PATIENCE IS NOT FOR ME

Those who know me will agree that I'm impatient, and I'll readily admit it. Now that our house is for sale and we've made the decision to return to the states, I have to admit that I'm having a hard time. I feel stuck in between two worlds, and it's not that I don't enjoy our life here in Italy, but now that we've decided, I'd like to start planning, because in addition to being impatient, I'm also a planner.

Planning a trip has always been as much fun as the trip itself. I love leafing through guidebooks, searching the internet, asking questions, and often discovering places that I never would have known about without a good deal of research. I love trying to maximize my time, to figure out what to do on Sundays, or on days when most of the museums are closed. I like figuring out what route makes the most sense...sometimes you want the most scenic route and other times it makes sense to take the overnight train. I do try to have several options when traveling, knowing that unexpected surprises, some good, some bad, often require last minute adjustments.

So, now that we've made the decision to return to the states, we had to decide where. After much discussion and thought, we've decided to return to Louisville for many reasons. Of course if money were no object I'd live in the Big Apple, but that's not quite in our budget. Louisville has always had a reasonable cost of living, which works to our favor now that we're retired. Of course Art still wants to work at Churchill Downs from time to time, as much for the social aspect as for the money.

Living in Louisville will also allow us to relax a little, in that we won't have to learn our way around, find the shortcuts, or know which store is best. After five years of having to learn our way around Umbria, the mostly straight roads will also be a pleasant change from the windy, windy roads here in Italy.

So what's the problem, you might be asking. Well for me, there's just not much planning or preparing I can do right now. I don't really have a place to store boxes, so I can't start packing stuff. At least if I were packing I'd feel as if I was doing something productive. I also can't plan much for our move, or for our travel plans after the house is sold.

We thought that once the house was sold we'd take some time...4 weeks, 6 weeks, maybe even longer, to do some of the traveling we haven't been able to do. Since we now have a car we planned to drive north, visiting the Piemonte region, stopping in Switzerland, a country we both love, maybe even getting to Belgium for some waffles, beer and french fries with mayo! Unfortunately, our itinerary will be determined to some degree by the time of year. If we're going to be traveling in January, perhaps we'd go south towards Puglia and on to Sicily instead of going north. Depending on the time of year maybe we'd drive to Ancona and take the ferry over to Croatia. If I tried to plan for every contingency I'd be up to my ears in print-outs and brochures, so I really need to wait until things are a little more settled.

We also thought it would be a cool idea to cruise back to the states, but ships from Rome to the states aren't as common as ships between England and the U.S., and are limited to the times when the ships are repositioning. If this works out, great, but again, it's a matter of timing.

Art still looks at the real estate listings in Louisville, and even the used car ads, but honestly that just drives me crazy! Yes, we have a general idea of the areas we'd like to live in and what type of car we'd like, but until we're actually there, cash in hand, it doesn't really do much good to see what's available today.

So yes, I am trying to enjoy my time in Italy....if you've been reading the blog recently you'll know that we have been having lots of fun, but still, the next phase of our life is just around the corner and I'd like to be planning for it, dreaming about it, making some decisions, but I can't do anything...and it's driving me crazy!!!

With the slow housing market we know we could be here for a while, and that's fine. Although we don't have tons of money it's not as if we have to sell quickly, so we'll just wait for the right buyer. The fact that I love Italy, Umbria and especially San Venanzo makes it soooo frustrating that we haven't yet found the person who will recognize our house and our town for the gems they are! For me, the impatient planner, these are trying times!

HOUSE FOR SALE IN UMBRIA

Yes, I'm sure many of you know that our house is for sale, and clicking on the picture in the right hand column will take you to everything you ever wanted to know about the house and the area. For those who might be stopping by the blog for the first time, or who might be Googling, I thought writing about our HOUSE FOR SALE IN UMBRIA might be a good idea. Just scrolling through the blog will also let you know what life is like in central Umbria, what we do for fun, and what's going on in San Venanzo. In the past year or so I've started posting videos of various things here in Umbria...sometimes they're of festivals, sometimes just a field of sunflowers. Stop by OUR YouTube PAGE any time to get a taste of small town Italy!

I know the dollar is weak, but I also know that there are many Americans who are still searching for that perfect second/retirement home in Italy. The British pound does better against the euro, and of course for Europeans the euro is still the euro. The fact that Ryan Air now flies into the Perugia airport from both London and Barcelona makes access to Umbria easier than ever. Read THIS ARTICLE by James Martin, who has some thoughts about property in Italy.

No matter what currency you use or what your reasons are for wanting a home in Italy, we propose that Umbria is a beautiful choice, and that our HOUSE FOR SALE IN UMBRIA, in the hilltown of San Venanzo is certainly worth a look! After you've read all the information on the HOUSE FOR SALE post, please contact us at: umbriahouse4sale@hotmail.com to let us know when you'd like to see the house!

SURPRISES IN SAN VENANZO

Last fall we celebrated the re-opening of the building that houses our comune (city hall). The Villa Faina underwent a three year restoration and the end result was stunning...restored frescoes, beautiful woodwork, and at last, the public garden surrounding the villa was once again full of life. Except for the area behind the villa, which remained locked away behind a tall fence. I wasn't sure what continuing work was going on, but was afraid that it would continue for three more years. What a pleasant surprise to find out I was wrong! Suddenly one day the fences came down, revealing a new dance floor and areas for tables and tents....San Venanzo was back in the festa business!

Even a small town like San Venanzo can hold some surprises. One night on our way up to the festa we stopped to ask the workman about this new archway. The tiny room connecting the two buildings has been there for as long as we've been here...five years...but the man told us that the arch was simply "phase two" of the project. Apparently funds weren't available for the archway when the connection was added. We asked if the comune was paying for the arch but were told no, the casa dei anziani (the old folks home) was paying for everything. What a charming addition to the neighborhood!


At the festa I asked our neighbor Franco if I could snap a picture of him at the grill...















Someone in San Venanzo decided to try a progressive dinner for Saturday night's festivities. Each course would be served in a different area, and accompanied by wine from a differnt area cantina. The antipasto course was the only one I remembered to take a picture of! We had panzanella ((tomato bread salad), a farro salad, and two slices of bruschetta, one topped with fave beans and the other with truffles. The wine for this course was provided by the cantina Colli Perugini.

For the next course we moved to the courtyard of the villa for two incredibly delicious pastas and again, red or white wine from Cantina Giovagnoli, which I'd never heard of before.

For the meat course we moved to the area in front of the volcano museum and received a platter of assorted meats and cheeses, and wine from one of our favorite cantinas, Busti.

After all the food and wine, dessert was simple: watermelon and cantoloupe, the perfect ending to a great meal....and all this for only €15!

Disclav Epic Catto

Okay, maybe it's me, but I was a bit disappointed with this band. We'd heard them before and liked their slightly Celtic sound, but this time around I wasn't quite as interested. After a while everything sounded the same, and was quite melancholy. Eventually they added a jig, but by that time I didn't really care, especially after listening to poetry readings in between songs and watching modern ballet being performed during one of the songs. Just like the previous band the night before, I just never really connected with the band or the music.

Here are two YouTube videos if you're interested, and just in case you like the music and will be in the area, Disclav Epic Catto will perform at the ROTECASTELLO festival on Friday, August 8th. (More info about the festival later!)





jig

CROSSING LINES FOR MUSIC

The region of Umbria is divided into two provinces: Perugia and Terni. For us, the fact that San Venanzo was in the region of Terni meant shorter lines and fewer delays when we first arrived here and had to apply for our permits of stay. Now that the provinical offices are no longer handling this procedure, the benefits of being in the province of Terni are less clear.

I couldn't find a map showing both the two provinces AND some key cities, so I'll do my best to explain the map above. The green part of the map is the province of Perugia, and the blue section is the province of Terni. I'm going to generalize and say that each city sits in approximately the position where it's name is printed. San Venanzo sits at the northeastern edge of the province of Terni, and is separated from it's closest provincial neighbors by mountains and winding roads. The closest city to us, the one we frequent most often, is Marsciano, just over the border into the province or Perugia, but much closer than any other city in our own province.

Of course I have no idea why or how the provincial lines were drawn, but as puzzling as it is, it can often be frustrating when doing business. Our friends in Todi and Massa Martana, physically close to Terni, must drive into Perugia to deal with any bureaucracy...and deal with larger numbers of people. We've never minded the longer drive to Terni to take care of business, because in the end the time we saved standing in line and dealing with various offices more than offset our drive time.

For our daIly lives though, most of our goods and services seem to come from Marsciano and/or the province or Perugia, and most of the events we attend are also within the province of Perugia...but getting information about goods, services and events can be quite frustrating! We'd love to have a phonebook from Perugia, and if it weren't for our friend Wendy, we probably wouldn't have one. Of course we have a phone book for the provice of Terni delivered, but aside from people and businesses in San Venanzo, we've never needed any of the phone numbers it contains. We want to have info about the local sagre and feste, but nothing from the district of Perugia seems to get posted in San Venanzo. At least we drive into Marsciano on a regular basis so that we can check out the billboards for information.

I doubt that the provincial lines will be redrawn anytime soon, but this summer common sense has prevailed and San Venanzo has joined the music festival promoted by the city of Marsciano. This festival, MUSICA PER I BORGHI, offers a series of free concerts set in the various 'frazione', or small towns that are part of the comune of Marsciano. This year San Venanzo participated, and on Friday night we played host to Fabizio Palma and Grazia di Michele, who apparently are well know from the Itaian show "Amici". (yes, that's "Friends"!) Clicking on the link in red to the "Musica per i Borghi" website will let you see what other concerts are still to come.

Due to the event being publicized all over the area via posters and newspaper articles, it was standing room only as the band finally began to play, nearly an hour after the schedule start time. Of course when did ANY concert ever start on time, then factor Italy into the equation.....

The group was interesting, funky, jazzy, with a great saxophone player. After the frist few numbers a singer came onstage accompanied by tow back-up singers. This singer...was HE Fabrizio?...talked as much as he sang, which I found annoying. thankfully he did have a great voice for types of cabaret/jazz songs he sang. And then he stepped over the line, doing a terrible, overly dramatic version of "Yesterday", that had me rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

I'm not sure what the many older residents of San Venanzo thought of the performance since we left before the concert was over. Early mornings and late nights are hard to do unless you take the tradtional Italian nap after lunch, and I'm just not a napper, so I was ready to call it a night before midnight. I hope the event was successful for all concerned and that San Venenzo will participate again next year...and maybe even join in other Marsciano/Perugia events as well.

YouTube videos are posted below..........

ROOM WITH A VIEW

A few years ago the field we can see from our bedroom window was filled with sunflowers, and now, once again, the sunflowers have returned! Crops are rotated so that we rarely see sunflowers in the same spot each year, and this year many farmers have chosen to plant wheat, given it's high demand. When I looked out the window and saw yellow here and there, I knew this would be our year!

My plan was to get up early this morning and drive over to the field to take pictures, but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. We woke up this morning to cloudy skies and strong winds. I'm not sure if we'll see any rain, but without the blue sky as a background, I won't be taking sunglower photos today. I will try to post some of the sunflower phots we took earlier in the week just as soon as I can.

DANCE DANCE DANCE!

MUSIC IN SAN VENANZO JULY 11-13 2008

If you're in Umbria next weekend, join us for three nights of food and music! If you can't read the poster, go to our FLICKR PAGE where you can view a larger version!

MORE DANICING IN SAN VENANZO

Check out all the videos on our YouTube site...the link is in the right hand column.

FESTA IN SAN VENANZO!

DINNER WITH OUR EXERCISE CLASS

For the past several months Art and I have attended exercise classes twice a week at the school gym here in San Venanzo. My class began at 6:00 and was more of an aerobic class with only women. Art’s class, immediately following mine, was a gentler class designed for those with back problems.

Both classes were taught by Teresa, a young woman who’s originally from Poland, but who now lives here with her Italian husband. Not only did our classes start promptly, Teresa always made them a lot of fun, and loved to practice her English with me….except that most of the time she was too shy to speak more than a sentence or two.

At then end of classes in May, we all agreed to meet for dinner one night and to pay for Teresa’s dinner as a way of saying “thank you”. We decided to meet at Angelino and Peppa’s restaurant, one of our favorite in the area. Angelino and Peppa run a true mom and pop place, with help from their son and others from San Venanzo.

I shot two quick videos that night….the first is just a pan of the room, and you can see that the television was on to make sure no one missed the soccer match. We had over twenty people in our group, and although the service was somewhat erratic, a good time was had by all. The second video show Giulia, standing on a table outside, reading a short thank you speech she’d written to Teresa from all of us.

I should also mention that our group represented five different nationalities: Italian, Polish, English, American and Dutch. Even San Venanzo, a small farm town in the middle of Umbria has an international flair!

VIDEOS OF THE KIDS IN SAN VENANZO

If you're not a parent of grandparent of one of these children, this could be very, very boring! There are seven of this videos from this end-of-the-school-year pagaent on our Our YouTube Videos Page. (There were supposed to be eight videos, but number six failed to post twice, so I gave up)

JOIN US IN SAN VENANZO!

This summer, for the first time in many years, San Venanzo will host a festa! Every night from June 30th through July 6th there will be food, music and dancing! See you there!

SAN VENANZO PICNIC 2008 - GRILLING THE SAUSAGE

SAN VENANZO PICNIC 2008 - THE SAUSAGE IS READY!

TIRRENO-ADRIATICO BICYCLE RACE IN SAN VENANZO

THE SAN VENENZO SOCCER TEAM CELEBRATES CARNEVALE!