A visit from our Italian friends...

Last Saturday, we waited at Adelaide Airport to greet Kirby's host family (she did a 3 week school exchange in 2006) from Turin, Italy. They had been in Australia since July 25 and flew in from Alice Springs after seeing Perth, training across to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific then training to the Alice on The Ghan. It was so good to see them again since we last saw them on our last visit to Turin in October, 2010. Kirby made a cute sign to greet them with. They loved it!

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Bri gets in on the act!
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We took them to the Barossa Valley and stayed with a friend at Tanunda. She put on a lovely roast lamb dinner for us.
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Charmaine was such a gracious hostess and she got to practice her Italian on our friends. It was wonderful to hear so much laughter from mis-pronunciations and corrections. A fun night.
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Delicious roast lamb, fresh greens and roasted root vegetables
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Mengler's Hill Lookout - you can see the whole Barossa Valley for miles around
~Three amigos!
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Bare vines in winter...
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(River Lane House, river view)
On Sunday, we explored Tanunda a bit more, tasting some wines and then moving on to Angaston for lunch. We then drove to Mannum on the Murray River where we had booked a house for the night.
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River Lane House
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I was a little bit mean and made Chiara taste Vegemite all over again! Then some Promite too! She said Promite smelled worse than Vegemite tasted! He he!
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Angus cooked a barbecue dinner and Kirby and I did some salads and baked vegetables ...
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We exchanged gifts and Gus received this wonderful wine book. He put it to good use back in Adelaide, buying some Italian wines to enjoy on our last night together.
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Giorgio has had a book published about their travels to Africa, illustrated with pictures and collages...
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Inside our copy, he had drawn this cute picture with an inscription to "our Aussie friends". Another treasure!
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Tiziana, Chiara and Giorgio enjoyed some of my Anzac biscuits I gave them.
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Monday morning we vacated the house and took a 2 hour luncheon cruise on The Proud Mary. This gave us a great opportunity to see the Murray in all its glory.
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We had a lovely buffet lunch while choofing upstream...
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Enjoying the sun off the back of the boat... La vita e bella! (life is good)
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A little champagne was in order to celebrate...
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I think they had a fine time!
~An international friendship formed in 2006...
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Oh, dear!
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The Murray River, South Australia
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After our cruise, we headed for Hahndorf for a look around...
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We visited The Lane Winery which is owned by a friend of Gus'.
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We had a lovely cup of coffee and cake at Chocolate @ No. 5
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Then it was back to Adelaide for a few hours rest before heading out to dinner at
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Red Ochre Grill - the menu is here. We tasted crocodile, kangaroo, barramundi and more...
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On Tuesday, we left our guests to wander Adelaide city - The SALA Festival was on so there were lots of places to explore including the Adelaide Museum and SA Art Gallery. Giorgio is a talented photographer and sketch artist so they enjoyed their free time.
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(Giorgio Enrica Barramundi - his new Australian name)
Tuesday evening we dined at Concubine on Gouger Street - ...
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Angus brought along his wine book and Giorgio kindly did a cute illustration in the front - so funny!
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One of the dishes we enjoyed was the whole Robarra barramundi steamed with ginger and shallot (below - photo by Concubine)

After dinner, it was time to say our goodbyes - they were off to Melbourne by train early on Wednesday morning. We had a wonderful few days with them, showing them our state of South Australia and I am sure they enjoyed themselves.
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We have been invited to visit them next year in Turin and go to The Black Forest in Southwestern Germany with them - how can we refuse?
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Cheers - Joolz