A weekend in Italy talking about conservation among olives trees..

WHAT A WEEKEND... 1-3 October 2004.

Thursday saw the first arrivals; Kevin from Australia (currently from Belfast ) and Mariolina from London (originally from Valdobbiabene, a small Italian village in the north and the same place that Lory comes from!).

On Friday at 17.00 at Ciampino airport, Kate and Ray arrived from the UK , followed a few hours later by one big group - Lesley, John, Mel, Mark, Lisa, Kate, Monica, Heather and Sarah all in one go!

Emotions ran high upon seeing them all at the airport!

YES we are here..in Italy! friday 2 October 2004.
 

We all went to Castello Santa Margherita (from the moment it was seen, it was referred to as the 'castle'), in the village of Cori, where three apartments were rented for the occasion...for the following ten minutes the group was ecstatic; nothing but wow "che bello" could be heard!

On Saturday morning we drove to Sermoneta village to visit a castle (a real one this time!).

It took about one hour to get there and keep the convoy of four cars all driving in the right direction...then we had lunch in the village.

At 14.00, the group was sitting in the sun on the beach at Latina Lido, astonished by the wonderful weather.Ray, Lisa, and Gigio swam in the sea...crazy people!

Just before we left the beach we stumbled across a problem..a bag (belonging to Lesley) had been stolen from one of the cars.she lost her credit card and mobile phone and we spent the next four hours trying to call both the bank and telephone company in the UK and report the incident to the police.

We never actually got round to reporting it to the police because when we arrived at the police station (late on Saturday afternoon) it was closed!

At 20.30 we were all sitting in Baracca Pizzeria in Giulianello village; the group had become twenty people since Maura, Laura, Monica and Gigio had arrived from North Italy. We ate a LOT of pizza - with all different kinds of toppings including vegetarian options; drank a fair amount of wine and beer; and then finished off with local biscuits, coffee, LIMONCELLO and grappa! Yum yum!

Although we had had quite a lot to drink (well, at least I had!) we all went to the castle. Where some of the group had bought something like thirty, maybe more, litres of wine - can you believe it??!!

I can't! The next morning, most of the bottles were empty and people were wondering around with vague expressions on their faces.

A traditional Italian breakfast, consisting of cappuccino and croissants, in a piazza in the sunshine sorted hangovers out for a few!

OCHINA!

At 10.30 they were all ready, READY to sit down, listen and participate in the Naucrates Annual Meeting (the real purpose of the weekend, of course!). Mariachiara and Valentina (from Roma) arrived together with Edo, Anne and family (from Switzerland ) and Gianni and Marcantonio (from Roma); there were 25 of us in total.

The meeting (I hope!) was not too long, but enough to illustrate what has been done over three years of activities and to discuss future plans.At 13.00 we had lunch in an organic farm (where they produce organic wine and olive oil). It was all healthy local food and tasted great!Then, people start driving back to airport.A SHORT BUT Intense weekend....Be ready for the next one!!!Thank you all for coming and staying with us,

Monica, Claudio and Maura (Naucrates member board)

The sun was hot as the old fellow sat and listened to the various conversations going on among the young faces around the table. Some were faces he knew others were new but all were young and enthusiastic volunteers. The conversations varied from politics, religion and the gay community. The clear sky was filled with the glow from a million stars.

The voices became slurred and the stars blurred as the wine began to flow. He became confused as he looked for the turtle tracks among the olive trees. It then became clear it was not Phra Thong some one had stolen the sea and placed all these rejects in Italy.

Love, Ray Shepherd (thank you Ray!)