Una mese (One month)!

Peter writes: Four weeks in and things start to move ahead...

As we approach the end of our first month we are definitely adjusting to life Italian style. Perhaps the most notable feature of our first few weeks has been the weather, and not as one might expect! April 2008 in Tuscany was been the wettest/coldest for 50 years (a year ago it was already consistently 27C+), so somewhat bizarrely the one thing we have missed (friends aside of course) has been our fireplace!

Having said that, we did have our dear friend Sammy over for three nights last weekend and the weather was glorious. We introduced her to the new house, Italian castles of the area, the seaside at beautiful Lerici and many mad Italians. Together we met some of the owners of Ca' dei Lecci when we turned up at the house to find them lugging out strange ornaments etc! We had a wonderful afternoon with this delightful quartet (mother, father, daughter with boyfriend) and they introduced us to some of the neighbours, gave a crash course in viniculture and generally seemed happy that we were about to take over the house that their family have owned for over a hundred years!

Italian drivers still take some getting used to. The motorways (austostradas) are only two lanes and despite the fact that, much to J's horror, I drive pretty fast in the Jag, I still get overtaken by 80% of vehicles. Those at my mercy are either vast lorries, nonagenarians in 30 year old Fiats or numbers of conveyances with only three wheels. Average outside lane speed seems to be around 95mph, so quite a lot of diving in and out of lanes round the slow guys whilst trying not to annoy the Mercs 10ft off your bottom at 100mph! To be fair though, apart from holiday weekends the roads are really quite empty (though of course the motorways are not free).

We are meeting our Geometra next week (a sort of cross between and architect, surveyor and clerk of works which one needs to get all required permissions to make any alterations, even internal improvements) and will draw up a schedule of works against which to obtain quotes from a variety of contractors (builders, plumbers, electricians, plasterers etc.)

Our Italian is poor but improving and we now have a good vocabulary of words including tiles, central heating, plastering, quotes, discount etc, along with 'how much?!' 'you must be joking!' 'this seems broken' 'oh, just hit it with a big hammer' and so on...

First project though if (a) it ever dries out and (b) I can work out which of the 87 models of strimmer available on the market I need to buy, is to tackle the somewhat lush garden as the vineyard is slowly dissappearing out of view behind the elephant grass! Free board and lodging at the rental place for any visitors in the next few weeks who want a trip to Tuscany in exchange for 4 hours of strimming a day :o) Then again, I may have to shell out some euros to any passing Romanian to help just to get things under control!

Even though it has only been a few weeks, we are 'going native'. I have already abandoned tea in the mornings and now exist on real Italian coffee. Likewise, my Marmite consumption (from stocks I smuggled in under the spare wheel) is now so low it should last a year or so. Meanwhile, J is thorougly adoring eating strange looking vegetables and kissing everyone on both cheeks.

Overall, we are very happy, excited and at peace with our decision - a state of mind only enhanced when (a) the sun does come out and (b) when we think our language skills are improving.

I think this is about all for now as it is in danger of getting a bit dull! Keep reading, if you really are at all interested, and do post your comments. We will try to get a few piccies posted soon if we can work out how! Ciao tutti.

La tirzo settimana

Juliet writes: This week, POP servers, Puccini, piles of junk and poo…

Excited whoops of joy from Careggia… we are online! Our POP server is popping, we are able to bother you with emails once more and we even have spangly new Italian mobile phones with functioning SIM cards and E50 credit (enough for a 3-second sneeze to England). In conclusion, a small miracle. Typically, the phones look very pretty but have useless reception and are tricky to operate. So communication is (almost) back to normal…

There is, inevitably, a little story attached to Fabrizio, our wonderful internet man (mi dispiace Fabrizio - non posso fissare la fotografia perché il mio mac non è compatibile con il blog!)… to counteract his all-female household (wife, daughters, cats, dog), he spends his weekends snowboarding and jumping out of planes, and his weeks in search of similar adrenaline – up ladders, on roofs and hanging out of windows with satellite dishes. He is the best in the area for helping strange foreigners who need to write emails home requesting emergency marmite supplies. It took him nearly four hours today to hook us up and it only required one espresso, three plug sockets, E580 and 8 signatures. Amazing! He is a lovely, helpful and patient man with very good English and I have the feeling that we might just become firm friends.

What other news this week? Well, I achieved a life-long dream of mine by visiting Lucca, birthplace of my beloved Puccini. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined. Cobbled streets, higgledy-piggledy architecture, Roman amphitheatres, stunning palazzi, quirky shops, churches around every corner, the best ice-cream shop we have yet discovered and a vast and varied antique market littering the main streets and piazzas (which only occurs every third weekend of the month – perchance when we happened to be there). There is something very, very magical about Lucca – I can see why it was an inspiration to the greatest opera composer in history.

P and I can’t wait to take you all there, especially as 2008 is a year-long festival in celebration of the centenary of Il Maestro’s birth which involves various daily concerts and performances. (Watch this space for the book I hope to write about his life, love and works… after tending to husband, friends, vegetables and chickens)

Then there are the ongoing negotiations for the furniture in Ca’ dei Lecci, made more complicated (would we expect anything less?) by the fact that six people currently own the house so each has to be consulted about everything. Much of the content comprises pretty shocking ’70s tat, but there are a few beautiful pieces dotted about (oh yes, and yesterday saw two bottles of wine opened in celebration of The Return of the Doorbell), plus more practical things like beds – of which we only possess one, in storage, in England, until at least September. So, we are attempting to hone our haggling skills to masterful levels. However, being polite (and clueless) English folk, ultimately, we will pay too much and be left to clear the house of at least 30 skipfuls of junk (made trickier by the fact that they don’t have skips in Italy!). Anyway, it will be worth it in the end… honest. Oh, and does anyone want a kitten? A very cute tiny one? One of the stray cats living in the cantinas has given birth and I haven’t got the heart to ask the owners to take them away. (Peter is eternally patient with my animal-loving escapades – well, at least for now).

As to the subject of poo, there are two things to report (if your eyes are still open and your stomach hasn’t turned yet): Firstly our own neurotic feline has managed to have her first ‘toilet visit’ outside. This may seem like a small victory and a rather silly thing to write, but you have to understand that we have had no TV, internet or phone, so this has been our evening entertainment (along with star-gazing, car spotting, owl impressions and the highly amusing hunt-for-the-bat game) So, it’s a huge event for us, especially P who has patiently taken her outside every night and thrown her under a hedge in the hope of encouraging her to uncross her paws.

Second poo news, Il Professori’s bees were let loose today and there is now bee plop everywhere (P politely calls it ‘pollen droppings’ but I know better!). So I will be out later with my marigolds and determination, scrubbing the garden furniture, no doubt to the bewilderment of the neighbours. Oh joy.

Can you tell I am enjoying every minute of this adventure?!

My dear friend Sam arrives this weekend for a visit, coinciding with ‘Liberation Day’, actually a three-day festa (‘festival’ - one of billions of in Italy which are generally a great excuse to meet people, eat gorgeous food and wander the streets cradling glasses of vino rosso, possibly dressed up in medieval costumes or sporting a bow and arrow). So if I survive, I promise to report back next week.

In the meantime, Happy St George’s Day all :o)

Ciao per ora.

Grande baci,

J and P

XXXX