Summer with Friends (part I)

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The evening of our friend's arrival was near. When I had to describe how to arrive from Lamezia airport with the rented car to our home, I came until where they would need to turn left into the piazza - which is NOT allowed after 6pm. Every evening there is this barrier you see in the picture (below) and two traffic police ladies ensuring only residents sneak through. Some evenings before their arrival I took that photo and emailed it. At least they would not miss the turn. Also I talked to the charming traffic police ladies and explained the situation.

turn left into the piazza

I arranged with our friends - and very first guest - that they would call me as soon as they had left the rental car company. Then, I would walk slowly from our house towards the piazza, checking out what's up in Pizzo and end my stroll here at the barrier talking to the charming traffic police.

Around 20 minutes after my friends call I looked excited into every small car that looked like a rented car filled with German tourists. There were many. My son came waiting with me. When we spotted them, we waved them over. My friend got out of the car and walk with son the short way home, while I would co-pilot her husband through the narrow alleys - a fun ride.

The plane was delayed and we arrived around 9pm at home. We decided to go for a pizza in piazza, although Saturday night in August you better cook at home. The tables outside in the piazza were crowded, and we had to wait long to be served. But life just starts now. Most life you will find around 11pm in piazza. This is when people queue for a table at the Gelateria Belvedere.

The next morning - and this is one of my favorite parts of this holiday with friends - before everyone else is up, T. would go and find a bakery to buy fresh panini for breakfast!!

When I would come downstairs, breakfast would be ready! Ah, what lovely guest! Danke ! Danke! Danke! (Lately, I got guest in Bangkok that were jet lagged the whole stay and didn't come out of their rooms until 11am!!)

Usually, in Italy, I never have breakfast, just a coffee, an expresso with some milk. I never liked the hard bread down here. But T. managed to find the right things. We even had a delicious bergamot marmalade (that I even brought back to Thailand). And he would make me smile with his shopping tour observations early in the morning across the piazza that seemed only inhabited at that hour by elderly and old men, drinking espresso at the bar and chatting. The sales woman in Lo Biancho would always be in a grumpy mood and not having change. And every morning he came up with some other details.

I was pleased to see that the simple life down here was enjoyed by my guest as much as by myself. It is easy to consider life in Pizzo as boring if someone prefers fast exciting city life.

So, slow and pleasant, finally, my vacation started. I enjoyed the company of my fellow countrymen - speaking German for a change was so relaxing! Since it was the first holiday our families spent together, we were lucky to see that we follow a similar "rhythm".

After the very nice breakfast, we would pack for the beach and leave the house never earlier than 10.30. We would walk through the village, pass by all the gelaterie and walk dawn the alleys towards the marina.

Beach of Pizzo Marina

Mothers would lay in the shadow under the blue striped umbrella, chatting and reading. Kids would be constantly in the water, swimming, snorkeling, playing. T. would do it all.

A couple of hours later, around the same time, we would all have had enough from the sun and the heat and walk back home to prepare a late and light lunch.

"Spritz" my favorite Italian aperitif

Preparing food altogether in my beautiful new kitchen was even more fun when everyone was having a drink. The orange colored Spritz, originally from Veneto area, become my favorite summer drink.

Mix a Spritz:
1/3 Aperol
1/3 prosecco
1/3 soda water
just fill it in a prosecco glass, don't shake or stir, add ice cubes and a slice of lemon.

It is so light - like lemonade !
I admit, I use more prosecco and less soda ;-)

After lunch, that we finish, almost like Italians, just a little later, at 3pm we would have a break, like Italians. T., R. and E. would read, LC and A. would play or draw and I would just enjoy the house and having the house filled with life. Sometimes T. would even go with the kids a second time to the beach in the late afternoon and come back before sunset.

our "house beach" in walking distance

Soon we figured out that two times cooking per day for 7-9 people is just too much, even with a dish washer. So when we would have had lunch at home, we would have dinner outside.

my favorite pizza "Tricolore" by SPQR

In piazza there is more competition since the pizzeria SPQR with its good looking and dynamic staff opened directly next to La Ruota. It is difficult to say which one is better. We visited them both by turns. The pizze from La Ruota might be slightly better cooked, but SPQR has a better choice of pasta dishes and the best prices. And their pizza "Tricolore" (prochiutto, ruccola, parmesan) was my summer's favorite.

Paradiso del Sub Beach

Another day, another beach. 35 Years ago, this beach was only accessible by boat. 15 years ago it was still a secret bay. Now, you can find it even printed on postcards: Paradiso del Sub, a few km North of Tropea. I can't believe how many people, young and old, would walk through the heat all the long and steep way to access this "isolated" bay. The water is still beautiful though. For this beach we prepared panini - picnic lunch on the beach.

preparing dinner at PP

Preparing dinner at home might be interrupted by sunset watching and photo shooting. Here, I count 9 covers on my 4 meter something table cloth from the market featuring chili and garlic. This was when CC was still in Italy and we invited his parents over for dinner.

beach below Tropea's balcony

Another day, another beach. Since we had two cars, we used them from time to time to discover new beaches. One day, after a visit of the old town of Tropea and a pizza slice for each, we went down to the beach to cool off in this crystal clear water.

orechietti (little ear pasta) with sweat cherry tomatoes from the market by R.

Tropea's famous beach

another tomato salad for lunch

So we went on and on.
Beach, lunch, siesta, dinner.
Beach, lunch, siesta, dinner.
A real Italian vacation.

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Six month later, I finally compiled "summer with friends (part II) and you can read it here

Before the first Guest arrived

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This summer was the summer we finally would move into the house that we first spotted in summer 2006 – FIVE years ago. Who would have thought that it will take us that long?!
There are a few reasons why it took us five years.
First we needed to get all the paper work done and the permissions from the commune.
Then we needed someone on site to talk to the architect and supervise the project, at least from time to time. This was Angelo, my father-in-law, who also himself had some other businesses running in the last years. Our architect started the renovation from the outside and when that was done, we waited for Angelo to take over the inside fitting. He would do most part like painting and flooring by himself. Since he is very precise he noted his working hours:  three thousand something… ! But Angelo also had support by Tonino and Mimmo, two masons who prepared the floors and did the tiling of six bathrooms, three kitchens, one terrace, one balcony and one garden and all kind of other works. And there were the plumber, the electrician team “Fonsi” & partner, some carpenters and other suppliers.      
me & Angelo on his Vespa on the way to work in Pizzo 

Since the past 5 years, we were living most of the time overseas, far from the construction site, we were doing – what I call - a “long-distance-online-renovation”.  And whenever we spent our summer holidays in Pizzo we have been busy in the beginning with decision makings. Then in August, basically when all Italy goes on vacation, shops would close and workers would go to the beach as well. So, when on site we could only push little things. The main communication between us and Angelo was via email and sometimes via Skype, in urgent cases via SMS. But the fact that it was “long-distance” did not delay the project, since Angelo would decide when I would be too slow…
 

Another reason why we were not that fast is that a renovation of a house – even when the construction supervisor and main interior worker is your father-in-law – costs a lot of money that needs to be earned first. There was a time when money was tight and I had to bring in my pension fund…
And after five years, this was finally our summer.
When I arrived in Pizzo, Angelo had already started with the flooring of the last square meters in the guest residence in the seminterrato.
working in progress in the seminterrato

The masons were filling the holes in the stairways with cement and adding the granite border.
cement filling and granit border for the stairways

The cutting of granite stone and wooden panels together with the earth movements for the future porto below the house caused lots of dust that was carried with the wind inside the house, every day. I kept cleaning and cleaning.
One day, even the outside scaffolding on one part of the house was back! Angelo had figured, that rain water might penetrate the walls through some holes that he wanted to seal. (The renovation work will never end!)
scaffolding is back for some sealing work

The workers and Angelo asked me constantly when our first guest are arriving. They wanted to finish everything before.
I assured them that our guest will sleep upstairs with us and not in the guest residence. Only the second group of guest that will arrive 10 days later might use the guest residence. However, I was happy, when finally no cutting of whatsoever material took not place any longer.
After the cleaning woman who came three times a week to help to get rid of the last dirt of a construction site just had finished the bedrooms, the air condition guys came and mounted three airconditions…
AC is mounted in LCs room
But not only needed the interior work of the basement to be completed, the other floors now needed some fine tuning like mirrors, hooks and accessories for all bathrooms, wall and ceiling lamps for all rooms. Luckily we discovered a shop that copies a bit the success and style of IKEA, although still much more expensive for many items. But who wants to drive three hours to the nearest IKEA in Sicily, just for shopping some accessories, when Semeraro is at Lamezia?.
We bought all lamps there and bathroom accessories in a shop close by. Then, started the long drilling and vacuum-cleaner-assistance phase.
mounting the kitchen lamp over the island

And bedsheets! Bedsheets for under (lenzoli sotto con angoli) and bedsheets for over (lenzoli per sopra) and cushion covers (fodere) needed to be purchased for all kind of beds of different sizes. Another bottle neck seemed to be the mattress protections. Either they were sold out or our standard sized mattresses (200x180) were not standard size in Italy (190x170).
Italian bed sheets for over and under and pillow cases

When this was finally done, sheets were pre-washed – and we finally could move in. 
Monday, July 25th 2011 moving in !

 Every morning we were woken up by Angelo to continue the work. Well, after an extended walk with CC and a breakfast at Belvedere, the work started much later than before. Tonino and Mimmo had already their break, when Angelo finally joined in.
When unpacking moving boxes (yes, the last boxes for the kitchen), we realized that we do not have even five matching plates. But 24 Champagne flutes (3 different styles) and 8 crystal wine glasses. Just one day before our first guests were arriving, we bought a set of white plates (large, small, deep – each for 12) at EURONICS (!), an electronic gear shop that features also lots of household items.
Instead of going to the beach this holiday, we spent most of the time in shops and in the car driving to the shops.
CC is a fast decision maker, and I got influenced, so at least our acquisition processes were efficient.
Meanwhile, in the seminterrato, Angelo discovered that sand trickles down from the vaulted stone ceiling – probably due to life and movements in the floor above. The finish he had applied all over on the stone walls and stone ceilings, did not fix the sand enough.
sand trickles from stone walls with sandy joints

We had to buy another material (resina = resin) and apply it all over again - worse, the flooring by now was finished. The resin gives the stones and sand a wet look, not great, but we saw that before in shops, restaurants and bars with similar stone ceilings. It seems the only method to really fix it.

resin finish fixes the sand and gives the wall a wet look

The time flew fast, the work progressed, but we never had found a moment to toast to our move, to the new step, to success. Stress and disappointment and emotions muddled me. A half hearted planed inauguration party was cancelled, as it was too early to have people walking through the whole house – and I just was not in the mood. CC was not in a good mood either, since his holidays were coming to an end - he had to go back to Bangkok two weeks earlier.
we had rainy and stormy days end of July

and there was sun after the rain !

The day our guest were arriving, Angelo borrowed and delivered us a self made table around which I grouped a selection of old chairs (in need of renovation!) we had found in antique shops.
a borrowed table, a variety of old chairs and a table-cloth from the market

What an exciting and lucky day, when our friends, a family of four, from Germany finally arrived. Their son is a good friend of our son, so the boys were happy too! - And finally I got good company to toast to the palazzo – every single day!!

Living at Palazzo Pizzo

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Morning sun at PP by Giorgio

Finally living at - or - in Palazzo Pizzo was great !

After all, it was an exciting, in the beginning stressful and less relaxing holiday, but with many joyful and beautiful moments at the end - thanks to our dear friends & guests at PP!

While I am now back "home" in Bangkok, still some family/friends are enjoying life at Palazzo Pizzo. My mother-in-law's cousin's wife F. is updating me with reports from PP and sent the above photo from Monday morning taken by my mother-in-law's cousin, aka her husband G.

My recent short posts I did via iPhone, since this was much faster and easier with photos than with the iPad. Now, back home at the computer, I can write more and also edit all the hundreds of photos I took. For the blog, I decided to go back in time and start writing about the more hectic period of our holiday before the first guests arrived. And then report about living at PP. But first, I have to pick and compress the photos. 

Will be back soon.... 

Market Day

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Once a week every Italian village has it's street market. Every Saturday there is a big market in Vibo Valentia's old town center. You will find underwear (intimo) sold in front of the church and a fresh market just in between the extended market locations.

Combine the market day in Vibo Valentia with a visit of the castello and its archaeological museum. From the castello you have an impressive view over Calabrian highlands.



Today, we went to the market in Pizzo. There were the usual counterfeit handbag sellers but mainly farmers from the region selling local products: vegetables and fruits, cheese and peperoncini, olive oil, home made wine and even home made soap! You also can find shoes, plants, household tools, table clothes, underwear, hair bands, sun glases, t-shirts and other (simple) fashion wear.

The market in Pizzo is quiet a nice walk. It is located above Via Nationale, below the autostrada Salerno - Reggio Calabria, every Thursday from 7 am to 1 pm.

From village to village, and even from week to week the vendor stands might change a bit.


Market Days from 7 am until 1 pm:

Vibo Marina   - Mondays
Pizzo              - Thursdays
Vibo Valentia - Saturdays
Tropea           - Saturdays