Heading west …

We have now relocated from the east to the west coast, to a house set on a few acres at the edge of a small town called San Giorgio in the province of Lazio, about an hour by train north of Rome. Firstly we’ll rewind to how we got here …

After three great weeks on the east coast in the La Marche region it was time to move on, and time to give our livers a rest! Our hosts Tim and his three teenagers were always fun and always interesting and we learned a lot about life in Italy by meeting their friends from the ex-pat community and hearing about their day-to-day issues with work, schooling, transport and Italian bureaucracy.

Like our first HelpX stay in northern Italy, and like our current one in Lazio, the area is full of small medieval hill towns, and having access to a car made visiting them on our off-days so much easier. Though, as anyone who has driven in Italy will tell you, driving is always “interesting”! Speed limits, not using cellphones, overtaking and parking restrictions are apparently more of a guide than actual laws. And the risk of being caught anywhere near lunchtime would be remote indeed.

We took the bus across country to Rome as there is no direct train route. A very modern clean coach, even if it still runs to Italian time, i.e. it was 20 minutes late and we were only the second stop. It contained a driver and a barista (though he might have had other duties - baggage handler and second driver). Travelling cross-country was an opportunity to see the hinterland. As we crossed the Apennines it was very mountainous, lots of tunnels and national parks. Beautiful views of Gran Sasso (2,912m), the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps.  We arrived at the Rome bus station, a short walk then to the train station – Tiburtina – which we found very confusing as it is undergoing redevelopment: huge new empty floors with no one around. Luckily we found one stall selling cappuccini and brioches. A regional train then took us north for an hour to where we were picked up by Pauline (another Inglese), our new host.

Our new home in San Giorgio, Lazio

We are now in the province of Lazio and it is quite rural. Plenty of attractive medieval villages and pretty countryside, but I suspect that it is lesser known due to its location – between Rome and Umbria and Tuscany. Tourists pass it by, hurrying between the better known regions. 

Plenty of these to visit!

So far we have had one trip around the local medieval villages and they are just as attractive and neat as elsewhere, though we’re back to stone rather than the brick of the eastern parts.  

And this is the best way to see them!

Tomorrow we are off to Rome for the day so there will be more to report soon.

And to finish this post here is a typical day here:

Start work around 9:30 am. It is definitely a little cooler in the mornings now as we head into Autumn, though it is still warming up to mid to high 20s C later in the day. Work for the last week has involved solid strimming and mowing. This lasts until 11am when coffee is ready. After a half-hour break it is back into it until lunch is served around 2pm. Lunch is a leisurely meal of several courses, cold meats, salads, bread, fruit, left-overs, and all with the property’s own olive oil on everything. Wine is mandatory, especially as we're operating machinery after lunch …

Work then continues for another hour or so until heat/exhaustion takes over, and then it is a dip in the swimming pool to cool off followed by a shower.  Then it is time to relax until dinner where the vicious eating/drinking cycle continues …

And in case you weren't already jealous enough ...

The view out of our bedroom window