Gregor on our front steps. He and Josefin were there just today. Our first visitors! Sign up now, you could be next.

Josefin having lunch in our house in Castelvecchio Subequo. She and Gregor went there for the weekend and figured out the whole public transportation thing. Good to know. I can't believe they were there and I wasn't!

Jim is Home

Made it to the airport with lots of time to spare. Everything went very well and I returned the car. It ended up costing 25 euros a day which is about $30. Not bad really. Had lots of fun with it and got to see lots of stuff. It would be fun sometime to take the train and bus out there and then just spend the whole time just walking around the area. Some other trip.

After a long day, Jim arrived last night at the Tosh household in Brooklyn. Today he will take the train from Penn station to Vermont. And so our little house in Castelvecchio will sit empty till our next visit.

Now Jim and Jessie are both home. We are looking forward to our next trip.

Last Day in Italy

Well this is my last full day here in Italy. Plan to leave about 7 tomorrow morning for Rome. My flight out isn't until the middle of the afternoon, but I want to make sure that I'm there in plenty of time. Plane gets to New York just after 6 in the evening and then to Stephen and Diane's for the evening and in the morning to Penn Station to catch the train to Montpelier. My last day here I went into town to have coffee and a chocolate pastry and to visit the market. Then I drove over to Rocca di Massa, a town about 20 miles away that is where the nearest ski area is. It's very beautiful there and a very active town with lots of tourists there. It's kind of like Stowe like that, even has Swiss chalet like houses. On the way there I passed through a high flat little valley that has a lake out in the middle of it caused by a meteor hitting the earth. Pretty cool. I'm going to make lunch and then start packing up stuff. After dinner I'll turn off the fridge,the gas and the water and drain the pipes. In the morning then I just need to close up the house, turn off the electricity and I'm out of here until next year. this week I've been to dinner at a couple from New Zealand, and been over to some Danes house for a couple of beers. when I walk around town I always see people that call to me and wave. It's very friendly here and I get a feeling that people are happy that I've chosen this place to buy my house. I look forward to returning and next time Jeneane comes with me. Goodbye until we meet in Abruzzo again.

Jim & Gregor Taking a Break

It's been awhile since I wrote last. Gregor has gone now and we had a very nice visit. A lot more traveling around than I would have done on my own. We went up to L'Aquila and saw the incredible earthquake damage. We made a weekend trip up to see Flaminia and her family up in Tuscany and had a very nice time there. Lots of good food and lots of laughs and a few tears. We also made it over to the ocean for a couple of hours on the beach. It's about an hour and a half to this beach, but it's very nice and free. We finished up the painting in the kitchen and have everything up and running. we have running water with no leaks anywhere. we have electricity and everything worked including an old television that was left behind. We also have heat and hot water now, something that we thought was not going to happen this trip, and was going to cost a lot of money. Luckily we found a very good plumber/handyman who was very good. Got everything working and did things like drilling through 2 foot thick walls to put air vents in to bring it all up to code. All of that cost about $400 including all of the materials involved. A very good deal. Well It's market day so I should get going, only 5 more days here and then I travel home. It will be good to be back with Jeneane, but I really wish that she had been with me on this trip.

Views of our valley

Another Great Day

Another great day. Up at dawn and it was completely foggy and nice and cool. Opened the house up and it felt great. It was really nice to have electricity last night. Did my usual of eating fruit and reading and waiting to go and get coffee and now my favorite chocolate pastry. Watched Italian news on TV and waited for the bank to open at strangely enough 8:35. Anyway I wanted to change some American dollars for Euros, the clerk said sure and got on the computer for a short time and then said that they could not do it today and that maybe I could try tomorrow. Not a problem that I saw coming. Anyway no problem I'd use the ATM card for my Italian account. Went out to the ATM and a woman was there complaining that for some reason it would only allow her to take out 100 euros instead of the usual 250. I got on and it would only allow me 100 also. that was enough for today, but what's going on, is the world economic system falling apart and I am so isolated from everything that I don't know what's going on? Well I guess that it will become clear at some point. My stove is not turned on yet, but I got gas for the grill and made my first meal here. a big hamburger patty and zucchini. I was happy. Rained tonight and it was nice. My new system is to go over to Anja's to get onto the Internet at 2 o'clock in the afternoon here so that I can get a hold of Jeneane at 8 o'clock in the morning her time. Works out great and then she doesn't have to worry all day about missing my call. Then I go for a coffee and gelotto and wait for everything else to open at 4:30. Kind of a relaxing day for a change. No big plans for tomorrow, cleaning up the back room where there are no windows and now I can see because of the electric lights. Bye for now time for some fruit and a glass of limoncello.