Nov 27, 20213 minFill ‘Er Up and "Check" the Oil!I arrived in Fossacesia in time for il raccolto, the olive harvest. The harvest here came a bit later than usual, in part due to rain...
Nov 19, 20215 minInauspicious Beginnings, with a More Auspicious TwistMy triumphant second arrival at the house in the epoch of Covid proved to be a trifle short of entirely triumphant. It started with the...
Nov 23, 20196 minHarvest Boon My visit to Fossacesia this fall was full of wonderful surprises. The surprise of having friends here who only months ago were strangers...
Nov 11, 20191 minDown with the sun, up with the colorWell, I’m just back from 12 days in Fossacesia and recovered from a 24-hour post-flight bug. (Thanks again, bacterial convention that is...
Oct 6, 20193 minDog Days Redux (This one's more cheerful)On Wednesday morning, I had a tea date at my home with Angela, a Manchester native who now lives in nearby Torino di Sangro. She arrived...
Aug 18, 20193 minThe beach is back.Usually, you can count on July in Italy to bring 31 days of sun. Not this year. On July 10th, I took a pullman from Rome to Pescara,...
May 20, 20191 minA Few of My FavoriteThingsWrought-iron bed that three people can fit in, Sketches of horses where artist has written… Since I left off talking about the artisanal...
May 7, 20192 minScenes from FossacesiaMeanwhile, my niece Victoria visited for a few days from Dublin, where she’s spending the year. It was lovely to bond with her outside...
Apr 28, 20195 minFour Friends and a Few NutsMy road to a home in Italy, and then to a habitable one, and then to one in which I feel at home has been and continues to be a tortuous...
Feb 6, 20196 minNot Quite at Home YetThe more time I spend in Italy, the more I’m aware of what a stranger I am, culturally. It’s funny to say that because I think of Italian...
Jan 17, 20192 minAn unexpectedly brief stay in Fossacesia... and an unexpected and sorrowful goodbyeI got home from Italy last Tuesday night, 15 days earlier than I’d planned. There were so many things I’d hoped to do during this last...
Nov 5, 20181 minGekko who’s coming to dinner.Every once in a while, I see in the corner of my eye something dark and darting, usually high on the wall. It gives me a real start until...
Oct 26, 20182 minA recurring character As I begin sketching out posts for this blog, I notice that I’m not consistent in my first-person pronoun. Sometimes it’s “I,” other...
Sep 29, 20182 min"I have a little house in Italy."The words are magic. The reality is, too. It’s also terrifying, comical, humbling, and stressful. The magic lies in turning the key and...
Sep 28, 20182 minA Long Way from RomePeople who’ve visited Italy often rhapsodize about how warm and welcoming are the Italian people. I’ve had that experience, too, but not...
Sep 26, 20183 minHow I Got HereLike so many others who visit Italy, I fell in love with the sound of the language, the landscape, the cobblestones, the moons, the...
Sep 22, 20181 minThe House, BeforeI bought the house from an older man named Nick, who’d been born there. He and his wife had emigrated to Canada and remained there for...
Sep 21, 20182 minWhen All Else Fails, Go to the Tiles!When I closed on the house, I, like Frances in Under the Tuscan Sun, had only the dimmest idea what to do next. The similarity in our...
Sep 21, 20182 minCall in the Cavalry!As it turned out, the GC wasn’t good enough. Expenses were piling up and work was moving glacially. When my father, a builder and land...
Sep 19, 20181 minThe House, NowThis is the little house as it stands now. There’s still a lot of work to be done, partly to reinforce it structurally because the roof...
Sep 19, 20181 minAltar, EgoPerhaps only in a second home in Italy can you have a shrine to yourself at the top of the stairs. Yep, that’s me, sort of — if I were 30...
Sep 9, 20182 minThe House, Someday. Maybe.The significant work I’d still like to do would be twofold: tame and landscape the outdoor area and extend the house into part of it....