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Welcome to News From Italy, my blog about our Italian Adventure. Although this blog has now ceased publication I will be continuing to blog and I am sincerely hoping that my many followers here will move with me to Travel Tales blog to follow my next adventures wherever they may take me. The links to my other blogs are:-


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Friday, January 15, 2010

Road Trip to UK Part One

Haiti Earthquake Support


Before you read my latest entry please spare a thought or prayer for those touched in some way by the recent devastating Haiti earthquake.

I am jinxed as regards writing my blog at the moment.   I have just lost; don’t ask the complete entry that I spent this morning compiling!
I was already struggling to get writing again as I feel that in the wake of the latest world disaster my blog is somewhat insignificant.

Anyway here I am with the second attempt at part one of our recent road trip to the UK.


Since we moved to Italy and started producing our own Olive Oil we have every winter driven back to the UK to distribute the oil to our family and friends.
This year for the first time we had actually booked hotels in advance and decided to take a more leisurely drive through northern Italy, Switzerland and France. We left home mid morning on the 13th of December an easy first stage taking us to a hotel in Como, Italy  Unlike our trip the previous year, although it got considerably colder as we headed northwards we saw very little actual snow apart from in the vicinity of the San Gottardo Tunnel. I know that some of you will have had more than enough of snow already this winter but that is the subject of the photos I am including with today’s entry, sorry.
 




When we arrived in Nancy, France. on the Monday afternoon it was trying to snow there but the temperatures were plummeting and when we left the next morning there was no snow but it was minus 5C. The snow arrived as it did all over central and northern France just a few days later. Tuesday night was spent in Calais, France with an early morning crossing for the Channel tunnel on Wednesday. It seems we were lucky there to be again just ahead of the bad weather, as just days later there were serious problems caused by the snow and freezing temperatures, causing havoc for many travellers.
We arrived at my in laws home in Surrey just as it started to snow there and by the time we left for the drive south to Salisbury it was completely white everywhere and remained so until south of Basingstoke. Although there had been snow earlier in the day in Salisbury it had been a mere inch or so and had melted by the time we arrived that afternoon. Little did we all know then that it was just a taste of what was going to turn out to be a very cold and snowy winter!
We were to be based in Salisbury for the next two weeks which is where my mother, sister and family plus our youngest daughter and boyfriend all live. That evening my sister at her house provided a welcome supper for us all, lots to catch up on, great to see everyone.

That is enough for part one especially as I feel it is not as well written as this mornings effort but I am impatient to get this posted rather than waste yet more time trying to improve. 

7 comments:

  1. Hello Linda, yes how sad for everyone in Haita....one of my blogger friends Marla , who lives in Piedmonte, her brother was there and thank goodness he has been rescued..he was able to use a phone, to phone his son. God bless them all.

    Wow see you went to Como, we were there in 2008 ..amazing place, we stayed in Argegno..and my blogger friend Rowena lives in Lecco..!

    And would you believe it, my sister in laws, inlaws live near Salisbury..in Sixpenny Handley..they were down there for a few days over Christmas. Take care anne

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  2. Anne, what a relief that must have been for your blogger friend. So many people all over the world have been affected by this terrible disaster.
    A small world full of coincidences.

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  3. We travelled to Italy by road from the UK last summer and loved the journey. Not sure I would relish doing it in winter and in the opposite direction, quite a mission delivering all that delicious oil. Take care.

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  4. Jenny, thanks for dropping by and for commenting, much appreciated. Best Wishes for 2010 and I hope you will call by again.

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  5. I have had problems with blogger losing posts and I have read about other bloggers having problems, so you are not alone.

    Glad that you got safely to and from the UK. Unless you were lucky, the road conditions were not good.

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  6. Hi there LLM,

    I have been saying prayers for the Haitians and donated to the Doctors WIthout Borders organization... Every bit helps!!! I have posted some links on my blog, too.. for people who wish to donate to the cause...

    God bless them.... I feel sooo horrible!

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  7. Cheshire Wife: We were just about a day ahead of the worst of the snow arriving in northern France, so yes we were lucky!

    Leesa: A terrible tragedy one of the worst in recent history.

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