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Here's us - Cath and Mike Andrews - on our wedding day. We come from very different backgrounds and family cultures but five years ago we joined those experiences and combined them with a love of Italy and all things Italian when we got married in Rome.
And now we would like to offer our services as your very own
Italian travel guide. Here's why we think we can.
Italian travel guide. Here's why we think we can.
Introducing Cath.
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I took a degree in modern languages which allowed me to spend a large part of my university career abroad, and allowed me to develop my love for different countries and cultures.
What to do with those languages in my working life was always a problem. Having fallen asleep at a job interview for international banking and developed an antipathy to working in small boxes while interpreting at the United Nations in Geneva, I returned to the UK and used my job with the Probation Service to fund regular trips abroad.
I've been lucky enough to travel extensively in Europe, the Americas and Africa, my last major trip having been a cycle ride across Senegal.
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| Left to right - Ben, Harry |
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| and William. |
The most important are my three young nephews - Harry, Ben and William - lots of 'godchildren' and for the last several years, three lovely step-daughters.
I try to share with all those young people the same passion for travel and other cultures that I've been lucky enough to have experienced for myself - and that's what I hope to give you as I write the pages of this website as your personal Italian travel guide.
Which brings us to Mike.
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The older of the two of us (by a whole six weeks) Mike was more traditional than me and having sown a few wild oats studying Social Psychology at Bangor University, he followed his father into the Probation Service where, many years later, we would meet.
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| Left to right : Katherine, Faith and Hannah. |
He's done a great job - they're all successful young women with their own careers and developing relationships, and have become a hugely important part of both our lives.
Mike's travel experience was largely within the UK and northern Europe, and to Goodison Park where he has been a life long supporter of Everton Football Club. Ask Mike to describe himself these days and the four words he will use are "husband, father, Evertonian, Italophile". And now, with this website, "Italian travel guide".
And then there were two.
Five years ago Mike and I got together and as his first birthday present from me, we went on a surprise trip to Rome. That was it : love at first sight for us both. For each other, obviously - but it also began an instant and long term love of Italy in both of us.
So much so that, when we decided to get married, we chose Rome as the perfect place and Le Marche as the ideal honeymoon location. The rest, as they say, is history.
We have since spent more time in Italy than we have in the UK, bought a house in Le Marche (just across the valley from where we spent our honeymoon - it was obviously meant to be!), learned Italian, cooked Italian, lived and breathed Italian.
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| Our village in Le Marche at sunrise. |
Oh - and we have officially become proud residents of our tiny community in Le Marche, where we're planning to retire in 2010.
All very interesting, but how does it qualify us to be an Italian travel guide?
Good question.
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| Watch out for the 'Top Tips'... |
I was also honoured to be asked to use our experience of marrying in Italy, and our personal knowledge of the people and places involved in Le Marche Weddings, to be one of their contact team. This insight will also be shared with you in our own pages about getting married in Italy.
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| ... and 'Top Tips for Kids' signs. |
You'll also find we use the young people in this Italian travel guide as experts in different fields : Harry and Ben are great at telling us which books and computer games will appeal to the younger generation while Kath, Han and Faith are all experts on film and on what will work for teenagers and young adults.
Baby William's main skill at the moment is eating - in time he may become the food expert in our Italian travel guide.
So as a family, we have become experts in virtually every aspect of this beautiful country including the best places to visit in Italy, where to eat, where to shop, culture and Italian food, Italian sporting culture, the Italian language, living in Italy, dealing with bureaucracy, getting married in Italy, buying a house, taking and keeping a dog in Italy ... oh ...
We forgot to mention Nero!
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Nero is a rescued ex-racing greyhound and, like all greys, is a quiet, loyal, affectionate dog whose main dislike in life is exercise. Probably thinks he has had enough exercise to last him a lifetime, running round a track for five years.
Nero is an English bred dog but is now well travelled. He has his own passport issued under the European pet passport scheme, travels with us to our Italian home, enjoys living in Italy, knows all the best places to visit for dogs, samples pet-friendly hotels, considers it his personal mission to sniff round all the best dog beaches in Italy, and generally gives us the pet perspective in this Italian travel guide.
Our experience with Nero in Italy has helped us write all our pages about Italian animals and animal culture.
So here we are - your very own Italian travel guide.
We hope you enjoy the site and we hope you enjoy Italy. It's a buzzy, vibrant, exciting, romantic country and culture with some of the friendliest people in the world - and it's all here waiting for you from your personal Italian travel guide. So let's get started.
Read about it. Learn about it. Enjoy it. And if you get the chance, visit it. Remember the words of Mark Twain :
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
With love
Cath Tweets!
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