Cornwall, England, 2005

"Cream tea service", this writing is often hung outside houses and cottages gradually in all the streets, alleys, paths of Cornwall, is the leitmotiv tasty, sweet, delicate and typically british of this land. But what is the cream tea? A tea of the 5 or so, adding slices of fresh bread cornovagliese, genuine cream of cream and jam strawberries or raspberries. You can not travel in Cornwall, and failing to stop at least once to taste this delicacy! Certainly not his diet.
This trip in the south west of England has remained the heart and perhaps - as a landscape and atmosphere - it was one of the most exciting journeys ever made in recent years.
The advertising of the local tourism provides very truth, we checked "The West we like best" and among the top ten most visited sites include St.Michael 's Mount (the Cornish equivalent of Mont Saint Michel French, well famous), The Lizard Peninsula, Tintagel and the areas of Land's End, the ultimate extension to the British Atlantic Ocean, towards the West and the New World.
The first thing I noted when you arrive in the UK is discreet silence, a silence, without any agitation, but especially without the disorder. The legendary "queue" stands out everywhere, in supermarkets, or at the bust stop in the pub. Clear eyes, white skins, shapes rotondette, meditated and precise gestures, the look a little 'distant (not always), adherence to the rules, systematic education and good manners, a country where the individual exists, where everything is in place, where the human being is respected and enjoys the same importance and the same interest on the part of society, without much distinction of gender, class, culture, religion. So he wrote (in the 'Last Friend "Bompiani, 2004) more or less the Maghreb writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, although in that case about the Swedish society. In Britain there is perhaps less distance and more sociability, more heat certainly Instead this year in Cornwall we have never found a rude person, all affable, ciarlieri, and love of socializing and hearing also heard of the Italians ... !
We flew with Ryan Air from Orio al Serio (Bg) to London Stansted: excellent low cost (or rather the best, most serious and safe) and we spent about 100 euro in two, for A / R.
The car hire Hertz (a brand new Ford Focus 1.6) cost us only 20 euro per day, a mere pittance with the Convention RyanAir-Hertz. Spoken euro flight and because rent-a-car have been paid in advance in Italy. AND 'cheaper.
From Stansted Airport (north of London) to Cornwall there are at least 500 km of expressways and good highways, toll free (in UK do not pay - it is well known - except for a short stretch around London with paytoll recently introduced and ill-digested suffered by the British have always used their M1, M3, M5 ... free).
Our "base camp" was the beautiful and picturesque town of St.IVES, on the north, near the tip of Land'sEnd: and from there we did all our tours (maximum in the range of 70-100 km) , having chosen a fixed hotel for the stay (Howards Hotel Carbis Bay, St.Ives) in classic B & B for a number of reasons.
Firstly, in high season - August - the best B & B (referring to experiences from English friends) are the most popular and often we would have - giving the adventure - to travel with the anxiety of not finding the place or having to knock on many doors to address a room. Today the difference between night in a B & B and hotel is not so huge as it once was, indeed, many hotels are spending less. Even the British have become very clever with their historic Bed & Breakfast!
Second: Cornwall is a small region which can be tiring tours daily and with the assurance of safe and peaceful port to its "base / hotel at times also very british for dinner (after 21.00 is not easy to find food , their habits by now know all too soon eat on vacation, the British).
third: the hotel we chose (which should calm) offered many more services, among which stands out the heated pool.

The sights absolutely can not miss (and for which, without losing time here, you need a good guide, but especially at the site "Trip" of the British Tourist Office in Canada that sends free valid tourist material on request) are :
ST.IVES E CARBIS BAY - THE TOUR Penwith (the tour of the Penwith Peninsula, the extreme west, which includes the famous sites Land's End, Zennard Point, Gunnard Cove, THE MINACK THEATER, Newlyn, Mousehole SEVERAL MINIERE etc .) - THE LIZARD PENINSULA (south) with Helston, Lizard Point, Helford passage SEVERAL Coves (bays), Truro, St.Austell - Falmouth - Fowey - Camelford Tintagel (the area of King Arthur and his knights) - Penzance - St.Michael 'S MOUNT - NEWQUAY AND Padstow - PORT ISAAC - Bodmin Moor E JAMAICA INN - THE ISLANDS SCILLY (two hours by motorboat Penzance, as well Land'sEnd).

 

CORNWALL 2005

And now a few points of reflection on our trip, so in bulk, as we come to mind:

English. We always wondered in these 13gg travel to what is served so many courses in English which we Italians we are submitting a systematic, mandatory or not since children (and not in school) if in everyday simplicity and immediacy of this idiom There is now universally understood that with a hundred basic words and two or three phraseological verbs (like the ubiquitous "to get") can be done largely our beautiful figure. A condition not to be afraid to make mistakes, to engage without shame, to hear their very ways of saying and that he had a preliminary acceptance, not ashamed to speak in foreign language, as often happens to many Italians abroad, whatever language. We learn one basic thing: the language is always evolving, not static, the grammar rules that we have stuffed changing and often are not even applied in everyday (and then call them rules because if they disregarded by the majority?) And the pronunciation varies from place to place in a sensitive and surprising (as the rest of us). This language, we recommend the nice essay autobiograficoi a sympathetic writer (who works as an interpreter in Brussels, the EU), Diego Marani ( "How I learned languages," Bompaini Essays).

The English cuisine and its bad reputation, we consider a kitchen smaller than ours, French Spanish or Chinese. Nothing could be further from the truth nor true. There are some specilità, very original combinations Cornish meat and seafood ( "surf & Durf is an example) unlikely to be repeated in our culinary experiences in Italy. Piatti compound was carefully packaged and presented, most appropriate to satisfy the unbridled appetites. Fidiamoci of blindly menu of the day: When the chef recommends "the catch of the day" we can be sure that we do not trick the English. The fish will really be the day! Our best experiences we have made to "The Fire Engine Inn" in Marazion town, with spectacular views of the sunset on the island of San Michele with the high tide and at The Inn Mousehole "in Mousehole, a few miles north of Penzance, a picturesque and charming village in the direction of Land's End and The Minack Theater.
And then we Italians do not try to always eat the usual when abroad: we try to forget psta, mozzarella and pizza for lunch and entrust them to a Cornish pastry and a good beer. Do not regret it!. And the prices? Beloved as they say? Nee more or less like that in our ultracara euro area. Sure enough not to touch the wine (expensive) and mineral water (for us Italians irreplaceable for them a drink as the Cocacola), relying on their great beers (here as throughout the Great calls! Ale for differentiation from the mainland " lager) St.Austell zone. Birre that accompany meat as well to the fish (of course the fish & chips at all.) frothy beers just as the british taste and not too cold as the frost erroneously teaches American fashion, from slightly amber color, some by spicy aftertaste. The St.Austell Brewery "produces an excellent ale that won the Oscar in the World 2004: TRIBUTE, beat well-established multinational giants and breweries among breweries.
You'll find fish and chips anywhere, trust (it almost always trata cod) that the portions are plentiful and richly accompanied by several corntorni. So unpasto complete a controlled and moderate price. Indeed, when restaurant and pubs are closed or do not offer more food (usually after 21:00) the only hope for is to find a refreshment fish & chips, takeaway also still open.

Driving. The British and especially the Cornish people are very disciplined and educated in the car. But not idiots, but ... The round, the roundabouts have invented them (the famous "roundabout") and replace validly in many cases the traffic lights, with less risk of accidents and less traffic congestion. They seem slow, but it's not true! The fear of driving on the left wins it in about a day and the car rental, English - and then driving right - it was easier to drive than with our own car with the steering wheel to the left. certainly must be careful and remember to look at, on the contrary, right, onto the traffic and overtaking. After some 'adjusting disappear fear and tension.
When an Englishman makes us "lights", that is flashing with abbagalianti is just to let you go and leave you kindly transit in a "one carriage road". And there are many in Cornwall, where many roads are very small ( "narrow") and include areas of trade, as in trains mono track. Instead we only need the flash to warn of approaching a patrol road or a speed or in response rude. Here's the difference between us and them when it comes to driving.

Seagulls in Cornwall. The famous "seagull" dear, beautiful, elegant, gigantic, but very very annoying and dangerous. Woe to eat an ice cream cone on the dock of a marina, the planar gabbiano you can put in a second and eat all the ice cream in one second, even risking beccati and then ferirti. And are voracious omnivores, eating everything. We have seen on the beach-pier of Porthleven to hunt for scrap by a flock of seagull almost inferociti and hungry on the remains of a feast of humans. They devoured all split dishes and glasses and put on the flight of outdoor diners in the restaurant. For a child less than three years, in his arms to his father, the seagull has literally removed the ice cream by hand, between tears and screams of fright. That's why everywhere to deter these birds and their behavior in disabituarli was asked tourists to "please do not feed the seagulls, it's very dangerous."

Obviously played a ns favor the sunny weather throughout the period, an unusually warm for this latitude (20 ° C in the sun and at night we slept with the duvet!).
Forgot a nice detail: the owner of the hotel, Mrs. Teresa Terry Jeavon had reserved for us, two Italian guests a room more beautiful, comfortable, with a canopy bed and a beautiful stained glass window with views over the bay of St'Ives and Carbis, manned by famous lighthouse ocean immortalized by Virginia Woolf in her famous novel "Trip to the lighthouse."

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fabrizio e rossana, milano