Ponyadi in Alviano

The day after we had come home from Sperlonga it was time to drive to Alviano in Umbria where Sofia had a 4-day pony show jumping event called Ponyadi where there were ponies from all over Italy. Sofia stayed in an apartment at the riding stables, which was very good, so she could take care of the ponies together with the other riders. Me and Carlotta booked a bit late and didn't find anything at a reasonable prize closer than 20 km from the stables. Well, it was ok anyway and the place was nice. It was a farm house called Il Casanova, where they had a swimming pool and it was also possible to have dinner there. We had dinner there twice when we were too tired to go somewhere after having spent all day at the competitions. The food was delicious. The first evening we got pasta with truffles, which is typical in this area. Very good. They had a fixed menu for all the guests with bruschette and pieces of pizza to start with, then pasta and a meat course with salad. The dessert was always tiramisu. In the morning we were served a very simple breakfast - bread and jam and a piece of sponge cake.

 

The day we arrived it was so warm that we went straight to the swimming pool. It was in the middle of the countryside with a beautiful view. We were the only guests using it, so it was very relaxing. The other days the weather changed and got much cooler and rainier, so we didn't go to the swimming pool anymore.

On Friday Sofia didn't have any competitions. I needed to get shoes for Carlotta as it was raining so much and we didn't have suitable shoes for her. I asked the farm owner where to find a shoe shop and he explained me the way to a village nearby. We found a pair of sneakers that were on sale at just 5 euros, not bad!

In the afternoon we went to Bomarzo where I wanted to see the monster park. Sofia wasn't interested, so I went there with Carlotta. As we got there and had payed the entrance fee it started raining so much that you got soaked even with the umbrella. We waited inside and fortunately it stopped after a while so we could visit the park. It was really nice to see. There were big stone sculptures and statues of monsters and mythical creatures here and there and Carlotta loved it. The most famous sculpture is the giant screaming mouth, the "Hell mask". You can go inside the mouth and it echoes when you speak there. Inside the mouth there's a picnic table. There's also a leaning house inside the park and you can go inside it. The park was built in the 16th century when prince Orsini commissioned it for his wife. This is something I have wanted to see for a long time and it really was worth the visit.

Sofia's riding competition started very well and she was third after the first day. Unfortunately she fell off at the last competition, but in the end she was 13th out of 47 pony riders from different parts of Italy. She and Topaz were chosen to represent the Lazio team together with 6 other equipages.

Lovely Sperlonga

Few things cheer me up like horse riding and travelling. Even a small getaway is very therapeutic for me and I felt I really needed it before the schools were starting here on the 15th of September. So I did a last minute search in the internet and booked two nights in a bungalow at a camping site near Sperlonga, which is on the seaside about 100 km from our house. The only one in the family who was sure to come with me was Carlotta. Daniele and Sofia want to come only if they have friends and my husband doesn't like to come unless he has a marathon, so I left the choice to them. I took a bigger bungalow as the price was the same as for a smaller one, so there were enough sleeping places if someone chose to come with us.

Well, at the very last minute a friend of mine, whose girls are Carlotta's and Sofia's riding friends, was very tempted to join us, but had some problems to organize her work at the last moment. So in the end I offered to take the girls with me and their mother would join us if she managed to organize everything. Sofia and Francesca had a show jumping competition on Saturday and after that off we went with our bathing suits and few other things as the weather forecast was very good.

 

We arrived to the campsite in the evening. Fortunately the restaurant still was open so we could have a pizza before going to bed. I had booked a bungalow near the sea, but it was a surprice for us that it was just in front of the beach. Lovely! It was really the best location in the whole campsite, because also the beach was sandy and nice just in front of our bungalow, while it was a bit stony further away. Inside the bungalow was fine with two small bedrooms and a double sofa bed in the living room.

In the morning I took a swim in the clear and calm water. In the afternoon there was a bit more wind. We spent the whole next day in the campsite at the beach, the girls played minigolf and in the evening we enjoyed the lovely sunset on the beach. I took loads of photos, of course. My friend Laura managed to get there in the afternoon. In the evening we had a nice meal at the patio in front of our bungalow.

Next morning I went for a small jog at the campsite and afterwards a lovely swim. Then we went to see the nice village of Sperlonga and then slowly returned to Rome. We stopped to see another campsite on our way home and had lunch there enjoying the sea view. A part from some quarrelling between the sisters, it all was very relaxing. If we didn't have to go to Umbria to the Ponyadi (a big show jumping event for the ponies) next day, we could have spent another day at the beach, but even this way it really was worth it. So happy I decided to do this!

Back to Rome and a bit of sadness

It's always a bit difficult to come back here to Italy after one and a half month in Finland. Now that my children are growing it gets even more difficult. Daniele and Sofia had already been back here for 10 days and were happily out with friends and didn't care too much about us coming back from Finland. I think that was the fact that made me most sad, noticing that nobody really cared. Maybe I would have expected my husband to gather everyone and have a pizza evening out or something to make us feel a bit welcome, but nope. I should have learnt by now that I shouldn't expect anything from anyone, just pretend, that's the only way! Instead I found a dirty and dusty house that no one had been cleaning very often in the whole summer, the bed linen and the towels hadn't been changed and the garden looked sad with almost all flowers dried and the grass ugly. It seemed that everyone had been waiting for me to do all the things. Carlotta was sad because the swing had been taken away (it was broken, but you could use it, if you were careful not to go too fast).

I feel I really should do something about the house and the garden to make it more pleasing to my eyes. As my mother-in-law passed away last autumn, we have been emptying her flat and lots of her things are now in our house. Our house isn't so big and all the things I had chosen because I found them pretty have disappeared under all other things that I haven't chosen to have in my home. I think the first thing would be to get rid of everything that we don't need, but it feels like a huge project.

Anyway I think the best thing for me is to try to find beautiful things here as I did in Finland, take my camera and go out and do and see things with or without the rest of the family. My teenagers wont be coming with me so much anymore, my husband's thoughts and energy are absorbed by his marathons, so I have to do things I like to do, like go horse riding, meet friends and do things that make me feel good. And of course try to be a bit healthy because that also makes you feel better.