Where I live in April

I’m renting the top floor of a restored farm house. I’m glad there is a nice Italian couple downstairs because it’s so remote here. No houses anywhere nearby.

You drive down from the road. All very private.

Solitude and beauty though! When you turn around and look away from the house up the valley, there are impressive marble-streaked mountains.

The farm house used to be a mill. Here’s the creek it ran on:

The reason I’m here is that my apartment is a complete construction site. Here you can see the main room (15′ x 40′) prepared for the underfloor radiant heat that’s going in tomorrow.

Today was an intense day starting with 3 hours of Italian class, then a “worker’s lunch” with John, my project manager. After that we spent an inordinate amount of time learning from the extremely enthusiastic owner of a flooring store about exactly the right kind of oak floor boards we should use. I understood most of the discussion but I had to concentrate hard. Very tiring!

To celebrate surviving the day, I finally went into the central Pietrasanta pizza and had an Aperol. Whew!

I was there right as the light faded and dusk settled in. You can see it’s not summer yet: so few people. And in the cafes I hear almost entirely Italian. But in another month or so, this place will be hopping late at night and you’ll be able to hear so many different European languages plus American. 🙂

I’m not entirely over jetlag yet, which helps with late dinner parties. It’s now almost 1am and I’m wide awake. Sigh. Must get up before 7 to get to class on time. Uhoh…

Buona notte! Dormite bene!! (Good night! Sleep well!!)