Our New Old House!

January 23, 2007 We did it! We wrote a check yesterday for 10,000 euro as a deposit on the house of our dreams! OK, OK, it may not be the house of our dreams now, but it will be when it is completely restored. Currently, only the roof has been restored, but they will start on the inside in May. We have the plans drawn up and they have been approved (some what) by the comune. Our house is near the cemetery and is about 500 years old! We are not worried about our neighbors as we feel they will be very quiet! No worries about ghosts, either! Here are a few pics from the outside and how it looks on the inside now. Obviously, we will keep you up to date on the improvements!

This is the front of the house, although it is facing away from the road!

This is how you see it as you come up the road. The dark door will be our garage.

Larry ponders how the window will look.

If you look closely on either side of Larry (in front of him--not the door frame) you will see the ridge that marks the edge of the wall--it is about 2 feet thick!

This part of the bottom floor will be the garage, wood room, and a bathroom.

This is just one of many nooks and crannies that are part of the walls! We hope to keep as many as possible.

This is a view from the road in front of the house--you can see the castle and the church bell tower in the far distance and the cemetery in the forefront of the picture.

Another note I want to make has nothing to do with our house. On the train ride home from Rome I saw a wild boar walking toward the river to get a drink! I didn't have the camera handy and Larry didn't get to see it, but it was very exciting! It looked very big to me and we were quite a distance away, so I'm sure glad I wasn't walking by the river when I saw it!

Christmas Time in Italy

January 22, 2007 Buon Capodanno a tutti! We arrived safely in Belforte on Saturday night. We were pleasantly surprised to find the weather quite nice for this time of year. In fact, it has been warmer here than when we were in San Diego!

While in Rome we were happy to see that the nativity scene in St. Peter's was still up. They were in the process of setting it up when we were leaving Italy and we thought it would be gone by the 20th of January, but we were in luck. Here are some photos of the streets of Rome, St. Peter's Square, and the Colosseo taken in December and the nativity taken in January!

Just one of many beautifully lit streets.

Looking toward St. Peter's Basillica.

They were still stringing the lights when they stopped to test them! Can you see the "cherry picker" at the bottom of pic?

Il Colosseo

Even Mc Donald's had a Nativity scene!

The Nativity in St. Peter's Square.

A closer look.

St. Peter's in the background.

And for old times sake, here is the castle in December!