Beachboy

The pasta hasn't affected my beautiful figure.

Food

Italians love their food. Meal times take a long time, not because they're so relaxed about it, but because there is so much food to get through!

Taking the saint for a walk

Every day is devoted to a different saint in Italy. And as most people are named after a saint it's like a second birthday. Different villages celebrate different saints days across the year, so the public holidays and celebrations seem quite random. You can go to a town for something only to find everything closed and everyone following behind the model of their saint while the brassband plays.

Village fountain

Most people still take their drinking water from the fountain. It might not look appetising from this picture but it tastes fresh.

Perdifumo

An update on life in Perdifumo. We're living in the village now. It was cold and empty in winter but now there's life to the place. The holiday houses are filling up with their Milanese owners. Germans can be heard occasionally. The village has two small cafes, a few shops and two restaurants. Everyone knows everybody else and their business. There are few secrets it seems. Maria's father has leukemia, which has been pretty rough. He's coping well with the chemotherapy now.

Hanne Boel

The lovely Danish songstress Hanne Boel has a beautiful house here in the Cilento and we went round for some Danish beer last night. She gave me some advice on songwriting for other people and being a topliner - a term I'd never heard before, refering to the top two lines on sheet music, and means writing the melody and lyric on top of someone else's track. I'll try and get on some songwriting retreats or collaborate with other people. There aren't many in the Cilento so will have to try the good old internet.