Live Italian, Learn Italian, Be Italian

Just a reminder not to miss this great opportunity to Learn Italian, Live Italian in Sorrento, Italy.

               SASL “CLUB 50+” PROGRAM

The Club 50+ programme offers a complete package of lessons and activities, exclusively for people aged 50 and over who want to travel, meet like-minded

people and improve their Italian.                                                                      

                                                                                                  CLUB 50+ IS SUITABLE FOR:

The young at heart!

- Mature students who want to make most of their time on full and excitingsocial programmes - Anyone with a genuine interest inItalian culture and a desire to broadentheir world view.CTS

  

IMPROVE YOUR ITALIAN

SASL 50+ course focuses on practical General Italian in the four skills of speaking, reading, writing and listening. You will be placed in a class  of  students  from  different  backgrounds and nationalities, all of whom are over 50

EXPLORE SORRENTO AND THE CAMPANIA REGION

The  excursion  programme  includes  activities that will help you to discover this unique city and its culture. You will discover the incredible history of Sorrento, Pompei, Naples and the Campania Region and have the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful Mediterranean cuisine.

MEET LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD

You will study in group classes, take part in group activities, and have free time to create friendships with people from many different cultures

THE SASL 50+ PROGRAM INCLUDES:

- 2 weeks Italian Basic Course

- Accommodation: 2 weeks  in a family, single room, B&B
- 1 tour of Sorrento- 1excursions to Pompeii-
- 1 excursion to Naples- 2 afternoons of school  activities, such as Italian film and class cultural lessons.
- 1 visit to Lemoncello Factory followed by tasting- 1 make your own Gelato and enjoy- 1 typical Sorrentine cooking class 

PRICE 1009 € per person

START LEVEL:  beginner to advanced

Beginner to Advanced

COURSE DATES: From 

Fr1th October 2012

to 13th October 2012

COURSE DURATION:         

2 weeks0 lessons per week –

4 hrs per day/5 days per week)

LESSON DURATION:  2 weeks
20 lessons per week-  4 hrs per day
5 days per week


Contact the school for all information

1 lesson = 50 minutes

"I took this wonderful class while on sabbatical and NEVER forgot the woknderful instructors, administrators and staff.   We still keep in touch and I return to Sorrento every trip I am Home to Italy." Lee Laurino

SASL - Sant’Anna Institute - Sorrento Lingue

Via Marina Grande 16 - 80067 Sorrento (NA)

Tel. +39-081-807-55-99 - Email: info@sorrentolingume.com

Do you have Sicilian Roots? Travel in Sicily with an expert

I had hoped to write my own story about Ciro Grillo after a trip to Sicily, but he is offering services you might need now, so I shall post information on  www.sicilyroutes.com from a post Ciro did on face book.   

I was most interested in his ability to help fellow Italian Americans find their family villages.

If you are looking for your family roots in Sicily he may be able to help.*

Ciro Grillo (from a recent FB entry)

4:11am Apr 12

Our main purpose is to make your Sicilian adventure a positive one. We have worked in the tourist industry since 1980 and have vast experience guiding group tours. Not only can we ensure that you see all of the beautiful highlights that Sicily has, but we can also arrange trips to the rest of Italy.
The possibilities are endless! Whether you want to enjoy the Mediterranean Sea or the beautiful mountainous inland areas, we can accommodate all requests.

Explore the land of your heritage or simply enjoy the endless beauty and archaeological treasure that is Sicily.
We specialize in custom tours that include:
- All accommodations (be it a hotel, unique selection of villas and private properties, B&B or charming Italian farmhouse (agriturismo)
- Custom tours by an English/Italian speaking guide
- Comfort travel in a private car or van (if the group is larger) with an experienced driver
- Excursions to outlying islands via deluxe sail or motor yachts
- Visits to the town of your family ancestry (research on family history can also be accomplished)
- Wine tours and exposure to the “REAL" Sicilian cuisine.
-Traditional Sicilian Cooking course.
- genealogy research service provided by Giovanni Montanti at www.sicilyvideo.it info@sicilyvideo.it
- new!!         WEDDINGS in Sicily There are many spectacular wedding locations around Sicily. Whether you wish a wedding in Sicily across this fantastic island we can give you all the help you need.
1st class and quality holidays in Sicily. All that we propose, accommodations, wineries, coastal and country retreats and chartered yachts, in Sicily, are the best. If you hunger for quality, authenticity, honest opinions & excellent service from people who really know Sicily, you have found the right place.

Ask us to tailor an escorted holiday for your private group:
Call or email:
+ 39 393 8161997 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            + 39 393 8161997      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
skype : ciro.grillo57
Email: cirogrillo@msn.com
please visit our web site

WWW.SICILYROUTES.COM
US ASSOCIATE
PiazzaSicilia, LLC
1099 General Knox Road
Washington Crossing ,PA 18977
(215) 369-7630 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (215) 369-7630      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax (215) 325-1074
Email : piazzasicilia@aol.com

* I was very impressed when Ciro was able to help a SOLO traveler recently.   

Drive in Classic Cars in Italy!

           This week Yle will share with us the excitement of speeding through the beautiful Puglia countryside with the wind blowing through your hair and the wonderful colors of the Italian sky.

           You must visit to experience the colors of Italy:    the distinctive blue of the sky and the various greens of ancient trees and new crops in the fields.      Come as a traveler not a tourist. 
Yle today shows us another wonderful adventure for your visit to Italia! 
EXPLORING PUGLIA WITH STYLE: BY CLASSIC CAR
For everyone passionate about classic cars, food and fine wine, Spring or late Summer is a perfect time for exploring Puglia.

There's no better way to enjoy the area, its landscapes, colors and smells. Sometimes people ask me what is the best way to experience the area and after having tried it myself several times in the last two years, I can undoubtedly say that travelling with style is a very unique way to explore.

Many years ago, on a beautiful sandy beach on the lonian coast (an authentic paradise called Porto Cesareo) I met Massimo, a Salento native, an engineer, who told me about his passion for classic cars.  We have stayed in touch since then and when he told me about his classic cars project I told him he had a fabulous idea!    Once he told me about a sample tour, I asked him to experience it first hand and simply adorned the time I spent in those amazing cars.   Since then, we have had many visitors explore Puglia this way and Massimo and his team are lovely people to work with.

Driving a classic car is so stylish.    During one of our recent tours, we met in the main Piazza (Square) of the town for a glorious breakfast (cornetto and cappuccino) and for an insider look at the city (centro storico) – always a good time to take some beautiful pictures – among baroque palaces, then out of town through the countryside landscapes, down narrow white washed walled streets in little villages,  past beautiful villas by the ocean and an memorable drive amidst olive groves.

It’s very hard to remember the tons of pictures we took all the time…without mentioning the stops at a winery and in very cozy bakery where they make some great bread and taralli (and pastries as well!).  

This was very much like being in a movie:   huge landascapes along the coastline, wind in our hair, sunglasses and all the countryside smells sorrounding us.

Are you "invisible" when you travel? Or do you make a "statement"

Have you seen the shows where someone is selected off the street for a  "make over" ?
How bad do you have to look to be selected from a crowd in a city of millions?

My 2012 adventure home to Italy this November had a stop in Great Britain.  The Queen Mary took me from NYC to Southampton, so I planned 2 days in London.  The city is always changing but it has been many years since I visited.

While watching a street performer yell at a tourist about not saying thank you a young man approached me.
One, I am always invisible when I travel.    I travel with a low profile but it sometimes amazes me that I can go unnoticed most times.   The only time this is annoying is when you want to order a meal or pay for something in a shop or an outdoor market.  But it all works.

So when I was asked if I would like a "free" hair cut make over I was surprised I was noticed by the employee assigned to go out into the street and find someone  AND then I was a little annoyed that I must have looked so bad I looked like I needed a make over!

I shared this with my hair stylist as soon as I returned.   She now has the mission to fix me so that I am invisible again.

No more luggage fees when I visit Florence Italy

Do you drag too much luggage with you on vacation or trips?   After you purchase all those wonderful treasures, do you find there is no space in your bag to bring them home?    And the fees to fly with an additonal bag can be very costly.  I was recently told if my bag was over the weight limit it was 100 euros to bring the second bag!

So, in addtion to traveling with throw away clothing (items I no longer need I leave in the charity boxes in Italy at the end of the trip)  I discovered the wonderful people at Mail Box Etc in Florence Italy.
The location I use is a few blocks from the train station on Via della Scala  13.   I can leave my bag there while I travel all over Italy,   I have had them ship my bag to my next city destination so that I could stop in small towns (that do not usually have luggage storage) and when I arrived at my hotel, my bag would be waiting for me!   And when i finish my trip in Florence I have MBetc mail my extra items to my home in the USA.
My package arrives the week I ask for and has never had any damage or loss.    A very easy way to avoid the excess baggage fees AND dragging that heavy bag through the airport.

Oh and they store your luggage while you travel around Italy or Europe.

Visit my friends at Mail Box etc  they will make traveling a breeze.

MBE 0212

0.86 km

Via della Scala 13 / R  Florence

Tel: 055/268173

E-mail:mbe212@mbe.it

http://youtu.be/UXv2qRk1g2Y

Now that I no longer take vacations, I have adventures!

going home to Italy every year is something I look forward to every year.
I always visit Florence, the city that convinced me to return for a semester abroad while at Syracuse University.   As all college students I had gone through the shock of moving away to a town where I knew almost no one, but I was not very prepared to go to a city where I KNEW NO ONE and could not even speak their language.

For years after that event I visited Italy, England, Alaska and the far east as a tourist or on buiness.  But now I try to NOT go as a tourist on vacation by as an explorer on an ADVENTURE.  Yes my adventures are small.  I don't walk across the desert alone, I don't take a canoe to explore the Amazon or  climb mountains.  My adventures are traveling solo and meeting as many people who are willing to speak with me.

This does not always work.   I still remember the shop clerk in Venice giving me the shoulder shrug (that said who the h--- cares) after I explained how difficult it had been to find a sweater in large American sizes.  She also refused to let me purchase an item on "display" in the window.    After all these months I still wish I had walked out of the store.    But I have a wish necklace and it you are granted 3 wishes than I shall wish that she age gracelessly and become large............

Adventures can be small or large.  When you are going outside your comfort zone often a small adventure can be a great accomplishment.

Where   do you go on adventures??

Some of the interesting people I met on my last trip


This is Frank.    A very kind customer service rep. who never lost his temper or grace when clients were rude, loud and not very nice.  Mr. Frank translated something I had found in Spain, so that I could understand the lengend of the "ringing of the bells"

 I do not know this kind woman's name but I see her every year.
When I visit Florence each year I stop in the large central market.  Sometimes for a great cappucino at the stall that all the market workers visit.   They always know I am a tourist but treat me the same as everyone else.  

Most visits I stop at this one stall where you can purchase pannini's.  the owner always understands my requet for turkey and swill.  She always has a smile even when i am the last customer after her 8hr day.   This trip we exchanged emails and i shall send her photos of her stall.  

:While lost in Venice exploring the hundreds of narrow street on my way from St Marks to the train station.   I stopped in a small glass bead store.  There are many, many of these and there was no particular reason to stop here.   But while buying strands of her mini glass beads I had a lovely chat with the owner.   Her daugher uses the internet but
she was still not "ready" to join the email revolution.




Who have you met on your adventures that made a mark on you?   I keep writing about how surprised I am that the people I meet mark my life but I dont make any impression on them..   Perhaps because they meet so many more people than I do.

                                                                                                                                      

Even nuns have a bad day sometimes.....

I am traveling in Italy for 30 days and this is not a glamor trip. While doing several other projects, see other posts, I am trying to see if I can do Italy on 100 a day. NO not 100 dollars, 100 euors and it is difficult. So I am staying in convent hotels in most of the cities I will visit. I break up these austere accomodations with hotels and an apartment for a week in Spoleto.

In Rome I stayed at one location two separate times. The building has the most amazing roof terrace! Had dinner up there and videoed the sunset over St Peters. But on my second visit in 10 days when I asked for a fan for my room I was given a hair dryer. No i dont know the word for fan or hair dryer but hair dryer is easier to pantomine! I offered to draw a pictue and received the usual Italian hand signal to go away and see me tomorrow. Well I didnt need a fan in the morning , i needed one TONIGHT.

So I just put it in my funny story pile.

I was lucky, I was not asked to leave when my alarm clock went off at 7:00pm. No I did not wake anyone but as I walked down from the roof terrace I heard a noise similar to a car alarm.... this is from the 4th floor. As i got closer to the 2nd floor where my room was I realized it was my alram clock! You could hear it from four floors away and through thick stone.... jsut another travel event, small and trivial...

Flash Backs of Italy! Or just dreams of a life in the Tuscan Hills?

Have you visited Italy or have you dreamed of a trip to the wonderful areas of Italy?

Take a moment to meat a colleague of mine I met while promoting Italian real estate here in the USA.

Ms Ford and I stayed in touch over the past 6 years and visit every trip I return HomeToItaly.

Now I find there is an artist behind the real estate professional! 

Do you remember the incredible light, the colors and how they change as the day progresses when you walk the streets of a very old town or city in Italy? 

Now you can take that image home in photos or even note cards.

Take a look at Sheilas gallery of art treasures and make one your own.

From her web site:

NOT ONLY HOUSES

Real Estate agent by profession but by passion photographer, Sheila Ford has lived and worked in Florence for more than 25 years.


"Of English origin she has always had a love for photography. On her eighth birthday she was given her first camera a Kodak Brownie 127 which she still keeps! 
Today her photography is much more involved and wishes to share her emotions captured through the eye of the lens. The Florence and Tuscany she knows, the streets, colors, ancient stones revisited time and again from angles less known."

http://www.florenceprimopiano.com/photo/

No more Beach Vacations

Now that I don't spend every waking hour tanning or sitting on the beach (even if i did spend the time reading a book) it opens up far more time and opportunity on where I can travel, solo.
The beach is wonderful and the view of the sea or ocean one of the joys of life, but if you add up all the hours from age 16 to 35 (approx) you could travel the world in that amount. And your tan fades, and you freckle and have brown spots later on. Yes it is true.

However, i watched Italians sun every possible moment while I was in Sorrento, and show no wear and tear on them as you looked at older sun worshipers. Who can stay indoors with a view of the sea, the islands, or just a walk along the coast??

Now what to do with all this time?

Traveling solo and on a budget (because of the dreaded single supplements) often requires that I have to travel off season: Europe in the fall or spring, the USA the reverse of the vacationers:

beach trips in the winter, ski areas or Montana, Utah in the early summer. Forget about seeing the leaves change in the fall, two many couples to be able to find a room.

There is an art to solo travel and I am still exploring all the possibilities.

how do you handle the cost of solo travel during the "best" travel times