For years, Sam and I have had a dream, and that dream is to go and live in Italy. Sam's father was born in Italy and with my background in Art History, we have always had a strong pull towards this dream. Back in 2001, some friends in Tuscany were helping to organize jobs and a place to live for us and all was going nicely until the tragedy of the the World Trade Centers struck. Within days, the job, that was tourist reliant, was no longer feasible.
Flash forward 10 years, 2 more children and many adventures, the dream is still alive. In the spring we put our house on the market. The plan, sell the house and take off to Italy, buy something there perhaps. Sam would take some time to work on his art. But, the house sat on the market, we lowered the price, got a very low offer, got a reasonable offer, decided against selling, took it off the market, decided to sell, contacted potential buyers, worked out a deal. All the subjects have been removed and now we pack. All going well, we should be on our way to Italy in the beginning of October.
We are so excited, the house is filled with a happy buzz. So much to do, so little time. All the plans are still a little loose. Things will hopefully become clearer as the time comes.
We decided to look for another house that we could rent out while we were away, keep ourselves in the market for if and when we return. We found a great house, not to far from where we live that will be perfect. We have an accepted offer, and now they wait for the subjects to be removed.
In the meantime, we have found a place to rent in Italy. It seems as if the universe is telling us this is the right decision, everything is falling into place.
We have begun sorting and packing. Not fun. But bit by bit we are making our way, what do we store, ship, sell, chuck? It is truly amazing the amount of stuff one can accumulate, despite all efforts other wise. I sadly come from the creative mind, of 'don't throw that out, I can make something with it', which is not good when it comes to packing, because one there is too much stuff to deal with and some of it I am not willing to part with. I think at times like this I drive Sam mad, I also believe everything has a much higher value than he or anyone else does. Thank goodness he can be the voice of reason, or we would need a massive storage space.
The children have been great learning Italian on Rosetta Stone. Sofie is getting very good, she helps us all out. She is a bit sad to be leaving her friends, but she is being a real trooper, helping to pack and to help with the others when Sam and I are busy. One of our favourite terms we have learned in Italian is che schifo, it means disgusting or gross. We all laugh when someone says something is che schifo, an especially well used expression by a 13 year old girl, who thinks lots of things are che schifo. So off I must run and continue my packing.
Ciao for now!
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