Putting Things In Order

To start with, here are a few pictures from our stay in Diano Marina. We were up early enough to see the sun rise and this is what it looked like:

Later in the morning I took a few more photos from the balcony of our room. You can see the main part of the town through the Palm trees.

The lawn chairs are located on the deck over the restaurant. A little later in the morning there were fishermen on the rocks in this pictures.

Since our arrival we have mostly spent our time putting things in order. The place was in good shape but our renters had left things arranged differently than we prefer. Also, all our clothes were packed away so one of the first things we did was unpack those and settle into our bedroom. After being closed up all winter a fair amount of cleaning is needed as well--lots of dust-- which is to be expected in an urban environment. I am also once more at war with the pigeons. Our veranda needed a thorough scrub down which I did yesterday morning.

We also needed to get our internet "chiavetta" (also called an internet key or dongle) operational and make sure our cell phones worked. Our main number (a pay as you go phone) goes inactive if money is not put on it every 11 months and it had been a little more than that the last time we did it. As you can tell it is all working just fine now.

The kitchen also needed stocking and I did our big initial shopping yesterday. We now have most of the staples we need for our stay as well as fresh food to last several days. Tempting as it is, we cannot eat out all the time. Last night when I was making dinner I discovered that I had forgotten to buy vinegar for salads. However, I had purchased tiny onions marinated in balsamic vinegar. So, I popped the top on the onion jar and spooned some of the balsamic marinade from it onto our salads. It tasted great!

Yesterday I also put together the paperwork for the renewals of our Permessi di Soggiorno--our long stay permits. Tomorrow we head to the post office (where the paperwork is submitted) to see if I filled out the forms correctly. Hopefully, the process will go as smoothly as it did the last time.

We got up early this morning and went to a marcia podistica. More about that the next time.

We're Back!

I said on my Facebook page that I would post today. However, it has been another busy, busy, busy day and I am just too tired to say much. Nonetheless, here is a start at the highlights of our trip here and our first few days.

Our trip from Whidbey Island was uneventful. There were multiple opportunities for things to go wrong but we were lucky. We started off taking the shuttle from Greenbank to SeaTac Airport where we caught the first of our three flights. From Seattle we went to Chicago and from there to London Heathrow. Because we opted for "cheap" over "easy" we had to go through immigration/customs, pick up our luggage and recheck it for our flight from Heathrow to Nice. We had three hours and it went so smoothly we had about an hour and a half to wait. The flight to Nice actually left almost an hour late but Dom and I just slept while waiting for take-off and then slept most of the two hour flight.

When we arrived in Nice we picked up our Renault lease car and drove to Diano Marina in Italy, about and hour and half away. At least it should have taken that long. Because Wednesday was a holiday in Italy and large trucks are not allowed on the roads on holidays, the big rigs were parked along the side of the Autoroute in France approaching the border which cause quite a long backup. It took us about an hour to get through the traffic jam. Because of the flight delay and the traffic, instead of arriving at our hotel about 7 pm we ended up arriving about 8:30 pm.

After finding our hotel we just dropped our bags in our room and then went to find something to eat. We had a nice dinner and some gelato and then went back to the hotel. Upon arriving there, I discovered I had left my purse in the restaurant. I was borderline panic stricken because in my purse were my wallet, both our passports, the lease papers for the car, and both my US and Italian cell phones. It was about 10:30 by this time and all I could think to do was ask the man at the hotel front desk to call the restaurant and see if anyone was still there. Luckily, someone was so we hopped in our car and dashed back there. The woman in the restaurant was so nice. She said she had tried to run after us but we had already disappeared. Thankfully, nothing in the purse had been touched so no harm, no foul.

Our hotel, Arc en Ciel, turned out to be just lovely. Our room faced the sea and we were up early enough to appreciate the gorgeous sunrise. Breakfast began at 7:30 and we were down there not long after that. The restaurant/breakfast room is situated almost on the rocky shore so we enjoyed more of the sea view with a delicious meal of jam-filled croissants, a little meat and cheese, some juice and coffee for Dom and tea for me. Afterwards we walked the seaside promenade for about forty-five minutes and then returned to the hotel and continued on our way.

The weather was partly sunny in Diano Marina but it got better and better as we drove south. By the time we got to Lucca it was just perfect--sunny and 70! We arrived in Capannori about 12:45 and made our way up to the door of our apartment. Lo and behold, we could not get the key we had with us to work. It was a copy we had made before we left the last time and, although I had carefully checked to be sure it worked, on Thursday we could not get it to open the door.

Our neighbor across the hall, Signora Daniela, arrived just then and was really helpful. First, she let me borrow her cell phone because mine needed to be "topped up" before it would work for outgoing calls. I called our friend Anna in Partigliano who I knew had a key that worked. She was just going home for lunch so we dashed up there to pick up her keys. Meanwhile, our neighbor let us leave our bags in her apartment while we retrieved the key. Much, much easier than hauling them back to the car and then hauling them back up again when we returned.

By 2:30 or so we were back in Capannori with Anna's key and in the apartment. Because we were both starving we went downstairs to the bar on the ground floor and had lunch. After that we began the task of unpacking, making beds, rearranging and taking inventory of what needed to be done in the apartment.

Well, jet lag is setting in and I am going to have to stop here. More tomorrow including pictures.

Off to Italy!!!

We are finally headed back to Italy. It has been a long break for us--almost eleven months--since we left and we are eager to be there.

Tuesday we start our journey and we will finally arrive in Capannori Thursday morning. We land in Nice, France Wednesday evening and will spend the night in the town of Diano Marina before continuing on the next day. It is just too difficult to make the four hour drive from Nice to Capannori completely jet lagged. So, a nice stop in a seaside town is the perfect break.

We don't have much in the way of definite plans for our stay. This will be the first time we will be in Capannori and be able to just relax. We are looking forward to more Sunday morning walks, day trips around Tuscany and beyond and perhaps an overnight jaunt or two. In mid June we fly to Ireland to meet my family for ten days before returning to the U.S.

I plan to post regularly with details of our new life in a more urban environment. Our last sojourn was overwhelmingly taken up with getting the apartment in shape for our summer renters. We had little time to just enjoy being there. I am really looking forward to afternoons on the patio with my loaded Nook!

Check back regularly for updates.

A Wonderful 2012--So Far

Lou standing next to the big snowball that rolled down the hill one day.

Thus far 2012 has been a fine year for Dom and I.

The ski season was good (lots of snow!) with some really fabulous moments. Those include several weekends of powder skiing at Alpental plus more weekends that were fun even if the snow was challenging. As always, the Alpental social season was loads of fun. We also made it to Whistler Blackcomb for the first time in about 15 years. It was a great trip--good snow, good weather and great friends. Both of us skied well this season. Dom got new boots early on and I think my regular yoga made a big difference.

I especially enjoyed skiing with my nieces and nephews. The youngest, Peter, finally started skiing at age 12 and the oldest, Emily (20), has turned into a terrific skier who kept up with us on the most challenging runs on a great powder day in March. I love skiing with all of them.

My consulting project (developing a competency assessment and training program for a pathology laboratory) went well. I enjoyed working with my partner and we got the project completed about two weeks ago. Our client was really pleased with our efforts. It was so much fun working again that I am now hoping to get involved in more projects.

Dom made progress on his racecar project. He spent a lot of time pefecting his aluminum welding techniques.  He thought he might get it done before our departure but he took time out to make the cabinet for our bathroom. He also spent time at our commercial building in Issaquah and signed a tenant for one of the vacant spaces.

In contrast to last year, this spring in the Pacific Northwest has been great. While we had a rainy March, so far April has been quite nice. Both last weekend and this weekend were sunny and warm. Today the temperatures in Seattle were over 70! Nonetheless, we are looking forward to getting to Italy where the weather should be even better.

More about that in the next post!