Some dreams are beautiful and almost unbelievable, others can look like nightmares and we wake up full of sweat and trembling with fear. So what kind of dream has this become?
HURRAY!!!!!
Today it is exactly one year since we signed the contract for our house, got the key and moved into a house that was a bit neglected and a garden that had been completely forgotten. We came here full of dreams and ideas but without a roadmap. And we have not only walked the path, we have at times crawled, we have overcome obstacles such as cancer and the Italian bureaucracy. We have become residents here in Italy and we are starting to speak the language little by little. We have overcome a winter without heating and are struggeling with the hottest summer in 70 years. We understand more of the Italian way of living and gradually understand why they have invented siesta and take time off in the middle of the day. Why shut out the light during the day and open all windows in the evening to let in the cool evening air.
We have both got through a round of covid, although the combination of 40 degrees heat in the shade and a tired covid body is not to be recommended. We drink buckets of water and much less wine and coffee than we had thought. We spend little time in cafes, but treat ourselves to pizza at least once a week. We hardly eat pasta but love a bloody steak fiorentina on the grill.
We have made some good friends who we appreciate immensely and who have been invaluable both in helping us figure out the Italian bureaucracy, but also in making us feel welcome and introducing us to how the Italians live and think. A little too many of them are a little too good at speaking English so we don't get to practice Italian as much as we had hoped. We have spent endless hours digging up our garden/park which has now not seen water for almost 3 months.
We have made some good friends who we appreciate immensely and who have been invaluable both in helping us figure out the Italian bureaucracy, but also in feeling I while everyday life begins to knock on the door - we live more indoors and work a little, get to read a book and cook some food that both tastes like curry and garlic and smells a little different from Italian food. We are a bit bored, which is healthy for inspiration and creativity and we are still feel that we are living a dream life, at least most days.
And by the way we have to take better care of this fantastically beautiful planet we live on or it will kick us off and spin around without us.
