I’m not really still in Italy…but I was just there a few days ago!
Ciao from Italy
Abano Terme, Montegrotto, Padova
Arrived in Venice after circling in the air for about an hour waiting for the thunderstorm to pass.
Sitting at the hotel admiring the globe lights illuminating the darkness and drinking the very unItalian Earl Gray tea – with lemon – meditating on the sculptured perfection of the Hotel Venezia’s (Abano Terme) front lawn accented with colourful small flowers in little quartered circles…Yes, we’re definitely back in Italy.
The next day was fabbo, bright and sunny. A wonderful surprise since the BBC weather predicted rain for the whole week-end.
What to do with myself whilst Hubby was working? The kind concierge looked up the weather on the internet, and we saw sunny and cloudy today – high possibility of rain tomorrow. Ok, it’s a no-brainer! Montegrotto & The Butterfly House today, and Padova with my favourite pizza place and lots of shops, cafes to nip into should it start to pour – tomorrow.
The butterfly house, officially called the Butterfly Arc, is totally WOW! I have never seen anything like it. It’s really hot and humid for the sake of the butterflies, but SO well worth a small bit of discomfort. Can’t even describe the wide variety of butterflies found there..So, piccie time!
This butterfly is this beauiful blue colour on the inside..AND...
Brown on the outside!
Amazing floral life there as well…
Chameleon and dragon lizards, and tortoises too…
…and more butterflies
Spent a not unconsiderable period of time trying to catch a snap of a butterfly in flight! Ha! Got it!
and there were…wait for it….bunnies…
…Then there was the Fairy Wood on the grounds of the Butterfly House…
The Fairy queen
and her mate and myself [fresh from the humid butterfly rooms]!
Wow again. Magic! You can even sit on the fairy queen’s throne and imagine yourself queen (or king) of the fairies.
There were many school groups at the centre that day enjoying a chance to be queen or king; so, as soon as the children were gone, I quickly nipped over to the throne and had a sit down myself! That was so cool!
There was also a big Slow Cooking fest on in Abano Terme, but unfortunately, it was strictly for the trade – not regular peeps. Boo hoo! Comforted myself with a nice cappu at one of my favourite little cafes in Abano Terme – Peccati di Gola. I think a lot of local peeps go there, so it’s got to be good!
Padova rocks! I really like the city (and university town) and believe it’s well worth a visit. But since I’ve spent this blog rabbiting on about the Butterfly Arc, I’ll save Padova for another day to cover it properly!
As we have frequent chances to go to Italy. I’m thinking it would be brilliant to have some VoiceOver representation there. I’m open to suggestions!
App of the Week
Hot Body Yoga
Keeping with the last blog’s Yoga theme…I found another iPod app with Yoga exercises using weights. There are many routines in this app for various goals, such as recovering from injuries, stretch, strengthen, etc.
One of the intermediate routines uses dumbbells. I’ll have to work my way up to that one, but I’m looking forward to it. The programme is aimed at women, but I think women or men could try it.
Voiceover News
Continuing with announcements for radio stations…just did a Mexican character for an animation vid…and auditioning like mad!
Cheers…
