I spent the last week packing up my belongings and moving them the great distance of two houses over.  It takes longer than you’d think.  Over five days, I carried boxes and organized at my new apartment and then of course had to clean at both the old and new place.  My move was slowed because Cinder wanted to come on every trip so I hefted boxes, and held her leash as we slowly got ourselves settled.  The new apartment is MUCH BETTER.  It’s not pretty like the other place and the furnishings are literally leftover from Massimo’s aunt, but the view is the same, there are four windows, the price is cheaper, there is no mold, the washing machine is from this century, the shower has great pressure and the bed is more comfortable.  Then there is Massimo who has gone out of his way to make the place ready for me.  He is building me a shelf in the kitchen for my pots and pans, has already built me a work surface and installed a shower massage.  He is now moving the tv antenna into the lounge room.  For all of this, I am happy to have a place that is not quite as decked out.  That’s what flowers are for, right?

In addition to making my move this week, I got first some bad news and then yesterday some great news.  I went to the Comune to see why I had not received my citizenship notification yet and Vania told me there was a problem.  I didn’t throw myself out of the window when she said it could be another seven or eight months, but I did have a good cry when I got to Antonella’s store.  Because my grandmother was a woman apparently there was a law that said she gave up her right to pass on Italian Citizenship when she married.  Vania said the law has been contested many times and she thought the final decision would be favorable…but it would be a wait.  I asked her if I should start the paperwork for my grandfather instead since he was a man and hence wasn’t hampered by these limitations.  She said wait.  I relayed the story to Anna when I taught the kids at Poliziano on Monday and she said she wanted to get the scoop from Vania herself.   I was grateful since I really hadn’t understood all of what Vania told me, but I emphasized that my main concern was work.  We went yesterday and Anna recounted Vania’s tale to me.  It was pretty much the same as I thought except that in Italy when something is pending like this before the court there is a presumption that you’ve been accepted.  In other words until they make a decision, I CAN WORK.  This is of course great news and I already have my first place lined up for this morning.  All those people who told me to come see them when I could work, look out…I’m coming.

Anyway, spring is here, the end of this month will make one year here, and finally it feels as if things are coming together.  My friend and writing mentor Carol is reading the first half of my book about my trials and triumphs over this past year and so far seems to be enjoying it.  That’s more good news.

(Oh and I forgot to mention, I’m getting married to a gorgeous Italian architect.)

Okay, that’s not true!  April Fool’s!

Entry hall of new apartment

Living room

Kitchen

Bathroom - which also has a great view!

Bedroom...Cinder performing quality control on the new bed

Yesterday was International Women’s Day, or as it’s called here in Italia, La Festa delle Donne.  There is a tradition of men giving women bunches of mimosa flowers as a sign of appreciation.  I started my day yesterday with two men at my bar offering to buy me coffee, which was sweet.  Then later, my new landlord Massimo gifted me with some of these beautiful yellow blooms.  But the highlight for me was dinner out with my Italian women friends.  The men folk were left to their own devices as the women prepared for a night of fun.  I went with Gabriella, Antonella, Caterina and Rosella.  Rosella organized our group and led the caravan of cars to the nearby town of Cetona.

I was told it was dinner and a spettacolo, which means show, and they said the word spogliarello more than once, so I figured it would be some sort of male striptease.  I think that’s what they were hoping for anyway.  It turned out to be dinner, dancing, and four cute waiters who were fully clothed in tank tops and jeans.  At one point, two of them shredded their shirts and Caterina joked that we’d just seen the spettacolo.  The food wasn’t great and the ladies of Montepulciano, who are spoiled by the delicious vino here, barely drank the horrible wine offerings, but it was a fun evening and, more importantly, an opportunity to laugh, talk, and spend time with girlfriends.  The women ranged in age from the barely legal, to some in their mid seventies.  There was one seventy-something in our group of twenty five women who was a riot.  She danced and enjoyed herself all night long.  It was great to see everyone out of their shops, done up with makeup, and looking relaxed and happy.  Our ringleader Rosella seemed dissatisfied with the way the evening had turned out, especially the food, so I joked with her that next year, we would make sure to find some nude males.  We eventually made our way home and this morning I awoke to snow.  Happily I have my bright yellow mimosa flowers to remind me that spring will be here…eventually.

A gift of Mimosa flowers from Massimo, my new landlord

Antonella and me as we hit the road for Cetona

The entertainment...four cute waiters

Caterina, Gabriella and the tipsy seventy-year old that no one seemed to know

Some of the women get the dancing started...

I know I drank a bit last night, but I'm pretty sure this snow wasn't here when I got home in the wee hours

I can’t believe next month makes one year in Italy.  Despite one really horrible, depressing, poor month in December, I am extremely content and I love my new home.  I haven’t written much in the past month, only because I have been busy.  No, it’s not with a fabulous new job, but I have students this month and I am really happy about this.  One in particular has required a bit of work on my part as he is a university student who has to pass an oral exam in English…about the Federalist Papers and the American  Constitution.  As I’m relearning a topic I haven’t thought about in years, I keep thinking what a cattiva professoressa that assigned such difficult material to a non native speaker.  To his credit, he has grasped a lot of the nuances of the documents and now we are just working on his presentation in English. I am determined that he not only pass, but pass with flying colors!

The end of February passed in a blur.  I went to Montepulciano’s annual Vino Nobile wine tasting with Antonella, and I sampled some of the cellars that I’d never tried.  Anna and Federico were there representing Villa St. Anna and Poliziano so I asked them for advice on which places to try.  I limited myself to six since I wanted to be able to walk home.  That and I realized after we got inside that Antonella doesn’t drink and she’d just come along to keep me company.

I gave notice to my landlord Giuliana this month and I found another apartment on my street that is less money.  It’s not as cute as this place, but the price is right and it actually feels more like a house because there is as separate kitchen, etc.  Because it’s so close, I can just carry all my stuff over and should be able to do it a few trips.  The good news for anyone coming to visit this year is that the living room is also separate so there is a little more privacy for guests.  Not that I’ve had any yet….hint hint.

I’ve been pursued by another married man in recent weeks and this one, despite my telling him no with the full extent of my growing vocabulary, still isn’t getting the message.  Not sure how men manage to have affairs here since I can’t even have a friend to dinner without the whole town knowing.

It’s felt like spring over the past week.  We even had one day of sunshine and sixty degrees.  Cinder and I spent the whole day outside at Angela’s bar, begging for scraps and writing, respectively.

Antonella, Caterina and crew have invited me along for my first La Festa delle Donne, which is March 8th and is to celebrate women.  I think it’s origins have to do with women’s independence, but it seems to have evolved into a commerical holiday and opportunity for a girls’ night out.  My comprehension still isn’t a hundred percent, but the place Antonella described sounds like a male strip club.  Should be interesting.  I’ll try to post about that on Tuesday.

Antonella and her husband, Cesare. He watched the store so Antonella could come with me to the wine tasting.

The view from the kitchen of my new apartment

A week or so ago, my Australian neighbor Janet introduced me to a lovely couple who live just outside of Montepulciano.  Jenny and Maurizio, also recent transplants, have just restored a centuries old villa and turned it into a beautiful (and soon to be ready for guests) agriturismo.  They invited Janet, her husband Ken, and me out to see the villa and we spent an enjoyable afternoon.  Maurizio picked us up in the pouring rain, apologizing for what he called his “farmer’s car” and even with the gray skies and the hibernating grape vines, the scenic drive to their property was spectacular.  When the grapes are abundant in the summer, it will be even more so.

Two majestic cypress trees greet you as you drive up the lane and the sense of peace that you feel when you gaze around the surrounding hillsides is the epitome of why people love Tuscany.  It’s like living in a fairy tale.  Granted, mine has been filled with one or two ogres and some villainous poverty, but I certainly can’t begrudge others for following their hearts in the same way I did… and for achieving their happily ever after.

We toured the two story villa and took note of all the beautiful details.  Maurizio who is Italian, but lived in the States for many years, detailed the amount of work that went into restoring this place pointing out the historic wooden beams, arched entrance ways, and windows designed to show off 360 degree views.  His tales of dealing with one of their neighbors who is a well established wine maker in Montepulciano were quite entertaining.  Their neighbor has gone out of his way to make their life miserable as they’ve been conducting the work on their property.  Jenny who is five months pregnant is running the operations side of the agriturismo and preparing for their first guests in April.  She has spent an inordinate amount of time picking out tiles, designing the guests rooms, and seeing to all the details which make the place feel comfortable and homey.  The swimming pool is just about finished and the landscaping will be done in another month or so.

I brought some cinnamon buns and Jenny served coffee and tea.  We had a fun chat about life in Montepulciano, with everyone sharing their horror stories of dealing with the Italian bureaucracy, which included everything from rants about the post office (to which I could relate), banking, electricity, even the toll roads.   It was all said in the spirit of people who have made this place their home and have learned over time to have PAZIENZA.  Janet, who is emphatic in all of her assertions about Tuscany having lived here for 25 years, did cause a small pause in the conversation when she told us with some certainty that the Pope was gay.

Maurizio, who has recently completed a sommelier course and is quite knowledgeable about wine, invited us to taste a local vin santo.  It was after the second glass of the delicious vino that I realized when he’d said 18% alcohol, I should have taken heed.  I was more than a little tipsy on the ride home.  The most exciting part of the day was learning that Jenny and I have the same taste in fiction, with both of us enjoying English mysteries, etc.  She sent me home with two books.  For those of you who have been reading along with my quest to find English reading material here, you’ll appreciate how happy I was to tuck into one on these last night!

I love that I keep meeting terrific people here and expanding my little circle of friends.  I’m took some pictures of Jenny and Maurizio’s place, but I’m putting their website here too because they are so warm and wonderful that I want their business to be a success.  http://www.simplytuscany.com/ And this is a short video clip of Montepulciano, which includes some nice shots of Jenny and Maurizio’s place.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6QU3gqocis

Getting a tour of the villa

The upstairs apartment is ready for guests

Jenny with Janet and Ken

Jenny prepares some coffee and tea for us on a rainy winter's day

Maurizio...sempre in giro

I’ve hit the ground running in January after a pretty miserable past couple of months.  As December came to a close, and with only a few hundred euro left in my bank account and no foreseeable work in sight, I was way past panic and into a deep depression.  This was not helped by about a month of rain and grey skies.  I tried to lighten the tone on my last few posts, but the reality is I have been struggling to keep my head above water and wasn’t in the mood to write anything.  I hadn’t realized when I started working on my book about surviving my first year in Tuscany that it would actually come down to surviving.  But I am still here, I have a little work this month and I’ll catch you up….

Cinder and I both had our first experiences with the Italian health system last month.  I had my first trip to the ginecologo, which I’m sorry to report is just as discomfiting as in the U.S.  You do get seen pretty quickly when you go to a private doctor (which you do if you don’t have status like me) and when they write you a prescription for something, you can refill it as many times as you want because the pharmacy gives it back to you!  The most surprising thing to me was the doctor gave me her personal cell phone number and told me to call whenever I needed her.

Cinder had an ear infection brought on by some type of food allergy.  I think I’ve finally isolated the culprit, which was a “New and Improved” version of her dog food.  I watched her shaking her head and scratching uncomfortably for a few days, giving her an antihistamine and willing her to get better because I remember how costly our trips to the vet have always been.  I finally asked Marinella if she could take us to see her son Giacomo who is a veterinarian (in training).  He saw Cinder, diagnosed her infection gave her some drops and we were on our way.  He even cut her toe nails which have always been an issue and in New York it took four vet techs to hold her down for this process.  He did it alone, with a little full body tackle assist from me.  The remarkable thing was that he refused payment as it was our first visit.  We gratefully made him some chocolate chip cookies as a thank you.  Cinder’s prescription was filled at the same pharmacy where the humans go and this gave me more than a moment’s pause.  Like with the people prescription, they gave it back to me so I guess we can use it again if we need to.

The only real good news at the end of December was that my last document that I’ve been awaiting for nine months, finally arrived.  I was at the Comune bright and early the Monday after Christmas with all of my paperwork in hand.  Poor Vania the woman who has been helping with this process, was on her way out the door with a severe flu, but when she saw the paper, she took off her coat and immediately started putting my file together.  Now I wait for another couple of months for everything to be checked over and if there are no problems I will be receiving my Italian Citizenship.  And for me, at this point, the biggest benefit will be being able to work.

As January opened, my parents agreed to give me a small loan so that I can make it through January and February and I am grateful for that.  I have a new student who started this week who is extremely motivated and tells me he’s bringing me five other students for English lessons.  I also met with the chef Iacopo who was going to do the cooking school with the lawyer.  He just opened his own restaurant and we had a good talk about work.  He offered to pay me in meals as he doesn’t have much business yet, but I think when things pick up it’s a definite possibility.  I can’t really work for him “nero” because the office that checks on those things is right across the street from his restaurant.  They are sure to be regular visitors.

I am still doing babysitting with the kids and I’m now searching for a cheaper apartment for when my lease is up.  This place is great, but over our budget.  Pretty much everyone in town has told me I’m paying too much. Antonella and Anna have both let me know that they have apartments they rent which may be coming available in the next couple of months.  So I am going to check them out.  Both are much more economical than my place.  The biggest expenses here are the water and the gas and there’s no way to know how much the bills are going to be.  I’ve heard horror stories about gas bills and so our thermostat is set at a chilly 50 degrees.  Cinder spends most of her day under her blanket dreaming of spring!

So that’s it.  Oh and I ended my romance with my fruit vendor, but we are still friends.  It was time because we were both getting a little too attached.   Anyway, he wanted to give me free fruit forever, but I didn’t feel right about that so my “rate” is 3 euro each week.

I hope everyone’s year is getting off to a good start and that this year brings lots of love and prosperity for all of us.

Marinella takes Cinder and me to see her son Giacomo who is a Veterinario

Cinder can't believe the view at the Vet's office

Cinder gives me her usual long suffering look after her visit to the doctor

Vania prepares the paperwork for my citizenship application

The official file...now I wait