I have never felt comfortable with the stuff but I am planning to maybe take skiing lessons at some point in the future, but as a mum it is hard to do something which may result in broken limbs cos I need to be there for everyone else.

The other things about the mountains are the fantastic refuges where you can normally just turn up, get a table and eat fantastically well for very little money. Yes they can be a bit basic and not have pages and pages full of different dishes and the service can sometimes be abrupt but they are wonderful ways of eating proper mountain food, having a good glass of house wine and just enjoying the surroundings. We are planning to book a night in one this summer so we can do a two day walk!!

Thanks Ernesto for reminding me of what I actually like about being here!!

Gio

I am too a great mountain walker and live near incredible mountains. This has always been one of my great passions.Glad I helped you remember one reason for being here Indie.
Ernie

TestaRossa

indiebird - I'm guessing from something you said on another thread that you have been to Pila. We skied there at Easter.

We ski every year - sometimes going to Abetone which is the local resort for Florence. I walk or bus everywhere as I don't have a car. I love the markets here - not so much tat on the mixed ones as in the UK! I drink more ; I read a lot more, but that is since discovering all the e-books for my i-touch that are free! The main thing for me that is different is meeting loads of very different people, in the flesh that is, not on here! Although a few are through the forums. It's great! Other than that my life is pretty much what it was in the UK but with, normally not today, better weather! School run, housework, shopping, tv in the evenings, etc. but I prefer the setting!

indiebird

I have been to Pila, beautiful place, but I've only been in the Summer, not for skiing (actually me hanging about in the morning and then spending my afternoons hoofing a flipping sledge up a hill for my daughter to whizz down on so my dh can go off and do 'proper skiing!!) also Mongenevre (shame it is in France really but a nice mix of peeps both in summer and winter!!) and also Ceresole which is where they filmed the end sequences for The Italian Job and it is amazing!! Wonderful in summer and winter and with the most amazing refuge with spring water on tap. Also the more local Val di Lanzo is fantastic and I know that we still have not even remotely seen all they have to offer!!

Me and dh are hoping to get a couple of weeks by ourselves here in the summer when the kids go and get spoiled by nanny and I really would like to get to some tourist places like Pisa and Florence and the Cinque Terre too..... you got to admit the setting is really lovely.

Lorna at Vicenza

When I was younger and single I spent a fair amount of time eating out, drinking in bars and dancing in clubs. I also worked bloody hard as well though so weekends were all about going out - and it was cheap.

Didn't go to the cinema though or watch much tv as I never really wanted to see the films in Italian. I never spent much time shopping either but I was never a big shopping girl in the UK. Besides - I wasn't much of a fashion follower and you can bet your boots that the one summer I'd decide that I'd really like a bright red shirt, the fashion was blue and white and there wasn't a red shirt to be found in the shops for love nor money.

I have walked and hiked most of the mountain trails and done something called the 52 tunnels at least 10 times. It's an amazing walk that goes through 52 tunnels all dug out during the 1st world war. It's tough going though and doing it 10 times was not always my choice. Every time I met a new bunch of friends or a "compagnia" they'd say "we'll take you on a Sunday walk Lorna".

It was all I could do not to groan sometimes when I found myself at the 52 tunnels again.
http://www.magicoveneto.it/Pasubio/P...Gallerie-1.htm

I don't like skiing but I've taken the kids bob sleighing in winter and in Asiago there is a huge ice skating rink. Apparently Asiago has a very good ice hockey team .....as well as the famous cheese.

I live 5 minutes away from a river and the river bed is a nice sandy spot to take the kids to in summer. It's a great place for a picnic and a few hours in the sun with buckets and spades and the river gurgling and not a sound of traffic. The big open swiming pools are great but too expensive to take the kids all the time.

There used to be an old train station here but the train stopped running into the hills God knows how many decades ago. The comune tore up the old train tracks a few years ago and tidied up all the track and turned it into a public walk and cycle route. It's lovely and goes through a couple of tunnels and is in the middle of trees and hills and a great cycle ride away from traffic for the kids.

I prefer a walk around the market to the shops and I like the artisan markets too and the Christmas markets.

I still like to sit out at a bar with an aperitivo and friends.

I have to say though that there is not much to do at all on a wet and cold winter Sunday afternoon. I have often wondered if it would be worthwhile to open a big kids' activity centre like the UK ones with the jungle gym and ball park etc. but the thought of having to get 1.000 bits of paper and legal stamps and permessi always puts me off.

duffer

drugs

TestaRossa

You shouldn't mainline Brando's calpol...!

duffer

I've been freebasing on it

pansy

duffer you daft bat lol, recreation for me. walking my 2old english sheepdogs monte morello is lovely. reading, painting gothic fairies making up stories about them and sending them to my grandaughter. I play bodhran awful would like to play well. love bimbling round florence meeting people. rideouts on the motorbike. dancing and drinking. lots really.

duffer

Bodhran and bimbling I haven't done. The first is some type of Irish bong but the second I'm not sure if you inject or inhale.

LivingHere

I've finally had my piano tuned so have begun "playing" again. Usually accompanied by a toddler on percussion. We do have a couple of indoor play centres near us but I try and keep them as desperate measures as they cost so much.

Something I do a lot here that I never did in the UK is to go swimming in the lakes. Outdoor swimming in the northwest of England just didn't do it for me, even though I know that there is plenty of water available.

Lorna at Vicenza

That's true and I'm lucky having lake Garda close by and another natural lake up in the mountains.

indiebird

We know a little place a bit off the beaten track where a deep pool has been created in a river. My kids love swimming there when it is boiling hot and it is usually reasonably quiet too.

Gio

drugs




You had me in stitches
Ern