Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

Ogni mattina facciamo una passeggiata con Tristan e di solito andiamo a Home Park che è una parte del Palazzo di Hampton Court. Questo palazzo era di proprietà di Enrico VIII (1491-1547). Home Park si trova dietro il palazzo. C’è una parte curata con il “Long Water”, un lago artificiale che fu costruito da Carlo II nel 1660. È lungo 690. L’altra parte del parco è meno curato con laghi, pascoli e un branco di 300 cervi. Sono sceso dai cervi che erano gi&adrave; qui all’epoca di Enrico VIII. Il parco è stato aperto al pubblico nel 1894 e è molto gradito ai cani e ai loro proprietari.

Long Water

Un lago in Home Park

Tanti cani sono senza guinzaglio ma abbiamo dovuto legare Tristan perché una domenica ha deciso di cacciare i cervi. Per un’oretta abbiamo provato a catturarlo ma era troppo veloce e eravamo troppo lenti. Le guardie ci hanno detto che dovevamo catturarlo altrimenti avrebbero dovuto ucciderlo. Le cerve erano incinte e se sono cacciate possono abortire. Fortunatamente Tristan era stanco dopo un ora e con le loro jeep le guardie hanno bloccato la strada e hanno catturato Tristan.

cervi in Home Park

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Martedì mattina ci siamo alzati e abbiamo scoperto che durante la notte era nevicato. Senz’altro non era niente in confronto alla neve a San Giorgio tre anni fa quando mi ricordo che aprendo il portone, ho visto un muro di neve e ho dovuto scavare un sentiero per arrivare alla strada. Quest anno siamo stati piu fortunati perché c’erano solo 5 centimetri di neve. È stato molto  bello fare una passeggiata con Tristan. Siamo andati lungo il fiume e poi attraverso il parco. Era la prima volta che Tristan vedava la neve e si è divertito molto.

Tristan sulla neve.	Tristan in the snow

Monday morning we woke up and discovered that it had snowed during the night. Certainly it was nothing like the snow in San Giorgio 3 years ago when I remember opening the front door, seeing a wall of snow and having to dig a path up to the main road. This year we were more fortunate as there was only 5 centimetres of snow. It was really great to take Tristan for a walk. We went along the River and then through the park. It was the first time Tristan had seen snow and he really enjoyed it.

Quando sono ritornato a vivere a Kingston ho deciso di abbandonare il blog “Living in San Giorgio”. A distanza di quasi due anni voglio migliorare il mio italiano scritto e perciò ho deciso di ricominciare il blog ma con un titolo nuovo “Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston”. Scriverò in italiano e in inglese e forse qualche gentile amico italiano correggerà il testo o anche suggerirà miglioramenti.

Kingston upon Thames è solo quindici chilometri da Londra. È un paese antico dove, nel nono secolo, sette re anglosassoni furono incoronati. È anche un paese moderno con molti negozi, cinema ecc. Il paese è situato vicino al fiume Tamigi (Kingston on Thames – l’indizio è nel nome) und di recente la riva del fiume si è sviluppata con appartamenti, ristoranti, bar ecc.

Kingston centre/centro	River Thames (Tamigi)

When I returned to live in Kingston I decided to stop the blog “Living in San Giorgio”. Almost 2 years later I want to improve my written Italian and therefore I have decided to restart the blog but with a new title “Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston”. I will write in Italian and English and perhaps some kind Italian friends will correct the text or even suggest some improvements.

Kingston upon Thames is only 15 kilometres from London. It is an old town where, in the 9th century, 7 anglo-saxon kings were crowned. It is also a modern town with many shop, cinemas etc. The town is situated on the River Thames (Kingston on Thames – the clue is in the name) and recently the river bank has been developed with apartments, restaurants, bars etc.

On a Thursday Luca comes to me for an English lesson. He told me last week that he probably wouldn’t be coming this week as his class are celebrating the 100 days before the beginning of their maturita- the Italian equivalent of A levels. This celebration has become very popular among students. Checking on the internet I saw that some students in other parts of Italy have decided to go on a pilgrimage and pray to Saint Espedito the patron saint for Exams. Not so the students from Lucs’s class in Urbino.

Wednesday evening they will have gone to a disco in Riccione. There, about 2000 students will dance the night away until the small hours when a bus will take them back to Urbino so they can go to school. Luca thinks that when he eventually gets back to San Giorgio he will be too tired for English.

The Riccione tourist board is promoting the town as an ideal place to prepare for the exams:

RICCIONE – THE IDEAL DESTINATION F0R YOUNG POEPLE 

Riccione is the ideal place for young people who want to celebrate their 100 days to the exams. There are many hotels that offer specials rates including entrance into the best discos on the Adriatic Riviera. It is the land of the best and most innovative pubs, clubs and restaurants in the whole of Italy. Riccione is the “in” city and is full of the most trendy shops and boutiques. A real paradise for those young people who need to get away from their routine lives and to have a great time with their friends.

Some months ago, or was it year,  certainly ages ago we, Bill, Federica, Roberta and I, decided to start reading Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. Bill and I try and meet Federica and Roberta every week for some English conversation. One day they asked if it would be possible to start reading a book. So I thought we could start with an Agatha Christie story as the English shouldn’t be too complex and the books are not too long. In fact the book is longer than I remember and the English is more complex as she uses lots of idioms. However, last Friday the 9th March we finally finished the book and discovered who the murderer was (it wasn’t the butler). We were so pleased to “finally” finish it. We are now moving onto another book but have decided to opt for a book of short stories by Alice Munro, a modern Canadian writer and apparently one of the best short story writers of all time. She awaits our judgement.

With San Giorgio full of snow we cannot go anywhere and so all we can do is take some more photos. The romantic view of SG under snow by night was taken by Massimo De Cerreto. The other more prosaic photos were taken by me and show the main street followed by another of the main street where the igloo shapes are people’s cars and finally the back of our house where we are waiting for the snow to be cleared so we can start to think about getting the car, still under snow, out.

Having managed to survive a few days of snow things were looking brighter. Thursday was a beautiful sunny day and in the evening we had gone to the cinema and driving home there was no hint that snow was on the way. However, early Friday morning it began to snow and it snowed all day Saturday and is continuing into Sunday. Once again we have had to dig our way out a couple more times and the funside of digging through the snow has long since gone.

The sad thing is that a couple of the branches of the old olive tree behind the house have broken. This provided welcome shade in the summer and partially hid an electric pylon. But the weight of snow proved too much and so we can only hope that the legendary capacity of the olive tree to come back is true.

Here is a happy picture of Bill and I after some time spent shoveling the snow. Happy days. Today Tuesday the 7th we haven’t had any snow. We decided to take the car out and drove to Orciano for a coffee. With the winter tyres we managed to get to Orciano and “almost” back with no problem. At the last little ascent before our house we were making good progress and for reasons, known only to himself, Bill decided to  move into second gear and the car lost grip and wheels began spinning uselessly in the snow. We backed the car down the slope and tried again. No success. No grip. And so we spent the next 30 minutes putting on the snow chains. This is a pain in the best of conditions but in the snow, on a slope it, is a real pain. But once they were on we went straight forward and parked the car easily.

Needless to say the smiling picture of us was taken before we went for a coffee in Orciano.

Some more photos of San Giorgio under snow. The main street has been kept passable and Bill continues the “animaliterian work” of keeping the birds fed.