Colledimezzo – San Buono – Celenza

Colledimezzo, San Buono and Celenza are names I’d never heard until a couple of weeks ago when I started my property search in Abruzzo.

For the last seven or eight years I’ve told folks , we’re going to retire to Italy, but I’d always wondered if it were just a pipe dream. Now, here I am on Friday August 18th 2018, case packed, property viewings booked, trying to make our pipe dream come true. I’m not looking for a big expensive villa, but a nice home, with a beautiful view, and enough room to have friends and family come and stay.

I’m sixty, if I don’t do it now I never will.

Retirement and the Sleep Factor.

You must all have noticed how great you feel when you wake up after a really good night’s sleep. As slumber drifts from your body and mind, you feel good, ready to handle anything the day throws at you. You’re rested and in control.

So why is sleep so elusive? This past week has been awful! Much too stressful, long hours at work, followed by coming home and worrying if I’d got everything done. Each night after going to bed, I’d remember something important I’d missed. That paid to my sleep.

Last night was the first night in almost a week that I slept long and hard, and woke up feeling refreshed. If only I felt like this every day. I think my massage and reflexology helped, but that’s a luxury I can only occasionally afford. How do I manage to sleep on a regular basis? I sleep well on vacation, because there’s nothing to worry about.

I’m wondering if perhaps its time to retire.

Comments anyone? Advice?

Retire and Write!

As I sip my cappuccino and contemplate my other blog…the scary one, I chuckle to myself.

My first thought when I woke up this morning was “I have so much to do, housework, cooking, baking, bills to pay…how am I going to find time to blog and to edit my current book?”

I lay in bed for a little while wallowing in self-pity and then I smiled.

The sun is beaming through the skylight in my bedroom and peeping between the blinds. I love my house, so housework isn’t a bad thing. Cooking and baking are my passion so why am I stressing about something I enjoy. There is more than enough time in the day to blog, I’m doing it now. I can edit my book this evening. 

This beautiful sunny day stretches out ahead of me, its mine to make it what I will. I may even find time to go for a walk.

And now I’ve readjusted my attitude I’ll sit and write the next installment of my ghost story on Stop Talking to Me because I’m in my sunset years now and one day I’m going to retire to Italy and write!

For the love of Italy!

Sunday Mornings find me sitting at the dining room table paying bills and catching up with friends on Social Media and by email. My view is pretty idyllic. Trees changing color, snow-capped mountains and clear blue skies. I love my home and I love Colorado, but…..as I sip my second cup of Cappuccino, my heart aches for Italy.

I was fifteen when I visited Rimini for the first time. It was my first trip abroad. I was accompanied by my mum and my crazy aunty Jennie! I inhaled the Italian culture and was immediately hooked. Crazy aunty Jennie and my mum aren’t with me anymore, and I miss them. My obsession with Italy is still here though, and always will be.

I returned the following two years with friends my own age, although I spent a lot of time on my own. They were smitten with the Italian men, who are of course, very handsome. I wasn’t oblivious to them, and enjoyed a holiday romance, but it was the country that won my heart. Even now when I think about Italy, I can barely breathe.

I returned again in 1983, driving there from Germany where I lived with my husband, a British soldier. I worried he wouldn’t share my obsession, but he did.

My daughter was seven when we took her to Italy for the first time. She might as well have been Italian she fitted in so well.

Five years ago we spent two weeks in Rome and my love affair deepened. This year returned with friends and family. We did it all. Four days in Milan, two days in Garda, a week in Siena, a week in Rome and a week in Ravello. It wasn’t long enough, I wanted to stay forever.

So as I sit here, sipping my Cappuccino (not to be drank after noon), I dream of Italy and scour Italian Real Estate because I know where I want to retire!

A Home in Italy? I hope so!

My first memory  wasn’t pleasant, it was of a nasty, mean, miserable, violent man, my dad. Luckily I only had to endure him until I was four years old. The memory however, is etched in my brain. I’d say ‘God Rest his Soul’, but I don’t mean it!

My second memory is Italy. I didn’t actually venture to that magical country until I was fifteen, but I dreamed of it from an early age. I think I was five years old when I became obsessed with Italy. I’m not even sure why. The man who drove the ice cream van that came to our village was Italian, and very nice to me. My mum’s hairstylist was Italian, Pietro, he was very handsome, and kind. I loved the movie ‘Roman Holiday’ (who didn’t?), but honestly, I don’t know where my obsession with Italy started.

I finally made my first trip to Rimini with my mum and my crazy Aunt Jennie in 1972, I was hooked. I returned every year for the next four years. I couldn’t get enough of the place. It touched my soul. In 1977 I was married and pretty soon had my husband hooked too. Italian cars, Italian wine, Italian food, Italian shoes, Italian Football.

Rimini, Lido de Jesolo, Verona, Garda, Venice, Murano, Burano, San Marino, San Leo, I loved them all. In 2010, when I visited Rome, my obsession reached a whole new level. The history in Rome is overwhelming, the piazzas and cobbled streets, restaurants, and of course, the people!

This year I spent three weeks in Italy, it changed my life. I visited Roma, Milano, Lake Garda, Siena, Montepulciano, Ravello, Positano, Amalfi, Minori and made an unplanned and surprising trip to Anguillara Sabazia on Lake Bracciano, just outside Rome. My husband was even more smitten than me. He’s a man of action and is now planning purchasing a second home there, with a view to living there when we eventually retire.

I thinks its more than just a pipe dream. Maybe we’ll make a few more trips over the next few years, to find the perfect place, but it looks like my Italian dream may one day become my Italian lifestyle. I hope so!

The Occasional Writer!

A retirement to look forward to.

I’ve been back at work for two weeks now. At last things are falling into place. I can actually stay awake long enough to be productive in the evening! Finally my occasional writing is happening more often. When I retire (and that’s a long way off) I’ll turn my hobby into a retirement career. My days will be filled with writing and travel….and of course a glass of wine in the late afternoon. My first novel “Dead of July” is currently sitting on Amazon. When it was first published I sold a lot of copies, not enough to make a profit, but enough to encourage me to keep writing. I got some great reviews too. Go check it out, maybe it’s a book you’ll enjoy. It’s never going to be on the best seller list, but I enjoyed writing it and everyone I talked to enjoyed reading it.

Dead of July

Because I don’t have time for marketing, I’m going to reduce the price to $0.99 for the foreseeable future. Let me entertain you for less than a dollar. If you take the plunge, please write a review on Amazon for me.

Check out my other blog Stop Talking to Me for free reading.