FROM SUMMERY BEACH DAYS TO SCARY RAINSTORM

We're Nikki and Carlo and we live in Positano, Italy, except we also just bought a house in Tuscany which we're currently renovating, so we live there too. Join us as we turn this house and olive grove into a dream home and get to grips with living in two different parts of Italy. We'd always planned to divide our time equally between Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast, but we've ended up spending way more time in Tuscany this year with all the work we've had to do on the house. So now we're back home in Positano for a couple of weeks to catch the end of summer. I've really been missing our daughter and our home and really just needed some time here. It's Sunday, Elizabeth has one boat free and she's called all of her friends and family and we're all going out for Sunday lunch along the coast. Sky is going to be aboard, the only thing is Sky doesn't know that it's us that are going on the boat with her, so we're going to surprise her. She could be angry, she could say stay at home and I could have had a day off work but we're going for a day out. Surprise! Usually it's the kids that grow up and leave home and the parents have to adjust to an empty house, so I feel like we've done it all wrong. Carlo and I have left home leaving our daughter behind to fend for herself and I can't help but feel a bit guilty for abandoning her. I know she's perfectly happy with her boyfriend often staying over and other family on the property but it still feels strange to be without her. This beautiful day out on the sea was exactly what I needed, surrounded by family, real and chosen, it was balm for my soul. We cruised along the Amalfi Coast first to the Emerald Grotto in Amalfi and then to the town of Nerano for lunch at Il Cantuccio. Every time we record a freaking plane or a helicopter goes past and drowns out our voices. So yesterday we left our scooter down in Positano which means we get to walk down instead of walk up which is really exciting for me. So we're going down, Carlo's going to get his hair cut, I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm going to find something to do, hang out somewhere and then we're going to go get sandwiches for dinner. Italian sandwiches, dinner sandwiches. I'm going for a walk, I'm going to see if I can find my friends. He's combed it all straight, I prefer it curly on top but much tidier. But it will take half an hour and they will be different. I'm wondering why I didn't cut his hair today because I do it every second and third cut and then I sort of need him to go back to the barber's to get like the guide perfect cut because I can do it but I'm not brilliant at it, I can't get like the perfect edges so I can sort of follow the lines that he's done the next two times I cut it and then he'll have to come back here again and we haven't found a barber in Tuscany yet. Dusk is such a magical time to drive around Positano by scooter. The air is slightly cooler, the lights are starting to twinkle and the roadside restaurants are bustling with smartly dressed diners and it's all a feast for the eyes. It was a bit early for dinner so we stopped for a quick drink at the Bar Internazionale. So we get the sandwiches from a little sandwich truck up at the very very entrance of Positano and this is the one that's open tonight these there's another couple but they're all closed so we've come here and you can either sit down at one of these little tables here and eat your sandwiches hot here this is the view by the way not bad or you can take them home. I meant to show you the sandwiches that we ordered and then I completely forgot because when I got home I realized that my reading glasses were not in my bag and I was sure I put them in my bag and I presumed I must have dropped them we looked all around the house couldn't find them anywhere must have dropped them as we were walking down to Positano so I ate half my sandwich very very quickly and I got my torch and I walked all the way back down to Positano not finding my glasses and then a friend phoned from New Zealand and I was on the phone for ages and I ended up sitting on the steps for about half an hour chatting to her by the time I got home Carla had found my glasses which were basically was this big pile of letters here in the corner that he hasn't opened but his and somehow my sunglasses in this very bright case had become hidden like that on the pile so I didn't put them there because I thought I put them in my bag Carlos says why would he have put them there Sky says why would I put them there so nobody would admit to it but somehow they ended up hidden like that that's why I couldn't find them and that's why I ended up not showing you our sandwiches but me and Sky didn't finish ours because they're so enormous so I can still show you what we had so when I say sandwiches panini these are Italian panini and just because I know a lot of people get this wrong panini is plural panino is singular so if you want to order one you would order a panino not a panini because that would be like saying a mice or a horses I can't think of any other explanation for some reason but anyhow this one is Sky's and Sky is vegetarian so she got a aubergine parmigiano melanzane she got a she got a panino with parmigiana di melanzane which is like aubergine layered with tomato and mozzarella and chips in her sandwich so this is half of her sandwich that she had left so it's got chips in it and the parmigiana up there and yeah so you can imagine how big the whole sandwich was that's half of one and my one yesterday I got roast pork smoked cheese and broccoli so that's my one there used to be broccoli there but if I put them together that's the size of one panino so that's why me and Sky ate half and we'll probably finish these off tonight for dinner anyhow I found my glasses we had our dinner I was absolutely exhausted because I've been up and down those steps god knows how many times and down from here down to the road it is 800 steps so I think I did that twice yesterday up and down so it was quite a lot and I um yeah a week after we'd arrived the weather changed in Italian a particularly heavy and sudden rainstorm is called a bomba d'acqua a water bomb and most of Italy received one last week Carlo and I were at home and we saw the dry riverbed that runs down the side of the garden turn into a raging torrent that thundered down the mountainside the rain soon lightened and the river quickly lost its power after a couple of hours it had disappeared and you would never have known there was a waterfall at the end of our garden everybody's been asking about itty bitty kitty itty bitty kitty is happy here at home in Positano he's not going to be coming to because he's blind and he wouldn't be able to see anything here he knows his way around really really well he can still climb trees he can go out for walks he can go down to the steps and wait for people and he's more than happy here if we took him to Tuscany he'd be miserable because he wouldn't know where he was so he's here with Skye and Nicola when Skye and Nicola are with us he's with Andrea and Julia upstairs so he's fine and he's got lots of company it's currently stopped raining we've had like such a rainstorm this morning it's been incredible there's been all sorts of things happening um there's been rivers running through Positano uh there's been uh one of the porter trucks got swept down into the river and somebody was stuck in it and um it nearly got swept out to sea but i don't think it did in the end and Skye saved a goose and ended up walking up through town with a massive goose in her arms taking it back up to a little pond where it had obviously been swept out of um and come all the way down to the beach quite a journey it must have had but it seemed to be perfectly okay anyhow we're going to risk getting soaking wet and go down and visit Carlo's mum yeah let's go now and after the storm now if you look closely you can see actually it's not really great but there's like brownie patches in the sea there's one there it's actually starting to rain again that's from the waterfalls and streams and rivers that come down the mountain into the sea here you can see better you can see various different brown stripes coming down the very heavy rainfall now the weather report is saying that it's going to rain even more tomorrow and we were thinking about leaving tomorrow driving back to Tuscany we've got friends coming the day after tomorrow um but we've just seen that the road is most likely already closed so we can't get out i mean we could get out we could go the other way and it's not closed the other way as well and do like a two-hour detour uh maybe an hour and a half detour but we're not sure we'll just have to take it as it comes and see whether we can leave tomorrow still or whether we have to leave on Sunday morning very early maybe foreign let's have a look outside best view from this balcony you can see all sorts of things questa salchiccia is When I was a kid, I used to hear the stories of the post-war period. There were no children, no food, no work, and there was no money to buy food. So it was all quite dramatic. Hearing these stories made me feel like a super lucky person because we always had food. But you never had to throw anything away. I didn't have a problem. In fact, that was it. I don't have a beard. He doesn't like my beard, Mum. I don't like it. Do you like it, love? Yes, it's soft. Yes. I had a big pan on the stove. I would put the water in like this. When the water was boiling, I would add a drizzle of oil. After the oil, I would add the parsley and the garlic. And then, when everything was cooked, I would add the eggs. With the parsley, it was the end of the world. The bread was empty. Yes, but the cooked bread, the old bread that we throw away. We didn't throw it away because we didn't have it. And then we would eat it. It was delicious. But I wasn't good at it, Mum. Do you know what we used to do? We would make a kind of broth like this. And then we would eat it. And instead, Dad would take the oranges and throw them on the floor. He would cut the oranges into small pieces. He would put them in a pot. He would add a little salt and a little oil. He would season it and we would eat it. How did we make the salad? With fennel or without fennel? They didn't have fennel, they didn't have fennel. And we would make it with the oranges that would fall from the tree. Now they throw them on the floor because they are already cooked. And then we would find them on the floor. We would eat them. Yum yum. And Tommaso has just arrived. I haven't seen him for ages. When did you start? When I started, I was 199 kg. Because when I was 130-140 kg, more or less, I said to myself, when I go down to 100 kg, because I didn't go down from the middle school, I want to be a city boy. Because I was 103 kg. I never give up, that means I never give up. That means I never give up. Non ti arrendere mai. Ah, non ti arrendere mai. In English, never give up. Hi. So, a lot of people want to know why they haven't seen you in our videos for a long time. Because I work a lot. So, I'm often at work and I haven't had time to go to my dad's in Tuscany. But soon I will come to see him. How many hours do you work on average? 10 hours a day. 10 hours a day, ok. So, in addition to working, what else can you do? I go around a few times with my girlfriend and a few outings with friends, but only once a week. So, technically, you don't really have time to see us together, right? Exactly. Ok. Now, at this moment, what do you have in your hand? A safe. So, you break the safe to do what? A nice trip. But you don't do it with me? No. You don't do it with whom? With my girlfriend. With your girlfriend, good. Go. Wow. Ah, there are no coins there. No, no, here it's all banknotes. Banknotes and no coins. Wow. That's a lot of money. In a year. Ah, these are 12 months. Yes. Ok. Where do these money come from? It's the money I had extra. Instead of buying some bullshit, I decided to put it aside. So, have you already decided where you're going to spend this money? Of course, we're going on vacation to Bali. And I'm going with my girlfriend. Bali. How long will you stay in Bali? Two weeks. Twelve days. Beautiful. Nice choice. I like Bali. Listen, when will we see each other in Tuscany? In December, come on. We'll see each other in December. In December, ok. Ok. Bye everyone. A hug. And... Treat your dad well.