The whole blog in it's entirety 

When I first moved to Italy I started a blog. Not this one, one which described the lives of myself and the other expats in the area. I gave each of them names to protect their identity, but what I didn't do was make up the stories...you really couldn't make them up! That may have been quite a few years now, but in August I'm always reminded of this post. Surprisingly, something very similar is starting to happen again now with a new influx of faces, so I'm going to share th

Three of the top seriously strange things you'd never think would happen The appointment system When you've lived in Italy long enough, you start to notice a few things that don't seem to make any sense whatsoever, but in fact, they're a pretty good idea. One of those things is the appointment system. Doctors, hospitals, hairdressers, garages, the system is the same. You'd expect to get an appointment by phone or letter, arrive at your allotted time and then be seen....No; th

I love all things travel; that's why I worked in the industry for so long. Whenever I get the opportunity, I'm off exploring new and not so new destinations for myself and my retreats. I absolutely love it. Last week it was the eternal city. Rome. The perfect destination for a long weekend. In just 3 hours, across the mountains by coach, I was right there in the centre of things. It's been a few years since I was last here, but thankfully nothing much has changed. The Colosse

No, me neither! It's a January thing, the roller coaster of resolutions to keep. There's always a new diary, clean, tidy and full of hope, which turns shabby and inconsistent by the end of the year. The same thing happens year after year because all the 'ideas' about improving are unsustainable; they're restrictive. It's always going to be a recipe for disaster. But despite that, this year, I do have a resolution .... to take more time for myself. I live in a fantastic place,

The season has officially changed, and life in the mountains has too.

Another exciting week in the mountains… We officially went into a white zone, which meant we could travel freely AND eat inside a restaurant in the evening. Absolutely fabulous. Freedom is a wonderful thing, something which I may have taken for granted in the past, but I’ll never do that again. Only being able to travel 30kms from home is quite restricting, even if you love where you live. So, this week saw a shopping trip out to the market and the first evening meal in a ver

That’s what Italy is most famous for, and funnily enough, you can have it all in one afternoon. Since the UK left Europe, life has been a little more……difficult, shall we say. Today was the day I had to present myself at the immigration office for fingerprints and document checks. Any kind of visit to a government department is always nail-biting, there’s always something that you don’t have, an extra photocopy of something, a document which wasn’t asked for, a photo, a tax s