(…continue) On our hill there were four stone buildings.
One was the house were my grandfather had restored the farmer apartment on the first floor. On the ground floor a series of storage rooms were sitting on the original stone that founded the entire building. There was a smaller house, same structure, very conformable in the summer but not in the winter, since it didn’t have an internal staircase. A semi destroyed pig stall was useful to store the wood and an old Lamborghini tractor which had an almost human look. Last structure was the old tower and wheat deposit were some destroyed wood oven was once used to dry the tobacco leaves. Tobacco was the crop grown all around that area in Umbria. In the old building there were some of the unused agricultural tools.
In the last days of 2004 we had decided to set home in the old apartment were my grandfather would spend his summers. We had invited some dear friends for the new year eve party, so that we could feel supported in that first step toward sliding into the unknown. That was what happened during the first few days of 2005, we made our formal decision of staying there, trying to realise the vague plan we had fantasised around for the past several years.
So that was the beginning of our life in Umbria: a place and a handful of dreams. In order to start, we had to take charge of the agricultural farm, then we had to investigate the possibilities of becoming a holiday farm. That seemed to us the lifestyle we were aiming to. We both had independent jobs that we could develop in a rural context.
Breon was a dog trainer and he was hoping he could get Italian people to know his “American Method”, while they were vacationing with their pets at our place. I was hoping to be able to organise writing courses. But these were ideas and theoretical possibilities. The practical issues were others and they demanded a good amount of adventurous attitude. Also, we suddenly were so fully immersed in this project that we had little time to step back and take time to think. Thank God for anniversaries: moment like this one, where looking back seems natural and it gives you the real perspective on all the accomplishments reached in ten years…