Returning to Italy!

I haven't said anything here up to now, although we've been planning this trip since last year. We loved our time in Italy so much last year that we've rented a house in an Italian village for four weeks this fall.

It just fell into our lap, when we saw a two line ad in the local newspaper under Getaways. Italy Village, house in central Italy for rent; that's all it said. And it turns out that the house is in Abruzzo, one of the lesser-known provinces of Italy, and is owned by a woman right here in Saanich, who grew up in the little village.

We went to see them and were blown away by the photographs and descriptions of Valle San Giovanne, a village of 400 people in the foothills of the Apennines, two hours east of Rome. The village is ten minutes by car from a University Town called Teramo, and about a half hour drive from the beach resorts of the Adriatic. Gord and Anita run bicycle tours out of the village in May and June every year and rent out the houses (they now own three of them) the rest of the time.

We leave on Tuesday, September 11th and fly to Rome for six days, then rent a car and drive to Valle San Giovanne. So this week it's the usual scramble to get the house ready for the house and dog sitters, and do all the things to prepare for a time away. We're so excited to have a chance to dig a little deeper into the Italian experience. This will be a very different trip from our circle tour of the high points last year. It will be a taste of living in the countryside. I'm planning to do some blog posts once we get there so you can share the discoveries with us.