Sunday 29 July 2007

Italy

On Wednesday we flew to Ancona in Italy for a three day reunion with Mrs F's brothers and families, the elder who has a house there and the younger who was there from the USA.

La Marche is a region which has been big in shoes, which is why so many market stalls look like this. I know some bloggers who would have spent hours browsing here.


Being Italy, there's always an opera house within reach. Here are the witches (a lot more than 3) from Verdi's Macbeth at the opening night in nearby Macerata. As the temperature had been nearly 40 by day it was just as well that this building had no roof and the performance didn't start until 9 (9.15 Italian time). As the late Cllr Andrew Varley said, "I didn't see any queues" when we waited to show our tickets.



In such temperatures a pool always comes in handy. This is the closest I get to the channel!


Trying to photograph small lizards demands great patience. I was lucky.



How could I resist this shop window?

On driving back from Stanstead I told Mrs F to take the London entrance to the M11. I must have been suffering from jet lag. It wouldn't have been so bad if we just went down to the Harlow junction and whizzed back, but ooooooooooh no, there had to be a traffic jam all the way. I repeated a very naughty word many times, whilst Mrs F drove quietly on.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul did you by any chance come back on Saturday afternoon? If so you had company in that Harlow queue-ten solid miles of traffic from Stansted then it miraculously cleared after Harlow. Luckily we were going in the right direction though, and weren't in a rush. We would have waved if we had seen you-honest! Didn't like that dog in a bag-Florrie is far too independant for that.
PS thanks for not showing us your speedos

Charlotte Howard said...

Right first time. It cleared after Harlow because the only reason for the queue was that the Harlow roundabout's lights were out of action - hard to believe it can have such a knock-on effect.

The dog was very content.

What are speedos? I don't think I've got any.

Anonymous said...

Then I won't enlighten you-don't want you getting ideas. If you really want to know then that NICE councillor can fill you in.

Charlotte Howard said...

Steady, FM...!