Expensive panino

Tusa Sicily - British tourist overcharged for simple sandwiches.

About a week ago a British tourist was visiting the small village of Tusa, population of 3,200, which is on the island of Sicily along the northern coast. For three sandwiches and drinks the bill came to 43 euros, listing the sandwiches at 10 euros each. The bar did not have posted a price list, which they are SUPPOSED to have posted and visible by the public. In my area, sandwiches on average are max 5 euros, give or take a few euro cents.

The mayor of Tusa has apologized to the tourists on behalf of the city.

If you do come to Italy to visit and go out to each, make sure you check your bill before you pay. Mistakes can and do happen. But also unfortunately there are a few bad apples in every bunch. But also to make sure that you are not taken advantage of. Bars and restaurants here are supposed to have posted in a visible place their price lists.

Story from www.ansa.it

Housesitting

We've been housesitting for about a week and half now for my husband's parents. They'll be back on Saturday, thankfully. They are at the moment in Rimini at the seaside. EVERY year we have the "honor" of taking care of the in-law's place and thankfully they live only a couple of miles from our place so if we ever need anything from our apartment it is not a problem. This year is a bit different compared to years gone by. First my in-law's are only gone two weeks instead of the usual three. Second, their beloved family dog passed away in January, so no dog to take care of.

I haven't posted anything recently due to doing not a whole heck of a lot while housesitting plus having a lousy internet connection. Today is the first time the internet connection has been somewhat decent. Then again, consider at the moment I'm using a laptop in my in-law's 2nd floor apartment and the wifi connection is down in my husband's basement office. I'm just thankful to have an internet connection.

For those of you who are searching for "Bellinzona Italy", hate to burst your bubble but Bellinzona is in SWITZERLAND not Italy. Bellinzona is in the Italian part of Switzerland in the Canton of Ticino. Nice little town, we've been there a few times and probably more in the future to watch the local football/soccer team, AC Bellinzona, play.

August is over half way finished already, where as the time gone? For many Italians this is their last week of vacation and back to work next week. I've had the last week and a half off due to all of my students being on vacation. Tomorrow I start back to teaching. This week a whole three lessons, then next week more. As usual, I have lost a couple of students along the way, which is pretty normal with private students. Plus I have also decided to up my rates for new students from 15 euros to 20 euros an hour. This is the first time I've increased my rate since I started teaching English five years ago. Prices have gone up on everything, including paper, ink for my printer/photocopier. I have to earn a living somehow. If you are IN Italy or another country teaching English and looking for advice, you are more than welcome to ask advice. If you are looking to MOVE here to teach English, especially if you are coming from outside the European Union, it is not so easy.

U Comment I Follow

You may have noticed I've added a "U Comment I Follow" badge on the right side of my blog. You may have seen this also on other blogs and are wondering what the heck this is. Randa Clay has a great article about this. In a nutshell, many blog platforms are set up so that a piece of code is inserted where there is a link in a comment. Then search engines will not acknowledge that link while they are crawling the internet. What does that mean for you? Less link love. What can you do to remove such code from your blog? Then check this great article out.

I have removed the nofollow from my blog template so when you leave a comment with a link back to your blog, that your link will get some love. Are you the next fellow blogger to join in on and removing the nofollow from your blog?

Santuario Sacro Monte di San Carlo

About three weeks ago we spent an afternoon along Lake Maggiore in the region of Piedmont. We went for a picnic then it started to cloud over a bit so we decided to hit up the closest village near Arona. This little "village" has a statue in honor of San Carlo. This statue of San Carlo is one of the tallest statues in the world, after the Statue of Liberty. It is possible to go up to at least the base of the statue of San Carlo. I have heard at one point in time it was possible to climb inside up until his head but do no know if it is still possible.