SICILY GOES GREEK.

I am currently gazing 200 meters to the south from my table at the Hotel Del Athena. This remarkable terrace sits in the shadow of the worlds best kept Greek Temples. Being in Agrigentro is just a bit more than surreal. For a mere mortal to get so close to such ancient and awesome architecture built solely  for the gods to enjoy is quite an experience. Most of us would tend to think that if you want to visit stunning Greek temples you should probably get yourself to Greece.This place is incredible and should not be missed if visiting Sicily or anywhere near for that matter. Of course, with every description of ancient ruins should come a short history lesson laying out the important facts and figures. I will spare you that but encourage you to spend a minute or two searching Wikipedia for the significant details.As you can imagine a seat at a five star hotel surrounded by greatness is a recipe for spending euros, and in fact you would be right. Two double Bombay (Mumbai) gin and Schweppes tonic accompanied by olives & almonds and the bill came to 56 big ones. Oh well, the waiters were dressed in white tuxedo jackets and the manager moved about like a cat with an eagle eye for anything that could constitute less than impeccable service.Dale mentioned that during a short period when he stepped away from our table he overheard several American sixty something tourists lambasting their poor tour guide. The tour company was apparently significantly lacking for booking a hotel that has guest room televisions that are not even as big as the ones in their kitchens back home.I personally can’t think why you would give a shit when you are paying mega bucks for a five star hotel next to several unspoilt Greek Temples, but each to his own and praise be to Jeebus that I don’t one day become one of those old pricks.How we got to the Valley of the Temple of the Gods is in someways just as interesting. Yesterday we arrived in Sicily via Venice and Volotea Airlines. We landed on the east coast in the city of Catania. We wisked our way through the airport to Budget Rentals and soon after were motoring through the hills to the south of the city near Mt. Etna. The destination was our Airbnb in Ragusa Ibla owned and operated by Gianni and his daughter Chiara. As the photographs attached will indicate Chiara’s home is perched on the side of a mountain overlooking the rest of the hilltown to the south.[wpvideo dURDok1Q ]The home is a modern, recently renovated cliffside beauty that is absolutely gorgeous. It is clean both in condition and interior design and the balcony is unlike any other I have stood on before. This town is used regularly as a set for an Italian crime drama that is subtitled in many languages and aired all around the world. For those interested, the program is Inspector Montalbano and I recommend a watch.Upon arrival yesterday we were met by Gianni and checked in with speed and accuracy. It’s not often that you are met at the door with an assortment of delicate Sicilian baked goods.It was nice to meet Gianni and he was quick to give us the local 411 that could help us enjoy our next 48 hours here. Soon after we jumped in the car and headed down the hill into the bustling village. The churches are magnificent and the accompanying businesses and homes fell suit. We wandered for quite some time only to stop for a pew at a local church and an espresso at the appropriate time to recharge the batteries.Later we headed into Ragusa proper for a SPAR grocery store to shop for some fresh pasta for dinner. Both Pomodoro and Pesto on tonight’s menu. The plate would not be complete without sun-dried tomatoes and anchovies to accompany the local pane’. Given we are in the slow food capital of the world we took advantage and spent a couple hours enjoying our meal.  The very cheap yet delicious tetra pack table wine that costs less than 2 dollars Canadian a litre is so good. Dishes washed and a little TV capped off the night as well as could be expected.  Let me tell you now, by no fault of our own our expectations are now quite high.Lastly but not least we stopped in Punta Secca on the Sicilian coast this morning.  It is a beautiful seaside town that has a wonderful beach and wonderful coffee.  We stayed for a while and enjoyed all its graces. Go there, do that, don’t be a Goomba!Tomorrow we leave from Catania bound for Barcelona and two days of sights, sounds, smells, tapas and wine. Perhaps after a stroll on Las Ramblas we can slump into a Paella induced coma.  Until Tomorrow!Mark  

JUST NEED A LITTLE BIT LONGER.

Here I sit by gate H3 at Fiumancino Airport waiting for flight BA 551.  I am just minutes away from boarding the first leg of my return journey to Heathrow Airport in London.  I have quite a wait there.  Thats ok as there is a lot to do and see nowadays.  Gone are the days of luke warm tea poured by a somewhat disinterested 50 something lady of questionable hygiene.  In days gone by the most you could expect is that she may ask you if you want her to pour milk in it for you.  God forbid that you would be trusted to pour your own milk.Heathrow used to be an airport where the sights, sounds and smells would be enough to put you off ever leaving your couch let alone travel across the world.  Pleasantly London's busiest airport has morphed into a veritable cornucopia of food, beverage and shopping options.  Gone are the pathetic single slice ham on white bread sandwiches and hello to Pret A’ Manger.I have mixed emotions about today.  It has been a long time away from family that I dearly miss but I have also thoroughly enjoyed 98% of my time over the last three weeks.  Of course there are going to be highlights or lowlights anytime you experience as many places as we have.

From the first week in Rome at Claudio’s lovely apartment in Aurelia to our adventures in the North of England and the Scottish Borders we saw and experienced as much as we could.  Upon our return to the continent, we kicked it off by spending way too long at the Thrifty Car Rental counter (lowlight) in Rome but I t turned out to be worth the wait as it was there that we were given the key to our new Fiat 500 in “bianco”.  Not so long afterwards we named him Anthony.Anthony took us on a journey that included: Siena, Pisa, Genoa, San Remo, San Tropez, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Nice, Pertuis, the Luberon (in all its glory), Gap, Grenoble, Geneva, Zermatt, Milan, Florence, Cortona and finally back to Rome.We paid dozens of tolls to drive Anthony on both French and Italian highways.  We felt some reprieve from that highway robbery (pardon the pun) in Switzerland.  Thank you Swiss people for being clean and tidy and exact and punctual and clean and exact and punctual and tidy.  When possible we have really enjoyed the B roads and can only continue to endorse taking them as much as you can and whenever you can.We have paid dearly to eat as of course the pound and the euro are still kicking the crap out of Trudeau’s dollar.  We have scarfed tons of grocery store fresh baked pizza.  Many of my pizza choices were accompanied by a portion of anchovies in chilli olive oil.  We have lived and eaten as close to the locals as possible wherever and whenever we could.  Of course there was that one day of indiscretion in Monaco when both Starbucks and McShit took our hard earned Euros.  What are you gonna do.  Desperate times call for etc etc.Our most expensive meal, even though it was good but simple fair was at the Brown Cow Pub in Zermatt. Our best meal is a tuff call.  Nonni’s in Lourmarin or the most stunning hotel I have ever visited in Cortona.  The Relais Villa Petrischio is exceptional in setting, service, experience and value.  If you Google this place I think you will be suitably impressed.  We had a gourmet 3 course meal with a wonderful accompanying vino rosso.  The primi platti was a local charcuterie board that was followed by two spectacular in presentation and flavour pasta dishes.  This entire experience was presented in a 360 degree glass structure overlooking Tuscany in all its glory.  We both walked out with a bill just under 60.00 Euros. I don’t want to forget about our experience at Nonni’s as that was first class as well. I am boarding now.  Must fly, I will rejoin you in London.Back again, seated at Rhubarb.  Rhubarb is self described as a very British restaurant in terminal 3 at Heathrow.  I have perused the very British menu to find that the first three options are chicken tikka masala, chilli con carne and smashed avocado on toast.  I guess it has been a really long time since I lived here.  I kept reading down the menu to find a full English breakfast option that has turned out to be wonderful.  Not what I expected at the time I ordered.  This restaurant is a fine example of how Britain's membership in the EU is a good thing.The plethora of young energetic eastern european staff are multi lingual, very attentive and well turned out.  I will refer you back to where I started this diatribe with my memories of the Heathrow tea lady with dirty fingernails of old.  Times do change for the better.  I hope Brexit doesn’t screw this up.  But it probably will.I have 5 more hours to kill here today.  Its not going to be easy.  There is only so much perfume immersion overkill one can endure as you shuffle through the numerous duty free shops.  Bottom line is its time to set sail for the west coast of Canada and a return to work.  I can’t wait to be reunited with everyone at home and look forward to seeing them at YVR.Thanks for following along over the last few weeks, where to next?Mark

GOB SMACKED!

 I am really embarrassed to keep droning on that this place or that was amazing or beautiful . I assume to readers (and believe it or not my stats are going crazy on Wordpress) it gets old or sounds patronizing.The problem is that I am lost for words on this trip.  Sure, places come and go and as such some leave endearing memories and some do the opposite.  In truth, since we arrived in Monaco two days ago after a less than stellar night in San Remo we have been awed at every turn.As we left the coast and wound our way into the Luberon it was unmistakably a place of wonder.  The colours of the stone houses, the colours of the shutters on the stone houses, the villages after villages of stone houses scream bienvenue. The temperature has hovered in the mid to high 20’s.  We sat by the pool this morning at Nathalie’s AirBnB.  I sat under one of her olive trees when the sun was high.At noon we set out to visit several villages that I had lusted after touring since the first time I saw “A Good Year” with Russel Crowe several years ago.  For those who have seen the film you may remember his ancestral Chateau and the accompanying vineyard.  Well just after our first stop in Cucuron (google that) we arrived at that exact vineyard and it was exactly as we had seen in the movie.We were the only ones there and as such had to ring the door bell of the cave for the vintner to come from the barrels to open up his tasting room.  This young man had our undivided attention for 45 minutes of uninterrupted wine tasting and a plethora of information about the winery and the surrounding area.  This short yet so very enjoyable visit was sadly not long enough.  We left with a case of my favourites including two bottles of the Coin Perdu.  Three times more expensive than the other house wines but what are you gonna do.  With Hollywood fame comes its spoils. http://chateaulacanorgue.com/gb/gb/

From Chateau la Canorgue we drove North towards Gordes.  This town stands proud on the side of a mountain with a vista southwards back towards the villages I mentioned above as well as Lacoste.  You will see several photos I took of this and other villages in this page.  I was suitably impressed.  After several walks of discovery around these wonderful places, we took the recommendation of our new vintner friend and we headed for Lourmarin and a restaurant called Nonni’s.We were told to arrive at opening time or be damned to find a seat.  In very french fashion this place opens at 7:30 and is open until 10:30 6 days a week.  If you want to eat at Nonni’s have a reservation or have the luck of the Irish.  Luckily Angus has been drinking an ungodly amount of Guinness throughout our journey so maybe we have become Irish by osmosis.We arrived just before 7:30 and softly enquired about the possibility of a table.  There was no-one in there.  The young lady looked at us like we had three heads.  Have you a reservation? I replied “no”.  She walked away and returned soon to let us know she had one table available.  We jumped on it.  Once sat we ordered a drink and perused the menu.  Very reasonable prices and a good reputation with the locals, tres bien!I had the menu du jour and Angus had a wood fired pizza to which he remarked “I’m in love”. Hefty praise from this pizza inhaler.  My meal started with sardines on crostini with local greens and lots of fresh lemon wedges.  That was followed by spaghetti carbonara. So good and followed by Tiramisu.  What helped us from not quickly devouring this fabulous meal was the lovely couple in their late 60's who soon arrived and sat beside us.  They were spending there 16th fall in the area from Michigan.  They were both fluent french speakers and Very interesting.  Neither Buffy or Chip would have mixed well with these folks.  They asked us if we had room for them at home if Trump wins.  I said sure, what the hell they were nice.  We talked about living in France and lots about tennis for a couple of hours.Clearly this lifestyle is appealing to lots of people from lots of different countries.  It is no mystery, this place suits me down to the ground.  If you don't believe me do your own research, or better yet come and see for yourself.  On second thoughts don’t, I may not get that last minute table at Nonni’s if I encourage too many of you.Bonsoir!Mark

One Should Winter in Monte Carlo.

Its been several days and hundreds of miles since the last time I had the time to collect my thoughts and recount some of the more memorable places and people we have seen and met.I write today from my sun chair on the patio of our Gite in the Luberon Valley.  The Luberon is an unbelievable wine growing region in the South of France.  I will speak more to this area and our accommodations in a blog I intend to write tonight.  Suffice to say that I have not felt this relaxed in a long long time.We landed back in Rome on Sunday afternoon and made our way to Thrifty Car Rental for our customary Italian 90 minute wait as the Thrifty employees tried to up-sell every one of the 30 Asian couples that got there ahead of us.  I don’t even think they knew what they were signing but many of them will be surprised to learn they have actually purchased their new rental car. When they leave to go home I wish them luck with fitting their new wheels into their wheelie luggage. It will be a challenge given the thousands of dollars worth of Fendi, Armani and Prada items they are soon to also power buy from reputable North African gentlemen.Once free of the mayhem, we walked to find our car and to our surprise and trepidation it was a “Blanco Fiat 500”.  I thought it was torture climbing in and out of the car we had in the UK.  Well it turns out that Anthony (our 500) was no such thing.  Sure small, but easy in and out and relatively peppy.  I mention peppy as those of you who have traveled on the highways and byways of Italy will know, the drivers are just a little aggressive.  It is kill or be killed.  No-one has patience and no-one stops for pedestrians.We got out on to the Autostrada heading north, as we had booked an AirBnB in Siena for the night.  Ninety minutes of hair raising F1 driving later and we were there in the ancient walled hill town that hosts the Palio horse race and is such a beautiful must not miss bucket list place.

We met Sylvia our host and got the 411 on all the things to do.  I had been here in the past so I was ready to get at it.  We walked straight to the Campo and took in its sights, smells and soon after sounds.  Just as we got orientated we could hear off in the distance the band and voices of a Contrada (neighbourhood group).They appeared from the north east with the flags up front, then the drums, then the male voices and then everyone else.  I don't know for sure but I assumed that this contrada won the Palio last and this was a celebration and bragging rights parade.  We sat in a Campo osteria and ordered a typical light supper consisting of bruschetta with a meat and cheese plate.  That was accompanied with pane de casa and two Peroni Rosso beers.Once done we made our way to the Duomo and I took my time to take a ton of photographs of the Cathedral in all its black and white marble splendour.  Then back to our place and early to rise.  On the road to Pisa and then on to San Remo.Pisa is something I had always given a miss in past trips as I thought it would be swarmed with tourists and not up to much.  Wrong on one account.  Yes it is swarming with tourists but on the contrary it is a site to see.  It is amazing to see up close.  It is not what I thought and I was very impressed by everything especially the lean.What I don't want to leave out is that we drove to a parking lot literally less than two minutes walk from the tower.  We paid one euro to park and the rest was free (the memories).  Go there.  See that!We left Pisa Northbound towards the Italian Riviera and the City of San Remo.  Busy, beautiful, manic, loud, crazy, traffic, hairy.  We got into our AirBnB & immediately went out to the supermarket to get a few things.  Had a quick look around the harbour and back to sleep.  A long day.  Actually I would never advise anyone to stop there now that I have been myself.  Give it a miss.We got up early and were on the upper corniche to Monaco.  Yes, now we are talking.  Order, clean, sophisticated and absolutely stunning in every way.  We parked in the centre of Monte Carlo and began our 4 hour trek from place to place which included all the hot spots.  I am sure Angus fancied himself James Bond for a few moments outside the Casino.  The opulence was unreal. Every luxury brand and every luxury / super car imaginable.It is so hot here in the South of France that eventually we had to stop for refreshments and believe it or not I broke the rule for the first of 2 consecutive times.  I never stop at any multi national chains when travelling.  I like the local mom and pop places that serve you right and you can make a personal bond with.Suffice to say that I have just been to the nicest Starbucks in the world.  Period!!!  It sits adjacent to the Fairmont hotel in a perfect position to gaze out to the Med or to watch the Grand Prix if you had your timing right.  Incredible experience and the prices were the same as home.  That, along with the next embarrassing moment I must divulge was also reasonable in price.Did you guess right? Have you ever found yourself in France or Belgium and thought to yourself, I want a Royal with Cheese?  Yep, it happened!  We walked into McDonalds and we had the meal deal.  This was also the most modern south facing McDonalds in the world.  Adorned with Picasso prints and the most modern furniture, not your average Mickey D's. With tray in hand, I sat near a Picasso in an Eames chair.  Gross with some gross on top, but good for the 10 minutes it was in my gob and yet to digest.From there it was back to find Anthony and on to an incredible highway that took us along the coast to Cannes, San Tropez and then inland through the vineyards and olive groves of Provence.  This it it ladies and gents.  Nirvana times ten.  A good hot with a chilled vibe.  I may not be at work next week.Until next time!Mark