Why Our Apartment Is For Sale

Several people have asked why we are selling our apartment.

The easy answer is the economy has not been good to us although it hit us later rather than sooner. The apartment has cost more to own than our little place in Partigliano in terms of utilities and condominium fees. There are things we really like about it (drive right to the door, elevator, no garden/land to care for, proximity to services/restaurants/the autostrada, and it is bright and spacious) but there are also things we do not like (noise, disconnect from the people, and it has required more maintenance/repairs than we anticipated). We also really miss some things about Partigliano (the people, taking care of the garden/land, and the quiet).

At one time our situation was such that we could afford to spend four months here in Italy AND also go to Spring Training in Arizona, a major automobile race once a year, and take side trips within Europe. That has been more difficult to do the last couple of years. So, we decided we needed to "downsize" our economic footprint. The logical thing to do is to sell the apartment in Italy.

Owning a second home in a foreign country is always going to cost more than just visiting as a tourist. We could actually spend as much time here as we do now in a rental property and the annual out of pocket cost would be less. However, it is really nice to have a place where you can leave clothes, have the furnishings and kitchen set up the way you like, and where you have neighbors who know the place is yours. Our initial goal was to "get beyond just being tourists." In that regard, having a place here has been immensely successful.

We plan to continue to visit Italy every year but probably not twice a year and probably not for as long each trip. However, we also want to spend time in different cities in Europe and maybe even in the U.S.

Depending on how things work out and when the apartment actually sells, we might (big might!) buy another place in this area. It would have to be the perfect spot and I would want it to be back in Partigliano again. Doing the San Marco procession on April 25th really brought home to us how much we had become part of the community there and vice versa.

Only time will tell how this all shakes out.

A Potpourri - San Gimignano, May Day Concert, Le Marce

Here is a catch-up blog post. It's not that we have not done anything the last few weeks but with two Italian national holidays, a few excursions, more work on the apartment, and my own work ventures, Dom and I have been really busy. In fact, this trip has just flown by. It is hard to believe we will be back on Whidbey Island a week from Wednesday.

A friend from high school, Julie Wells, contacted me to let me know she and her husband Craig were going to be in Florence for one night on April 23. We agreed to meet for dinner at their hotel. Unfortunately, I mixed up the days and on Tuesday night (the 23rd!) they called to find out where we were. As it was then 7 pm and Dom and I were in the middle of a project, we just could not make it into Florence that evening. Julie and Craig were picking up a car the next morning and going to San Gimignano where they were going to stay for three nights. We arranged to meet them in San Gimignano (famous for all its towers) the next day for lunch. 

Dom and I had our appointments at the Questura to renew our Permessi di Soggiorno (long stay permits) so we took off early enough to be in line at the immigration office at 9 am. Soon after they opened the doors, we were lucky enough to end up at the head of the line for a just opened window. Lickety split we had shown our documents, handed over our pictures, been fingerprinted and signed documents. We were out of the office by 9:15!

Since I had allowed about an hour plus for the Questura we were then in the position of having loads of time to get to San Gimignano. It was a beautiful sunny day so we opted to take the scenic route.  Spring was in the air with all the trees leafing out in bright shades of green and the first of the flowers coming into bloom. In spite of our leisurely drive and a stop for Elevenses, we still arrived at our destination quite early. It was the perfect weather for just strolling around one of the classic Tuscan hill towns.

We wandered into a church and then strolled through town and then decided to visit the local duomo (cathedral). It now costs Euros 3.50 to visit but it is well worth it because of the fabulous frescoes in the church. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed but I did manage to take the photo below.

This fresco of the Annunciation is located in the loggia at the side of the church where one enters. The ticket taker was admonishing me "No picture! No picture!" as I took it.

April 25th in Italy is a national holiday, Festa della Liberazione, which commemorates Italy's liberation towards the end of World War II. In Partigliano, it is Festa di San Marco, or Feast of St. Mark. That means a traditional procession up the hill to the old hermitage chapel. Upon arrival mass is said and then everyone has a picnic breakfast on the lawn outside.

We have participated in the San Marco procession several times. Over the years the number of participants has diminished. This year there was only about a dozen of us who hiked up the old donkey path through the woods. About a dozen more met us at the chapel including the priest. It was a truly lovely day and marvelous to once again be with all our friends in Partigliano. They really made us feel welcome. 

Following mass everyone stood around outside the chapel and the priest blessed the fields.

Our friend Antonio grabbed my camera and took a picture of everyone standing around.

Another picture by Antonio. To the right in the picture is the chapel with the rest of the hermitage building behind it. About fifteen years ago  the men of Partigliano fixed it up.

There were only two children in the group. Here are the two of them with their heads together over an iPhone!

Breakfast in the grass always includes wine!

May 1st is also a national holiday in Italy, the European version of Labor Day. In Capannori there is always a free concert in the piazza in front of our apartment. This year it was actually four nights of concerts--Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately it rained hard on Tuesday night so that concert was moved to Monday. Except for Wednesday all the concerts started about 7 pm and went off and on until midnight.

On Tuesday the performer was Francesco di Gregori, one of Italy's most well known singer-songwriters. We were introduced to his music at Italian language school in 2000 and I have since collected a number of his cds. His music is very lyrical and reminiscent of singers like Bob Dylan and James Taylor. He is still very popular and attracted quite a crowd.

We walked around down in the piazza for a while but the best views were from our balcony. We lifted up the bird screen so we could use the railing for our drinks and nibbles.

The concert began at 6 pm. Halfway through it started to rain so a lot of people in the crowd put up their umbrellas. It was quite colorful.

Quite a few people started to leave, or at least looked like they were leaving.

I looked over at the bank next door and saw a LOT of people huddled under the building overhang.

The concert was really wonderful and lasted about two hours. It was nice to have an evening where the music did not last until midnight!

On Monday and Tuesday, before the May 1st concert, we talked to the three real estate agencies who are located here in Capannori. We listed the apartment with each of them. One of them brought someone to look at the place on Friday. I don't expect anything to happen to quickly but it would be nice to have everything resolved.

We have also been working on the anti-pigeon screens. They are up and working but we still have a little work to do. I'll post some pictures when they are all completed.

On Sunday mornings (and holidays) we are also still doing le marcie podistici--the organized walks we participate in with the group from Partigliano. This morning the walk was located in Camigliano where one of the major Lucchese villas, Villa Torrigiani,  is situated.

The walk started out up the lane that leads to the villa. It was pretty good weather when we set off.

The route goes through some lovely countryside. I always like walking past these well tended vines.

There were a lot of people out there and the road was pretty full. The weather was deteriorating.

As we looked back from the highest point of the walk we could see the rain sweeping in from the southwest. It was not long after this that the drops started falling. We got fairly wet but not soaked. Rain did drip down my forehead until I slicked my hair back. By the time we finished the rain had stopped but it started up with a vengeance later in the day.

I just took this picture through the bug screen and as you can see it has cleared off and is beautiful. 

Still, all you people in Seattle can comfort yourselves with the fact that for the next few days you are having better weather than Italy!

P.S. In a hurry to go to dinner so posted without proofreading. Please excuse the typos!

Cronoscalata at Camucia-Cortona

I am behind on blog posts AGAIN! This past week has been very busy--lots of projects and lots of socializing. Here is what we did on Saturday, April 20.

Dom found notice of a cronoscalata--a hill climb--for vintage cars in one of his magazines devoted to historic cars. The start was in the town of Camucia and the finish up in Cortona at the top of the hill. If Cortona sounds familiar it is because it is where Frances Mayes of Under the Tuscan Sun has her villa.

There was not a lot of sun in evidence last Saturday but it never did rain on us. The drive from Capannori to Camucia takes about two hours. The race was actually on Sunday but the Saturday practice time trials started at 3:30 pm. So we left at about 11 am and arrived with plenty of time to inspect the cars in the pits (paddock), grab some lunch and then walk a ways up the hill to watch the cars go by.

 This photo was taken near the start and shows the town of Cortona on top of the hill. The road switchbacked up the hill providing a challenging run.

 We started out in the pits looking at all the cars. The nice thing about this type of small event is there are no tickets and you can get really close to the vehicles. As you can see from the above photo, this type of racing is favored by a more mature set of drivers.

 There was a wide variety of vehicles. Some of them were stock cars that were modified for hill climbs but the above looked like it had been made from flattened tin cans. It was definitely not stock.

 Thee were small budget operations...

 ...and big budget operations. There were even "rent-a-racer" trucks. Very tempting!

  I believe Dom said all the vehicles had to be pre-197?. There were some very sleek cars...

 ...and some that were on the boxy side.

 There were definite contrasts in the pits.

 Fiat 500s are a favorite race car here in Italy. These were waiting to line up for the start.

 The pits were a lot like a poor man's Concorso d'Eleganza.

 Dom and I liked this obviously homemade trailer.

 This was the oldest vehicle in the bunch--an Alfa Romeo 6C2300 according to the program (also free!)

 We had porchetta panini from the always present food wagon. The porchetta was pretty good but nowhere near as good as the porchetta I bought from one of the market stalls here in Capannori on Friday. We might have a standard Friday lunch from now on.

 Dom eating and looking.

 After we ate we found the start line. There were quite a few people waiting for the cars to begin running.

 There were all sorts of emergency personnel including these firemen standing ready with their extinguishers.

 Here is the actual starting line with the timing equipment. 

 You can see another big fire extinguisher here. Dom said if there are going to be problems they are usually occur at the start. The course corner workers all had fire extinguishers too.

 We climbed up on a bank near one of the early turns to watch the cars go by. There were a number of other people nearby.

 It is tough to tell from the previous picture but we could actually see all the way to the starting line.

 The view of the countryside was great. The golden fields are canola (rapeseed).

 Then the cars started running. There were over 300 listed in the program but a few did not run.

 There were all sorts of cars including some that looked like they should be doing LeMans type racing.

 I always like the red cars. :-)

 This is the tin can car.

This is the old Alfa.

 In the distance we could see Lake Trasimeno...

...and Monte Amiato (I think) in the far distance. Obviously I kept getting distracted by the view.

We watched all of the first run and then walked back down to the car. It was only about 5 pm so we drove up the hill to Cortona (by another route obviously) and strolled around for a while. You can probably guess that we had a little gelato. Finally we headed back to Capannori and arrived at about 8 pm. In spite of little sunshine it was a great day out.

Palazzo Blu in Pisa

Last Friday we spent the morning working and then went to Pisa after lunch. An article about an exhibit sent us in search of Palazzo Blu, a museum that currently has an exhibit of works by Artimisia Gentileschi, the premier female painter of the Renaissance.

It is difficult to see in this picture but Palazzo Blu really is blue! It is located in the middle of Pisa along the Arno river (on the right side in the above picture).

Admission to the museum is free. We found that there were two exhibits and the more interesting one proved to be works by costume designer Anna Anni. She created the costumes for many of operas and plays directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

These are ballet costumes. Unfortunately the pictures do not do them justice. They are incredibly ornate creations with rich materials and intricate needlework.

These are costumes created for the opera Mephistopheles. The Palazzo Blu building was as interesting as the exhibits. The base of this staircase is solid green marble.

 This is the ceiling in the first room we visited.

 On the wall you can see a couple of Gentileschi's works. 

 Again, the exhibit room was just gorgeous and beautifully maintained.

This was my favorite room with a lot of faux painting on the walls. It had the allusion of draped fabric. 

 This is a closer view of the elaborate pattern in the fabric painted on the wall.

 There were a number of smaller works displayed that had nothing to do with either of the major exhibits. This was my favorite--a small picture of a young woman gazing along the coast with the ducks waddling behind. I would love to have it in my home.

 There were also some lovely pieces of furniture of which the above is just one example. Of particular interest in this cabinet is a collection of pottery--probably Etruscan.

We only spent about an hour in the museum but it was well worth the visit. Afterwards we strolled back to our car which was across the river and found a gelateria. Somehow all our excursions involve gelato at some point. :-) 

Next post: To Cortona for a Cronoscalata