Italian Love

Anne and I both love visiting Italy, we love everything about it, the history, the architecture, the food! So I was somewhat jealous when Anne had a two day trip to Traviso which is just outside Venice to stock up on haberdashery supplies.

This isn’t as extravagant as it sounds, if you are clever you can pick up very cheap flights. You can also hop a train and be in the heart of Venice in about 25 minutes.

Traviso has it’s own waterways and daily fish markets. It’s not crowded like Venice can be and has about 6 haberdashery shops which is heaven for any sewing enthusiast.

If you do take a trip into Venice we have a few tips that can keep your costs down. The main squares and tourist routes often house the most expensive cafes and restaurants, yet just a street or corner away and the price drops dramatically. Another tip is to stand to drink your coffee, this can cost up to a quarter of the price when sitting down at a table.  Ask locals where they go out to eat and you can find hidden gems, the food is usually more authentic, cheaper and much more tasty.

As part of my honeymoon I visited Venice and it’s been an enduring love ever since, the charm of watching the boats bobbing by never lessens. Even the police, the ambulance, the rubbish men they all travel by boat. Although I did find the side effect was the perpetual feeling of motion even when I was back on solid ground.

Little Railway for Little (& Big) Folk.

Living in Derbyshire means I’m never short of a view, a hill and plenty of activities to take the children along to. My son absolutely adores trains, trams and all things moving. This weekend he made several requests for a weekend activity, one of which was to visit the Steeple Grange Light Railway. He’s been there countless times, but the appeal of a mini railway never seems to fade.

There are two working lines at present which date back to the 1830s, one with an open carriage that stops by some rocks which still contain undug fossils! The second line has a covered carriage, you might need a shoehorn to get in but it’s alright once your there. The amazing thing is that these trains were created to carry full grown and probably quite burly miners.

 

This year is the railways 25th anniversary and there’s quite a few events on, this coming weekend is the Teddy Bears Specials Weekend 24/25 July, children can ride for free if they bring their teddies along for the journey. I think there will be a bear sale and bears along the route too.

There are also some wonderful wildflowers all along the track, I loved this purple field scabious. I had to show you the pic below, it really reminded me of the Railway Children 🙂

Final note, I’m so pleased your all so excited about the blog comp 🙂 not long to go now, but still time to enter here if you haven’t already