Category Archives: Italy 2015

The diary of a Slow Traveller – Markets

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One Love of slow travel is being able to frequent the local market.  That means not just a walk through the local market as you take in the sights but the opportunity to visit and revisit a market that overtime becomes your local.

Ortigia Market from the Temple of Apollo

Ortigia Market from the Temple of Apollo

Our time in Sicily gave us the chance to visit the Origia Market on an almost daily basis for nearly 7 weeks. The market is nestled between the Temple of Apollo and the sea. By  the Temple of Apollo  vendors have stalls selling ceramics, belts and clothes and then a turn to the left and you have a wonderful choice of fruit, vegetables, bread, fish, meat and cheeses.

Fish & produce

Day One purchases

Day One purchases

On Day One there was no doubt we were  “ripped off”. Continue reading →

Diary of a Slow Traveller – A state of mind

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Slow Travel is a state of mind.

As I am writing my Diary of a Slow Traveller as a reflective diary,  I have good reason to scan the thousands of photos I took while traveling through Italy. They are definitely snapshots that capture a moment rather than a work of art.

My favourites are the ones that look out over an expanse of water. Sometimes its just looking out to see or across a lake, other times it’s at a lone sailing boat or a lone fishing boat.

Lake Como

Lake Como

Lone Sailor - Ortigia

Lone Sailor – Ortigia

Lone fisherman - Ortigia

Lone fisherman – Ortigia

These photos  were taken at Lake Como and Ortigia, Siracusa.  All were taken at a time when I could immerse myself for perhaps a few seconds or minutes in the scene.

They provided me a “sense of place”. Continue reading →

The Diary of a Slow Traveller

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Slow travel is quite simply not being in a hurry. Slow Travel happens when you don’t have a deadline or timeline hanging over you.

It’s about taking your time to get somewhere and when you do, taking the time to appreciate it. It is as a fellow blogger put it “being where you are, not about what you do”. It’s about soaking in the experience because Slow Travel is a state of mind.

Why would someone become a Slow Traveller? In part the perfect response is because they can. The time for Slow Travel is when you don’t have to be somewhere anytime soon. What “soon” means is upto you! Continue reading →

Singapore – nearly home

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Sitting in the Qantas Lounge in Singapore meant that our  “3 months in Italy” was all but over.

Singapore was the bookend to our travels. Just on three months ago we arrived in Singapore as a stopover with our “3 months in Italy” ahead of us. Now sitting in Changi Airport, Singapore we are just about home.

With a few thousand photos in the Cloud, many half written posts I realize how much we have seen and how much there is to reflect on. I plan to not let our time away be quickly forgotten, adopting the rule of thinking about at least one thing that we saw, did or felt each day for as long as I can after we get home. I’m sure that will mean many more posts.

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Singapore is pretty much everything Italy isn’t and provides a circuit breaker for our return to Australia.

Singapore is modern and moves at pace. Continue reading →

Out and about in Rome – Frascati

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Villa

Villa Aldobrandini, Frascati

Continuing with a desire to expand our horizons away from the heart of The Eternal City we decided to “Do as the Romans Do” and go to Frascati for the day, or more particularly for lunch.

Frascati is a small town located about 30 minutes by train from Rome. It is a favourite amongst the inhabitants of Rome to get away from the heat in summer or for an evening meal. Judging by the number of teenagers that shared our train ride it’s also a favourite place to get away from your parents on a Saturday afternoon.

After a late breakfast we caught the metro to Rome Termani and decided to walk around the up and coming Monti district which is located near the station.

Making us acutely aware of how much the world had changed in recent months each metro station had members of the army inside with hands on their machine guns. I’m pretty sure that they are not there to stop fare evaders!

imageMonti was once a poor area but is now quite trendy. Just the place for people like us. There are new modern bars and coffee shops and for the first time in months we saw food that was not just Italian . I saw a coupe fo Indian Restaurants and had instant cravings! Monti is also home to sone very trendy boutiques that immediately caught my favourite person’s eye as well as my daughter’s back in Australia with the benefit of WhatsApp.

There was lots of browsing in the boutiques but no purchasing. Continue reading →