It’s fair to say that the last month has been one of the most stressful periods of our lives. If you read my previous post, you’ll know that getting to the point where we could sign contracts and take ownership of the Olive Hill has been something of an adventure. We have been through many, many stressful periods in our twenty eight years of marriage, but few can compare to the last couple of frenetic weeks before the purchase of the Olive Hill was formalised.

It takes nine months to grow a human being. The last month of pregnancy is pretty frustrating, and is followed by the overwhelming experience of giving birth itself. After giving birth, many of us actually consider doing the whole thing again.

In our case, the process of buying the farm took a month longer than a pregnancy, and then the time taken to sign the contract took longer than either of my labours, and I never, EVER want to go through it again. Ever.

But it was worth it! The morning after the signing of the contracts, together with great friends Lynn and Dave, we loaded up the car and headed to Sabina.

And as we opened the gates to our very own Italian farm, we remembered that we are the luckiest human beings on the planet, and that all is good in our world, and that we are indeed going to live happily ever after. But we still never, ever want to buy an Italian property ever again.

Later, we sat, prosecco in hand, and watched the sun set, and realized that actually, we were even luckier than we had felt as we opened those gates. But we still never, ever want to buy an Italian property ever again.

And today, after a joyful, and rather boozy couple of days celebrating with friends, we went shopping, and realized that farmers need very big cars. But mostly, we realized that we still, never, ever want to buy an Italian property ever again.