#085: Piha to Italy

Postcard number: 85
Bought in: Piha, New Zealand
Sent to: Giulia in Italy
Written: 8 October 2017
Sent: 8 October 2017

Text says:

8 October 2017, Geelong

Dear Giulia,

It’s been a while since I sent a postcard – life and a very new baby seem to have got in the way of this project over the past few months. However I’ve been tidying my desk today while my little boy sleeps, and I came across this postcard of Piha Beach which needed a new home.

Piha is not far from where I grew up, and is one of my favourite places in the world. I’ve got a painting of Lion Rock (which is shown on this postcard) on my kitchen wall here in Australia. It’s a great place for taking photos too, with its black sand, surf beach and dramatic skies. One day I hope to climb Lion Rock with my children, just as I did when I was a child myself.

With best wishes and apologies for the delay in sending this card,
Tash

Read Full Post »

#76: Jasper to Italy

Postcard number: 76
Bought in: Jasper, Canada
Sent to: Cristina in Italy
Written: 5 January 2017
Sent: 6 January 2017

Text says:

5 January 2017, Auckland

Dear Cristina,

This postcard comes from my trip across Canada on the train in 2003. I was travelling alone, with a huge backpack, a roller bag and the ski gear I had accumulated during a season working on an American ski-field. I stayed in a hostel about 7km outside of Jasper township, paying $49 for two nights accommodation and a lift ticket for Marmot Basin in the Canadian Rockies.

It was April, which I guess was near the end of the ski season, but in my travel journal I wrote that it snowed the whole time I was there – resulting in fresh powder, but also poor visibility at the top of the mountain (which was pretty scary when I was skiing alone).

I always remember the sense of freedom that skiing gave me, the quiet of making my way down an empty trail, the excitement of challenging myself to do a black diamond run (even if I often ended up face-down in the snow). There’s not too many opportunities to ski in my life now, but it’s definitely something I’d like to to try again someday.

Happy New Year to you!
Tash

Read Full Post »

#62: Ligosullo to America

Postcard number: 62
Bought in: Ligosullo, Italy
Sent to: Elena in America
Written: 22 August 2013
Sent: 22 August 2013

Text says:

22 August 2013, London UK

Dear Elena,

Here’s a snowy postcard for you, written on a rather rainy day here in London. It was bought after coffee and conversation at a little café in Ligosullo, Italy back in 2008. It was one of those times when I wished I had learned Italian, just so I could’ve been more of a part of what was being discussed – but at the same time, it was fun just being there, listening and watching life in the village.

Ligosullo is a beautiful place, high in the mountains and close to the border with Austria. The views are amazing all year round and it looks gorgeous on this postcard with the snow on all the buildings. However I’ve been told that that steep roads can become very treacherous at that time of year.

I hope you’re well and the weather’s better where you are!

Tash

Read Full Post »

#38: Florence to Italy (via London)

Postcard number: 038
Bought in: Florence, Italy
Sent to: Sara in Italy
Written: 13 April 2010
Sent: 14 April 2010 (with a letter)

Text says:

13 April 2010, London UK

Dearest Sara,

Ciao bella!  It seems kind of strange for me to be sending a postcard from Italy back to Italy – but also quite appropriate for me to be sending this one to you.  After all, it wasn’t long after my first trip to Florence that we first met face-to-face in Venice.  October2006. Seems so long ago, but I’ve been thinking about Florence and Italy quite a bit recently after a visit to the V&A Museum at Easter.  There we foumd a couple of rooms full of plaster casts of European monuments: the doors from the baptistery from Florence, Trajan’s Column from Rome and even a full-sized copy of Michelangelo’s David.  We queued for hours to get in to see that at the Galleria dell’Accademia!

Still, I have very fond memories of Florence – staying in a hostel with messages from previous travellers written all over the walls, a day trip into the Tuscan hills where we learned to make different types of pasta, looking in the jewellery shop windows on the Ponte Vecchio, climbing the hill to look over the city and trying to speak Italian.

I certainly hope and I wish and I dream that I will visit Italy again one day.  It’s definitely one of my favourite places.  But for now, I shall have to content myself with sending postcards and letters to your part of the world, while occasionally visiting English museums and buying coffee at Cafe Nero… and trying to remember the taste of gelato!

Hugs and best wishes,
Tash

Read Full Post »

#30: Miramare Castle to Singapore

Postcard number: 030
Bought at: Miramare Castle, Italy
Sent to: Christina in Singapore
Written and sent: 27 March 2010

Text says:

27 March 2010, London UK

Dear Christina,

Postcard #30 of the Postcardia project was bought in August 2008 at Miramare Castle in Northern Italy. I’d flown into Trieste airport on earlier in the day, and met up with one of my dear friends and penpals, her husband and her sister. On the drive back to her hometown, we stopped here at the castle and wandered through its lavishly decorated rooms and landscaped gardens. This would’ve been such an amazing place to live! I loved the location, looking out over the Adriatic Sea. These days it’s a tourist attraction, with a cafe where we chatted and caught up over ice creams and iced tea. This is one of those places I wouldn’t have discovered without friends from that country, and I felt very grateful both for their company and the chance to explore such a beautiful and historically significant place.

I hope all is well over there in Singapore.

Best wishes,
Tash

Read Full Post »

#8: Riomaggiore to New Zealand

Postcard number: 008
Bought in: Riomaggiore, Italy
Sent to: Carla in New Zealand
Written and sent: 16 February 2010

 

 Text says:

16 February 2010, London UK

Dear Carla,

Greetings and good morning to you from the other end of the earth!  This postcard is from one of my all-time favourite destinations: the village of Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre, Italy.  We’ve been there twice now (once on our honeymoon trip through Europe in 2006, and again with my family in 2008).  On both visits we’ve enjoyed staying in apartments above the sloping streets, hiking and catching the train between the five villages, swimming and kayaking, the views, the sunsets, eating pesto pizza, gelato, fresh pasta and seafood, and practising our very basic Italian (I got about as far as being able to buy five stamps from the post office!).  While it perhaps doesn’t have the impressive art and history that I’ve loved in other Italian towns, it’s a real escape from the city and city life, and a place which I don’t think I’d mind returning to again and again.  Do you have a place like that?

All the best,
Tash

Read Full Post »