In Puglia and Places

[...] Two years ago my then bank in Martina Franca told me that due to “changes” after a merger they no longer had access to an IBAN number and [...]

[...] there are just not enough expats and the locals are not big on trying new things. People in Martina Franca will tell you the food eaten in Ceglie 6 kms down the road is not as good as theirs so they [...]

[...] away any view the house had. I feel pleased that at least in the countryside around us in Martina Franca they do enforce the rules. [...]

[...] , they have nothing better to do. So they drive into town, drive around the town be it Martina Franca in Puglia or Kalamata here and then they drive out again. They are mainly male and aged [...]

[...] This move meant Italy had to pay more for borrowing money. Given that in 2011 the EU removed Silvio Berlusconi from power and replaced him with a bureaucrat in response to the worsening debt of the [...]

[...] on the wind but maybe my neighbour Giovanni’s septic tank just needs cleaning. When Silvio Berlusconi was leader he tried to revitalise the Italian economy ( since him the unelected [...]

[...] With this Taranto finally has something to hang it’s hat on and could attend trade shows as a Citta del Gusto. It would be nice as despite all the problems it is a pleasant city with a lovely centro [...]

[...] to take day trips down into the Mani as this area is known ( it is to those of you with Google maps the middle of the three fingers that stick out at the bottom of the Peloponnese) . [...]

[...] way. Athenians drive like bats out of hell and I was relying on screen shots taken off Google Maps to find our way . Supposedly we were to drive along the coast avoiding Athens altogether [...]

[...] of Lavrio is past millions of summer homes for Athenians . The  hotels are full  not with foreign tourists but Greek tourists. There is not a bed to be had in Athens for love nor money nor on the [...]

[...] about it. They have looked enviously at areas in the north of Italy and the number of foreign tourists going there and wondered why. At the hearing last week they asked tour operators and travel [...]

[...] home and in the main are unemployed which is obviously a tragedy but a necessity according to Frau Merkel as she attempts to teach Southern Europeans how to be better Germans. Quite a few of the [...]

[...] guys have a wry sense of humour. Our leader Renzi jets off to Brussels to do battle with Frau Merkel over Italy’s need for looser financial constraints and the boys in the weather bureau name the [...]

[...] if you speak in Greek the locals will reply in English. This is not a new phenomenon when Lawrence Durrell the poet and writer whom I mentioned in several blogs from Greece arrived at Limassol on the [...]

[...] The British residents of which there were quite a few down here were similarly abandoned and Lawrence Durrell, at the time teaching English at the Kalamta British School, who we last heard of in my [...]

[...] some of the examples he uses in his well researched article. Did you know there are 28,000 forestry police in Sicily ? That is more than in the whole of Canada. I must find out how many there are in [...]

[...] water supply and thought no more of it. A month or so later up the driveway came the Forestry Police. They had a summons to serve on him for building an illegal pool and a court date. Before [...]

[...] unheard of in the Subcontinent ? If you click on the link above you will see the top 10 curry restaurants in the UK with number 1 in Alva Scotland so thank god they voted no or we would need a [...]

You have to say that the Italian weather guys have a wry sense of humour. Our leader Renzi jets off to Brussels to do battle with Frau Merkel over Ita [...]