Ciao I'm Wendy, and I've found myself on the side of a mountain in the beautiful Italian countryside.
I've lived here for over 13 years and I even blogged about my experiences in the past. Sadly I laid that blog to rest, but this spring I'm back with my new blog because life is just beautiful here!
So what's my blog about?....Its a snapshot of living life in rural Italy, food, wine, work (yes I have two businesses) and I still manage to live La Dolce Vita.
In fact, today I took the afternoon off and went out to lunch...it lasted 4 hours.
Want to now more? Ok
I live in a region called Abruzzo. It's a little known area in the centre of Italy, I describe it as being opposite Rome. It has mountains (the Apennine) and the coast, so for me it's perfect. I live in a small house surrounded by olive trees at the end of a track which leads down to a lake. At most one or two cars pass by every day, the rest of the time it's peaceful; no neighbours just the birds, a few stray cats, some wild boar and a variety of wildlife. That's it.
Lunch today was with a friend who travelled up from the coast. We chatted ordered our food and then sat back and chatted some more with a glass of wine. Needless to say, the food was wonderful. Kate had Arrosto Misto (mixed grill) because living by the sea she mainly eats fish, and I enjoyed a beautiful trout because living in the mountains I usually eat meat. So after an antipasti of mixed meats and cheese, our main course with salad we were done....until Rosita offered us Red Velvet Cake. Gabbio, her husband, makes the best red velvet cake.
We were thinking about leaving when the local doctor came over to chat. He'd been having lunch with a friend nearby and had greeted us warmly when he arrived. He brought with him a bottle of Genziana, a bitter liquor made from the root of the yellow gentian flower. We were about to decline but he insisted......this is Italy, a doctor wants you to have a drink with him, who are you to refuse?
Little things like this never fail to make me smile. This is La Dolce Vita in real life, drinking with the doctor in the middle of the afternoon, enjoying the sunshine and just being, no worries about getting back to work or driving home. We have all the time in the world.
In truth, that's what life in this part of Italy is like, there is no rush there's always tomorrow. No stress, no 'I must's' or 'I must nots' just piano piano....slowly slowly.
