Summer Vacation - Amalfi Coast June 2012

Now that I finally got around to setting up a blog it seems to make sense to share some of the many pictures we took during our two week vacation to Italy earlier this summer.  It was during these two weeks in our lives that Angie and I committed ourselves to the journey we are now on. I will share these in several posts, beginning with the Amalfi Coast, followed by our day trip to the island of Capri, and conclude with our week in Tuscany.  Amalfi (June 23-28) begins as follows:

This might have been the first picture I took in Italy this year.  Taken off our outdoor patio, from the back of our Montepertuso villa that literally clung to the side a steep mountain, we overlook the seaside town of Positano below – and the mighty Mediterranean Sea.

Taken off the patio, this is what passes for the backyard of our villa – the Apennine (Ap-a-NE-na) Mountains. 

The town of Positano, located on the south side of the Amalfi Coast, taken from the Mediterranean Sea.

Make no mistake - the town, the villas, the roads, the people and their culture are all chiseled into the steep mountainous terrain here.

A day at the beach in Positano.

A day and a lunch spent at Sorrento, on the north side of the Amalfi Coast.

Hiking atop the Apennine Mountains that run through much of Italy and all of the Amalfi Coast.  This trail is called the Path of the gods, so named for its elevation, rugged challenging terrain, and beautiful vistas.  Hiking the Path was one of the highlights of our week in Amalfi.  In many places it is little more than a goat path with steep drop-offs, but it’s worth every step.  Just don’t miss a step.

The southern edge of the Amalfi peninsula stretches west straight out into the Mediterranean Sea.  Taken from our hike on the POG, this shot clearly shows how the Apennine

(Ap-a-NE-na) Mountains go right down to the Med.

The Buca di Montepertuso – The Hole of Montepertuso.  Montepertuso is the small town just a few steps up from our villa, where in the cliffs above the town the weather somehow wore a giant hole right through the mountain!  And yes, that is Angie standing in the gap.

On the way back down from the Buca.

Overlooking the town of Montepertuso from one of the many gardens terraced into the sides of the mountains.

No better way to celebrate surviving a day of hiking than a fine dinner of Bistecca (the biggest Porterhouse steak in recorded history).  Taken at the excellent il Ritrovo restaurant in Montepertuso, overlooking the mighty Med.

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December Reflections on Living in Florence

In the past week or so we have finally gotten through some of the bureaucratic minutia associated with moving here and we are looking forward to transitioning to doing things a bit more fun.  After two trips to the bank we got our bank account successfully opened and online banking working (online banking web pages are entirely in Italian – thank goodness for Google Chrome!)

We have also unraveled the mysteries of going to the post office – go in, go to the ticket machine, take your specific ticket type (based on the nature of your specific question or need), wait 20 minutes to be called, then go to the window to buy a handful of stamps (thank goodness for Tabacchi stores where you can buy stamps in just a few minutes).  We also successfully submitted our application for Permesso di Soggiorno (Permission to Stay) – also at the post office – where we took a ticket, waited for 30 minutes, then spent 45 minutes at the window with the postal associate who reviewed our stacks of application forms and other documents, with our Italian speaking agent whom we had hired to provide assistance with this, before finally stamping our application as received for processing – not yet approved.  To obtain official approval to stay we have an appointment scheduled with the Inquisition (not the one at the post office) in January, and have been advised to bring food and water because we will be there about five hours.  And this is not to become Italian citizens mind you, only long term residents.  So just in case you were wondering, Italy takes immigration very seriously (as opposed to another country we know….)

So the first fun thing I did for myself since coming here was finding and joining a good gym.  If you know me you know my love of weight lifting, and Florence Fitness (a brand new gym in the city) really fills the bill.  Hopefully the strength training and walking everywhere 3-4 miles every day will compensate for the alarming increase in my pasta consumption since arriving here!  :-p

Additionally, Angie and I have attended two evening orchestra concerts so far, the first one pure classical music but the second included a number of traditional Christmas songs sung by a woman who must be singing opera somewhere because her voice rocked the cathedral.  Both, but especially the one at the cathedral of San Spirito, were just excellent. 

And then there is the eating out.  OMG, the food here is just beyond belief.  I won’t even try to describe it so let me just do this – close your eyes and image how a great meal made with good fresh, wholesome, all natural food products must taste – now open your eyes.  The food here is about 10 times better than what you just imagined….

Finally, I have joined a couple of online blogs about going skiing here.  The Italian Alps, the Dolomites, and the Apennines all offer excellent skiing, some as little as 2 hours from the city of Florence.  (“I feel the need, the need for speed…!”)  If I can work out the travel logistics (our car will not arrive until March) I plan to go skiing shortly after Christmas.

Clearly there is still much for us to do – obviously we still need to satisfy the final demands of the government bureaucrats so we can stay here – but - there are more churches to visit, more museums to see, there are the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, there is skiing in the Alps, just so much more to see and do.  And that is only for our time in Florence.  Beginning May 1^st we move into an apartment in a renovated farm house in the Tuscan countryside.  In short - our new life in Italy is only beginning.

Buon Natale – Merry Christmas !!

Pictures From My 2nd Week in Italy

When the sky and the water are the same color, it's a beautiful day in Florence. Taken from the Ponte Vecchio Bridge with the Ponte San Trinita Bridge in the background.



Taken of us at the Cathedral at San Lorenzo.

The Christmas Tree at the Piazza del Duomo, directly in front of the Duomo cathedral. Angie and I went out to dinner at this piazza to celebrate my birthday and I shot this pic there.

San Giovanni Batista - Saint John the Baptist.  This is one of my favorite (and perhaps most historically accurate) renditions of him.  If you lived in the desert, made your own clothes, and ate nothing but locusts and honey, you’d probably look like this too!

 

  Enjoying our first fire in the Florence apartment.

                                                                            If you are passing through Florence and want to stop by Doug and Angie’s, it easy.  Just head over the Ponte alle Grazie Bridge and make a left at the end of the street.  We are 6 doors down.  And we always have a bottle of wine ready! J

 

 

 

And finally, my favorite wine of the week – A Chiantigiane Chianti Rufina, bearing the official DOCG stamped label certifying that all grapes in the bottle came from the Chianti district of Tuscany. At 5.08€ per bottle it is uncommonly smooth and acid free, and definitely the champ of the 5.00€ Chiantis (well, for this week….) And no, you can’t get it in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections on my First Week in Italy

My apologies for not providing posts in a timelier manner, but the challenges of moving here have put me a bit behind.  Our first week, Dec 1-7 proved exciting, thrilling, and everything we hoped and knew it would be.  Now that we are settling in it’s a good time to stops and catch my breath, and take a look back on a few observations: 

·         Florence would still be a fun, vibrant city even if it didn’t have its great museums and beautiful churches, but its museums and churches are part of its soul.

·         If you cannot find a great place to eat in Florence, you are blind.  And your nose has stopped working too.

·         Italians eat reasonable portions of fresh, healthy, wholesome food every day and stay trim.  Unfortunately many of them smoke like chimneys which means they really don’t live any longer than anyone else.

·         Buying an Italian phone, or putting an Italian SIMM card in your existing phone (I did both) is far more difficult than your friends or the online blogs lead you to believe.  It took three days and three hikes to the WIND phone store to get both phones working properly – but once set up they are an order of magnitude cheaper than trying to run a discounted U.S. ATT roaming plan for a long term stay in Italy.

·         Italy is the world champion of bureaucracy.  We thought applying for an Italian VISA while still in the US was difficult, but applying for the Permesso di Soggiorno (Permission to Stay) and Codice Fiscale (Italian Social Security numbers) after arriving here (they are needed when staying more than 3 months) is so complicated we had to hire an agent to help us with it.

·         Where we are living in Florence is perfect for us.  Our apartment does not get the noise of traffic and sirens you would normally expect in other parts of the city, yet we are a 1 minute walk to the Arno River, and a 5 minute walk to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge or Uffizi Museum.  Our area is nice and has its own vibe, but we can easily walk 15 minutes to numerous other sections of the city, each with its own piazzias, markets, shops, and sights.  But it all hangs together in a central theme - Florence is a little like NYC in that the Florentines (Italian city residents) have a strong identity with their city, despite the numerous foreigners living here.  Like me.

·         I am very frustrated with myself that I didn’t have the time to learn much Italian before arriving.  Now that we are starting to get beyond all the things necessary to settle in, this will become a priority.

·         Despite my lack of Italian, I have quickly gotten pretty adept at savvy grocery shopping – food and money speak a universal language.

·         So far I found two sports bars that televise NFL Football – the House of Sizzle and the Lion’s Fountain Irish Pub.  7:00pm local broadcast of 1:00EST games and 10:30pm broadcast of 4:30EST games.  Monday Night Football? Ain’t happening.

·         My favorite wine of the week – A Castiglioni Chianti from the Frescobaldi family, bearing the official DOCG stamped label certifying that all grapes in the bottle came from the Chianti district of Tuscany.  At 9.90€ per bottle it is smooth and solid, and a definite cut above the 5.00€ Chianti’s.  And no, you can’t get it in the US.

Pictures from my first week in Italy

Today I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures taken from my first week in Florence: 

Sunrise over the Arno River that runs through Florence.

Taken from the Ponte alle Grazie Bridge over the Arno, very near our apartment in Florence. If you look closely you can see snow caps forming on the Apennine Mountains in the far background.

Dinner at Osteria, a small cafe just at the end of our street. 

The north end of the famed Ponte Vecchio Bridge that spans the Arno.  Its's about a 5 minute walk from our apartment.

The famed Duomo, be biggest church in Florence.

Why I moved to Italy

Why did I move to Italy?  The short answer is because it’s a heck of a lot better than living in Haddon Heights New Jersey.  The longer answer takes some explaining. 

For a long time Angie and I had discussed the possibility of selling our house and moving elsewhere.  We also discussed possibly renting out our house and moving somewhere temporarily.  High on our list was living in Maine, but we seriously considered the western part of North Carolina (WNC) and some other locations as well.  These discussions took on a more viable tenor once she retired from school teaching  – given that I was working from home the majority of the time anyway, I could fulfill my duties as a Sr. Vice President of Bank of America from anywhere in the U.S. that provided a good Internet and phone connection and had a commercial airport nearby.   As much as we wanted to make something like this happen, the demands of my work schedule and the long hours it required made it impossible to manage selling our house or finding a renter, while at the same time looking for a new home in what we hoped would be in the perfect setting.  It just wasn’t feasible until after I retired. 

 
As it happened, we had been long planning a two week vacation to Italy in June following my retirement in February 2012.  Frankly, after 27 years in commercial banking, I was ready for a vacation in Italy.  As we were closing in on our departure date we again discussed the possibility of moving, and it dawned on the both of us that just maybe we should approach our vacation with an open mind about considering a move to Italy.

Italy would expose us to a new culture, language, countryside and way of life that would be foreign to us – because it was a foreign country.  It would stretch us and challenge us in ways that moving to a familiar location (like Maine or WNC) never could. Our vacation (a week on the Amalfi Coast and a week in Tuscany) turned out to be everything we had dreamed about, and it clinched the deal; we went back in August for a week to secure housing for a long term stay in Italy.  After looking at numerous properties both in Florence and in the Tuscan countryside, our new friend and real estate agent Adriana got us signed up for a 5 month lease of an apartment in Florence (December through April 2013) and a 7 month lease of a new apartment in a renovated Tuscan farmhouse (May through November 2013). 

Angie and I are at the perfect point in our lives to embark on this adventure.  We are both retired, but extremely active and in good health.  Our adult children are out on their own and living their own lives, but we have no grandchildren yet.  Financially our plan is a good one, its viability proven by our ability to secure good Italian housing while funding (most) of it through renting our NJ home.

I think it would have been easy for me to decide that this change in my life was too much, too complicated, too beyond the scope of most people typically do. It would have been easy for me to stay home, sit on the couch, watch football, and live an expected lifestyle.  If I had done that I know I would have looked back on this moment in my life with abject disappointment with myself, having let this opportunity pass by because I lacked the personal courage or motivation to pursue it.

Now we are here.  We didn’t come here to live an American lifestyle in Italy.  We came here as adventurers, fully understanding we would be foreigners in a foreign land, yet embracing a new language and culture and striving to fit in and blend in to an Italian lifestyle as much as possible.  We also came here hoping to share this experience as much as we can with family and friends, some of whom will come to visit us over the next year.  We know we are here for a year – what lies beyond that we are unsure of at this moment, but I am confident our future will reveal itself as we turn our faces to this new horizon.