Dusk on the street where we live.
We woke up at 7 am in Oakland on Friday, September 30th, to pack and get ready for our move to Italy. We had not completely unpacked for 3 months. By 3 pm on Sunday ( 6 am PDT) after spending 16 hours in Rome, we arrived at our apartment in Lecce. We have now been here for almost two weeks and are starting to settle in.
The first order of business was to apply for our Permesso di Soggiorno (permission to stay). Yes, we needed one more piece of Italian bureaucracy to be in place to be legal here. I won’t go into the gory details except to say that even though the description looks simple, after filling out 11 pages of information (instructions all in Italian) supplying 15 more pages of documentation, and walking to five different post offices (only two of which were of actual help), we now have an appointment on October 31st (Yes, Halloween) to meet with the magistrate and hopefully become official residents. Phew.
Holly had the disappointment of finding out that the place where she had been able to practice her piano during our time here has closed. We talked with the owner and he is moving to a small town some 30 miles away. But as she always seems to do, Holly has have found another solution. We were on an outing with our former property manager and now friend, Gianfranco Miglietta, and his wife Paola and were discussing the whole piano thing, when Gianfranco casually mentions he has a cousin who is a musician and has a piano. As I write this, Holly has ridden off on her new bicycle (pictures will follow on the next post) for her first practice session. The woman has someone or something looking out for her.
Several people have asked for pictures of our place in Lecce, so here goes.
Our street entrance
The inside courtyard
Our front door
The living room
The kitchen
Bedroom one
Bedroom two
Our rooftop terrace
Lunch on the top of the world
Ciao, a presto.
The dream is made manifest! So happy for you.
So wonderful to see all your photos. The place looks amazing and I’m so glad to see your new home! Sorry about the Italian bureaucracy, but it will be over soon! Great that Holly found a piano! Yes!!! Love you guys!
Paradise. Living the dream. Thank you for sharing your adventures with the rest of us.
Cindy, good to hear from you. We are having a great time right now.
Your Italian home is amazing! The interior is so different from the ancient look of the courtyard and exterior. So cool! What is the tiny door for in the street entrance? Looks like the larger door also opens so perhaps you don’t have to duck in unless you want to..? And bicycling to piano practice – so European! You fit right in! Love you guys!!
We do go through the small door most of the time. The larger door takes more to open and it is only used for large things.
I LOVE these Photos!! I cannot WAIT to be there in 5 short weeks!! LOVE YOU!.
Buona fortuna! Ci vediamo a Lecce, il prossimo aprile.
Fabulous photos! Love the wonderful big windows in the apartment to let in all the sunshine! Happy bicycling, and I’m so glad Holly found a piano!
Judi