Tony Soprano and the Spoleto Suitcase
We have good friends who asked us to retrieve a left behind suitcase in Spoleto. Of course we trust them completely and didn’t think the suitcase was filled with bundles of cash, but there was still an air of Tony Soprano to it. Spoleto is about an hour and...
A Random Encounter
Sunday was bright and sunny and beautiful. Perfect for a little excursion to explore some of this country. Where to go? Somewhere we’ve never been, but not too far away. A finger hovered over the map and landed randomly on Civitella di Val di Chiana. Never heard of it...
Vanquishing the Tramontana
Fiendish Wind We’ve been having a struggle with the weather this week. We started the week with snow, which was beautiful and magical and we loved it. Then the sun came out and it was clear and bright and we loved it. With the sun came the wind. It...
Seasonal Perspectives
One of the things we were looking forward to when we moved here was to experience the seasons. We’ve been coming to Italy for 25 years, so we’ve seen snippets of every season, but to witness the changes crosses a threshold between visiting and living. We got here in...
Happiness is a Warm Radiator
I’ve become a radiator fan. After many years of living with forced air heat, I love the radiator. I never thought that it would warm the room – only the area just in the immediate area of the radiator. But I was wrong. A radiator will warm an entire...
Beginnings
The sun has risen on this first day of 2022. I always love the feeling that a new year brings – a blank slate that we can color however we want. Whatever bad happened the previous year we can now put behind us in the category of “last year”. ...
Peace on Earth
Christmas is always a special time – you feel a sense of renewal, of peace, and of hope. This year has been especially meaningful for me. So many things have changed for me this year, not the least of which is that I don’t go to work every day...
It Came to Pass in Arezzo
Arezzo is about 30 minutes away and is the biggest city near us. It’s about 100,000 people and we go there for many things. It’s where we both got our booster shots, we spent many happy times in the Questura (police headquarters) there trying to get our permesso di...
And To All a Good Night
We’re trying to experience as much of the Christmas spirit as we can in our corner of Italy. We planned to spend a day in Florence and the morning we were to leave, I did a quick search for hotels just see what was available. We found a very...
The Ice Road to Boosterville
Steve had his booster shot yesterday compliments of the Italian health care system. His appointment was at 10:30 in Arezzo, which is about 30 minutes away. There’s a good road to Arezzo which goes through a ravine in the mountains so it’s not hilly. But because it goes through...