About

Not everyone gets this opportunity to spend some time in another country so I thought I would explain how Bruce and I came to this decision.  We have this window of opportunity at this point in our lives and we decided to take it. Bruce is newly retired, both of our parents are deceased, our two children are young working adults – totally self-supporting.  No big weddings coming up, and , of course no grandchildren yet.  So we feel pretty free to go for a longer period of time than a normal vacation.  We also have been advised and totally agree that now is the time for us – before we have too many aches and pains, too many Rx’s, and just too darn old – to do this.

Why Italy? you ask?  3 years ago we did a wonderful tour through Italy and at one point we were sitting in the little town of Stresa on Lake Maggiore with a ton of other tourists and expressed the desire to immerse ourselves in the Italian culture.  In other words – not a tourist.  The Italians work to live whereas Americans live to work.  So we wanted to experience that kind of living for awhile.  So we picked a time when there would be fewer tourists and decided to spend November to April in Florence, with the month of October to get us from England, through France, to Italy.

So join us on our adventure if you wish.  I hope to take a lot of pictures and share our experiences.  Watch our struggle with speaking Italian(we have been taking classes but are far from proficient), watch us freeze through out the winter(California people, you know), and watch us try to live in a 600 sq. foot apartment.

Thanks for your interest, Marsha