AN EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I've been sitting on this news for about a month not, not wanting to jinx things, or rush in too quickly, but I think at long last I can say with confidence:  WE'VE SOLD OUR HOUSE! 

We accepted an offer in mid February, but because our buyer was back in the states when he made the offer it took a while for the contract to be drawn up, sent to the states, then signed and mailed back here.  Now we've all signed the contract and the deposit has been paid so we're breathing a sigh of relief! 

Of course this is a time of mixed emotions for us.  We've lived in this house (6 1/2 years) longer than any other house we've owned!  This is rather strange for me, since I always thought I'd find the perfect house and live there forever!  If you've been following our story you know that we're retired on a pension, and when we made the move to Italy the euro had just been introduced and was expected to settle in to a one to one exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. 

Unfortunately for us, it seems that as soon as we arrived in Italy the dollar began it's long, slow and painful decline.  We make extensive renovations to our house, bought a car, and had a mortgage, all at an exchange rate we really hadn't planned on, yet we were determined to make it work.  Eventually the car was paid off, but the exchange rate conitnued to get worse.  Occasionally there would be a slight improvement in the exchange rate, but no one ever expected the euro and dollar to hit the one to one rate originally forecast.  What this meant for us was that although we were in Italy, we weren't able to do what we really wanted to do:  travel.  Eventually we decided that traveling was more important than living in Italy, and decided to sell 

Needless to say the exchange rate that made it so difficult for us was also a concern for others who might want to buy our house.  The economy was slowing, then came the big crash in the fall of 2008, and we continued to wait for a buyer.  We just knew there was someone out there who would love our house and our town as much as we did, and we never gave up hope.  Still, once you've made a big decision like this, once you've accepted it, then you just want to DO it, so the waiting was hard. 

While we were on vacation in the states this past winter we received an email from one of our agents, Katia at Domus Italia.  She asked if her client could see our house at the begining of February and of course we agreed.  Eventually we also heard from Stew,  an American who works with Domus Italia. Stew's website, SEE YOU IN ITALY features lots of properties for sale. Stew and his wife own a house in Panicale, so they're back and forth between the states and Italy quite a bit. Stew also writes a BLOG about their time in Italy.

I guess our buyer had found our house on Stew's site, contacted him, and arranged for a visit.  Stew, our buyer, and a friend arrived in Italy early one Sunday morning in February.  I had offered to make them lunch so that they could stop here on their way from the airport, rather than having to drive to Panicale, then turn around and drive back to San Venanzo. 

We had a nice lunch and really liked our potential buyer.  He has Italian heritage on both sides of his family, and owns an Italian deli.  When he retires in a few years he plans to spend about half his time in Italy and half his time in the states. 

Unfortunately our buyer won't be able to be here for the closing, so now we have to wait for the power of attorney documents to arrive, for the notaio to set a closing date, and for a few additional documents.  As usual we had already made plans to return to the states in mid-April, but now when we leave everything will be different!  Our next trip to Italy we'll come as visitors, and stay with friends or in rented apartments. 

We're excited to begin the next adventure, and hope our buyer enjoys his time in San Venanzo as much as we have.  Will the blog continue?  Hmmmm.....

LUCK O' THE IRISH!

Although neither of us have a drop of Irish blood we've been feeling a bit lucky lately.  Check back tomorrow to read about our big news!

NOW'S THE TIME TO BUY!

Here's the lead-in to an article I found on the WANDERING ITALY
website, from an article entitled "10 Tips for Buying Property in Italy" written by Adriana Giglioli: 


"You know you want to buy a house in Italy. Here's the safe way.


The London-based Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors last year named Italy as one of the best countries in which to buy real estate because it has avoided the boom and bust of the property bubble seen elsewhere in the world.


In addition, between 2005 and Spring 2009, Italian prices rose 30% while the Euro strengthened 27% against the Pound – meaning a Briton with a typical Italian property saw its Sterling value increase 66%.


Italian tax changes have cut purchasing costs by up to 15%, meaning there has scarcely been a better time to buy a property in Italy."


You can read the entire article, including Ms. Giglioli's top ten tips, HERE. We took the leap seven years ago - what are YOU waiting for???
 
 
 
 
 
 

I'M A LOSER - AGAIN

No, I'm not going to post about those lottery tickets that keep accumulating on my desk. Art keeps buying them, and I'm left with the job of checking them, then discarding them. I'm just not a gambler, and yes, someone has to win, but it certainly won't be me. Years ago the tag line was 'you can't win if you don't play'. Okay, I played, and I STILL didn't win, so what's the point?!

No, what I'm writing about today is losing weight - something I've been wanting to do, needing to do, or at least thinking about doing for most of my adult life. Interestingly enough, I seem to go through cycles, and after looking back, I see that every seven years I get serious about losing weight. I wonder what that means?

When we were preparing to move to Italy, back in the spring of 2003, I had a lot going on, but I was determined to lose weight so that I wouldn't be the stereotypical fat American when we arrived in Italy. A series of events allowed me to concentrate on getting shape all summer long, and when we did arrive in Italy I was looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

Over the last seven years I've slowly but surely gained the weight back. And this weight gain isn't from too much pasta, or too many visits to the Perugina factory - this weight is the result of our visits to the states. Over these last seven years we've made a total of 13 trips to the states, and on every trip but the last one I've brought back 2, 3, maybe even 4 extra pounds. When we're in the states we tend to (over) indulge ourselves with things we can't get in Italy - Mexican food, and Oriental food, and popcorn with butter to accompany all the movies we like to catch up on. Okay, do the math, even if it was only 2 pounds per visit, that's still 24 pounds.

When we decided to take that transatlantic cruise last fall we knew we'd be tempted with food almost constantly, so we started walking every day. Although we had been attending aerobics classes twice a week, they really weren't intense enough for weight loss. Walking for an hour a day really made a difference, and yes, we did make some changes to our eating habits as well. It's so easy for us to make lunch our biggest meal, so we do, even having bread or pasta several times a week. For dinner it's just a snack really - an apple with peanut butter, some tuna fish, or maybe a small salad. By the time we left for the cruise I'd lost maybe 8-10 pounds and vowed to continue walking when we arrived in the states.

Unfortunately during our visit to Louisville the weather was awful! Snow and freezing temperatures conspired to keep us indoors. We did walk two days while we were in North Carolina, but two days out of four weeks wasn't exactly what we had in mind.

Amazingly when we came home I was surprised to see that I hadn't gained weight during my stay in the states, in fact I had lost a pound or two! Inspired once again we started walking - and once again the weather conspired against us. When it wasn't raining it was bitterly cold, although the rain was the more common problem. Last week of course the rain turned to snow and kept us indoors for several more days.

It now looks as if we might have several days of nice weather ahead - some crazy people are even talking aboug SUNSHINE!, but I remain skeptical. My total weight loss to date is 9 kilo - nearly 20 pounds. Of course I still have a long way to go, but we're considering an extended stay in Florida this summer, so I need to be able to wear shorts (maybe even a bathing suit) without feeling like a blimp. I hope this keeps me motivated!

SNOW!

Within the last few days the temperature has dropped back into the low 30's, maybe even dipped below freezing on a few nights. When the sun comes out it's not too bad, but when it's cloudy and/or rainy, the cold is just intensified. Although the local forecast called for snow, I really didn't expect it to amount to much. Yesterday morning around 10 a.m. I glanced outside and did a double-take. Were those teeny tiny snowflakes? Yes indeed they were, but I wasn't worried. I knew that with the size of those snowflakes we couldn't possible have any accumutation. And then the flakes got bigger....and bigger, and they came faster and faster, and before we knew it we had at least 4 inches of snow!

This is only the second time in 7 winters that we've had any snow worth talking about. The snow plow -actually snow tractor- came down the street several hours ago, but I don't think we'll be going anywhere anytime soon. We have plenty of everything we need, and as long as the electricity stays on we're okay! The satellite stopped working - probably too much snow on the dish - and the electricity did blink on and off a few times, but that's about it.  Here are some pics -













And this morning - it's already melting...

CIVITA DI BAGNOREGIO

You know how it is when you live somewhere yet somehow never manage to get around to visiting the sites that area is famous for?  When we moved to Italy in 2003 we thought we'd be travelling around the country, taking day trips, long weekends and extended trips all over the boot, but then the dollar took a dive.  Someone once asked why we didn't go to Florence on the train more often, but it's €10 - per person - each way --- €40.  At today's rate that equals $54, and quite often it's been even more than that, which of course affects where we travel, and how long we stay.  Last fall we had a big splurge and not only took the train to Florence but even spent the night!  That trip was make possible because in September we'd been hosts and guides for a visitor from the states.

Umbria certainly has a lot to see, and even a drive to nowhere is spectacularly beautiful so we haven't minded too much.  Still, there are places we keep meaning to go and somehow just never get there.  Living here is completely different than being here as a tourist.  As tourists we'd have a general plan, and a list of sites and cities we wanted to see, but living here decreases your sense of urgency, and there are just so many places we keep saying we want to visit.  One of those places is Civita di Bagnoregio, a tiny village located just south of Orvieto.   When Art asked what I'd like to do for our anniversay I said "Let's go to Civita di Bagnoregio!"
 
One website I read suggested that the easiest way to get to Civita di Bagnoregio was to get on the AI, but I knew that wouldn't be the route we'd want to take.  A quick map search showed us that all we had to do was drive towards Orvieto on the SS317, then once we got to the big roundabout, instead of turning left to go up into Orvieto, we'd continue straight.  Just before the old monastery that's now a hotel we took a left and gradually climbed up into the hills.  The drive was beautiful - lined with vineyards - probably for all that Orvieto Classico!

We learned the hard way that you can very easily drive throught town and park right at the foot of the bridge leading up to the old town, but having been caught more than once in a very tight spot in an unfamiliar medieval town, we parked in the large parking lot just outside of town and had a nice stroll before getting our first view of Civita di Bagnoregio. 

The earth bridge that once connected the old part of town to the new part has long ago been washed away with the help of earthquakes and erosion, so now the only way to reach the old city is via a long footbridge. It was a Saturday and the town was full of Italian tourists who, like us, were fascintated with the town and the scenery.




I've read that there are about 16 residents in Civita di Bagnoregio, but there's a bar, and a restaurant, and even a small hotel here, hopefully generating enough income to keep the town from crumbling away any more.

After our visit we drove to nearby Lubriano for lunch at il Vecchio Mulino, and hoping for a table with a view of Civita di Bagnoregio, but the terrace wasn't open for the season, so we settled for enjoying our meal inside. We shared several dishes, and with the exception of the ribollita, which I didn't care for, everything was delicious.

The drive back was as beautiful and relaxing as it had been that morning. If you're ever in the area, a visit to Civita di Bagnoregio is worth a stop.




Here's a slideshow of all the photos we took that day:

BACK TO ITALY!

Okay, I think I've covered just about every aspect of our transatlantic journey! I hope you enjoyed reading about the voyage and seeing the photos, but I'm sure by now you're saying "but you live in Italy - what's going on there?"! so, without further delay, here's the update from Umbria:

Spring, really wants to arrive, but it's apparently going to be a very long, slow process. Yes, it's just March, but there are daffodils blooming and forsythia budding, and although it still seems to rain more often than I'd like, we are seeing a little more of the sun these days, or at least less rain than before. We've been able to take our afternoon walks about 5, maybe 6 days out of 7, so that's pretty good, but even on the days we walk it still might have rained in the morning, or later in the evening. The nights are also still cold - as in near zero cold, so spring is still somewhere off in the future.

We took some friends to visit the Vini di Filippo winery just outside of Cannara the other day, and then went for pizza at Carlo Magno pizzeria in Cannara.  We all really enjoyed the pizza, but what made this place really special were the onion dishes.  Of course Cannara is famous for it's onions, and holds a festa dedicated to all things onion every September.  At Carlo Magno's we ordered some fried onions, which were fried onion RINGS - and yummy! - and we also ordered a few plates of the onion parmagiana, and this dish was the hit of the evening!  It's listed on the menu under "vedure" (vegetables) to be served as a side dish, but we ordered it as an appetizer.  If you're in the area, you can find Carlo Magno's on the main road through Cannara (Piazzale C. Bonaca), between the IP gas station and the Conad grocery.  They're open every day, and the phone number is 074 272 234.

For dessert the kids had lemon gelato, which was served inside giant lemons!