The Italian Diaries: Chapter 3 Begins

I have been back in Italy for exactly one week and I am going to be honest with you, it does not feel like spring. The calendar says March, Puglia did not get the memo. It has been raining every single day and my heater was broken when I arrived so that was a fun welcome back.

I left on March 10th, flew into Rome, and drove south with Ranger and Gunnar. I decided to break the drive up this time and stay overnight in Abruzzo because seven hours in a car after a transatlantic flight is a lot and the boys were over it. We woke up early with jet lag Thursday morning and finished the drive. By the time I got my suitcases up the stairs I was done.

The house had been closed for three months and it showed. Dust, that particular cold that settles into old stone when nobody has been living in it, and again, no heat. My friend Val was planning to pick me up the next day to return the rental car and when I told her about the heater she called a plumber on the spot. We came back, had coffee in the piazza while waiting for him. the sun was shining and I stared out at the church feeling such peace.

What I was not expecting this return was how easy it felt. The first two times I arrived here I felt like a stranger showing up to a life that was not quite mine yet. This time I just slid right back in. Like I never left. That feeling meant more to me than I can really explain.

Saturday night we had dinner with the girls at a wine bar. Val came over beforehand and I did her makeup, her mom had recently passed and she wanted to feel like herself so of course I said yes. Sunday morning (nursing a slight hangover) I met up with my friend Amy. We were going to hit the antique market that sets up in the village every third Sunday of the month but it got canceled because of the rain. So we had coffee instead, checked out the new grocery store that opened in town, and I came home and made dinner and read my book with every candle in the house lit. Honestly one of my favorite evenings so far.

Monday is mine and Val’s day. We have kind of unofficially claimed Mondays as our explore day, a spritz somewhere, no agenda. This week she needed to pick up her jeans from the tailor I was glad to finally figure out where it was and decided to dropped off my own jeans to get the zipper fixed. After that we went treasure hunting at the secondhand market which you guys already know is my favorite sport. I found the most beautiful floral dishes and the shop owner gifted me a little dish I chose to keep my matches in. It was the second time he has gifted me something and it gets me every time.

I hung the dishes, but I think they are too far part. You can tell me what you think. They are hand painted and imperfect and that’s what i love about them. I still have a few touches I’m adding to the house and when the rain clears I will turn my attention to my roof top terrace.

Val leaves for England this week to be with her family and I am planning to just ease into the weekend solo. Maybe a coffee and cornetto in the piazza with my Kindle. There are worse things.

This chapter already feels different and it has only been a week. More soon.

xo