Country life?
Oops - I missed a day yesterday. So much for my pledge. We went out for Indian food last night and a friend showed us the apartment she is housesitting which is 200+ sqm of lovely spaciousness. We got back late, and well, I just wasn't in the mood to write.
Yesterday we went to a see a house in the countryside north of Rome - an area called Sabina. The house belongs to a friend of a friend. He wants to rent it out and we thought we should look at it since Steve and I have been jonesing for a house in the country for the last few years. This sounded like a good opportunity. I knew it wouldn't be what I wanted though, and sure enough it wasn't.
Newer construction, ugly fencing, junk everywhere, landscaping -what's that? Even with all the furniture gone - the inside had a horrible layout, the outside was a mess and not very inviting. Basically, it would need A LOT of work. I'm sure he wouldn't go under €1,000/month. So we get rid of our apartment in Rome and move out to the countryside nowhere near a small town and then what? The girls go to school in Montelibretti and we become part-time farmers? Or we commute to get the girls to their school in Rome in the morning? We live a 10 minute walk away now and can barely get the girls to school on time as it is. If it were just to get to work that would be one thing - one of the many positives of The Beehive being just 2 blocks from Termini train station. It's just the girls' school that poses a problem.
I'm also a bit nervous about living in the countryside here. No matter what part of Italy we have been to - with the exception of the Alto Adige - everyone we know of has been broken into. And it's not just the television that they take, but literally everything including the kitchen sink. We've known people come back to their homes to find window fixtures gone. And then there's the horror stories - the break-ins that happen when someone is still home. With three children and times when I may be on my own with them - well, I wouldn't feel very comfortable or secure at night. What's the point or pleasure in that?
Taking away the possibility of break-ins, essentially, I want the following in a countryside location:
1. a house that can be changed enough for us to make it more sustainable - would love to construct a straw bale house, but think that would be a living nightmare here.
2. a small olive grove and enough land to have a vegetable garden
3. a view - green rolling hills preferred
4. congenial neighbors - but in the distance
5. easy access to a train station that is well-connected
6. roads with little traffic
7. close vicinity to farms (preferably organic) where we could get eggs, cheese and fruit or veg that we don't grow
8. biking vicinity to a small town that had an interesting lively community - preferably liberal, artistic and intellectual - with excellent schools (I know, I know - this ones a stretch, but this is my wish list!)
There's got to be a place SOMEWHERE in Italy that has what I'm looking for, but the longer I live here the more I'm convinced it simply doesn't exist. Perhaps it doesn't exist anywhere except in my dreams.
Yesterday we went to a see a house in the countryside north of Rome - an area called Sabina. The house belongs to a friend of a friend. He wants to rent it out and we thought we should look at it since Steve and I have been jonesing for a house in the country for the last few years. This sounded like a good opportunity. I knew it wouldn't be what I wanted though, and sure enough it wasn't.
Newer construction, ugly fencing, junk everywhere, landscaping -what's that? Even with all the furniture gone - the inside had a horrible layout, the outside was a mess and not very inviting. Basically, it would need A LOT of work. I'm sure he wouldn't go under €1,000/month. So we get rid of our apartment in Rome and move out to the countryside nowhere near a small town and then what? The girls go to school in Montelibretti and we become part-time farmers? Or we commute to get the girls to their school in Rome in the morning? We live a 10 minute walk away now and can barely get the girls to school on time as it is. If it were just to get to work that would be one thing - one of the many positives of The Beehive being just 2 blocks from Termini train station. It's just the girls' school that poses a problem.
I'm also a bit nervous about living in the countryside here. No matter what part of Italy we have been to - with the exception of the Alto Adige - everyone we know of has been broken into. And it's not just the television that they take, but literally everything including the kitchen sink. We've known people come back to their homes to find window fixtures gone. And then there's the horror stories - the break-ins that happen when someone is still home. With three children and times when I may be on my own with them - well, I wouldn't feel very comfortable or secure at night. What's the point or pleasure in that?
Taking away the possibility of break-ins, essentially, I want the following in a countryside location:
1. a house that can be changed enough for us to make it more sustainable - would love to construct a straw bale house, but think that would be a living nightmare here.
2. a small olive grove and enough land to have a vegetable garden
3. a view - green rolling hills preferred
4. congenial neighbors - but in the distance
5. easy access to a train station that is well-connected
6. roads with little traffic
7. close vicinity to farms (preferably organic) where we could get eggs, cheese and fruit or veg that we don't grow
8. biking vicinity to a small town that had an interesting lively community - preferably liberal, artistic and intellectual - with excellent schools (I know, I know - this ones a stretch, but this is my wish list!)
There's got to be a place SOMEWHERE in Italy that has what I'm looking for, but the longer I live here the more I'm convinced it simply doesn't exist. Perhaps it doesn't exist anywhere except in my dreams.
posted by lomalinda at
20:10
3 Comments:
an area somewhere in italy.. i would say liguria. i cannot guarantee for the nice nighbours though, but the train and bus system is pretty good, the view actually amazing (of course, there must be spots without..), farmers are around our area not so many, but maybe we are too close to a big town (genova) and there are some areas in liguria, where there is a lot of organic farming going on, the traffic up the mountains is really little and here are plenty of artistic liberal sweet cities.. (dont know about the schools though, the playground of the school i know at least is hugissimo). and i actually hardly ever here of break-ins. (i just asked my husband, he remembers fifteen years ago (!!) he remembers a break-in in a car (!!). and once in our house (even longer ago), but he said, they must have let it open and they didnt really take something..) but the point on your lst, where i thought, im leaving you a comment, was "biking vicinity to a small town that had an interesting lively community - preferably liberal, artistic and intellectual". i so much like the little towns around here with people who speak strong dialect, with quite some crafting (although determined to be for tourists..) and a lot of old communists who make their witty comments about nowadays politics..
good luck around rome!
anna (una tedesca in liguria)
Hi Anna - thanks for your comments. I would be very interested to know what part of Liguria you live in. We are definitely not opposed to being a bit further afield especially if it means living the kind of lifestyle we want to live. I love the countryside, but my husband loves the water.
i live mostly still in genova, but more and more often we stay in the countryside, west of genova, riviera ponente, comune di savona. from our house we walk (!!) twenty minutes to the beach, although it is already in the mountains. of course everything around the beache(s) - great beaches by the way - is really full of tourists, so we go quite early or quite late swimming (i cannot stay in the sun long anyway). up the hills there are not so many tourists anymore. and the lovely small cities i was talking about, are all at the seaside. arenzano, varazze, celle, albisola, savona (not so small anymore..).
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