l'ultimo della strada

Jim and I have been living here for a little more than a week. And while we are eager for our household shipment to arrive, we are also enjoying the pace of life at the end of the road. We have a table and chairs, a bed, a pot and a pan, enough silverware to eat with, a referigerator, and a pantry full of Italian goodies. Really, what more do we need?

For me, this house is a fun departure from our home in Kirkland. From Pacific Northwest woodframe home to Italian country stone farmhouse. There are many contrasts, but the biggest is the size. This house is probably one-third to one-half the size of our Kirkland home. The walls are two feet thick and all of the windows are covered by beautiful wrought-iron grates. Unlike our Kirkland home, which is nestled into a vale, this house sits on the crest of a hill. From this perch, the farmhouse is bright and cooled by a constant breeze. The owner has left much of the artwork and some of the furniture that was in the house, which used to be rented out as a vacation home. Some of the paintings are 400 years old and are dark and foreboding. Beautifully hand-painted ceramics and old maps cover many of the walls. We had the owner leave the two amoires because there are no closets in this house. It will be interesting to see how our Scandinavian-style furniture and Pacific Northwest art and photos fits in with the decor here.


For Jim, this is a wonderful place to come to in the evening after work. It's worth the 30-minute commute to have the solitude and vistas. Half of Jim's commute is just getting up and down the hill that we live on. The other half is a mix of country road, city street, and highway. The most amazing thing is that there is only one stop between here and Jim's work. The European system of roundabouts is impressive. No more sitting at red lights with the engine idling.

This weekend will be our first at the house. Last weekend we drove to Florence to look at a motorcycle and do a little reconnaissance. It boggles our minds: it's a 1-1/2 hour drive to Florence. And because it's so close, we felt little pressure to see the sites. In fact, we only visited one site (the Baptistery), and then spent the rest of our time walking around, getting our bearings, and, of course, eating.

Next week our household shipment arrives. There are a number of things that we are eager to have, but mostly we just want to get unpacked and finished with this transition so that we can get on with living in Italy.