Palazzo Pizzo

About acrylic Buddha Statues, Online Shopping and The Year of the Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:16:00 +0000

yellow transparent acrylic Buddha

From my actual hometown Bangkok, Thailand I am writing this. From the Italian side no news so far. Hence, I thought you might enjoy my weekend finds from Bangkok in the meantime. It was a spontaneous trip to the market on Saturday - during the Chinese New Year weekend.

small colourful acrylic Buddha statues

One friend had recently discovered a small stand that sells colourful acrylic Buddha statues. And me and another friend wanted to see where. So we hopped on a taxi.

The small statues are about 14 cm - they are transparent or matt and have a kind of golden antique finish. However the larger statues, about 23 cm, look at least as good! What a difficult choice!

large acrylic buddhas with matt and golden finish

Via my iPhone I mailed my friend back in Germany this picture directly from the site, asking her which one she would prefer. This is a new dimension of online shopping! She opted for the orange one (that looks too golden in the picture above).

Two hours later I was already back home and did not only collected colorful impressions, but also some decorative objects:

The large orange Buddha

Acrylic orange Buddha at night

small acrylic transparent buddhas in orange, yellow and clear

And since today is the first day of The Year of the Dragon, I am wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year form Bangkok ! The Dragon is seen as the most powerful sign of the Chinese zodiac. May it be a happy, lucky, healthy, successful and prosperous year for all of you!

Happy New Year of the Dragon from Bangkok

For a few more pictures from Chinatown please visit my Bangkok blog.

Winter in Calabria

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:37:00 +0000

Camigliatello in La Sila National Park, Calabria

So far this blog was all about renovating and decorating a Beach House.

Now, we did it. Okay, it still needs some improvements and probably constant re-renovation work - but mainly we are done. And we are really happy with the result.

Strangely, when I saw the latest interior magazine AD during our skiing holidays in Europe, with lots of snow outside, and all these cozy homes and restaurants in the mountains with wooden fires inside ... I started dreaming ...

Sounds crazy, I know. - Shouldn't I focus on our beach house?

But then I remembered, that Calabria has not only 800 km of coast line to offer. Calabria is quiet hilly and has mountains up to 2,000 meters high above sea level. And when it snows, you can ski! Yes, there are a few ski lifts!

The most important "ski resorts" in Calabria are Camigliatello and Villaggio Palumbo in La Sila and Gambarie in Aspromonte. Both mountainous regions are National Parks.

Pizzo --> Sila app. 120 km and 1,5h drive (via Google Map)

La Sila is about 120 km North of Pizzo and the Aspromonte about 100 km South. We could reach a ski resort from Pizzo in aobut 1,5 hours drive !

From the sea to the mountains in no time. The highest mountain in Sila, Botte Donato (1,928 m) is covered with snow right now. Information about snow levels at Camigliatello via Skiinfo. There are two ski lifts only, but this will do for us when in Calabria in winter!

This is an excellent reason to push forward the installation of a chimney in our beach house. We could drink hot teas and wine in front of the wooden fire after a day skiing up in the mountains. :-)

And I really enjoyed this magazine, especially the featured home of Aerin Lauder in Aspen.

AD German Edition Dec/Jan 2012

Living room of Aerin Lauder's Aspen home

Wishing you all the best for 2012!

Small Update

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:49:00 +0000

The new old lamp is installed

Two months ago I posted the last post - and it was about this lamp. It is now installed and Angelo sent me the picture recently, since nothing was happening on my blog ...

I know, the post "summer with friends (part II)" is still missing! And now it's almost Christmas. Maybe when the post is ready I will upload it quietly with an older date - to make it fit to the season?

If you are a frequent or subscribed reader, you will know that our family has moved to Bangkok, Thailand last year. So you might also have heard about the flood in Thailand and around Bangkok. That is what kept me "busy" - at least mentally - for a couple of weeks.

We were lucky, since we live in the flood spared dry heart of the city. But nobody knew that we will stay dry. Everybody was prepared for 1m high flood allover Bangkok. We stocked up drinking water and ready to eat food, we bought candles and water filters, we had sandbags allover the place, sometimes 2m high - everyone in houses had moved furniture upstairs, and some have bought a boat, just in case. Everything was just in case and we were living from day to day, not sure if we were still able to move around the next day. But the flood kept invisible. And Bangkok people - who did not evacuate to home countries or to beach resorts - started "suffering" from invisible stress. Some started to call it "flood-burn-out".

Of course this is a joke - nothing in comparison of what all the other poor people around the dry heart of Bangkok have been suffering. The media has moved on to other subjects long ago. But there are still people flooded in Bangkok! Of course now, all the help can concentrate to dry out the last districts (before year end is target from the government).

So, I have been more on my new Bangkok blog to write about this subject that was in everybodies' heads for more than a month - the FLOOD. If you are interested come over for a visit - maybe for a dry Christmas Walk through Bangkok.

Since the holidays are approaching fast, I want to wish all my readers and supporters

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the best for the New Year 2012 !

Hope to see you here again next year!

decorating our Xmas tree in Bangkok
(32 degree Celsius in afternoon sun)

A new old lamp

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:56:00 +0000

old wrought iron gas lamp

My Italian family likes to stroll antique markets and browse antique shops. Variety and prices are more attractive in Italy than in Germany. The latest find of my mother-in-law in Northern Italy is this old wrought iron chandelier that used to have a gas supply in the center of the lamp.

modified by adding new lamp shades and electrical wire

My father in law modified the gas lamp into an electric lamp by adding adding electric cables. Also the three small lamp shades of red glas are newly added. If I want, he said, I can have it for my bed room. Of course, I want! It would go along well with the red in the floor tiles.

original cement tiles with red swastika, an over 3,000 year old symbol for good luck

we had an expert restoring the old flooring

I am looking forward to see a picture of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling in our bed room. The pictures above were taken in my parents-in-law home in Calabria and in our house in Pizzo.

Calabria: The Richest and the Poorest - The Pope slams mafia

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:35:00 +0000

Bangkok Post article about Pope and mafia in Calabria 10/10/11

While sitting this morning in Bangkok over my daily Bangkok Post briefly checking the WORLD section, my eyes got caught by a report from "Lamezia Terme" ...

I learn about the Pope visiting Lamezia where he denounced during a Mass the "inhuman" mafia of Calabria, the so called 'Ndrangheta, which is already more powerful than the Sicilian mafia (see article above).
Indeed, there are those very rich mafia families in Calabria on one side and on the other side Calabria is said to be the poorest region of Italy with 27% unemployment.

These statistics of course do not consider those who happily work "in nero" without ever paying tax. But still there is this gap. Although it is not that visible since this "honorable society" does not show off.

I wonder what they think about the Pope's speech. Do they bother? They probably all go to church on Sundays. Maybe the mafia is one of the largest employer in the region after all.

Difficult subject. Comments are most welcome.

A Fish from Seminara

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:44:00 +0000

Once upon a time, there was a big big fish from Seminara, he was green and blue. He looked ugly and was too big. The fish was a ceramic art work. He was created as a jar but now, on top he had large lamp shade. First, I did not bother what my mother-in-law had standing on her window sill. You can't argue about taste. But when I heard that it belongs to my husband, I started to not like him - the fish ...

a fish from Seminara

Apparently, CC went to Seminara once I wasn't in Calabria. Seminara, a little village around 7 km from Palmi, is known to "insiders" for its pottery and ceramic art work. When you google the site, you do not find much. Maybe something about a battle in 1495 on wikipedia. If you search further, you might find something more interesting about Seminara's golden age during Renaissance here.

Nowadays, Seminara is known in Calabria for it's interesting unusual and sometimes bizarre pottery. The fish above seems just harmless among some grotesque faces and babbuino masked objects. The scary faces originally were supposed to protect from evil. Similar like it is found in some Turkish and Greek art work. Due to trading around the Mediterranean sea the styles influenced each other. Therefor, you find egg. in Seminara and Sicily these ceramic heads, influenced by Arabic Moors. And I guess, that's why it's possible that Seminara craft men might have influenced Picasso (France) and Dali (Spain).

Calabrian jar from 19th century with bubbuino mask via Christie's (!)

Interesting are also the jars that are imitating by the look of sea urchins (ricci) and artichokes (carciofi).

Seminara jars via flickr

artist Paolo Candurso in his shop via flickr - in the back ceramic heads, even more popular in Sicily

market day in Seminara with its typical ceramics

Seminara jars and vases in form of artichokes, urchins - and more fishes

When we finally moved into our house, I realised that the lamp - the one with the big ugly fish from Seminara - would actually look not bad on the chest of drawers in the living room. The next day it was delivered... and - surprise - the fish was not too big anymore in our big living room! It looks even rather small! And with the sea under the windows, the fish suits very well. It even does not look ugly anymore. It is a piece of art!

Seminara fish jar modified into lamp stand

The not so big and not so ugly fish found its place into a house at the sea.

A perfect match.

Another more detailed source about ceramics from Seminara is cultura italia in italian language.

From what I know, two of the most successful artists in Seminara are Paolo Candurso and Domenico Ditto.

If you have more information about Seminara's pottery and its artist, please leave a comment.

Summer with Friends (part I)

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:58:00 +0000

The evening of our friend's arrival was near. When I had to describe how to arrive from Lamezia airport with the rented car to our home, I came until where they would need to turn left into the piazza - which is NOT allowed after 6pm. Every evening there is this barrier you see in the picture (below) and two traffic police ladies ensuring only residents sneak through. Some evenings before their arrival I took that photo and emailed it. At least they would not miss the turn. Also I talked to the charming traffic police ladies and explained the situation.

turn left into the piazza

I arranged with our friends - and very first guest - that they would call me as soon as they had left the rental car company. Then, I would walk slowly from our house towards the piazza, checking out what's up in Pizzo and end my stroll here at the barrier talking to the charming traffic police.

Around 20 minutes after my friends call I looked excited into every small car that looked like a rented car filled with German tourists. There were many. My son came waiting with me. When we spotted them, we waved them over. My friend got out of the car and walk with son the short way home, while I would co-pilot her husband through the narrow alleys - a fun ride.

The plane was delayed and we arrived around 9pm at home. We decided to go for a pizza in piazza, although Saturday night in August you better cook at home. The tables outside in the piazza were crowded, and we had to wait long to be served. But life just starts now. Most life you will find around 11pm in piazza. This is when people queue for a table at the Gelateria Belvedere.

The next morning - and this is one of my favorite parts of this holiday with friends - before everyone else is up, T. would go and find a bakery to buy fresh panini for breakfast!!

When I would come downstairs, breakfast would be ready! Ah, what lovely guest! Danke ! Danke! Danke! (Lately, I got guest in Bangkok that were jet lagged the whole stay and didn't come out of their rooms until 11am!!)

Usually, in Italy, I never have breakfast, just a coffee, an expresso with some milk. I never liked the hard bread down here. But T. managed to find the right things. We even had a delicious bergamot marmalade (that I even brought back to Thailand). And he would make me smile with his shopping tour observations early in the morning across the piazza that seemed only inhabited at that hour by elderly and old men, drinking espresso at the bar and chatting. The sales woman in Lo Biancho would always be in a grumpy mood and not having change. And every morning he came up with some other details.

I was pleased to see that the simple life down here was enjoyed by my guest as much as by myself. It is easy to consider life in Pizzo as boring if someone prefers fast exciting city life.

So, slow and pleasant, finally, my vacation started. I enjoyed the company of my fellow countrymen - speaking German for a change was so relaxing! Since it was the first holiday our families spent together, we were lucky to see that we follow a similar "rhythm".

After the very nice breakfast, we would pack for the beach and leave the house never earlier than 10.30. We would walk through the village, pass by all the gelaterie and walk dawn the alleys towards the marina.

Beach of Pizzo Marina

Mothers would lay in the shadow under the blue striped umbrella, chatting and reading. Kids would be constantly in the water, swimming, snorkeling, playing. T. would do it all.

A couple of hours later, around the same time, we would all have had enough from the sun and the heat and walk back home to prepare a late and light lunch.

"Spritz" my favorite Italian aperitif

Preparing food altogether in my beautiful new kitchen was even more fun when everyone was having a drink. The orange colored Spritz, originally from Veneto area, become my favorite summer drink.

Mix a Spritz:
1/3 Aperol
1/3 prosecco
1/3 soda water
just fill it in a prosecco glass, don't shake or stir, add ice cubes and a slice of lemon.

It is so light - like lemonade !
I admit, I use more prosecco and less soda ;-)

After lunch, that we finish, almost like Italians, just a little later, at 3pm we would have a break, like Italians. T., R. and E. would read, LC and A. would play or draw and I would just enjoy the house and having the house filled with life. Sometimes T. would even go with the kids a second time to the beach in the late afternoon and come back before sunset.

our "house beach" in walking distance

Soon we figured out that two times cooking per day for 7-9 people is just too much, even with a dish washer. So when we would have had lunch at home, we would have dinner outside.

my favorite pizza "Tricolore" by SPQR

In piazza there is more competition since the pizzeria SPQR with its good looking and dynamic staff opened directly next to La Ruota. It is difficult to say which one is better. We visited them both by turns. The pizze from La Ruota might be slightly better cooked, but SPQR has a better choice of pasta dishes and the best prices. And their pizza "Tricolore" (prochiutto, ruccola, parmesan) was my summer's favorite.

Paradiso del Sub Beach

Another day, another beach. 35 Years ago, this beach was only accessible by boat. 15 years ago it was still a secret bay. Now, you can find it even printed on postcards: Paradiso del Sub, a few km North of Tropea. I can't believe how many people, young and old, would walk through the heat all the long and steep way to access this "isolated" bay. The water is still beautiful though. For this beach we prepared panini - picnic lunch on the beach.

preparing dinner at PP

Preparing dinner at home might be interrupted by sunset watching and photo shooting. Here, I count 9 covers on my 4 meter something table cloth from the market featuring chili and garlic. This was when CC was still in Italy and we invited his parents over for dinner.

beach below Tropea's balcony

Another day, another beach. Since we had two cars, we used them from time to time to discover new beaches. One day, after a visit of the old town of Tropea and a pizza slice for each, we went down to the beach to cool off in this crystal clear water.

orechietti (little ear pasta) with sweat cherry tomatoes from the market by R.

Tropea's famous beach

another tomato salad for lunch

So we went on and on.

Beach, lunch, siesta, dinner.

A real Italian vacation.

Before the first Guest arrived

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:52:00 +0000

This summer was the summer we finally would move into the house that we first spotted in summer 2006 – FIVE years ago. Who would have thought that it will take us that long?!

There are a few reasons why it took us five years.

First we needed to get all the paper work done and the permissions from the commune.

Then we needed someone on site to talk to the architect and supervise the project, at least from time to time. This was Angelo, my father-in-law, who also himself had some other businesses running in the last years. Our architect started the renovation from the outside and when that was done, we waited for Angelo to take over the inside fitting. He would do most part like painting and flooring by himself. Since he is very precise he noted his working hours: three thousand something… ! But Angelo also had support by Tonino and Mimmo, two masons who prepared the floors and did the tiling of six bathrooms, three kitchens, one terrace, one balcony and one garden and all kind of other works. And there were the plumber, the electrician team “Fonsi” & partner, some carpenters and other suppliers.

me & Angelo on his Vespa on the way to work in Pizzo

Since the past 5 years, we were living most of the time overseas, far from the construction site, we were doing – what I call - a “long-distance-online-renovation”. And whenever we spent our summer holidays in Pizzo we have been busy in the beginning with decision makings. Then in August, basically when all Italy goes on vacation, shops would close and workers would go to the beach as well. So, when on site we could only push little things. The main communication between us and Angelo was via email and sometimes via Skype, in urgent cases via SMS. But the fact that it was “long-distance” did not delay the project, since Angelo would decide when I would be too slow…

Another reason why we were not that fast is that a renovation of a house – even when the construction supervisor and main interior worker is your father-in-law – costs a lot of money that needs to be earned first. There was a time when money was tight and I had to bring in my pension fund…

And after five years, this was finally our summer.

When I arrived in Pizzo, Angelo had already started with the flooring of the last square meters in the guest residence in the seminterrato.

working in progress in the seminterrato

The masons were filling the holes in the stairways with cement and adding the granite border.

cement filling and granit border for the stairways

The cutting of granite stone and wooden panels together with the earth movements for the future porto below the house caused lots of dust that was carried with the wind inside the house, every day. I kept cleaning and cleaning.

One day, even the outside scaffolding on one part of the house was back! Angelo had figured, that rain water might penetrate the walls through some holes that he wanted to seal. (The renovation work will never end!)

scaffolding is back for some sealing work

The workers and Angelo asked me constantly when our first guest are arriving. They wanted to finish everything before.

I assured them that our guest will sleep upstairs with us and not in the guest residence. Only the second group of guest that will arrive 10 days later might use the guest residence. However, I was happy, when finally no cutting of whatsoever material took not place any longer.

After the cleaning woman who came three times a week to help to get rid of the last dirt of a construction site just had finished the bedrooms, the air condition guys came and mounted three airconditions…

AC is mounted in LCs room

But not only needed the interior work of the basement to be completed, the other floors now needed some fine tuning like mirrors, hooks and accessories for all bathrooms, wall and ceiling lamps for all rooms. Luckily we discovered a shop that copies a bit the success and style of IKEA, although still much more expensive for many items. But who wants to drive three hours to the nearest IKEA in Sicily, just for shopping some accessories, when Semeraro is at Lamezia?.

We bought all lamps there and bathroom accessories in a shop close by. Then, started the long drilling and vacuum-cleaner-assistance phase.

mounting the kitchen lamp over the island

And bedsheets! Bedsheets for under (lenzoli sotto con angoli) and bedsheets for over (lenzoli per sopra) and cushion covers (fodere) needed to be purchased for all kind of beds of different sizes. Another bottle neck seemed to be the mattress protections. Either they were sold out or our standard sized mattresses (200x180) were not standard size in Italy (190x170).

Italian bed sheets for over and under and pillow cases

When this was finally done, sheets were pre-washed – and we finally could move in.

Monday, July 25th 2011 moving in !

Every morning we were woken up by Angelo to continue the work. Well, after an extended walk with CC and a breakfast at Belvedere, the work started much later than before. Tonino and Mimmo had already their break, when Angelo finally joined in.

When unpacking moving boxes (yes, the last boxes for the kitchen), we realized that we do not have even five matching plates. But 24 Champagne flutes (3 different styles) and 8 crystal wine glasses. Just one day before our first guests were arriving, we bought a set of white plates (large, small, deep – each for 12) at EURONICS (!), an electronic gear shop that features also lots of household items.

Instead of going to the beach this holiday, we spent most of the time in shops and in the car driving to the shops.

CC is a fast decision maker, and I got influenced, so at least our acquisition processes were efficient.

Meanwhile, in the seminterrato, Angelo discovered that sand trickles down from the vaulted stone ceiling – probably due to life and movements in the floor above. The finish he had applied all over on the stone walls and stone ceilings, did not fix the sand enough.

sand trickles from stone walls with sandy joints

We had to buy another material (resina = resin) and apply it all over again - worse, the flooring by now was finished. The resin gives the stones and sand a wet look, not great, but we saw that before in shops, restaurants and bars with similar stone ceilings. It seems the only method to really fix it.

resin finish fixes the sand and gives the wall a wet look

The time flew fast, the work progressed, but we never had found a moment to toast to our move, to the new step, to success. Stress and disappointment and emotions muddled me. A half hearted planed inauguration party was cancelled, as it was too early to have people walking through the whole house – and I just was not in the mood. CC was not in a good mood either, since his holidays were coming to an end - he had to go back to Bangkok two weeks earlier.

we had rainy and stormy days end of July

and there was sun after the rain !

The day our guest were arriving, Angelo borrowed and delivered us a self made table around which I grouped a selection of old chairs (in need of renovation!) we had found in antique shops.

a borrowed table, a variety of old chairs and a table-cloth from the market

What an exciting and lucky day, when our friends, a family of four, from Germany finally arrived. Their son is a good friend of our son, so the boys were happy too! - And finally I got good company to toast to the palazzo – every single day!!

Living at Palazzo Pizzo

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:22:00 +0000

Morning sun at PP by Giorgio

Finally living at - or - in Palazzo Pizzo was great !

After all, it was an exciting, in the beginning stressful and less relaxing holiday, but with many joyful and beautiful moments at the end - thanks to our dear friends & guests at PP!

While I am now back "home" in Bangkok, still some family/friends are enjoying life at Palazzo Pizzo. My mother-in-law's cousin's wife F. is updating me with reports from PP and sent the above photo from Monday morning taken by my mother-in-law's cousin, aka her husband G.

My recent short posts I did via iPhone, since this was much faster and easier with photos than with the iPad. Now, back home at the computer, I can write more and also edit all the hundreds of photos I took. For the blog, I decided to go back in time and start writing about the more hectic period of our holiday before the first guests arrived. And then report about living at PP. But first, I have to pick and compress the photos.

Will be back soon....

Enjoying the Simple Life

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:27:00 +0000

There is not much to do in Pizzo but to enjoy simple life.
Tonight, stunning sunset with smoking Stromboli (in the back) and dinner with friends.
Looking forward to another tartuffo for desert later. And another sunny day tomorrow.

Market Day

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:37:00 +0000

Once a week every Italian village has it's street market. Today was market in Pizzo. There were the usual African handbag sellers but mainly farmers from the region selling local products, vegetables and fruits, cheese and peperoncini, olive oil, home made wine and soap. But you also can find shoes, plants, household tools, table clothes, underwear, hair bands, sun glases, t-shirts and other fashion wear. From village to village the stands change a bit.

The market in Pizzo is quiet a nice walk. It is located above Via Nationale, below the autostrada Salerno - Reggio Calabria, every Thursday from 7 am to 1 pm.

Other market days:
Vibo Marina - Mondays
Vibo Valentia - Saturdays
Tropea - Saturdays

9.30 Pizzo Marina Beach

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:51:00 +0000

Early morning at the beach of Pizzo Marina - 25 degree Celsius, calm sea and a few sunbathing Pizzitani.
This is how I like my holidays!

update:
Just a week later, it looks like this on the same beach (photo below). If you can avoid the month of August, come ealier or later for a stay. The worst two weeks of the year are before and after August 15, Feraugosto, when really every Italian is on holiday.

Beach at Pizzo Marina in August

The good thing of this beach at Pizzo Marina is, that the sunbathers are locals. Tourists in Calabria mainly stay in resorts and go to the beach of their resorts. They come to Pizzo for icecream during the day or a pizza in the evening. In Pizzo's old town are only a few tourists staying at a B&B or at the only and newly opened small hotel in town. When living in Pizzo, you need no car to go to the beach, you just can walk - from the above historic center - about 10 minutes down to the Marina. I really enjoyed the daily walks through the small pittoresque alleys. And we always found a small space for our umbrella and towels. It is a free public beach and it has a free shower, something really rare and to appreciate! And since this beach is located at the Marina, bars, gelaterias, pizzerias and restaurants are just behind your umbrella.

I went shopping

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:09:00 +0000

There is a little vegetable and fruit shop in walking distance from my house. I love the fruity aroma that is in the air as soon as you step in. And I like the stiff brown paper bags with the old fashion design that are too cute to throw away. We re-use them to pack panini when we go to the beach over lunch time.

Good Morning Pizzo !

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:02:00 +0000

We made it !

We moved in ! Although the moving truck already delivered tons of boxes over two years ago !

We finally spent the first night in our house in Pizzo !

We survived the night - everything was new ... one moskito disturbed our sleep and the blue movement control light that switches on whenever you move was a bit strange too, but it helped to find the way to the bathroom. The newly aquired matresses, bed sheets and pillows are very comfortable.

But above all, the sound of the waves was fantastic !

The breakfast photo, that looks so beautiful, is a bit of staging though ... I have to admit....

1) I usually do not eat Choco Pops for breakfast (only today, since I had no other choice).

2) My son, who eats this, however did not want to join me for breakfast in the sun, he prefered the kitchen counter inside

3) CC and Angelo were absent too; they went for a morning walk like always and planned to have breakfast at Belvedere (!)

4) the two espresso cups are empty because the espresso machine had the wrong (Chinese) plug! And the other espresso machine that would have worked, we had forgotten in Vibo Marina...

I am enjoying myself very much! We all do !

Lunch, however, we have again at Hotel Mamma in Vibo Marina, as usual. The only way to publish this post... (I need to find out how to blog with my phone). Also a chance to pack the other espresso machine - and to borrow a dining tabel! Angelo will transport it to our house on top of his car after the siesta.

no title

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:31:00 +0000

For this post I have no title.
Or should I call it "my strangest summer holidays ever" or "lost in renovation"?

Since ten days - this is how long I am now in the South of Italy - I am telling myself, this is only a short phase, we are going to move in soon, tomorrow, maybe, and tomorrow I am telling myself the same thing, we are moving in tomorrow, domani, magnana...

But what do we do in the evening without light in the living room? Or at night in the bathroom? Okay, lets buy lamps. Of course, CC does not want to spend his holidays buying lamps, so we buy all in once... not sure how many dozens we bought in one afternoon – mainly wall lamps (applique). Is it only our team of electricians or do Italians in general have a passion for wall lamps?

wall lamps for the whole house

Luckily we found a shop similar to IKEA that has quiet a good choice (Semeraro at Lamezia's Due Mare shopping center). Of course we did not only buy lamps. Also adapters, plugs and jacks to harmonize Asian and European lamps and appliances with the two Italian systems of electric plugs we both have spread irregularly all over the house. - And hooks, we also bought lots of hooks and mirrors for six bathrooms...

red bathroom: mirror installed (inherited from mother-in-law),

matching lamp hopefully found

(in this room the camera failures always!)

After the shopping tours, we are now in the phase of installing all the loot. While Angelo is drilling I am sucking the dust with the vacuum cleaner, like an assistant of a dentist. Whenever I have finished dust cleaning a room, new workers appear with something, like installing air conditions or a built-in wardrobe, delivering a wet sofa (it was raining the other day), a mattress (not wet) and marble sills. Still some wood and ceramic cutting for the flooring downstairs is outstanding - of course, they promise – they will work outside with closed doors.

seminterrato: kitchen installed, flooring almost completed

Before I get crazy, I escaped with our son to the beach at Pizzo Marina this afternoon.
It was my first time this summer, and it felt so good!

Short excursus: There was this Italian guy at the beach who seemed keen to practice his German with me that he learned 20 years ago in the Ruhrpott.... When he asked me where my husband was, I said that he is working. Where, he asked. At home, I said. At home? He thought not to understand well. But I insisted: at casa, he is installing lamps, I added. - Oh, said the guy, so he is an electrician? I am a bricklayer. - Well, since we have past that state of renovation, and for other reasons too, I thought, I do not need to deepen this new contact... (Which was not easy. Not sure what kind of reputation German ladies have with some senior Italians).

Beside my encounter with a slightly annoying admirer, I had a nice and relaxing afternoon at the beach. And I am looking forward to see the progress in the house that happened without me.

BTW, CC said we are moving in tomorrow!

black kitten after rain

amazing green sea after rain and wind yesterday

When are we moving in?

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:01:00 +0000

When are we moving in? When will be our first night in the house - after all those years of renovation?!

We do not know!
That's what we ask ourselves everyday.....
We could already, almost.

The matresses are there. Even the matress protections. Enough pillows too. Also some sets of lenzoli, bedsheets, for sopra, but not for sotto, the sheets to stretch over the matresses were sold out at Vibo Center yesterday. But we could borrow one... We also have enough glasses and plates, some towels and clothes. Toothpaste, soap, toilet paper... yes, we could already move in. So what are we waiting for?

Maybe for Rosi, to give us a helping hand... the house has still a bit of construction site and lots of fine dust everywhere.

Angelo has been working non-stop in the last days for the flooring of the seminterrato, the basement. The sawing of the wooden panels still causes lots of dust. And the battiscopa, baseboard for the parquet was just ordered yesterday and will arrive next week. It is a ceramic baseboard and it's cutting will cause more fine dust... So, after another deep cleansing of the house - not sure, how many times Rosi cleaned it up yet - we might give it a try ...

After all these years of renovation, one day sooner or later does not count anymore.
We are not in a hurry.
But maybe a bit nervous?

Do we get cold feet???

Moving out of Hotel Mama???

Ha ha! It must be this!

The laundry will not be washed and folded and ready anymore. The table will not be set up and lunch served just in time after coming home from the beach. Food and drinks will not come out of the fridge automatically and the house will not be cleaned by itself. Oh, my...

Okay, just a few more days... let's enjoy Hotel Mama.

Now, I understand more than ever all these young and not so young Italians, and even the so called "mammone", why they stay as long as possible with la mama!

Hotel Mama in Vibo Marina

Colourful Folly

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:54:00 +0000

From Angelo's pictures that he had sent via email I knew more or less how colourful the house would be. But he did not send me pictures of every corner .... he left surprises for us.

When I entered the house again after three months absence, I felt like Alice in Wonderland... And while opening and unpacking the last boxes and walking ten, twenty times in and out of the living room, I started to feel dizzy. Was this the summer heat - or was this the impact of all those colours?

I imagine painting so many walls and ceilings day after day, all alone, must have become more and more boring for Angelo. And I can imagine how he tried out one colour and another colour. He must have become more and more frantic when shopping for colours - it must have been a kind of colour flush that had overcome him!

"Colourful Folly", I thought, must be the title of a post to honour this work, conveyed from the German expression "der helle Wahnsinn", that leo.org translated into "plain folly".

I count seven (!) different colours

(the blue of the ceiling is different from the blue in the arch (which also is spatolato technique) and I counted the white (border, doors, radiator) as one colour.)

I have some chairs to upholster with some not yet choosen fabric... I guess it need to be very neutral fabric ;-) ... Usually I prefer white walls and play with colours of fabrics, paintings, ceramics, flowers etc. But okay, Angelo was our painting master in charge and this is the South of Italy. Lets first move in and see how it feels. Before getting crazy, I might have to find a brush, as Angelo always says...

the sunlight makes the colour of the window alcove shine brighter

Arriving in Lamezia

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:24:00 +0000

Lamezia Terme (SUF) is the international airport of Calabria. The greatest thing is that Lamezia is only a 20 minutes drive from our home in Pizzo AND it is an 2 hours only DIRECT flight from Stuttgart - and many other European cities.

However, arriving at Lamezia airport, always feels a bit funny to me. It's probably one of the smallest airports in Europe that gets international traffic. And during the peak season in July and August, there are often 3 or 4 flights arriving at the same time and all luggage is announced to be delivered on one of the two conveyor belts. As in other countries, you already get an impression of Calabria in the arrival hall.

You need patience to wait for your luggage although the plane stands a stone throw away. Be happy when it arrives and nothing is lost or forgotten. The trolleys to transport your suitcases are the oldest and most waggly, but they are for free. Remember, Calabria is said to be one of the poorest region in Europe*), but also one of the most unspoiled.

I am not sure how a tourist thinks of Calabria when arriving for the first time.

When I arrived for the first time in Calabria, it was around 15 years ago by car, after 11 hours of driving from Venice. I thought something like: all that way for this? Okay, I was tired and it was hot, it's also dry and it's a bit shabby down here.

Today, it is still like this. And still people keep clean only the inside of their houses but not the environment. Garbage and plastic bottles still litter the streets and beautiful landscape.

I still need a moment to adjust.
It is a different world down here in the deep South of Italy.

But when you let it happen, the slowing down, the charm of the past, the taste of local food, the siesta in the afternoon ... you can experience a different life style.

A fresh tomato salad with onions from Tropea, or a delicious taruffo nero in piazza helps you to adjust in no time!

However, it is prettier in spring, when flowers are blooming. It's less hot and less crowded. Locals seem more relaxed and friendlier. If you can, avoid the month of August, especially the 15th, Ferragosto, when all Italians are holidaying.

But now I am here, in the peak season, for the first time after 2 years of spring and winter visits.

Yesterday, we arrived with Air Berlin, in an airbus full of tourists. After the plane landed there was a brief and strong breaking... and then, surprise, up we went again.... over the sea and the beaches, for another round over Catanzaro, the many fields of olive trees and the Ionic coast.... The captain (a female voice) explained that the runway here is quiet short and we came in too high and therefore she decided to go for a second landing attempt. Maybe her first time in Lamezia Terme (SUF)?

----
*) update:
My father-in-law does not agree with the saying, that Calabria is one of the poorest region of Europe. He sees enough big cars driving around here. Many people tent to not pay taxes regularly like in other regions, maybe, and they do not care as much about the environment. This is probably why villages appear to be poor because they are not well taken care of. - And that some few families down here are the richest from Italy is another subject ...

Pavement and Fountain for the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:51:00 +0000

Angelo and Tonino are working out the pavement for the garden. We have some large black stones that used to be in the piazza of Pizzo years ago. But not enough... The fountain (in the back on the right) was positioned after some email discussion around the world between Angelo in Pizzo, CC in London and me in Bangkok. Since the electricians marked widely their territory along the right side of the wall to the church, we did not have many options left. But it seems the garden area works out nicely. I am looking forward to see everythingin real on Wednesday!!!

Progress in June

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:46:00 +0000

After many birthday parties and many visitors for many days in our home base in Bangkok and election days in Italy, I can finally report some further progress in our summer home.

The interior renovation work is almost completed!

While you did not see anything on this blog...

... the main kitchen was deliverd and installed

The inox hood is coming soon and will be mounted in the niche. This is the only kitchen picture I have. I am a bit scared to see all, I am afraid that the overhead cabinets (on the right) are too bulky and the island (in front)too small...

... the entrance room was coloured and illuminated

... the original walls in the basement were restored and doors delivered and mounted

The colourful glas for the doors is still missing and the parquet will be installed soon. This is the last floor where interior work needs still to be done.

... the pavement of the garden is in progress

... and the new little harbour is coming along

For those families who will spent their holidays with us this summer I have good news: Angelo has ordered matresses and they will be delivered on time! Although I do not know yet the beds that were delivered from Northern Italy, I am happy that our guests will be able to stay with us (and not have to sleep in the new boutique hotel next door) ;-)

Furniture Delivery Italian Style

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:58:00 +0000

furniture delivery in a small village requires small vehicles

I thought this worth a photo. I almost missed the moment. The antique dealer and restorer came with a friend in his old Fiat. They had fixed the piece of furniture with some robes on top of the cute vehicle. With a bigger car they would have not made it through the small alleys to our door!

Do not underestimate the impact of radiators to your interior!

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:03:00 +0000

Do not underestimate the impact of radiators to the harmony of your interior!

After a long period of great results and beautiful surprises, after smooth progressings and contenting solutions, has come a moment, unfortunately, we face some less funny facts. I am not going to file them silently under "Now I have to live with this". I am sharing them like the rest, in order to help others to avoid the same mistakes.

I know, it does not make a big difference, if you are 9,000 km away from your construction or away just for half an hour, when electricians and plumbers are at work, you better do not move from their side at all! They do what they think is most convenient for them and they do not communicate with each other, unless you are the interpretor. - Unfortunately, I have proof for it - see below:

plumber and electrician "marking" their territories on a wall in the dining area

Nothing is symmetric on this wall! - The good thing, I am saving money, because we will not buy the chest that was supposed to be at this wall to squeeze it inbetween these radiators.

kids room wall space wasted

And with the electrician already generously positioning their switches and pluggs far from the edge of the wall, the plumber had to go even further into the room. - A nice wall of over three meters, just gone! Where do I place now a wardrobe or a guest bed, please?! - My porposal: to order a new and higher radiatore that has 4 columns and ends in line with the switch. We might save 50% of its length. (Also not enough for furniture. I think we choose the wrong place for the radiator in this room, it should have been between door and window, as this wall is difficult to use.)

symmetry ?

This heater is 5 rows too long !

To compare: a good sample

In order to match the wall size the radiator above was ordered with 4 columns instead only 3 and it is also higher (until switch) than all the others.

But now to our even more special cases in the bathrooms:

squeezed too near the door and too high!

Angelo sent me a 2nd picture from a different angel - there is not mucht to do, although I do not understand why the space between radiator and tiles must be bigger than to the door.

oups !

These pictures do really hurt!

Angelo defends all radiator placements (he claims we have choosen them and have seen the red crosses on the walls for the positioning), however, with this one he agrees to distroy his spatulato wall to correct the position. But we made a compromise: he is not moving it further right, but just further down so it is at least in line with the finish line of the tiles of the shower. - Later, I will buy 2-3 hooks for towels, and fix them between radiator and shower, so I do not need a 2 meter arm to catch a towel.

Now I have to live with this... (tubes are installed behind the wall and wall is tiled)

How could this all happen?

When we were "positioning" the radiators for our house we went through all rooms with the plumber and he had a red spray can in his hand. At that time the house was in bare shell state. I think, I had in mind how doors would open and maybe also our indoor window shutters, probably possible furniture placing as well. At that time, it was said, that the radiators are included in the plumber's "package". Of course we checked what kind of models we would get and if an "upgrade" would be necessary. My husband choose some normal okay looking radiators from the catalogue and the plumber apparently agreed on our choice. Anyway, everything seemed to run smootlhly.

Of course, the plumber would calculate the size of the radiator necessary to heat each room appropriately.

Attention: here was our mistake! Don't copy that!

Did the plumber exagerated with the heaters size? Yes, in the bathrooms, we should have discussed and determined the size before. For under windows or in niches a more exact size should have been choosen.

In other cases, especially in the kids room and dinig area our mistake was to choose "slim" radiators. Only 3 "columns" deep. So, in order to have the same heating power the radiator has to be 40% longer than a radiator with 4 columns. Someone should have consulted us about the impact of the choice of radiators.

Maybe it has also happened because during the last 13 years we had not to deal with this kind of radiators. Over half of the time we lived in Asia with built-in ceiling airconditioning - and the rest in Germany with an overhead radiation heating. It is not common at all in Germany, but in Swiss terrace condominums. Although the ceiling heating has some disadvantages, I really really enjoyed the radiator free walls very very much !!!

The Living Room is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Thu, 26 May 2011 01:15:00 +0000

living area flooring done

The installation of the parquet (natural oak) is done for the piano terra (ground floor). Angelo handled it all by himself, day by day. Last night he sent me the picture with sofas without legs.

I just replied that the wooden flooring looks fantastic. Sofas look a bit bulky for our small living area ;-) and not too bad without legs. But legs can be found in the white Santa Fe tool box in the yellow guest room. It is coming along!

A Bathroom Vision in Blue

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Tue, 24 May 2011 07:46:00 +0000

A dream of a bathroom! How colours can change the atmosphere! Actually it is not just painted blue walls, it is spatulato, a Venetian technique for making painted walls shine like marble.

a vision in blue

blue and pearl grey wall colour harmonizes two different pattern of Vietri tiles on wall and floor

the lighter blue of the ceiling matches one hue of the wall tiles

the wall paint reduces the strong contrast (see before here and here)

stucco borders frame the painted areas

view from above (while painting the ceiling)

beautiful perspective of a blue bathroom dream

A "specialist worker" waxing the surface of spatolato finish in order to obtain a surface similar to polished marble.

Bath room with spectacular sea view

I wish I could be there! I have not seen it in reality yet. I only have these photos for now and have to wait for summer.

What a dream in blue!

Grazie Angelo!! You are becoming the new Michelangelo with this project! Thank you for choosing the right blue and for spending so much time on the spatulato technique.

Small Vietri tiles for small Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (- Suzie -) — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:50:00 +0000

San Pietro 10 cm x 10 cm Vietri tiles by Francesco de Maio

This will be our small kitchen in the seminterrato. It is the one for the guests, in case they want to cook for themselves.... or when we rent out this entire floor as our guest residence.

There will be red kitchen. Something allegro. Red is a happy colour for a stone vaulted cellar. So next step is choosing tiles. We were looking at some bold Vietri tiles with red flower ornaments, there were some with quiet modern designs from the latest collection. But these tiles (20x20cm) were too big for this small area and also their red tone might not match the red tone of the kitchen, we thought.

Somehow tired after having choosen seven different pattern of tiles for the main kitchen, we were easlily caught, when our "personal" sales consultant of our frequently visited sanitary shop, presented us "San Pietro". A tiny geometrical pattern of something red and green on a 10x10 cm tile. Totally different from all these big designs we just ordered. Kind of boring, but also cute and tricky, a bit 70ies?

seminterrato kitchen walls are now tiled

The installation of these tiles were done in a couple of hours. There was only one email exchange necessary between Angelo and me to check wheather I am ok with an extra column of "San Pietro" on each side since we had enough excess tiles. - Oh, yes, and one extra trip to the sanitary shop was necessary too - to buy more of the white tiles, since I miscalculated the correct amount (for two kitchens).

Now, waiting for kitchen delivery...