ITALY

The last thing we ever expected on this trip was to wind up living in a small Italian village working as gardeners. It's the kind of experience usually reserved for "people trying to find themselves" in the movies. But I guess after a year away from Adelaide, nothing should surprise us anymore. So here we are living the quiet life in San Giustino - a small village in the Tiber Valley on the Umbria/Tuscany border. It is about as opposite from our life in London as possible. We've traded in the stainless steel appliances, central heating, trendy shops, traffic jams, packed clubs and office jobs, for rolling hills, a wood fire, stack of books, piles of prosciutto, cheese and wine, and of course the sound of church bells ringing through the town every 15 minutes. There are two other people in San Giustino who speak English - both are our employers. The rest of the time communication here depends on us trying to combine the handful of Italian words we know with our charade skills, which we luckily mastered last year when travelling through Asia.
When we were on the plane from London, I guess you could say we were feeling a little anxious. Considering we had obtained our new jobs simply by responding to an online ad, and we never even spoke to our new employers, we didn't really know what to expect. The ad had called for a couple who could help with landscaping and labouring jobs. It said accommodation would be provided, but for all we knew, it could have been in a dirty caravan (not that all caravans are dirty of course, but this one could have been). So we were really going in blind. Such is the nature of travel. So after a stop-off in Pisa to quickly see the tower and join all the other tourists getting photos taken while pretending to hold the tower up, we jumped on a train and then a bus to our new home, right in the centre of Italy.

The main street (above) and laneways of San Giustino (below)

San Giustino is surrounded by hills and is probably the only town in the region without a tourist base. It is really just a residential village, which has allowed us to quickly settle in and become accepted as part of the local community. Our three biggest concerns (What will our employers be like? Will our accommodation be hideous? Will our jobs be hellish?) quickly subsided on arrival. We discovered our new employers, Jim and Caroline, were an English couple who had lived in Italy for 18 years and operated a business looking after holiday homes in the region. Their clients are mostly foreigners - Americans, Brits, Germans - who are extremely wealthy lawyers, investment bankers etc etc. They explained that Bol's job would be going to the properties each day with Jim to carry out a variety of heavy labouring and garden maintenance jobs. My job would be to accompany Caroline's dad, Bill, to do the softer gardening - mainly mowing lawns. So far so good! Next they invited us to meet them for beers in the evening. Even better! And finally they led us to our new residence. "Please don't be a dirty caravan, please don't be an abandoned building ......" Hallelujah! Our new home is an old one-bedroom split level cottage, very Italian in style, with a terrace on the upper level with views over our village and up to the mountains. By this point, Bol and I were both grinning, knowing we made the right decision and had come to the right place.

The side view of our house

Sitting right in the centre of our house

Above and below: The views from our terrace (the perfect spot for an after work wine)

Our neighbour pottering in her garden.

She's always up for an animated chat even though we do not understand a word.

We have almost been here a month now and time is flying. We've slipped into a relaxed, holiday feeling lifestyle where we sip wine on our balcony, take trips to various villages and cities each weekend, and have a Friday night routine of meeting our employers at the local for beer and tapas. We are trying to take advantage of living in such gorgeous surroundings by actually making the effort to get fit. That's right - after a year of eating, drinking and talking about going for walks, we are finally going for a walk every evening through the mountains behind our house. And it is surprisingly enjoyable. Maybe it's because we walk through this .....

..... with views like this

Despite always thinking that I would never enjoy gardening, I have surprised myself and am absolutely loving working in the outdoors. There's something about working in the Italian countryside, starting the day with an overgrown garden and ending it with a smooth lawn stretching out before you. All of the properties we work on are large estates spread across various parts of Umbria and Tuscany and so each day we get to see a new piece of the Italian countryside. The weather extremes during our time here have been quite amazing. Most of the time I have been gardening while the sun beats down on my back, but one day I actually ended up working in the snow. Bill kept calling me back inside out of the cold but I continued to work away. Being able to lawnmow while snowflakes were falling on my face and the Hilltop Hoods were blasting through my MP3 Player was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that I didn't want to cut short.

Proof that we actually do work here

One of the properties we maintain

Me and my trusty mower

The view across San Giustino when the temperatures dropped below zero in the mountains


My view from the lawnmower

OUR FIRST VISITORS .....
Last week we had our first visitors come to see us in San Giustino. Our friends Anna and Ilke came from London to stay with us on Friday night and the four of us went to Florence, which is just 70km away, for the weekend. It was great to be able to show some friends our lifestyle here and to take them on our walk through the mountains. And Florence has to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The market squares, ornate buildings, galleries, museums, river, colours ... we absolutely loved it and plan to return in a few weeks. Here are some photos from our time with the girls. We'll fill you in more on Italy in a few weeks. We are planning a four day weekend in Rome next week, so will try to write more after that. Until then ...

Above: Now we just need the band to go with our CD cover!

Below: Around Florence ... aaah.