Once upon a time, in Life Before Covid, I used to travel to work in the centre of Rome every Monday, on a little train that pootled back and forwards every hour from our beloved Sabina, through Rome, and out … Continue reading New Vocabulary for a New World
We spent a lot of time, effort and angst finding our home in Italy. We were quite forensic in our search criteria, demanding a gorgeous view, with neighbours (but invisible ones), no further than an hour from Rome, less than 500 metres above sea level, with easy access to trains, motorways, shops and doctors etc etc. One thing that we didn’t consider, however, was access to friends, and to a social life. We hoped to make a few Italian friends, but assumed that, apart from occasional visitors from Rome and from home, we’d be alone most of the time. Wrong. … Continue reading An Absence of Loneliness
Today as I sit and type, I’m looking over the peaceful Sabina countryside that I love so much, and reflecting on how warmly we have been welcomed into this area, both by the local and the expat communities that we … Continue reading Lest We Forget – Montebuono, 13th April 1944
As usual, we’ve been rather busy of late, hence the lack of blog posts. And as is to be expected with Olive Hill, nothing is straightforward, and everything takes 15 times longer than one would reasonably expect! So the house … Continue reading Spring is Springing
I am the grand daughter of a truly amazing woman. A woman with an incredible super power. My grandmother was born in Manchester, North West England, and lived a humdrum life until she was about seven years old, when she contracted tuberculosis, which led to the amputation of her knee cap. In the days before the National Health Service, she spent the most of her subsequent childhood in some sort of sanitorium several hours away from home, with little contact with the outside world, including her parents. Then came the war. In her telling, she learnt to dance, and then … Continue reading My Grandmother, and Kryptonite
Like most people, I have always found January a rather depressing month. The days are short, the skies are dark, it’s cold, it’s wet, it’s miserable, and spring seems a million miles away. To add into all of this misery, … Continue reading Winter, Schwinter
And all of a sudden, the pace of our Olive Hill Life is changing. Scott has three weeks left in the office, then we will spend Christmas at home in the UK with our family. Upon our return, the renovations … Continue reading Renovations Are Coming
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 … Continue reading Six Months Later
Friday was a “strike day” in Rome: a regular event in which the operators of public transport decide that they would prefer to take a long weekend over a day’s pay. This caused the Grande Raccordo Annulare to be even … Continue reading Enough of Oil That … Words Failed Me, and so did the olives
And so we returned to the Olive Hill, laden down with 850kg of White Grapes of the Highest Quality. Thankfully, our googling of the previous day had not been in vain, and we knew that we had a machine for … Continue reading Our Grape Weekend – Part 2
Olive Hill, Sabina - our farm in the Roman countryside 
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