Earlier this month marked the one year anniversary of our move to Italy. We did a staggered arrival into our new host country with me and Smokey arriving first. A couple days later I drove to Milan to pick up Henry at the international airport's cargo area. Tom wrapped things up back home and arrived about a month later with Colt in early July. After about two months in two different hotels we moved into our rented home and started the process of unpacking and setting up house here in beautiful northern Italy.
I've been thinking about doing this blog for a couple weeks now and initially intended to post it on my one year anniversary but I couldn't figure out exactly how I wanted to organize this post. Because I don't want this milestone to get too far away from me I'm just going to list some of my favorite things about our life here in Italy. So, in no particular order, here you go.
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| Of course one of our most favorite things...going on adventures with the boys! |
Home. We had some very specific criteria when looking at
houses. I don't remember my final count but I looked at about twenty
different houses, townhouses, duplexes, and apartments during the first 30
days. We had some specific criteria. We wanted to be in a more rural area for the dogs and we wanted some semblance of a yard. A fenced
yard was ideal. I also didn't want to be too far from work. I narrowed
it down to a couple favorites and took Tom to see them after he arrived. We really
couldn't be happier with where we ended up. We have a great landlord and
her family has been
so good to us. Her mom periodically drops off homemade pasta and last year she had us over for lunch and taught us how to make gnocchi. We also have great neighbors who have included us in family celebrations for Christmas and their daughter's 21st birthday.
Commute. If all I do is drive to and from work...I love the fact that it can take 2.5 days for me to drive the distance I used to drive one way going to work in Arizona. For the most part the drivers during my morning commute are fairly courteous. Drivers are quick to stop for pedestrians and will regularly let cars merge into or across traffic. I don't envy some of the driveways or alleys that people have to negotiate in the morning and other drivers are pretty considerate and helpful when these residents are trying to backup or get into traffic. With only one traffic light, the majority of my commute is traffic circles. I wish traffic circles were more popular back in the States.
Community. We are trying to nurture and establish our own community and support network here. We've hosted two open houses. One shortly after we got moved into the house and another one at Christmas time. We had a wonderful sponsor family that took great care of us and helped us with getting settled in. Upon arrival we were able to reconnect with friends we had been stationed in Germany with -- Dan and Nancy. They recently moved back to the States but bequeathed us with all their recommendations on places to go. On my Instagram page I tag the recommendations we've visited as "
Nancy's Italy Bible." We met fellow Arizonans in the hotel -- Pat and Chris -- and they have become our dearest friends here. We just recently traveled with them to Dublin, Ireland for a weekend, birthday celebration. We've also made other great connections and new friendships.
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| Clockwise: Vicenza, Chris, Housewarming flowers from our landlord, new friends, Nancy |
Travel. Tom and I have a
"Travel Wish List" for places we want to visit before we move back to the
States. We've checked a few off my list this past year but haven't
started on Tom's list yet. We'll get moving on that and hope to mark off a
destination or two this next year. The majority of our travel so far has been pretty
close to home but we did go on a great trip to Krakow, Poland in January
and we just got back from a trip to Dublin, Ireland. We went to
Cortina d'Ampezzo for my birthday last year. Tom has also been over to
Slovenia and I went to Nigeria for work in April. We did a unique pirate boat cruise and saw Carnivale in Venice earlier this year. We also did a great food-themed trip to Parma with friends earlier this past Spring.
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| Cortina, Salzburg and Wine Country |
Christmas Markets. It's great to be back in the land of Christmas Markets! Some people like Oktoberfest...I like Christmas Markets or Weihnachtsmarkt as they are called in Germany. I got to check out four new ones this past winter - Innsbruck and Salzburg in Austria, and Merano and Balzano in northern Italy. I also visited the smaller-scale ones in Vicenza and Bassano del Grappa.
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| Clockwise: Balzano, Nigeria, Krakow, Innsbruck, Vicenza |
Food. The food has been great. Tom and I still eat at home the majority of the time but we do eat out way more than we do back in the States. I've certainly been indulging in the Good Life and have about 10 extra pounds to prove it. During this second year I'll have work a bit more on moderation (wink!).
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| Making gnocchi, eating lots of pizza, German food, homemade pasta, Guinness! |
Wine. Probably one of my key indulgence areas has been Italian wine. We are loving this part of northern Italy - the Veneto. There are numerous distinct wine regions just an hour's drive from where we live. We have been doing our part to sample various Italian wines and supporting the local wineries. I think we're up to about 23 different wineries visited and one wine festival where we tried wine from ten different wineries. I'm also visiting three new wineries this week and we'll be heading down to Tuscany soon. We have met some really special families and still have lots more exploring to do.
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| Vino! |
Seasons. We live in a rural area outside of Vicenza. We're essentially surrounded on all sides by cornfields. It's been really interesting watching the cycle of the seasons and the work of the farmers. When they till and fertilize the fields; when they plant; when they cut the grasses and bail it. The surprise one weekend, last fall, was finding about one hundred sheep, a couple donkeys and some heerding dogs out in one of the fields...foraging after the corn had been harvested. We have been pleasantly surprised by discovering mulberry trees near where we walk the boys and have been snacking on those for weeks. We also recently found some fig trees too. We can't wait for that fruit to ripen. There were also beautiful red poppy fields earlier this Spring. We love our yellow Mexican poppies back in Arizona so it was a wonderful surprise seeing the red poppy fields. Tom has also planted our first garden and we've already enjoyed spinach, yellow squash and basil, and we're waiting on the zucchini and carrots to come in.
Italian. To varying degrees of success Tom and I are both working on learning some Italian. Tom's comprehension is pretty good but he still needs to get comfortable speaking it. I'm still at such a basic, beginners level but I'm working with my online
Verbling tutor and getting better at pronunciation, working on grammar, and building my vocabulary. By blood Tom is actually half Italian. His biological father was first generation Italian born in the United States. I get a real kick out of the locals assuming Tom is Italian just by looking at him. I think it's an incredible blessing and an unexpected surprise for him to have the opportunity to live in Italy for a few years and connect with that part of his ancestry.
We are truly so blessed to have this opportunity and we are so grateful. We don't ever want to take this experience for granted. I believe this is a great privilege and we intend to continue to make the absolute most out of it.
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