Driving in Italy

How is driving in Italy? A question which mostly gives the answers: Crazy, un-organized, totally crazy and nuts.

True, at the first sight. BUT! ... when you´ve driven for a while, you relax, realize that in Finland we are too bound to regulations, yellow and white stripes and that the authorities are too uptight. Then you realize that yes, it's still nuts, crazy and unorganized, from a finnish point of view, but that these people who have been riding something since caesars time really know how to drive! By the way, the time when caesar reigned in Rome was the time when Finns still sat in the trees and wondered how to get down.

Ok, we have the yielding, red and green lights, speed limits, pedestrians, lanes and all those things people fuzz about... In Italy they do also but... it's hard to explain, you got to experience it, but anyway I'll give it a try... Here red light doesn't always mean red light. In the night time, or if you are in a REAL hurry you just roll through them. Let's not be silly, of course they do slow down to check if there is someone coming from another direction, but if it's an empty road then why not? Who does it hurt? It's not like in Finland where you get a fine for passing a red light with no other car in sight on a radius of 10km. So "La Polizia" understands this and it's good in my opinion. Now someone says "Rules are not meant to be broken, they are there for a reason!". True, but what's the point in waiting if you clearly see that no one is approaching you and you are just waiting for an empty road to be bureaucratically safe... C'mon...

Ok, then about yielding... whew... Some are arrogant and push through, some just take their place in a traffic circle after waiting for a while and some just give space even if they wouldn't need to. People here are very polite, no swearing or stupid handsignals they way they are used in Finland. Here signals from horns are just a way of communicating, not the first warning that you are gonna get your ass whooped. People don't take the other motorists maneuvers too personally, it's just traffic. Not like someone stepping on you toes. Like in Finland, God have mercy if you take the same lane as a fellow driver and don't leave enough space (50meters or so), you offend THEIR territory! So here, more laid back, more relaxed, it's a working concept.

Speed limits... Speed limits? Are there? Haven't looked at them too much because a) no one basically cares about them b) no one ever drives less than 20km/h over the limit and c) check point a). Every time you think you drive fast, there's always someone driving faster. Very often a Smart or a Fiat Panda or whatever small model there is of Peugeot, renault, Opel or whatever. It's always the smallest who goes the fastest. Really fast by the way. It's so crazy that you are going say 150km/h... you look in the sidemirror, see two lights and 2 seconds later a Smart (the goddamn tinyest car alive) just passes you with like 170-180km/h in their speed-o-meter. So when ever you enter the traffic you are able to get a Grand Prix if you want. Then again, this is the home of Ferrari (which is the plural of the word "smith" and the most common last name in Italy) so maybe everybody thinks they are an F1-driver. And once I was actually rightfully passed by a really fast car, a REALLY fast car. We were returning from Ostia one night and I looked in the rearmirror, I saw two lights, then two lights passed me. After these two lights passed me (note: was driving 140km/h or so) two other lights passed me also, the speed they had was probably above 220km/h. So what were they? A Lamborghini Murcielago and 2 motorcycles, one ducati and one that I didn't recognise. So driving in Italy shows you many sides.

About the rest of the driving, if a road has 4 lanes (2 each direction) it might be that there are six (6) rows of cars. Not unorganized, just taking advantage of the space that exists. And the parking is displayed in this picture:
Parking a car? Whew... almost where ever you find free space equals parking space, it's not so strict, it's a reality in a country with 60 million people. So parking is a form of art, actually, everything about driving in Italy is an art... :D

Oh, and Italians and their cars.. Cars aren't that much a part of the family like in Finland, almost every car has a scratch or buckle, some even miss a few plates here and there. I even saw a Porsche with a major buckle and scratches. So when you're parking, your car leans on someone elses car, it's not that serious mmmkay...

Ok ok, summary: driving in Italy is a mix of driving with bumper cars and playing a playstation game.

I'm loving it... tidi-ti-ti-tiiii...

New winds on Tuscolo

Buonasera amici!
As you can see we got a lovely present from Stina and Lari :) Stina sent us a message asking us to add a html-code on our blog, and so we did. Look what happened, we got a totally new, beautiful outlook here! Thank you so much for this wonderful work <3 All these photos are shot by Stina in Castelletto, and the painting that is on the background of the text is a part of library's wall-fresco. Tanti grazie!

Today we had a nice afternoon on Tuscolo, it is such a beautiful place...

People gather in the peace of Tuscolo hill especially on weekends, and you may see families playing there together, people writing, reading, and as we saw today, some practice other artistic skills.


On the opposite side of Tuscolo hill there is located the volcano of Albano.

With Riitta and Jan we walked around and admired the views and the ancient ruins.

Some do not need to go anywhere for relaxation and inspiration, look at Lyllis in our garden:

At the moment Riitta is working round days for a festival that we are lucky to participate. Frammenti festival http://www.semintesta.it/ is held here in Frascati, and we will be selling Riitta's design there. Here you may see some prototypes ;)


She is really skilled on any handicrafts, we have been amazed to see how Riitta can take just some small pieces of fabric and make a beautiful dress out of them!

Here is a sample of an Italian talent, Capriciosa!

At the same time we have worked on our own flat that is located in the centre of Frascati, close to Castelletto. We will post you photos later on, building it has been quite a project itself :) Here is the central piazza with its church by night:

Frascati-town has its own peculiar sides, just to mention Sancho as an example. He is a dog that does not belong to anyone but is everybody's dog. He has got a wonderful nature and character, is very kind but does not need any permanent bonds with people. He is good to everybody and the small streets of Frascati are his home. People feed him and if it is a cold night, someone takes him at his house. But he won't stay there long, he wants to hit the road soon again. He is a dog of Frascati town, he is taken care of, he is healthy and he's got a collar with his name on it. He is cool! Here with Jan:

One more photo for today. We visited the Torvaianica beach one afternoon (the beach was lovely and surprisingly close, from the beach we could see our mountains) and there was a boy building a sand castle. Jan maturely had to place himself next to the 10-year old and show who actually is the master on sand castle business...

Allora

We have heard from several sources in Finland that people have shown interest in coming and staying in our Castelletto. We heard that there has been inquiries for the address for our website et cetera. We apologise that at the moment we do not have functioning site in internet, but it is due to be at your service in near future.
However, we are delighted of the amount of interest towards Castelletto and our project here! We do have guests coming and going, so if you are interested in coming here or just learning more about who we are and what we offer, we wish you to contact us on Elina's e-mail: elina.kataja (at) live.com :)


Two ex-colleagues of Jan just visited us and they loved Castelletto, saying: "Sincerely, you are keeping really too low profile of this wonderful place..."

On September there will be a big ethnic festival in Frascati, and we wish to have our own stand there. Riitta has been working for her sewing machine for several weeks already, so we will have enough items for selling.

Her design is very wonderful, and as she is using mostly Marimekko-fabrics the dresses are not only unique but also dashing and beautiful. Participating the festival will be fun!

And here, finally managed to capture a proper photo of Riitta. She rather likes to hide from camera :)

BACI A TUTTI <3

Buongiorno!

Now that the information is officially published to everyone we also want to share the secret that we were keeping. As told previously, our dear friends Stina and Lari visited us, and this visit was their honeymoon! Our friends got secretly married before coming to Rome and their wish was to celebrate the event calmly. So when arriving on the Rome Fiumicino airport we greeted them this way:

Wedding photos we shoot around the Colosseo, look at this beautiful couple!

They stayed in Castelletto, in the "Yellow room":

We want to thank you for your lovely visit and wish you love&happiness for future <3 Come back soon, we are waiting for you...

All of Elina's family has now visited us here, since Mother, Satu and Roni also came two weeks ago. Here mother and Satu are on the beach of Lago Albano...

...when in the meanwhile Jan&Roni stayed in the Lake:

The next photo is dedicated for Jaska, because you were asking if it is possible to hang-glide by the lake. The photo is not very sharp for the distance, but if you look carefully you may spot the hang-gliders above the trees:

Elina has finally won her fear of driving here and is now equally speedy driver with the Italians! Driving with mother=not lacking sound-effects ;)

This week we had the night of San Lorenzo, the night of the shooting stars. According to Italian folklore it is the night when dreams come true. Don't know if the dreams will come true but at least it is a fact that in the beginning of August you may see numerous shooting stars at once on the night sky.

On the 15th August is also another celebration, Ferragosto. Nowadays it is a Catholic feast but originally it was a celebration of the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labour in the fields. The Romans have escaped the city, as August is the month for holidays, and usually gather to celebrate Ferragosto on the beaches or mountains. There are big beach parties for young people but also concerts and other activities for those who are interested on more peaceful ways of celebration.

This photo is taken by Stina from our neighbouring village, Marino. It is a very charming little town that has its own wine, and in September there is held a large wine-festival. During the festival the main fountain in the centre of Marino is filled with wine, and people may come and enjoy it :) How would such fountain work in Finland?

On Mondays we have a big big out-door market here in Grottaferrata. Suppose it is possible to buy almost anything from there, and with very small money. Clothes, shoes, food, handbags, equipment for cleaning, jewellery. This man was selling vegetables there a week ago:

As mentioned before, we have used herbs from our garden only: basilica, rosmarin, salvia, melissa...they are growing a lot, as is everything in the garden. Now we are experimenting the chilis. Here drying those:

In general, the house is not ready yet but it is getting in a form that pleases us. The three guest rooms are ready, so we are now able to take more guests at the same time. The people who have visited Castelletto have said that the atmosphere here is relaxing and the cosy decoration makes it even more relaxing. We have aimed making this a place where no one needs to strech themselves behind tense or formal behaviour. We wish Castelletto will become a place that could be called a home away from home.
Riitta lives in the third floor. The following photo is taken from the second floor balcony towards Riitta's window and balcony.

And the next photo is taken by Riitta from her balcony. More and less active fixing of the banisters on the second floor balcony (it is done now ;)

Back with photos

Allora, we promised photos and here we are :)

This photo isn't obviously very far from the Castelletto, but the next one was shot in Sicily where we had a chance to visit in the beginning of July. Our heardquarters were situated close to the volcano Etna in a small, charming town called Letojanni. We rented a car and thus had opportunity to explore the surroudings and this beautiful island we found in the neighbouring town called Taormina. The island is called Isola Bella.

Sicily was wonderful and of course we would have loved to stay longer by the sea. But its good to be back in Castelletto, to build it and see it take its new form. We had our friends Stina and Lari here for a week and they were such a big help, honestly. Jan and Lari fixed, built and renovated so many things during that week that I'm breathless, especially by the new, functioning kitchen. Here they work with something else:

And here we have the very needed siesta on afternoon:

Here are Stina and Lari in the living room <3

Lyllerö has certainly taken her place in the family, although she still do not have access indoors. Here she is with Jan, Stina and Lari in the garden by the front door:

Some parts of the house are ready, here for example is the corridor of the second floor. On the left goes steps to the third floor, the door on the left leads to a bathroom, in front is the so called Yellow guest room and on the right the Blue guest room.

We have kept the rooms as they were, we just painted to wooden floors and did some other renovation too. The primer inhabitant had really interesting taste and we want to cherish it...Or what do you think of the blue room? You guess why we also call it A Cream Cake? ;)


Last but not least I want to show you how beautiful night we experienced a month ago. It was full moon, cloudless and windless night and we drove on the top of the Tuscolo hill. The moon was so bright and the environment so still, I think that it would be impossible to capture the feeling even with the best cameras. This is a silhouette of Riitta taken with my pocket camera.

Rome is great, but the Roman mountains are even greater. Here we have our casa dolce casa, home sweet home :) How lucky we are!

The house is starting to take its form

It's been quite quiet lately with this blog but that is just because we are working so much. There's been some kitchen renovating, changing locks, installing some fire extinguishers and maybe the most important thing, we built a wine rack! We have also understood the importance of the siesta, it's not about being lazy, it's just so damn hot! And what's better than stop working and take a rest during the hottest hours of the day? At the moment there are seven persons in this house, it's siesta time and there is no sounds, excluding the fans. Everyone is taking a nap or reading a book, so a very laid back environment at the moment. All this will change when the dinner is ready in the evening, everyone will be eating, drinking and just enjoying the social life. Just like regular italians. And it's actually quite funny that we have been able to adapt to the italian way of life with the loud conversations, good food, a few bottles of wine etc. so fast, but then again all our guests have been able to do it too so it can't be that hard. Or then the italians just know how to enjoy life and bring forth the hidden hedonist in us grumpy finns. But to be honest a plate of olives, prosciutto e melone, pasta with pesto rosso and a few bottles of good Frascati white wine are things that will make anyone happy, unless you are allergic to sulfides, on a no carb diet and don't drink alcohol..

Anyway, let's not hype too much about the fantastic weather, good food, great wine and friendly people and get back to what's going on in Castelletto.

Next up is the garage, we have a 40m2 garage and can't fit a small car in it. It sounds like re-organizing time don't you think? But as our excuse we have to say that it's been critical to get the guestrooms, kitchen etc. in order and not a cozy place for the car. People before cars if we aren't mistaken. The kitchen is nearly done after a great deal of struggling and we managed to keep the marble worksurface with some modifying of drawers, cupboards and shelves. It is very close to the original kitchen structure but greatly improved, and again I have to mention the wine rack! So now we have a functioning kitchen. The dining room is also taking form and the vinylplayer is up running so we can also listen to a great deal of old vinyls while we are working. There's nothing like the sound of needle on wax. On the second floor the bedrooms are almost complete, I think there is just a few curtains missing from the guestrooms and they are complete. So benvenuti a Casteletto!

We will be back with some pictures and more info later on!

Tutto bene!

The 170 metres deep volcanic Lake Albano with the town of Castel Gandolfo on the opposite side. The Pope's summer cottage is located there. This lake is seven km away from our house.

Cactuses have been blooming the whole month and in August they should bear fruits:

If I'm not mistaken this one can be seen in Finland too, in a smaller form?

A beautiful evening in the beginning of June at Vermicino that is located on the root of the Tuscolo hill:

It is rather embarrassing that we promised to keep you updated on how we proceed with the Italination but didn’t post anything for a month. The truth is that after the moving truck brought our possessions from Finland we haven’t experienced many lazy days.

Luckily we already had three family members visiting us, giving their input on our project. Elina’s sister Minna is a construction engineer and assessed what kind of renovation the house needs. She told about our house to her employees and surprisingly there were volunteers who wanted to leave Finland to work in Italy for a week or two. So, at the moment we have construction-renovation under process :D
Riitta and Minna by the volcanic Lake Albano:

Riitta’s son visited us together with Minna, and Elina’s elder sister was here for a week. The garden looks quite different now that Jutta was here: roses and hortensians are blooming and we use herbs from Jan’s garden plot for cooking.

Next members of family arrive after two weeks and then some dear friends of ours will honor us with their visit. We are determined to have the house in some kind of order then.

It took four days for the truck to drive from Helsinki to Rome. Moving somewhat 60 cubic meters of various stuff is ‘financially demanding’. Oh well, we tried to be careful and to choose only the necessities. Yet part of the stuff didn’t fit in the truck but will appear afterwards.

As you know our plan is to establish a centre for art and culture, and at first we plan to concentrate on activities that Riitta will hold. Therefore the priority on selecting what to bring to Italy was on the tools that is needed for implementing the courses. Prior to the move we rented a storage space in Helsinki, where we gathered these carefully chosen items from four different addresses.

Naturally, we brought all the equipment that is needed for painting and making glass works, in addition to a carpenter’s bench, a loom, three sewing machines and maybe a ton of various fabrics. The best thing is that we’ve got a gramophone with plenty of LP's, and a piano that I can finally play as noisily as I want. Here is Riikka's son Miguel playing the day after we got the piano in house:

Someone could say we exaggerated with books, but those are in our collective interest: books of art, history, culture, health etc. We have thousands of books here, and passing the library is such a huge temptation when there is no time for reading now. It’s impossible to list everything we brought because honestly I have no idea what the boxes hold inside, but this far I have noticed we haven’t got a lack of kitchen equipment, bed sheets or carpets.

Packing all that was a nightmare, for Jan especially, who had to flex his nerves and explain why we cannot bring all the things we want (Riitta misses her old TV but I stubbornly brought my sauna stove here) and that it is not a joke when he says the space in the truck is limited. Unpacking it is rather a puzzle we are completing; in this box I found an item X, where could be its other half? Where shall we place these fifty coffee cups? And we get fit carrying fabrics to the third floor, where Riitta’s maiden tower is located ;)

Imagine a house that has been empty for two years. This is it. It was so dirty with no water, no gas, no electricity. Still, the Finnish logistics guy who moved our stuff here walked through the house and concluded: well here we have a house with soul! We agree, and we like to think it as the castle of the Sleeping Beauty, waking up after being abandoned for long. And yes, we brought the spinning wheel as well.

In Italy you won’t just call the gas company and ask them to switch everything on. No, you must call them ten days before you want to use electricity, for example. I remember the moment when the hot water finally began running, what a joy it was!

Currently we are expecting an electrician’s visit because when I turn the oven on the electricity is cut from everywhere else in the house. Then, we have faced challenges on painting the walls. The air is very humid, so when in Finland cement or stain dries in an hour it takes a day here. Italian’s don’t seem to know what is the stuff we use to initialize the wall or floor in Finland (praimeri). Now we just painted a stone wall without it and the fresh painted layer came down with the old layers too.
With Estonian friends on the way to the top of Tuscolo hill:



Then is this thing with the cat. A gray cat-lady appeared in the garden quite soon after we moved in the house. She was dirty, thin and depressed and obviously in a terrible need for human contact. Riitta says she doesn’t like cats, but this cat approached Riitta again and again even if Riitta tried to avoid her. When Riitta was sitting outside the cat came to sit right next to her. I already wanted to adopt her but Riitta was strict and said we have to get rid of the cat. Well, this cat was persuasive and somehow melted Riitta’s heart; she lingered in the family and is now known with a name Lyllerö/Lyyli/Lyllis. We noticed that Lyllerö’s picture is painted in one of the wall-frescos we have in the house so for sure this has been the home she lived in. We wonder if she’s been here for two years, alone, waiting for the return of her family.

We cannot let the cat inside for if allergic people will reside here, but Riitta’s chair outside is now covered with blankets and the cat sleeps there. Moreover, Riitta ‘the cat hater’ is already designing a nice, warm nest for Lyllis. Riitta is the one who wants to give vaccinations for Lyllerö and brush her hair, and Riitta is the one concerned if Lyllis has gotten enough food. Nevertheless, she emphasizes that she is absolutely not a cat person. ;)
Now that the hot days have arrived the ice cream consumption has increased:

In general, everything is fine here. In this situation we could apply the old proverb no news is good news :) We just got literally handful of things to do, plan and organize and in the evening we fall in bed being tired but satisfied. Besides working we have gotten to know Grottaferrata which is very charming little village, and we participated in a wonderful Mid-Summer party organized by Riikka and Luca. As this festival is unknown here they organized it Finnish way with typical foods and bonfires.



Jan is unfortunately still in Finland but we are eagerly wishing he would be able to arrive this week. Best wishes for you all, I aim to post here as much as possible. Believe me, every day is already a long story itself, and wrapping up a month like this is not easy. The best way for you to experience what we are experiencing is to come and see yourself, but I warn that you may fall in love with Rome the way we have. Welcome dear friends!

Kisses and hugs,
Elina&co