ALL TRUE. Everything you just wrote is 100% on target. It does matter where you plant your tent poles. Question: did you just luck out or were you somehow able to divine the truth about these places before you moved there? Because it seems to me you made some very wise choices.
If John and I were able to earn a sufficient income, we woul…
ALL TRUE. Everything you just wrote is 100% on target. It does matter where you plant your tent poles. Question: did you just luck out or were you somehow able to divine the truth about these places before you moved there? Because it seems to me you made some very wise choices.
If John and I were able to earn a sufficient income, we would not be leaving. That said, he's a native New Yorker with a robust network of people there. Also, NYC is the center of the jazz universe. So, it makes sense for him. For me, less so, but I'll be closer to my kids, and that's a huge plus.
It all boils down to this: we are too young to retire and too old to work at McDonald's ;-)
When my daughter (about to turn 37) decided to come from Vancouver, Canada to go to school here she was 17. She attended the Universita per Stranieri, worked a while then got a degree at the University of Perugia. She met and married a man whose father was born in Gualdo Tadino and, although they returned to Canada where they bore two children, they returned here to live.
My wife and I realized that as we got older our trips to Italy would be fewer and fewer so we decided to uproot ourselves, already in our 70s, and move here. We ended up in Gualdo area because that's where they are. It just turned out to be as good as it is. If they were living somewhere else, that's where we'd be, and probably, if a good sized town was close by, just as happy.
I am slowly losing the bad habit of comparing the Italy we live in with what we had in Canada. One does this by becoming fatalistic and cynical in the Italian way, which is to say, we turn our things to that which we can do, and look for the humour in all our frustrations. Piano Piano is our adopted motto.
At the same time, while not rich by any means, we have enough to sustain a good and healthy lifestyle here, maybe better than we could afford in Canada, bearing in mind we are not ostentatious in any part of our lives. I feel badly that you and John were not able to make a go of it here, but I understand completely. You will feel the constant tug of Italy while you are gone, and you may surrender to it once you have ways and means. Maybe "will surrender" is a better way of putting it.
I will keep reading and responding to your beautiful posts.
I am so glad of your friendship, Vian. You are truly a "find and a keeper." And I am very familiar with the Gualdo Taldino area! John used to teach there. It's beautiful. In fact, I used to joke with John and say, "Oh, are you going to Walter Turkey?" The pun being "tachino" = turkey. Har har.
Look, I have every intention of coming back when we ARE retired and can enjoy the passive income one needs in order to survive here. That we have held on as long as we have, especially as creatives, feels like victory. Frankly, I don't know how we did it.
You're right about all of it, of course--I will feel the constant tug of Italy. I already do. I love this country. Life is full of ups and downs, hills and valleys. If I come out of it with a story, however, that's the whole point of life AND Cappuccino.
I would say the hills in Spoleto are daunting, but the hills in Amelia are just as daunting, and we don't have your elevators. What we do have is a community of remarkable expats, many of whom are artists, writers, directors, actors, etc. Few expats here don't have an impressive metier.
ALL TRUE. Everything you just wrote is 100% on target. It does matter where you plant your tent poles. Question: did you just luck out or were you somehow able to divine the truth about these places before you moved there? Because it seems to me you made some very wise choices.
If John and I were able to earn a sufficient income, we would not be leaving. That said, he's a native New Yorker with a robust network of people there. Also, NYC is the center of the jazz universe. So, it makes sense for him. For me, less so, but I'll be closer to my kids, and that's a huge plus.
It all boils down to this: we are too young to retire and too old to work at McDonald's ;-)
When my daughter (about to turn 37) decided to come from Vancouver, Canada to go to school here she was 17. She attended the Universita per Stranieri, worked a while then got a degree at the University of Perugia. She met and married a man whose father was born in Gualdo Tadino and, although they returned to Canada where they bore two children, they returned here to live.
My wife and I realized that as we got older our trips to Italy would be fewer and fewer so we decided to uproot ourselves, already in our 70s, and move here. We ended up in Gualdo area because that's where they are. It just turned out to be as good as it is. If they were living somewhere else, that's where we'd be, and probably, if a good sized town was close by, just as happy.
I am slowly losing the bad habit of comparing the Italy we live in with what we had in Canada. One does this by becoming fatalistic and cynical in the Italian way, which is to say, we turn our things to that which we can do, and look for the humour in all our frustrations. Piano Piano is our adopted motto.
At the same time, while not rich by any means, we have enough to sustain a good and healthy lifestyle here, maybe better than we could afford in Canada, bearing in mind we are not ostentatious in any part of our lives. I feel badly that you and John were not able to make a go of it here, but I understand completely. You will feel the constant tug of Italy while you are gone, and you may surrender to it once you have ways and means. Maybe "will surrender" is a better way of putting it.
I will keep reading and responding to your beautiful posts.
I am so glad of your friendship, Vian. You are truly a "find and a keeper." And I am very familiar with the Gualdo Taldino area! John used to teach there. It's beautiful. In fact, I used to joke with John and say, "Oh, are you going to Walter Turkey?" The pun being "tachino" = turkey. Har har.
Look, I have every intention of coming back when we ARE retired and can enjoy the passive income one needs in order to survive here. That we have held on as long as we have, especially as creatives, feels like victory. Frankly, I don't know how we did it.
You're right about all of it, of course--I will feel the constant tug of Italy. I already do. I love this country. Life is full of ups and downs, hills and valleys. If I come out of it with a story, however, that's the whole point of life AND Cappuccino.
vian@casagama.it
331-785-1275
just in case
We did a lot of research before we picked the Spoleto area. We had criss-crossed Tuscany, Umbria and Marche. We adore Spoleto.
I would say the hills in Spoleto are daunting, but the hills in Amelia are just as daunting, and we don't have your elevators. What we do have is a community of remarkable expats, many of whom are artists, writers, directors, actors, etc. Few expats here don't have an impressive metier.
We should check out Amelia. We’ve never been.