Ø
When we first started living in Italy, I wrote many blog
posts—at least every other day. Now I write rarely and sporadically. The
reasons are various. I am enjoying la dolce vita, and writing is
work. Also, I have grown accustomed to the differences between Italian and
American culture now, so what might have struck me as an interesting cultural
observation previously I now consider routine.
 |
| Cena at Ca' Sandra with Elena and Davide. |
Ø
I’ve done almost all the genealogical research that can be
easily done, tracing my Seghieri family line back to the 1200s and Spadoni line
to the 1400s. I’ve also met a ton of relatives named Seghieri and Spadoni, some
as distant as 12th cousin 3 generations removed. I could go out of my way to
meet more, but it’s no longer such a novelty.
Ø
We’re becoming friends with three couples—one Norwegian and
two American—who have purchased unfinished or crumbling old homes near us. All
three have accomplished incredibly gorgeous transformations (one is still in
the final stages). Are we jealous? Not in the slightest, though we are super
impressed with what they’ve done. We already have a beautiful country home in
Gig Harbor. We decided long ago that when we come to Montecarlo, we just want
to focus on living a relaxed Italian lifestyle of pensionati (retired
people). Our home is neither beautiful nor modern, and we have no intention of
changing it.
Ø
We have a lot of older wooden furniture, some that came
with the home and some we bought at second-hand stores. With old wood comes the
risk of our invasion by our worst enemies here, tarli—wood worms.
We had tarli in our roof beams when we moved here in 2015, but we were able to
eliminate them with treatment and paint. However, last spring we noticed some
sawdust under a couple of chairs. We’ve tossed those chairs away, but when I
did a more thorough inspection, I found at least six chairs, a table and a
cabinet with dozens of tiny holes in each. I’ve spent several days injecting
the holes with insecticide, using a syringe, and then filling the holes with
putty. Now I’m coating them with a transparent protective spray.
Ø
Electric bikes are awesome! We only rented a car for our
first six days here, stocking up on some larger grocery items and taking trips
to Lucca and the Valleriana—the valley above Pescia with 10 medieval cities.
Since then, we’ve just done everything on our bikes. It helps that we have
weather in the high 70s to low 80s every day, and it’s only rained for about
two hours in the last month.
Ø
We are leaving Montecarlo tomorrow for Athens, Greece,
where we will meet up with Dan, Sandra and their kids for their fall break.
After nine days there, we’ll head to Napoli and meet up with Linda, Wendy and
Janet for a week in Southern Italy, and then we take a week-long cruise
starting in Bari and ending in Salerno. From there, it will be back to
Montecarlo, but just for a couple of days, and then it will be back to the USA.
Ø We will miss Montecarlo, but we’re also missing Gig Harbor. We seem to stay just long enough in one place such that we’re always satisfied—and then looking forward to going to the other place.
