Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Back home, unpacking and sorting my memories

Roma with friends

With a photo from last summer (oh I can't wait to show you some of my great photos from these weeks) I sit here with aching feet looking back aon an absolutely perfect day.

It started with an early breakfast with my friend Sheri, the daughter of my Indian friend which I will visit this fall. Sheri and I don't know each other alot, but she has been kind enough to open up her home for me there days, and we get to know each other more and more for every day. The start of a friendship. Duting breakfast she told me about Mysore, the Indian town where her parents live and where I will be spending there weeks in October/November.

Sheri has been to a wedding today, so after breakfast I took the train and metro in to Colosseum. I was out early and had time for a coffee latte and a cornetti before I met my Italian friend Annamaria. None of us had made any spesific plans for the day, only that we wanted to spend it together. And it turned out absolutely perfect with miles and miles of walking, new (to me ) areas and churches and gardens to see, more walking, more places to see.....Rome is so much, you need a lifetime here.

Lunch in Annamaria and her husband Claudio's home was just perfect, can you imagine being allowed to sit in the kitchen of the most wonderful Italian signora watching her making a typical Italian lunch, allowing you to take photos and learn cooking secrets all the time, while the husband finds a bottle of sparkling, red Guiseppe Verdi which we all share.

And then the last highlight of the day, a long walk on the Roman campagne along Appia Antica - a dream came through for me.......................It is now 7.30pm, I am home with Sheri again and she is making me a cup of strong tea sweetened with lemon juice from the lemon tree in her garden.

I must have come to heaven.........

McDonalds in Roma?????

From Terracina it is easy to go to Roma for the day, the 7.30 train in the morning takes you there in 90 minutes, and the 7pm train in the afternoon takes you back just in time for dinner in one of the charming restaurants in Terracina Centro Storico.

Last week my parents stayed in Roma for a few days, and the rest of us (7) took the morning train in. We were not the only ones in Roma though, during Eater all the catholic world seems to be there.

Since we were 9 people we decided it would be too much problem to stay together for the whole day. I took them all to a new "must see" sight near Berberini, and afterwards we split in two, then three groups. Marta's first choice was to stay with her grown up siblings to go to St.Peter, but with all the millions of pilegrims and tourist with this cathedral as their main goal this day Terje and I said no, and Marta had to stay with us.

She was unhappy for a long time, but her mood rose when she discovered that there were still so many things to see in Roma. And when I suggested lunch at Mc Donalds she was all smiling. Terje looked at me, "You say Mc Donalds, do you really mean the Mc Donalds with hamburgers, chips and all this non-Italian stuff?????" "I know" I replied, "but wait till I show you this grand Mc Donalds in a huge old Roman building, and we can sit outdoors looking at churches, fontains and vespas."

Our kids know that I will NEVER eat at Mc Donalds when in Italy, so they never ever ask :-) We did have a very good lunch though, and believe me, though not exactly Italian, the food was exellent.

I am leaving Terracina for Roma tomorrow morning, but this time - no Mc Donalds :-)

Da Cesare in Terracina

Now when I am alone I eat lunch out at different small restaurants every day, but for "dinner" I only have a yoghurt home alone in the flat (enjoying myself alot!)

While my family was here we went out to eat most nights though. We prefere the old part of the town, where we stay, but at this time of the year many of the special restaurants here are closed during the weeks, and only opens when week-end comes.

We were walking around last week searching in vain for an open restaurant in the old town when Angelo and Ingrid, the owners of "our" cafe came. "Do you know a good place to eat?" we asked, and at once they directed us down to Cuicina Da Cesare.

And what a lucky choice. A small, modern, intime place, perfect for our family. And the food suited everybody. Again seafood for me, the others have other preferences.

This Easter in Italy has given us memories we will live on as a family for weeks, months and years to come.

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It is not easy to blog from this public computer center. I just froze one computer and was sent over to the next while I gave the owner alot of work making up my mess. I have lots and lots of tales to tell you, but they might have to wait till I am back in Trondheim. I have two days left here in Terracina, Friday morning I'll take the train to Roma and spend the week-end with friends there.

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......and because of your huge responce I will send out a couple of postcards from Terracina as well. Anybody interested?

My Days

My days have already made their own pattern.

I sleep till about 8am, and after the morning shower I walk down to the small grocery store outside the piazza to buy a couple of paninis and some salami. While I eat I sit in the kitchen window niche to enjoy the view of the piazza.

The morning coffee, a caffe latte, is enjoyed at the Caffe del Duome, where Angleo makes the worlds best coffe and Ingrid the worlds best gelato (but no gelato for me in the morning.....) When the sun is out I sit at the piazza for a long time, reading, watching the life as it unfolds, writing down small anecdotes.

Then comes a long walk on good, old shoes. Along the way I get hungry and stop for lunch somewhere. Terracina is a fishing town, so I eat seafood.

Then it is time to go back to the flat for a few hours of working (writing that is.....can I call it work when I enjoy it so much.....)

In the afternoon I walk again, and I have another caffee latte and a gelato at Caffe del Duomo. And try so speak some Italian with Angelo.

The nights are mine alone. Indoors. With alot of candles lit, music on the cd player, reading, reading, some writing and more reading. The bookshelves in the flat are filled with books I want to read.

If you ask me - yes, these are perfect days.

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Photo: the piazza last summer, Angelo's cafe to the right.

Typical Easter Cake from Terracina

From a local, family owned bakery here in the old town of Terracina, I bought the typical Terracina Easter cake. Still almost to hot to carry home, we ate most of it at once.

I passed by the bakery early in the afternoon and was drawn in by the delicious smell flowing down the road. Well inside the baker's wife told me that I had to come back in one hour to get a cake ready from the owen.

Nothing could keep me from going back :-)

My Nikon had a busy time, and the baker and his wife were both smiling and talking fast, fast, fast in Italian. I promised to send them the photos when I am back home in Norway.

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My family left this morning to go back home, to snowy Norway. I still have one Italian week, to work on my next book -  I think I will be a full time writer, do you think I can travel the world then????? :-)

Thanks for all your comment about my 800th post. Postcard will soon be on its way to Renny in Norway.....

My Year in the World is now updated (I am unable to make a direct link from this public computer, but you find a link on the right side bar here.

Postcards from Roma

As this is the time of my 50th birthday I have brought my whole family to Italy to celebrate. There are nine of us, me, Terje, our four kids, Ingrid's boyfriend and my parents.

This is the best birthday gift I could ever have. All of us together sharing joy and laughter, memories, Italian food and Italian coffee, visiting new places, meeting old friends here in Terracina.

My parents have stayed in Roma since Monday, we all went in there to spend the day with them on Wednesday. Today they will come to Terracina and all nine of us will share a flat, share this great time.

I drink every minute like sweet wine and gather memories to cherish for the rest of my life.

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Thisis my post #800 here at The House in the Woods at typepad. I have bought a very special postcard to send to one of you. PLease leave a comment on this post and send me your address to [email protected]. I will pick the "winner" in a few days.

Italy - we are coming!

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While we are eating pizza and spaghetti you can enjoy my blog of the week: The House in Marrakesh where Elizabeth and her husband live.

Passion Sunday. Silent Week

In the small village Castelpetroso in Pentria in Southern Italy two country women saw the suffering Maria in a cave in the year 1888.

Today you can follow Maria's seven pains through a walk in the hills above the village.

Stabat Mater. The suffering Mother of Christ.

I went there during Easter two years ago, and 9 pages in "40 dager - fra karneval til oppstandelse" (go to page 56-64) shows photos from Castelpetroso and take us along Maria's walk of pains.

The week which starts today is called Silent Week here in Norway. It is the last week of Lent. It is the week when we follow Jesus through his last suffering before the joy and praise and glory on Easter Day.

I collected a few stones from the hills of Castelpetroso and have made a Silent Week memory on our kitchen table. The Bibel tells me the story of Jesu week of suffering.

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Photos from Castelpetroso two years ago. In the first photo I am taking notes for my book, in the last I am collecting stones.

A Traveller's Year - March

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. G.K.Chesterton

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. Robert Louis Stevenson.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train. Oscar Wilde.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust.

Travel is the most private of pleasures. Vita Sackville-West.

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Photos from yesterday and previous visits to a small town in the north of Norway; Mo i Rana