April 2025 – The journey continues

Summary

In April we had visitors from the US and France. We continued our efforts on the PdS (Permesso di Soggiorno) which allow us to fully integrate into Italy. We travelled a bit, got a new monthly car rental, started olive tree maintenance, finished chicken coop. Lots of little projects.

This month’s photo is from our rose bush in the front yard. It’s one of the first to flower, and in such a lovely way.

Visitors

Our good friends Billy and David paid us a visit. It was wonderful to see some familiar faces and feel a sense of home and comfort. This was a big move for us and leaving behind friends and family still leaves a bit of a gap. During their visit we had plenty of good laughs, good food and reliving our history together. During their stay we had a couple more friends take the long drive down from France, Béa and Jean. This made for lively conversations, more great food, and a chance for us to experience the cross section of another language. We just can’t say enough how much we enjoyed these visits! We were thrilled that the weather was cooperating, and was nice enough that we had our first spring luncheon at our outdoor dining area. We didn’t mind too much when rain started sprinkling just at the tail end of it. We were even able to break out our new bocce ball set for a fun game on the lawn.

Funny story about the young lady in the photo below upper right. They were a really cute young Italian couple at a shared table. We hadn’t noticed she photo bombed us until we looked at the photo. We then used it to start a conversation with them and laugh about her fitting right in.

Travel

As you can see from the pictures above, we did a quick overnight up to Tuscany, visiting a place where we first had the pleasure of staying in a villa with friends back in 2008, Panzano, in the heart of the Chianti region. One of the local attractions is a famous butcher shop and restaurant, which has turned into quite the culinary dining experience for beef lovers. We revisited there during another trip back in Summer 2018 with Kayden, and here we were again, happy to share it with our friends, 3 of whom had not yet experienced it. We also enjoyed wandering around Radda-in-Chianti and Greve-in-Chianti for lunch and the afternoon before indulging in our carnivore’s feast.

Finally, on our way back down to Orvieto, we managed an out of the way detour to Volterra, famous for its beautiful alabaster shops, historic center, and lovely views across the western countryside of Tuscany, in addition to being one of the oldest cities in Italy. It is believed to have been continuously inhabited as a city since at least the end of the 8th century BC.

We also joined our friends on a few excursions closer to home, including Perugia, Deruta, Castiglione del Lago and Montefalco.

On Billy and David’s last day we headed to Rome for the night. We visited the Spanish Steps, Hassler Hotel where we hoped to visit their beautiful roof top bar, but it was booked for an event (We did snap a pic though). Instead we had drinks in the street level bar. Eventually heading over to dinner at a local restaurant.

PDS

One of the most important legal milestones for our being able to live in Italy is securing our permits to stay (called Permesso di Soggiorno). This permit allows us to remain in Italy without any time limitations. We both submitted our applications back at the beginning of March, and George’s has been officially approved but the physical card has not yet been delivered. We are hoping that we will finally get the green light to pick it up at the immigration office of the police department any day now. Once that happens, Mark’s process will proceed, and hopefully his card will be ready within several weeks.

This process is sort of a rite of passage for anyone moving to Italy, as it is literally what keeps you “legal” in the country, and there are variations in the process depending on which town or region you submit your application through. Some towns have waiting times of a year or more!! We expect that our June update will include some details about the next hurdles we face for residency, etc. But everything is in a holding pattern until we have those PDS cards in hand.

Olive Tree Maintenance

This time of year, the olive trees are pruned to allow them to get more sunlight, get fed and protected from parasites. Because these trees haven’t been maintained in about 5 years, they are really overgrown and in need of work. It’s a bit shocking to see the before and after, it looks a bit post apocalyptic. All the pruning is now done, and next they must collect all the cut branches and burn them in a pile. Then they will treat the trees to protect them.

We look forward to watching how they recover, and the result the pruning will have on the olive collection in the late Fall. We have about 130 healthy trees, which produced about 145 litres of oil last year. It’s likely this season we will see very few olives due to the intense pruning, but we have sufficient oil from last year to make it without a big harvest for one season. We’ve become huge olive oil fans obviously, and having it straight from the tree is a completely different experience. The rich and spicy flavor is amazing to taste and savor.

Chicken coop

The chicken coop is officially ready for residents. With some experience from having chickens in Los Angeles, we think we’ve secured the space from predators. The predators we know of? Fox, Badger, Hawk. We’ll see who else shows up. See before and after photos below. In May we will order and receive the chickens. We are thinking 6 hens and a rooster. Everyone asks how the rooster affects the eggs. The quick answer is that it has very little impact if you collect and eat the eggs timely. Fertilized eggs must sit at a high temp (usually under a hen) for several weeks to transform. Like everything else, this first go around will be interesting. Here’s a link with a good explanation.

Spring arrival

Spring is now in full swing. Average temps are up and everything has come alive. The biggest change is just visibility. During winter you can see through and around everything. Now the trees have filled in all the gaps.

Outside dining table renovation

There is a long list of things that need renovating and/or some TLC. With spring/summer arriving outside dining is in our view. This table will be the perfect setting, but as you can see it started pretty rough. A bit of a diamond underneath all the layers. More work remains.

Troublesome tree roots

We have two beautiful trees sitting right in front of the house. They provide terrific shade for the summer to keep the house cool. We noticed recently that the roots have begun to elevate the driveway and crack the stone. Another project. I’ve dug up the rocks and cement surrounding the roots and purchased some cement to redesign. I actually would like a small flower garden around each tree so this may be a two’fer. This might be a short term fix, but ultimately will need to do something more dramatic in the coming years.

New rental car

Every month we rent a new car for 30 days. We can’t buy or lease yet and this was part of our budget for the first year. George and I both had a specific car type in the U.S. but now as retired folks we scaled way back. This month might be the most scaled. This is a new Fiat Panda. The Panda is a staple in Italy, they are everywhere and multi generations of them. Cars here are mostly very small, with small engines. They usually perform quite well though, but we sometimes miss the comforts of our pre-retired driving. This is fine for just George and I, but if we want to buy something for the house and bring it home…HAHA, or if we have company it just won’t do.

We think that’s enough for April. May is sure to bring some adventures. Ciao!!