In the below video about adding a second bathroom, please note the transformation of the black hole at the end. That "black hole" was so typical of the state the apartment was in! My Antique Floors and the Inappropriate Sporcaccione My floors are what we called "cotto" in Italy. Meaning made from terracotta bricks. They are antique floors and rather special. But
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Sagas of Doors
The Complexity of Doors -- Who Knew? Who knew that getting a few doors built and installed would be such a saga? I spent months dealing with the door that was to go between the living room and the second bedroom. And this was over the course of a year 😱 There were two days of 6 hours each of the Senegalese guy in my apartment, installing the door. And he turned out to
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The Kitchen Remodel (Part 2)
This is the second post about the kitchen remodel. Have a look first, at Part 1 to see how the kitchen looked originally. When I returned from California, having vacated the apartment for two months for the lavori pesante---the "heavy works" as my architect termed it---this is how the place looked: So attractive to arrive to after 22 hours of travel! LOL While I
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The Kitchen Remodel (Part 1)
Please everyone, for the love of god, check the chimney! If there's a chimney over a stove in the Italian house you're considering purchasing, don't do what I did. How did I manage to not look under the chimney? The geometra didn't mention it when I walked through with him and I didn't think of it. I know, epic fail! But I was so focused on the SIZE of the room. Yes, size
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Remodeling Living Room & Bedroom, and adding electricity
This is the second in a series of posts about my experience remodeling an apartment in Florence. The living room as it looked originally I didn't hire an architect. I got some advice from my "Geometra" and then hired some Moroccan guys and attempted to be be a "manager" myself. This meant discussing masonry and electricity in Italian, which I'm not familiar with
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Remodeling a Bathroom in Italy
This is the first in a series of posts about my experience remodeling an apartment in Florence. I had bought the apartment before the pandemic and I hadn't realized how much work it needed and how much it would feel like living in a warehouse until I was able to start renovations. The topic of the pandemic and surviving it in Italy arose on a recent tour I led for two
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A New Life In Sicily: Vineyards, Volcanos, and Chickens
I am pleased to add this interview to my Taking the Plunge series Here is Rachel Villa who moved from California to Sicily Where do you come from and when did you first have a connection with Italy in your life? My father was an officer in the US Navy, and we lived in Florida, California, Hawaii, and Japan. But I had never been to Europe. When I was 18, attending
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An Australian Opens a Bistrot in Florence
I am pleased to add this interview to my Taking the Plunge series Here is Chloé Guest who opened a bistrot/microbakery in Florence in 2019 Where do you come from and when did you first have a connection with Italy in your life? I was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. My aunt married an Italian-Australian farmer, who raised sugar cane and cattle. His mother, a
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Video Diaries from Lockdown
Video Diaries From the First Five Weeks of Lockdown Italy's President Giuseppe Conte announced Monday night, March 9 that the country would be under lockdown the following morning. It has been extended twice, first to April 3 and then to May 3. Day 11, March 20 Day 14, March 23 Day 15, March 24 Day 18, March 27 Day 32, April 3 Day 36, April
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Patiens at Ground Zero
Patiens at Ground Zero I watch from my cold and mostly unfurnished apartment in Florence as President Conte announces, his discomfort visible, that we'll be under lockdown the next morning. My breath falters on the exhale as Italy becomes the first democratic country since World War II to impose a nationwide lockdown. We're hurled suddenly into… what? What will it
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House Hunters Episode Prompts a Move to Lucca
I am pleased to add this interview to my Taking the Plunge series Why did this family move from the US to Lucca? Where do you come from and when did you first have a connection with Italy in your life? I was born in the Philippines but have spent most of my life in Southern California. My first connection to Italy was food. For as long as I can remember, Spaghetti al Ragu has
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Why I Risked Everything to Buy an Apartment in Florence
A personal essay Not long ago I woke up and was fifty years old, with more than half my life already lived. Divorced, and without kids, essentially alone, I decided to follow my lifelong dream of living in Italy, but to do so, I had to “dare greatly” as Dr. Brené Brown calls it. I’d been in love with the city of Florence since age nineteen when I backpacked around
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