Amafi

Boy o Boy - where do I start.  I am behind in the blog already.  At this stage I'll have to suffice with "rome was busy; we did the mandatory open bus tour; had a great lunch at a tratorria - ate too much as I probably wanted to try all the foods I had read about in my first meal - still it was worthwhile and I guess the discomfor will pass.  Other than that we just did lots of waking and a bit of shopping.  Unfortunately my overall impression of Rome is that it was sufficated with tourists (of which we were part of course).  The area around the Spanish steps and streets around were a bit like a metro station at peak hour.  It really was unbelievable.  And..its not even tourist season!!!

Yesterday was incredible - what an experience.  We found ourselves standing in front of the village crowd as if we were some sort of celebity - accepting a large heavy trophy each from the mayor.  The local band was playing and there was much hooplah! Of course we could not understand a word of what they were saying except the occasional "special guests from australia" - and everyone would clap!!!! Tony was obviously overwhelmed as he decided to give a little thank you speech over the mic - IN ITALIAN!! He will usually not even get up to say anything when in english.  But it was not really too different as i stood beside him and prompted - so just the usual really!! I have to giggle every time I think of the occasion. 

The actual ride was probably one of the most dangerous we have ever done. There was an incredible amount of shouting over the loudspeaker from an open top BMW mini which led the procession with the local polizia - lots of them.  the local official kept shouting out "ATTENZIONE! ATTENZIONE!" and calling us to the front of the procession.  However, kids are the same the world over so they kept racing to thhe front of the procession and forcing their way through non-existant spaces and having the occasional stack in front of us.  How we avoided a crash is one of lifes wonders! Everytime I heard a crash behind I was sure it would be Jenny or Tony - but then you would hear all the kids laughing at whoever crashed so it was obviously one of them.  It would never do to have the "special australian guests" having a crash in the middle of the procession.  It was absolute mayhem.

Then - after the official presentations we were quickly ushered into a small room labeled "LOCALE POLIZIA" where 2 bottles or Prosecco were popped! There was more mayhem and  wine was poured into disposable cups for all - much "Salute" ing - more mayhem and drinking of wine.  Then all the cups collected, wine bottles put away and doors opened.  Our gifts for the mayor - seemed to be appreciated - and fortunately I had taken a small packet of gold kangaroo pins so was able to hand them out to all the local polizia. There was a considerable amount of cheek pressing and grazie mille s.  It was really a lot of fun and we were totally bemused by all that was happening.  Most of this time there was one polizia in particular making a loud announcements - interspersed with singing and performing.

Well after that