This is more like it

A day of warm sunshine and some down time. We were awoken as usual by chiming dogs and barking church bells (two sets, the second of which always, when it remembers, sounds 4 to 5 minutes after the other). We spent most of the day lazing around on the balcony and seemed to have slipped in to the habit of late meals and inactivity which have characterised many of our holidays in the past. I guess it's called 'relaxation'.

Today has been one of almost unbroken sunshine and also started very promisingly with a half decent coffee. We failed until now using the provided percolaters (this seems to be a cafetiere freezone) and therefore purchased a new one yesterday. So, all is well in the World again.

This has been the warmest day so far and we're hoping that the weather is starting to become more settled. Time will tell but the forecast has improved. It's brought out the lizards (actually, lizard) and the cicadas have been more vocal (noisy at any rate). We've had a few birds of prey and a Chinook helicopter circling above us. The birds of prey on the thermals and the Chinook with the assistance of kerosene (or whatever fuel they use lots of).

The water melon is still going strong. It cost a little over one Euro and we're not even halfway through it. A chilled Peroni around midday was a rare break from the slothfulness, which provided an opportunity to read some more of William Horwood's (him of Duncton Wood and Skalligrigg fame) semi autobiography. He had a terrible childhood but it's a bloody good read and should be on the list of anyone working with neglected children and young people (Helen).

Later in the day, we did head off along a small part of the Canterbury to Rome pilgrimage trail (no, really) to Lago Viverone, which took about 50 minutes. We passed an assortment of fields and vineyards growing a range of edibles from corn and grapes to kiwi and plums.

Lake Viverone is a happening place (relatively) with all kind of watersports and a decent selection of restaurants, which needless to say had to be sampled. And so we opted for Pescheria Carolina, which served fried anchovies, calimari and baby squid with fries and also had cold Morretti birra on offer. And then the two and a bit mile return walk as the sun started to set behind the mountains.

Top (and unrelated) tip: the standard continental power adaptor does not work quite so well in Italy where the newer sockets seem to have three pins. I'm assuming they've taken a lead from the UK, its more developed European cousin. This must be a general issue here because you can buy (and we have) 2 to 3 pins convertors which means we have UK 3 pins plugs plugged in to 2 pin adapters which themselves are then plugged in to the Italian 3 pins adapters.