Category: Italian Village Life

I’ve spent many Saturday nights in small Southern towns.  My formative years were full of them.  But nothing beats Saturday night in a small Italian town.  Steve and I went to our favorite bar, the Bar della Sport (we call it the sports bar) on Friday for our happy...

I used to walk every morning before work in Atlanta.  I took the same route and walked the same pace.  On the weekends, Steve and I would walk Millie together.  Sometimes we would go on parts of my morning walk, but in the opposite direction.  It was always amazing...

When we decided to take this fantastic journey, one of the things we were looking forward to was sharing it with friends and family.  So we took on the apartment upstairs to use for visitors.  After seven weeks of preparing, organizing, and planning, we hosted our first guests.  Tim...

We thought we were moving here to simplify our lives.  No more (real) work, no more schedules, no more responsibilities.  Just carefree days of doing what we want when we want where we want.  While that’s largely true, our dream of simplicity is a little complicated. We have no...

We’ve been a little housebound for the past few weeks due to various issues and situations.  We had expected to take many day trips while we’re here and we’ve really been itching to get out.  We finally got out recently and took two trips.  One to Deruta and one...

Most of you know that Italy got hit pretty hard early in the pandemic.  I think because of that, they are very cautious about how they proceed.  Almost everyone wears a mask and you can’t go into stores, offices, or restaurants without one.  They still limit the number of...

We’re almost finished doing battle with the Italian bureaucracy.  We thought we would be done last week, but, alas, if there can be a monkey wrench thrown into something, we will find it.  We went for our final appointment in Sansepolcro to get our permesso di siggiorno.  It was...

We have a gardener.  I know that sounds very extravagant and maybe even a little pretentious.  He kind of came with the house.  Our landlord owns a couple of properties and is 85 years old.  He’s spry and agile, but needs help with things.  The other day they were...

We have certain milestones to cross before we can really start relaxing.  Mind you, we’ve done our share of relaxing already, but these chores are always in the back of our minds.  Specifically, we have to get the utilities set up for the upstairs apartment, get our permesso di...

Italians love a good party.  In the summer when the heat of the day gives way to the coolness of the evening, Italians come out and gather.  The piazza concept is perfect for this, and I’m pretty sure that’s why they were invented.  Piazzas are places to conduct business...