I have been asked about the job opportunities near our village. Sadly, there is not much work available, even for Italians. I have been fortunate in that I can teach and Italian parents are very keen for their children to learn English. I would recommend doing a quick “Teaching English as a foreign language” course …
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Happy New Year
Well, Christmas was filled with many of the usual traditions and the seasonal influx of people. What was noticeable, was the absence of commercialism, stress and angst. This is “ My kind of town”! San Giovanni Lipioni sparkled magically when the Christmas street lights were switched on, and the display leading up to the church, …
Homemade happiness
When we moved to this beautiful mountain village, I pictured a merry band of handsome Italian workmen arriving every morning a la “Under a Tuscan Sky”. I was very mistaken! Apparently, in order to sustain this idyllic lifestyle, we were going to have to do almost every thing ourselves. That includes building work, growing food, …
Autumn 2019
Autumn takes its time to arrive in San Giovanni Lipioni. It continues to be very warm during the day and you have to get up very early to experience the first chill of the morning. It’s well into November before the leaves start turning and occasionally you can see the mist swirling around in the …
Christmas 2017
Why choose to move into a house on Christmas Eve? Why choose to move into said house when it has neither electricity nor running water? We were just so excited about our new abode and we couldn’t wait to explore the house and the land surrounding it. Not being able to speak any Italian whatsoever, …
How it all began
It was a cold, wet afternoon in February when we started looking for an old property to restore. The obvious place to start was Spain because we had relatives there, and we had visited there several times. However, we quickly discovered that Spain was way to expensive for us. It didn’t take long for us …
Prima Majo
Today is the start of a wonderful two-day festival in our village. When we first arrived here, everyone kept talking about it, but we had never experienced a traditional Italian festa, so we had no idea what to expect. It all kicked off in the piazza (quite early by our standards) and peak caps were …
April in Abruzzo
It is Spring in our mountain village and although there is the same rhythm to daily life, there is also a noticeable lift in demeanour of the people and in Nature’s reawakening. Perhaps it’s because I have time to stop and look, to take leisurely walks and see the vivid green leaves unfolding and actually …
Happiness is homemade in Abruzzo 