Learning to drive again…………… Italian Style! This week I went back to the classroom.  Not to do some incredible art and design course, or to brush up on my Italian.  Not even to do a delicious gourmet Italian cooking class!  No, I went back to the classroom to learn about Italian road rules!  I went […]

Tanti Auguri and Happy Birthday to Toni & Me! Happy Easter to everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying your Easter holidays and not indulging in too much chocolate and hot cross buns!  I found a local version of a hot cross bun in our baker the other day – a traditional Easter fruit bun […]

We are finally enjoying our first taste of Spring and it was so nice today to go outside wearing a t-shirt and not the 10 layers of winter clothing that we have been used to wearing lately. Wearing just a t-shirt made my pregnant belly seem much bigger as it was no longer hiding under […]

Belated 150th Happy Anniversary Italy! This post is a little late considering the actual anniversary of Italy’s unification was last Thursday 17th March but I wanted to do a little research first. I have to admit, I was very surprised to hear that Italy was only 150 years old.  How could this be? Surely Australia […]

I’ve got one in the oven! After many months of charting cycles, weeing on ovulation sticks, trying to time having sex with those magic fertile days, taking my prenatal vitamins and wishing and hoping for a baby, I finally found out on January 7th that I was pregnant! I wont lie, I had begun to […]

My Famous Sister!!! I thought that it was long overdue for me to write about my very talented twin sister Toni who has become somewhat of a celebrity not only here in Tuscany but in all of Italy! Who ever knew when she trotted off to nursing school after high school that she would not […]

Autumn Winter 2011 This week Florence has been inundated with fashionistas from around the globe. They have come from far and wide for the Pitti Uomo exhibition.  This fashion show is held twice a year, January and June, and is the most important men’s fashion trade show at the start of each season.  Autumn Winter 2011, […]

Festa della Epifania / The Epiphany Tomorrow, the 6th of January is the Epiphany and a ‘Festa’ or public holiday here in Italy.  For most children here though, it is La Befana, when an old woman (called The Befana) often portrayed as a witch comes to visit them at night with lollies (candy in American,  caramelle in Italian) […]

Thought that might get your attention! Rivoire – A Florentine Chocolate Factory When one orders a hot chocolate in Italy, many are surprised that that is literally what you are served – a steaming cup of melted chocolate. You can drink it straight, or as many Italians prefer, with a good dose of whipped cream […]