For anyone who has ever dreamed of opening a bed and breakfast in the Italian countryside have I got the place for you.  Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening at the county home of our neighbors parents.  They bought this property in the 70's during the boom days of the Italian economy and slowly added to it over the years, accumulating an entire hill.  Apart from an enormous old farmhouse, there are vineyards and fruit trees and gardens.  There is also a huge indoor/outdoor swimming pool where we all played volleyball for hours.  This place is incredible and it gets all of my garden and house design juices flowing.  But for the fact that I have no desire to take on a new occupation and tie myself down here.....  And its CHEAP.  Italians aren't interested in big properties anymore.  There whole package is going for about $500,000.  We ate dinner on the covered veranda and watched the lights come on in all the little villages on the hills.  There is a view of MonViso towards France and endless hills all around.  Man.  Anywho.  Just a few pictures below.

the front garden

early evening

the main house

setting the table

 xxoo me

We had two glorious days at the sea.  We went to Noli again.  My favorite little town on the Italian riviera.  We stayed in a B & B up in the hills in a tiny village called Tosse which means "cough" and that's about how long it takes you to drive through it.  These hills are olive country.  They grow in sliver rows everywhere.  But for that matter so does everything else.  It is a mass of green and brilliant flowers growing out of every crack and crevice.  The place we stayed has three rooms and a small apartment they rent and it was absolutely charming.  Breakfast was outside on the terrace under a bougainvillea. Tthe stone walls were covered in purple and pink vines I couldn't identify.  The owner grows every known variety of sedum in shells and pots and cups, even a thimble!  I could have stayed a long time.  The sea was a perfect turquoise and tourists are just venturing back so we didn't have to put up with the usual crowds.  All in all it was lovely.  Sigh.

Now we are back and I am getting ready for my departure with a few snags.  I should have flown to London on the 3rd but there are no buses or trains from Stanstead, (the airport I fly into), until 2 days after I get there.  A taxi would cost me about 200 pounds.  Maybe not.  So I changed my flight to the 5th hoping that public transport will be back in action by then.  If not I may have to change my flight again and fly into a different airport.  Whatta pain in the a**.  Upon getting home I will be surrounded by neighbors coming up from all of the worst virus hit states; Texas, S. Carolina and Florida.  Fortunately I don't talk to any of them anyway.  Hahahahahaha.  Not kidding. 

Here are a few pics from our little break.

breakfast

sedum

more sedum

The door to the owners home

A view of Noli's two church spires and castle

blue, blue and more blue

xxoo me

Our orange tinted river

Tomorrow is my 60th birthday.  How in God's name can someone as immature as me be 60?  I am eternally 12.  And that's pushing it.   My great plans for this auspicious occasion have gone amuck.  I had hoped to have a wonderful trip somewhere, a once in a lifetime something, but this fricking virus has messed with my birthday!  The nerve.  But at least thing are calm enough here that we are venturing forth and taking MIL to a restaurant tomorrow night.  We will be seated OUTSIDE, with MASKS, but still it will be an adventure.  AND what's more, we are going away, minus MIL, to the sea for 2 days, 1 night.  Hey.  It's something.  The check-in process for this place is insane.  We have to pre-check-in on-line, book a time for arrival to avoid others, then wear a mask when not in our room and pay only the exact amount in cash so as to avoid touching anything.  But the view is wonderful and I'll get to swim.  More to come.  xx oo me

Still raining every afternoon.  Great dumpings of water.  At the moment it is AGAIN hailing.  My poooor little garden.

Behind the condos they've been working to prepare the villa and gardens for the new occupants.  I mentioned before that it had been bought by a charity that runs rehab houses.  I can't see what they've been doing to the building though we can certainly hear them banging and drilling away, but they have pruned and cut back the trees in the gardens tremendously.  What up until a week ago was a lovely dense wooded area, giving us privacy and sorely needed shade, is now much more open.  We can see the roof lines of the houses on the other side of the property and see the heads of the gardeners as they go about their work.  I hate the idea of losing the little privacy that we had as previously we could sit on our terrace and not be seen.  Now, if the new "guests" choose to, they could peek over the back hedges into our gardens because the land behind us goes up hill.  I am not pleased.

MIL has had a little accident again.  Somehow she has managed to fall off a step stool she was sitting on.  She tells us she was sitting but we will soon discover that this 88 year old rotund woman was standing on it dusting her ceiling lamp.  Every time there is an "incident" she doesn't know HOW it happened.  Until she let's it slip.  Oops.  She is fine but bruised.  Still going to the market tomorrow with her mask on her chin because she hates feeling that she can't breath.  She'll outlive us all.

xxoo me

It hasn't stopped raining.  Not just raining.  POURING.  Absolute rivers of orange water are running off the hills, down our road and into the Po river.  The soil here has a lot of calcium which turns the water a chalky white and the trees are all in bloom leaving yellow and orange pollen on every surface.  The combo, orangey rivers.  And I itch.  Damned plants.

On another note we have spent all day, literally hours, trying to re-organize my trip to The States.  With the occurrence of the pandemic came all the trip cancellations.  With all of the cancellations came vouchers.  Trying to utilize these vouchers has proved oh so slightly stressful.  We have vouchers open with 4 different airlines, Iberia, KLM, British and Ryanair.  We can't just re-book the same flights as airlines have reduced the number of flights and some airports are still not open to most traffic.  One of those airports is ours obviously.  I have to fly out of Milan which in itself is a pain in the butt because it's an hour and a half away.  I had to re-buy my tickets to the UK (at 4 times the price) because Ryanair still hasn't issued it's vouchers at all.  Hopefully all of the quarantines I may be subject (London, Maine) to will be over by the time I get there.   So if all goes as planned I will be home from July 12th thru the end of October.  And I'd BETTER NOT GET SICK!  Life used to be easier..

xxoo me

We are having an absolute symphony of thunder!  It sounds like super sonic jets passing and waves crashing and a fire crackling all at the same time.  I love a good thunderstorm.

Alas the rain will bring out even more snails.  Even more I say because I am already waging a war on them sons-a-bitches!  The snails here get enormous and are freaking EVERYWHERE.  They eat my basil and potted annuals no matter where I put them.  They get up onto our outdoor table and our windowsills.  The climb all the way up onto out front balcony for chrissakes!  They are like little Edmund Hillarys slowly making their way up to great heights.   I've taken to going out at night before I go to bed and stomping on them with my gardening shoes.  It makes a very satisfying crunch.  My neighbors are dismayed and say that I should just throw them over the back hedge into the park but THEY COME BACK.  I've tried the coffee grounds and eggshell tricks but they outsmart me every time the little bastards.

So this is how I pass my time while the world is in turmoil.  I feel very far away from it and that makes me anxious.  I would like to be walking out with the protesters in BBH today.  I would like to be visiting friends and family (from a safe distance).  I would like to be home.   Unfortunately it is not yet to be so I'm back to massacring molluscs.  Are snails molluscs?  


xxoo me

The combination of retirement (sorta) and "stay home" has led to lots of free-time.  How is it I used to fit so much into one day?  Just last year I would be away from home at least 8 hours a day for work.  10 if I had "after-school" activities or exercise classes.  And yet I kept the apartment clean and did the shopping and cooking at least as much as I am doing now.  The hubby and I pretty much divide our duties.  I do my best NOT to iron and he avoids cleaning the bathrooms like the plague.  Now I am trying to fill my days and somehow, doing nuthin', they pass.  Thankfully the weather has been lovely so there has been a whole lotta weeding, a blade of grass at a time.  We now have 15 days of rain coming up, according to the weather gurus.  If I survive this I'll be fine.  Mid-June I'll hopefully book my flights home.  I hope the US has calmed the F*#@ down by then!  xxoo me