Thursday, May 26, 2016

Starting Down the Home Stretch!



Wow, it’s been over a year since either Suzanne or I have posted to our Italy blog.  In fact, we have only posted 5 total entries since the start of 2014.  A big part of that for us has been due to our shift from a written journal to more of a photo journal to which we continue to contribute hundreds of photos every month.  Part of that is due to time constraints of course.  Truth be told, part of that may also be due to the worry that we have exhausted the curiousity that our friends and family have had about our life here.  Despite all of that, we expect to have 6-12 months left on our tour, and I hope Suzanne and I will be able to write a little more often “down the home stretch”.

Certainly, there continue to be stories, travels, and adventures to write about.  There is also the perspective of having lived here 4.5 years now and the shifting mindset we have as we look towards returning to the U.S.  Maybe this last series of posts will be interesting in comparison with posts we made at the start of this adventure.  It seems like yesterday when we started this blog in early November 2011 during an anniversary weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with all the anxiety and excitement.  Maybe writing about this last year will be something the kids look back upon years from now and enjoy reading.  Maybe it’s just about writing the final chapter to the best book I could have ever conceived for our family.

So in the theme of continued discoveries with some historical perspective, I offer you the following….

We bought our house in Arcugnano, Italy just over 4 years ago.  Within days of signing the settlement papers and moving into the house, my parents arrived for what would be the first of their four (soon to be five) 3-week visits.  One day after they left, Suzanne’s parents arrived for a 3-week visit.  Days after they left, we flew out to circumnavigate Spain for 3 weeks including too many highlights to revisit.  Days after returning from that, Chase and Annie arrived for their visit that summer.  And somewhere in all of that, we started to unpack all of our belongings, prepare to send our children to Italian schools not knowing a word of Italian, and oh, then there was me and Josh planting a 50-plant vineyard in our backyard.  How on Earth did we manage to pull all of that off that first summer?!?  

I really need to take this moment to thank Suzanne for not only tolerating this crazy dream adventure, but to add to it and thrive within it.  Back to the story....

At several times along the past 4.5 years, there have been construction projects in our neighborhood, not unlike any other residential neighborhood.  One of the early projects we noticed was a rehab of the fortress/castle/villa-looking property on the opposing hillside from us.  Then, at some other point, we heard a bunch of rock-drilling at a property just down the hill from us.  We couldn't see what was going on, but it continued for a long time, and we kept wondering what the heck was going on down there.

One day early last Spring, we learned that the fortress/castle/villa on the opposing hillside was also a commercial winery.  Me being me, I walked over one evening to investigate, saw the gate open, and decided to go in and stroll up the very long driveway to introduce myself.  Turns out, the property owner was conducting a wine tasting with his Norwegian guests, who were staying in one of their newly renovated B&B-style rooms for rent.  The owner’s name is Misha, and he is truly one of a kind. 

Misha has a small frame and a big personality; he is stylish, embarrassingly hospitable, middle-aged, and is impeccably fluent in at least 3 languages.  His attire is high-end casual chique that looks great on him, but would like like costume attire on me.  He's witty and well educated, and he sports a curly-que mustache that rounds out his Great Gaspy character.  If I remember correctly, his mother was a heiress to some Russian nobelity, who escaped or was exiled or some exotic thing like that.  His Dad was from a wealthy Italian family, who become wealthier after becoming some notable physician/scientist/something-or-other.  Misha spent many years living in Paris and had come back to the family’s Italian estate only recently.  It was maybe 10 years ago that his father planted part of their estate with vines and now Misha was running their modest wine business.

Misha insisted I join his guests and sample his wine, to which I dutifully obliged.  It was a spectacular Spring evening out on his large terrazzo, with great views in every direction, and  I remember shaking my head in disbelief of yet another ‘how did I end up here’ moments.  While surveying the area, I looked across the valley that separates our properties and saw our own house for the first time from this perspective.  One thing that stood out to me was the fairly major construction project that was underway not too far from our backyard.

On a good day I could throw a baseball from our backyard to this construction site, but despite its proximity and noise, we never had any idea what was being constructed.  Misha informed me that it was the work of some eccentric retired music conductor who was building an open-air amphitheater.  An open-air amphitheater?  Yeah, and when it’s done, he intends to host concerts and operas and events like that.  Concerts in our neighborhood?  In an open-air amphitheater?  On the hill just below our yard?…uh, ok.  How funny would that be, right?  Little did we realize what was actually going on...

A year goes by and this Spring, one of our other neighbors tells Suzanne what this project is really about.  This guy is not building anything new, he’s excavating an ancient, marble amphitheater that they discovered some years ago when doing some soil testing.  Apparently, the valley below our house used to be a lake, and apparently there was a naval passage from Venice to the former lake below our house.  Apparently, some 700 years ago or so, boats would pull up and dock, and then the nobility of the day could stroll up the hillside to attend the opera or theater performances here in our little town of Arcugnano.  Go figure!

Now, there is a big excavation and restoration project happening on site, to include the amphitheater itself along with what is apparently a number of ancient marble statues.  And when they’re done, it will become a venue for performances and concerts.

Apparently, the ancient Italians know what they’re doing when it comes to such things, because we have always marveled at the acoustics of where we live.  On a cool summer evening, the town will have little parties  maybe ½ mile down the valley, much further away than the site of this amphitheater, and you can hear people talking almost as if they were in our backyard.  It reminds me of the acoustics on Stoney Creek back home where you could hear the watermen in the early mornings as if they were in your living room, even though they were crabbing clear across the creek.

How cool.  Now I have visions of Suzanne in an evening gown, strolling with me from our house to our neighborhood amphitheater on some stary-sky summer evening for the Wednesday night opera series.  Heck, maybe we won’t even need to go anywhere.  Maybe we’ll pull out the yard chairs, pour some mohitos over ice, and listen to the concert from our own backyard.  Better yet, maybe we’ll pour some of our own TaylorMade Vino and listen to the concerts overlooking the vines in our backyard that produced the very wine that we are drinking!  Why not?!?

Check out more at this website if you’re interested:

Always more to learn and experience.  Always more to discover.  Not an endless amount of time left though.  Better get back to it.

Ciao for now.  Ci vediamo!

ct