On arriving, learn the value of networking and be thankful for other ex-pats living in your new home torn. At first, foreigners’ clubs or informal groups of your compatriots meet help you settle in and get over your home-sickness, especially during the early period when you don’t speak the foreign language or have trouble in fathoming some of the ways of your new home. You not only find friends who think like you do without you needing to explain yourself but they are also an endless source of useful information.

Try to make friends not only with people that speak your language but, above all, with the locals. After all, it’s their country and, in some ways, you are their ‘guests’. It’s amazing how much you can learn from them that no guidebook will ever teach you and, once you know them, how kind they can so often be.

Go to school, if necessary, to learn the basics of the language of the place where you are now living. It’s impossible to understand another culture without understanding the rudiments of its language. It can be hard but it’s well worth it. And don’t be shy about trying to speak it, we all make mistakes, but language is about making ourselves ‘understood’ even if the verb, noun or adjective we use, at first, isn’t quite the right right.

Don’t be upset is you find you are sometimes mixing English and words from your new language into a kind of “pigeon” English. It means you are starting to absorb the culture that now surrounds you.

Don’t worry if you start putting on a little weight initially. Moving to many foreign countries means you find a delightful new array of foods and wines to savour and enjoy. Go for it.

Learn all about the area of the new city you live in. I, for example, have come to love Santa Croce in Florence, my “quartiere”, where I know the merchants and the artisans, many by their first names. It makes you feel so much more ‘at home’.

Learn to shop properly. I took lessons from an expert, my Italian neighbour. I no longer buy anything without it passing The Test. For example, I no longer take any attitude from shop-assistants. It is, after all, MY money I am spending. Once I choose a dress, I only buy it after I have inspected it meticulously by turning it inside out to examine the material, by looking at the stitching, by pulling on the seams and by taking it out into the daylight to make sure the colour is right. The same goes for accessories.

Don’t be shy about bargaining in the shops or at the market. In some places, it is expected and is almost like a game. In others, you will soon understand the rules by simply watching others.

Acquire patience. Here in Italy and often elsewhere on the Continent, I always take a book with me every time I go to a public office, the bank or the post office. It’s where I get some of my best reading done.

Take time and always keep your eyes open. In Florence, for example, I still feel the magic of those unexpected and hidden corners of the city you sometimes see by chance, even places I may have passed hundreds of times and never really looked at. Now I take time and find they still surprise and fascinate me.

Instead Palazzo Vecchio offers two floors as well as a mezzanine floor filled with remarkable paintings and sculptures by Michelangelo, Donatello and many others as well as the lavishly furnished private rooms where Medici family members lived and worked like the beautiful Chapel of Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I with its paintings by Agnolo Bronzino or the fascinating Map Room with its painted panels representing the world as it was known in the sixteenth century.

A little less famous but holding a mystery all of its own, try not to miss the Chamber of Hercules on the second floor. You will find representations of Hercules, one of the most famous heroes of ancient mythology are strongly present throughout Palazzo Vecchio as the Medicis, in their quest for power, identified with his courage and endeavours to overcome all the adversities in his way. However, in this Chamber dedicated to him, you will not only see the ceiling decorated with frescoes of his twelve labours but also a famous nativity painting of a Madonna and Child. This painting is popularly known as the ‘Madonna of the Ufo’ or the ‘Madonna of the Flying Saucer’. Painted in 1450 by Jacopo del Sellaio, the picture shows, in the centre, the Madonna in adoration of the baby Jesus who is propped up by the infant, St John the Baptist. Far in the background of the picture, behind the Madonna, on the left, there is a shepherd with a barking dog at his feet. The shepherd is looking and pointing upwards into the sky at what appears to be an oval-shaped flying object.

According to the American UFO Research Coalition, this painting is one of the oldest documents testifying the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial beings. Others do not agree. For example,  after considerable research, the art historian, Diego Cuoghi, who is also a member of Cicap (Comitato Italiano per il Controllo delle Affermazioni sul Paranorma – Italian Committee for Investigation of Claims on the Paranormal) has concluded that the object in question is simply a comet of the Nativity star.

How much more fun it will be for you to make up your own mind.

This is not Florence’s first tramway system. In fact, on April 5, 1879 the first horse-drawn tramway between Florence and Peretola was inaugurated. A year later it traveled as far as Prato and Poggio a Caiano. However, by 1926, the system had become obsolete and dilapidated and opened the way for the first buses to appear on the city’s streets. Its tribulations were multiplied when the company managing it went bankrupt and then when the tram lines were badly damaged during World War II. Although the lines were soon fully repaired, by 1958, the writing was on the wall and the old tramway ceased to exist.

Today, two other tram lines are projected, one linking Piazza Libertà in town to the Florence Airport at Perotola and another which will run from the Fortezza, near the main station to Careggi, Tuscany’s largest hospital complex. Whilst dogged by protests from critics who have managed, on cultural heritage grounds, to stop an earlier plan for the tram to run around the Cathedral,  perhaps a short ride on the elegant and very quiet Sirio may, at least, serve to placate some fears for the future.

The condom is the most popular form of anti-contraception and they are usually bought in pharmacies or supermarkets. With safety firmly in mind, of those who habitually used condoms, 42% said they always carried them with them and 60% stated they would not have sex without them. For those few bold enough to buy sex toys, they opted for the anonymity of the web, automatic distributors and sex shops for their purchases.

Despite this rather unimaginative picture of what goes on between the sheets in Italy, a grandiose 88% of those surveyed said they were happy with their sex lives and a little over half of them confessed they were sexually active and had sex more or less every day or at least 2 or 3 times a week.

So perhaps the situation isn’t all that bleak after all, maybe just a little boring.

‘It must be the malocchio (evil eye) because, since I moved into my new office six months ago, two of my employees have broken bones and now I’ve finished up like this!’.

I began thinking about it. Was this only foolish superstition or what if there was some truth in it? Can you even provoke disaster by simply thinking that some kind of curse on you or a building or a thing is true? Whatever should she do to remedy the situation – real or imagined -  to make sure that any of the rest of her staff do not finish up in plaster?

The popular tradition is for Italians to resort to amulets to protect themselves from any evil spirits that may be lurking around. The most popular and strongest is, of course, the red cornetto or corno (horn), a very ancient talisman to encourage fertility and, therefore, good luck. In fact, it is not an unusual gift, made in gold or coral, to give to newborn babies and many drivers, especially in Southern Italy, have one appended to their car keys.

But what if wearing a horn around their necks or having them scattered about the office is not enough to protect Suzy and her personnel? In that case, there is only one solution – exorcism. To my surprise, I discovered that more than 180 exorcists in Italy  belong to the Association of Italian Exorcists which was founded in 1990 by a Roman priest and exorcist, Don Gabriele Amorth. Furthermore, since 2004, the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum, the Vatican University,  in Rome has also held annual theoretical and practical courses on exorcism for priests. So help is certainly at hand for Suzy.

In the meantime, I’ll just give my horn a tiny rub and keep my fingers crossed.

Happy New Year…

After discussing my planned menu, we got down to business beginning with the aperitif. What better way to start, according to Rachel, than with a glass of Bellavista’s Curve Brut. A Franciacorta wine, it is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Nero and Pinot Binco. In the mid 1980s, a construction magnate, Vittorio Moretti created his Bellavista wines, making them a real success story of  Franciacorta wines.

Having set the festive mood, it’s time to sit down at the table and for me to serve our ‘primo piatto’ (appetiser). Here, the candidate wine is a white, a Cerraro della Sala from Castello della Sala in Umbria. A combination of Chardonnay and Grechetto, a local grape, this Antinori wine maintains the buttery notes of oaky Chardonnay but with a unique freshness and intensity. It truly, at least to me, caresses you palate.

Then to the ’secondo’ (main course), it’s time to move onto red wine. Firstly, in honour of Tuscany, a velvety smooth Chianti Classico Reserva called A-101 from the Principe Corsini vineyards. Then to Puglia, in Rachel’s opinion the up and coming area for fine wine production in Italy, for a bottle or two of Bocca di Lupo from the Tormanesca cellars. It is 90% Aglianico, another local grape and 10% Cabernet-Sauvignon, well-rounded and savoury.

Now, if any of us are still able to lift a fork, I have to bring on the  dessert with ‘panettone’ (Christmas cake), ‘torrone’ (nougat), nuts, dried fruits and chocolates. This time the choice is Ben Ryé Passito di Pantelleria of  Donnafugata. Made 100% of Zibibbo or Muscat of Alexandria grapes, this is definitely  a dessert wine but it is neither cloying nor sticky. Instead, the grapes capture the Sicilian sun and the hot winds blowing in from North Africa and translate them into a perfumed golden nectar, difficult to forget and impossible to substitute.

Happy holidays and chin  chin……

As the song goes, it used to be ‘my two front teeth’ but my how things have changed! It seems in Italy that teenage girls over the last few years have increasingly wanted and obtained a gift voucher for breast implants under their Christmas trees. Today, over 5% of operations involving plastic surgery in Italy are performed on teenage girls under 18 years old. But, the government has decided to put a stop to it because of health risks involved in surgery when the mammary gland isn’t, as yet, fully developed.

The Italian Council of Ministers has approved a Bill setting up a Register of Breast Implants and it has outlawed breast implants for girls under 18 years old unless there are valid medical reasons. The Minister for Youth, Giorgia Meloni said that this ban was necessary  ‘to put a brake on the danger represented by the influence of the wrong aesthetic models on those who, very often, are not yet able to make a properly pondered choice’.

Not surprising, many teenage girls (and boys for that matter) feel unsatisfied with their bodies and suffer low self esteem because of it. This is just one of the many painful aspects of growing up. Being bombarded every day with images of pencil thin but procacious actors, models and celebrities on TV, in movies or in magazines doesn’t help but research has shown that a teenager’s idea of body image improves with maturity with or without the intervention of the surgeon’s knife.

Less  known is that breast augmentation can  cause difficulties after surgery and  the American FDA has estimated that 40% of patients have at least one serious complication within three years after getting saline implants. Furthermore, if the teenager changes her mind later and wants to have the implants removed, in all probability her breasts will look saggy and wrinkled, creating yet another problem.

This year, however, in Italian teenagers’ homes, Santa has no alternative other than to use his  good sense……

In fact, from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 December 2009, golf balls will be flying off the oldest bridge in Florence during the Tenth Annual Ponte Vecchio Golf Challenge. The Arno River will be converted into a golf course with three greens floating on the water. Landing your golf balls on any of them is more like a miracle than a challenge. But there to show us how it can be done are the champions invited to tee off this year. They include Jerome Theunis (Belgium), Gaurav Ghei (India), Benn Barham (England), Diana Luna (Italy), Jan-Are Larsen (Norway), Rolf Muntz (Netherlands), David Lynn (United Kingdom) and Robert Karlsson (Sweden). Entertainers and and sports stars will also be there to give it a whack.

The beautiful and recently restored 19th century station, Stazione Leopolda, will house the Sponsor Village where, in the area dedicated to the Federazione Italiana Golf, there will be an indoor golf hole, surrounded by trees and sand. There will also be a putting green. Added to this, a series of side events will enable  participants and visitors to enjoy gastronomic tours, museums and exhibitions, wine tasting and walking and bicycle tours in Florence and the surrounding countryside.

If you can’t make it this year, put it in your golfing calendar for 2010. It’ sure will give you a golf story that’s hard to cap.

Sadly, some of the landscape of the Casentino has not been protected with the same rigour as the Chianti landscape and has, because of the economic necessities of providing work for those living in the area, been marred in places by the unsympathetic insertion of light industries. Nonetheless, it is still dotted with romantic villages and Romanesque churches and is seeped in history.

One of my favourite villages is Poppi, situated not far from the site of the famous battle of Campaldino between the Guelfi and the Ghibellini in 1289. It lies in the shadow of the medieval Castle of the Guidi Counts, a sort of Lego-size prototype of Palazzo Vecchio, which has a dominating view of the surrounding scenery and the Arno river which flows beneath it.

Not too far away, the extensive and beautiful National Park of the Casentinesi Forest is a walkers’ paradise. It is also where the peaceful monasteries of Camaldoli, founded in 1012, and La Verna where St. Francis spent the last years of his life can be found. The antique pharmacy and galenic laboratory within the Camaldoli monastery, dates from 1513, and still sells some of its wares.

Try not to miss other towns like Stia and Bibbiena both renowned for their artisans and for their good food.

Situated in Piazza Ghiberti, the Sant’Ambrogio Market is open every morning except on Sundays and holidays. In the external part of the market, under the roof extension, stalls sell fruit, vegetables and other food stuffs as well as flowers, clothes (also second-hand clothes), shoes, bags, costume jewellery and some bic a brac at very competitive prices. Inside of the building, there are mainly other food stalls and places to eat or get a quick drink.

At the end of a mornings shopping, I suggest one of three inexpensive places where you can get a bite to eat – each and every one of them a Santa Croce experience. Within the Market itself, there is Rocco’s Tavola Calda. You can either eat there, although not on particularly comfortable benches, or you can take away. It is cheap and cheery and the comings and goings of the market around you provide great entertainment value.

Secondly, in via dei Macci, right in front of one of Florence’s swankiest restaurants, you will find the stand of the trippaio Sergio Pollini and his son, Pierpaolo. Tripe sellers are part of Florentine tradition and they have been selling tripe here for well over a century and cannot be found in other Italian cities. They specialise in tripe and lampredotto rolls, all washed down with a large glass of Chianti wine.

But should tripe or lampredotto not be to your liking, then turn the corner into via Pietrapiana where you will find the Rosticceria La Ghiotta. Once past the take-away food part at the entrance, make your way to the tables at the back. Although all of owner Andrea Ladisa’s food is hearty, I suggest the made-to-your-order dishes from the menu rather than those prepared beforehand ready to be taken away. Having time, it’s worth the short wait. His pizzas in the evening are also very good although the noise level of a room full of Italians all talking at once can be a bit of a cultural shock.

Enjoy…..