Actually, that should probably read ‘Having Lunch At The Same Place As George Clooney, Only A Few Days Later’, but why let an unimportant fact ruin a killer headline ?

(George Clooney. Pope Benedict. Sulmona. Red garlic. Candy. All key – though unlikely – ingredients of our day out in Abruzzo’s hinterland. Click on the main headline title above to find out more…)

I came across this little widget that allows you to run simple polls and questionnaires on your website or blog.

And in a moment of idle curiosity, I thought it’d be fun to run a poll to see what everyone’s favourite Italian food was.

(Thirty-odd ‘favourite Italian foods’ later, it was all starting to get a little out-of-hand. Click on the headline title above to find out more !)

Walk into any church in Abruzzo during December – and with regional variations, this probably applies to the rest of Italy too – and you’ll find a lovingly-built Nativity scene: the ‘presepe’ depicting the stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was born.

But it’s a tradition that isn’t just confined to churches, because constructing a presepe is a hugely popular hobby among Italians…

(And our neighbour Nicolino annually produces one of the most ambitious presepe in Abruzzo. Click on the headline title above for more – with pictures…)