O mio dio! I'm finally here. After uprooting la nostra piccola famiglia, including our shy little cat Nella, we have landed in the Italian countryside of Lazio, north-west of Rome. The weeding out of my collection of antiques and memories of over 35 years was arduous, draining, monumental and at times painful. I sold four major truckloads of antiques — furniture, dishes, lighting, textiles, etc. — for $200. OUCH! But here we are…
We're living on a historical estate, helping out with organizing events and marketing of the luxury vacation villas on the property. Part of this includes my creating a new updated website — on a PC with an Italian language operating system no less. Did I mention that I don't speak Italian? Well it's one way to learn anyway.
Our first week here we stayed in the dormers of the villa named Casa Portale. Now I've stayed in garrett flats in Paris and London, not to mention village "huts" in Mexico and treehouses in the Santa Cruz mountains. None as strangely unliveable as the attic of Portale. We kept referring to the film Being John Malkovich. I can't believe that this is the very same bedroom that David Rocco slept in when he was here filming a segment for David Rocco's Dolce Vita. Besides being short on standing room it was depressingly dark, the mice in the walls were way chatty at night and in the morning (5am!!!) we would wake to a cacophony of Hooded Crows.
our cat Nella on high alert…
Marcel and Nella…
So we had a big Easter feast with all of the family and workers of the property (I was too depleted from sleep-impaired nights to photograph the event, scuzi) and then we happily moved in to our new digs on the other side of the estate. Casa Orto, or Garden House:
okay, more flowers in a later post. I could go on, and on.
So…now we can do some ordinary things like making meals and cleaning. Who woulda thought it would be so rare, and now such a simple pleasure:
Yipee! Laundry!
a bathroom where I don't bump my head!
a place to read…
a telephone…
and a computer where we can watch NBA Playoffs. simple things! "don't be sad. the game will begin shortly…"
a place to sit and have tea…
and a place to sleep…
even Nella is more relaxed…
More to come!
So Sylvie 
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