In August I visited Vagli Di Sotto, a beautiful area of Tuscany in the Garfagnana National Park which I go to regularly due to my wife having family there. Different from the Tuscany visited in the area around Florence, which is more gentle rolling hills and can be quite expensive, this part of Tuscany is very rugged, with not too much tourism and incredible value. In Vagli near the petrol station is Bar Raddicchi, owned by Paulo, which serves excellent food at very good value; wine is included in the price and all the food is sourced locally.
Vagli is surrounded by a man-made lake constructed in 1949, and every 10 years the lake is emptied to reveal a submerged village. You can walk around the streets when this event happens, and many of the people in the area had relatives who resided there. Up above Vagli is a nature reserve called Campocatino where you can have lunch or a picnic with great views of the valley below. Other great places to visit are Old Barga – try Ricardo's restaurant – and Lucca, which is back down the mountain and on the way to the airport. You can hire a cycle and ride around the walls of the town. Most people bypass Lucca trying to get to Florence, but it is well worth taking a couple of hours within your itinerary to see the place. You can also get a train from Lucca direct into Florence should you need to.
Kopykat have just printed some leaflets for the 1010 Lighter Later campaign – a Daylight Saving Bill is going for its second reading on 3rd December and evidence suggests that advancing the clocks by an hour would create 80,000 jobs, prevent 100 road deaths, cut obesity and boost sport; it would also save 500,000 tonnes of CO2 and importantly reduce crime and fear of crime. To find out more visit www.lighterlater.org
It seems hard to believe that under 20 years ago Dubrovnik was under siege and much of the city was under heavy fire from the surrounding hillsides. It is a credit to the Croatian people that they have restored Dubrovnik with such care and attention. Dubrovnik can get very busy, particularly when the cruise ships visit, but early evening once the ships have left is very pleasant. I would recommend that, rather than hiring a car for the week, you take one of the many boat trips to the surrounding islands as this is a better option. If you do hire a car, small resorts like Cavtat are worth visiting. We hired a car for the week, and with hindsight a couple of days would have been more than enough. Montenegro and Mostar in Bosnia can be reached from Dubrovnik with many organised trips in place.
Kopykat has just achieved FOGRA certification which is an internationally recognised mark of distinction for sheet fed and web offset printers, when a printer achieves the FOGRA certification it demonstrates a printer's commitment to the highest standards in print quality, it is based on a measureable criteria for printing and proofing in a production environment, achieving FOGRA certification shows a printer has the internal controls to hit precise international printing standards, for print buyers and designers this means that a FOGRA certified printer will produce an accurate reproduction of their work.
Congratulations are in order to one of Kopykat's clients Claire Price at Arts Alliance Media, Claire has just abseiled from the top of Canary Wharf in order to raise funds for the London Air Ambulance a very worthy cause, if you would like to make a donation to Claire’s chosen charity donate online at http://www.justgiving.com/pricetta
Kopykat appeared on the reality TV show shown on the BBC last night Out of the Frying Pan the guys in the show came in for printed menus so there was a few clips during the show that featured some of our staff. We will also be appearing in one of the Young Apprentice episodes that has just started when one of the teams pops in to have some leaflets designed and printed by us. We were also asked if we wanted to be featured in The Naked Office we politely refused, we couldn’t possibly put our clients through such a trauma.
I visited Cornwall for the Easter break staying just outside Newquay. I must admit I was worried about how the weather might turn out but couldn’t have picked a better week with sunshine all the way. We visited lots of different locations my favourite being St Ives which I hadn’t been to since 1978 so anyone who hasn’t yet been I would recommend a visit. I also managed to visit Rick Steins restaurant in Padstow and had lunch there, the set menu was £35 per head without wine, the food was as you would expect was first class especially my starter of tiger prawns and seared monkfish with a warm salad, followed by sea bass and a selection of vegetables and just to push the boat out homemade bakewell tart (www.rickstein.com) We also called at Jamie Olivers Fifteen in Watergate Bay, Newquay (Kopykat printed the original marketing material for the restaurant when it opened) but unfortunately we couldn’t get a table but the restaurant certainly looked very nice inside with great sea views. In the bay itself there seems to be lots of sympathetic building going on that will improve it further. if you are into extreme sports there is a hotel on the beach called The Hotel Watergate Bay and extreme academy which caters for all sorts of extreme sports; amongst them kite surfing, surfing, traction kite and wave ski. Visitwww.watergatebay.co.uk, www.fifteencornwall.co.uk
Richard and Judy have a holiday home in Cornwall and in one of their newspaper columns they recommend The Crown Inn at Lanlivery, near Bodmin. They were spot on an excellent pub with good food although the only way in is through a series of country lanes with enough just for one car so be prepared. The Crown also has rooms available for rent. Visit www.wagtailinns.com
If you are in Newquay another place worth visiting for breakfast is the Lakeside Café overlooking Newquay boating lake. Some great breakfasts are served overlooking the lake parking, prices are very reasonable and much better than the average breakfast served in most places. They are based in Trenance lane TR7 2HX. Although a website is coming soon (www.lakesidenewquay.co.uk ) they have now opened of a night as well. Finally, if you have children go to the Rashleigh Inn on Polkerris beach, near Par and have a bite to eat while the children play on the sand. The service was a little slow but to be fair lots of people had called in and the weather was unseasonally good so they might have been caught by surprise. (www.therashleighinnpolkerris.co.uk)
Kopykat recently printed the posters for Raqs Britannia, Europe’s largest bellydancing festival which takes place from Friday 25th June to Sunday 27th June 2010 in Sheffield City hall. The event will be hosted by the world famous Bellydance Superstars, the brainchild of music impresario Miles Copeland, former manager of The Police and Sting. The show features urban rhythms and electronic Arabic fusion music alongside more traditional styles of Egyptian Raqs Sharqi, Cabaret and Indian fusion. There are also bellydance workshops, open stage events, middle eastern souk, haflas, auditions and much more. For more information go towww.raqsbritannia.co.uk. Kopykat can confirm that their print machine operators will not be taking part perish the thought!
