chris18's activity

Hi,  anybody out there dusting down their roadmaps to Italy?

I'm delighted everyone's enjoying it.  The two guys are so knowledgeable in their own field of expertise and so enthusiastic - Giorgio is almost evangelical in his espousal of the virtues of Italian food; it translates well to the TV screen.  Personally though, i'd like a little more commentary from Giorgio on Italian wine.  We all know the food is fantastic but the wine can be very good too.  I've noticed that this series is a litte lighter on the wine consumption than series 1 and and Sicily Unpacked. Perhaps the BBC are looking to avoid any accusations of providing too much wine for their presenters!Final programme of this series is on next Friday, BBC2 9pm.If any of you have'nt seen Sicily Unpacked, or series 1 of Italy Unpacked its avaiable on Youtube.I suspect the next series will be on the South, then hopefully they'll go over to the east coast and then to Venice and the north east.  So....... I reckon thats another 3 series in the pipeline! 

Hi Dan, Barclays have an office in Lucca but Ive never used it nor do I know its number.  Sorry I cannot be of more help.

Hi Steve, Thanks for your offer re the gardening.  When we're next over i'll get in touch.rgdsChris

Hi AndynJaneCWe usually spend a week each year near Siracusa or Marsala.The rest of our holiday time is spent near Lucca.  Which part of Sicily to do you head to?Chris

Great post Steve, thank you. There are a number of people on this website who head down to Italy from the NE and I think they'll find your post very useful.Although I don't tow, I understand exactly what you mean when you talk about the towing experience on the continent compared to UK.  Whats your favourite Italian beer?Chris

Will do Jacki.  We'll be in a black Range Rover with a UK plate.  Talk about 'small world' ! C

Great post Jacki.  Your route sounds like ours.  We use the tunnel then stay on the French motorways through to Strasbourg, stay over night in Strasbourg and then head through Colmar/Mulhouse, into lovely Switzerland, Gottard Tunnel, and head towards Como.  We go to Lucca so we follow a different route from you after Como, from there heading to Parma and on to Lucca.I've come to the conclusion that we should be staying over in Colmar not Strasbourg so i'll follow your tip on the budget hotels. The first year we drove we went through France/Belgium and Luxembourg then back into France to stay over at Strasbourg.  Maybe we were unlucky, but the traffic in Belgium was horrendous.  Its seems like a cheaper route (no tolls of course) but took longer.  The French motorways from Calais right through to Strasbourg seem to be almost deserted so we stick to the Fench motorways now, but i'd definitely be interested in trying the ordinary roads in France if only to strip out the toll road charges. I think everyone on this thread would be interested to hear how you get on in 2014, as Liguria is beautiful.

Thanks Fred. We have an agent who manages the house for us so i'll ask her to approach SKY.  If she can't do it I will. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a better way of getting TV in Italy.  We enjoy ordinary Italian terrestrial TV and Sky UK news.  We don't seem to have any time to watch sport, but do watch feature films.  Perhaps what I need to do is to subscribe for the period of the holiday ( i'd probably have to pay for a full calendar month and two months where the holiday straddles two calendar months) and then cancel, then re-instate on line each time, just before we go over there.

Wow, now thats what I call a price rise. Is that the real price in 2015 - is it official?