So after a particularly long service day I was sitting in front of a steaming bowl of saffron risotto and sipping a glass of white wine when Jeff abruptly shows me an email that’s all in Italian but references my Italian Citizenship. What?!? I was immediately ripped from my risotto induced food coma and jolted into reality! I had kept my nervous anticipation of Italian Citizenship on the back burner in my mind for years now.
It seems strange that a California would take up surfing in Italy but life is strange that way. My husband and I are both native Californians, born and raised. However neither of us are from the coast. We were both born and raised inland so although we both love to visit the California Coast multiple times a year we have never taken up surfing there.
We have been back in Italy for two weeks and hit the ground running with renewing our visas and making sure my citizenship documents were still in the approval process. Next on the agenda was finding a new place to live. We had decided to move further south after living a year and a half in Nettuno.
As winter settled in on our first year living in Italy, my husband began to turn his sights on snow boarding in the Italian Alps. Every year as he anticipates the first snow fall he starts to get the itch to strap on his snow board and hit the tree runs. He watches each snow fall with keen interest and studies carefully the snow pack. Having grown up in Northern California he became very good at snow boarding, even working for part of his teenage years at a ski resort in the Sierra Mountains.
I live in Nettuno, Italy, a one hour train ride south of Rome. My town is beautiful in itself with a Borgo (old Medieval Town) with narrow cobblestone streets complete with a Fortress and Harbor. From my house I can take a 10 minute stroll down through two Piazza’s and through the Borgo and find myself with feet in the sand staring at an endless horizon of sea and beach.
The Amalfi Coast is the stretch of rugged cliff coastline that stretches between Positano and the town of Amalfi. This stretch of coast is called the Amalfi Coast, not to be confused with the town of Amalfi at the end. The towns of Positano and Amalfi famously cling to the seaside cliffs tumbling down to the sea. These vertical cities create the most dramatic visual effects that have made them popular tourist destinations with five million people visiting each year. This makes them beautifully crowded and frustrating, just like Italy itself.
Today is a cold rainy November day, so I am sitting here in my warm dry house with slippered feet writing about som wolf he sunny days gone by. I want to tell you about a few of the places that are rich in history as well as beauty just a stones throw from my house,
Driving through Tuscany is always a visual feast for the eyes, but it is especially beautiful in the fall. The rolling hills are green with rows of vineyards cascading down the hill spilling out from an ancient stone villa perched on top. A row of tall cypress trees marks the beginning of one property and the end of another. They stand in their dark green uniforms like a row of soldiers watching over their territory.
I love Market Day in Italy. Each town in Central Italy has their own market, here in Nettuno our market day is Thursdays. The market it just a few minutes walk from our house and just down the street from our bakery. So I usually start market day with a cappuccino and cornetto then stroll down the long street that has become the market.
Oh, Italy in the Summertime, specifically Italy in August! Living in Italy presents quite the paradox. The beaches are beautiful and buzzing with activity. The lounge chairs on the beach are all lined up in perfect little rows. Each beach front establishment has their own colors of sun umbrellas and matching lounge chairs. They are playing music and mixing up Spritz (the favorite Aperitivo or mixed drink of Italy). The Italians are out in full regalia, suntans glowing, and families playing and lounging in the sun together.
