We bought our little farm six months and one day ago, and now winter is coming. Today therefore seems like a good day to do a little reflecting …

If you have dreams of buying a property in Italy, you should already know that the bureaucratic processes involved in the purchase journey are long, complicated and tortuous.  But although you may know, you won’t actually KNOW.  Take it from me, buying a property in Italy is a roller coaster of epic proportions. As I reached the end of my tether, I wrote this blog post: How to Buy a Farm in Italy, in 50 Easy to Follow Steps … reading it again this morning, I laughed, but I remember only too well how writing the post helped to prevent me from tearing my hair out.  And then, finally, marvelously, the farm was ours, and we came up on a Saturday morning, to OUR farm, bringing along good friends who were staying with us, to attempt to watch the Royal Wedding, and to watch our first, stunning, Sabina sunset.  And it was all worth it: We Bought a Farm!

But, just in case you have read that second post and are wondering …

No.

I never want to buy an Italian property, ever again.

However!  Here we are six months later, and we have learnt so much!

• We have learnt how to make nocino from green walnuts (hold on a minute, we have learnt that walnuts have a green stage!)
• We have learnt how to look after our 400 olive trees, and that no matter how hard you work, they may or may not produce olives, according to many factors which are utterly out of your control.
• We have learnt that even when citrus trees appear to be dead, they may not be.
• We have learnt that making passata is fun, but probably not worth the effort – much better to simply bottle tomatoes.
• We have learnt how to pick grapes, and how to make wine!!!
• We have learnt words in Italian that we don’t even really know in English, like “terzo punto” and “trinciatore”
• We have learnt (well, Scott has learnt) how to drive a crawler tractor, and a million different ways to fix it when it breaks.
• We have learnt that wild boar are bigger and dangerous-er than we had ever believed.
• We have learnt how to light a wood fired boiler, but not what to do when it overheats and starts to boil the water in the pipes …

But most of all, we have relearned that childish delight of being excited to jump out of bed of a morning, and throw open your windows, and be rewarded with a view like this:

And, at the end of a long day doing manual labour outside, to sit on the balcony, wine in hand, and watch the most stunning sunset you will ever see … until tomorrow.

Yesterday, we went to Magliano Sabina to refill our various containers with diesel, in order that we can run our tractor for another week, and in celebration of the half year marker of farm ownership, we had a fabulous lunch in our new favourite restaurant, the Taverna Della Goliardi, , and counted ourselves as blessed to live the life we live.

And so.

Whatever part you have played in this bonkers journey of ours: whether you have unpacked boxes; de-woodwormed our furniture; picked grapes; cleared ivy; aimed our satellite dish in the correct direction; fed us; laughed with us; drank with us; read our blog; maybe even liked our blog: THANK YOU!

I have been blogging for almost exactly one year now, and am stunned to have discovered that my burblings have been read in no less than thirty eight countries! So, where ever you spend most of your life, if you ever find yourself in our little corner of heaven, do please pop in and say hello.

Emma