Our first week of village life in Sant’ Eusanio del Sangro, Abruzzo, Italy has been pinch ourselves perfect! Ok, yes, it’s a bit chilly at a pretty much constant 8 degrees, but with cosy hats, gloves and jackets abound – there are adventures to be had!
View from our house
Our pad for these next two months is set on a small olive grove with a view over a lush valley on one side, and snowy capped mountains on the other. Rafa keeps telling me “I want to climb those mountains Mama!” – funny how close things seem when you’re a child! They just look like he could run to them – but sadly, grown-ups know different!
The mountains!
To the side of the house is a playground set in the olive grove. Swings in the olive trees, a see-saw, slide, climbing frame and roundabout. Rafa and Eva are happy to be bundled up and sent outside for as long as their cheeks and noses can take the cold!
Playground in the olive grove
The centre of the village itself is cuter than I even imagined. A row of shops and houses three stories high and of varying condition along a narrow cobbled street. Like something out of a movie! There are a couple of supermarkets, a bakery that we visit daily (the lady always sends Rafa and Eva off with a bun or a piece of fresh bread – grazie!) and a couple of coffee shop/bars. We have made a friend of the coffee shop lady. Francesca. I think she is the only person in the village who speaks English. Today she told me that she will take us to her house in January, cook for us and drink wine together! Yay!
The Piazza - where it all happens...
There are other shops to investigate, but with all the Christmas decorations adorning the windows and with our jubious Italian – its difficult to know what they actually sell! Ha!
We now have a Christmas tree! We made it from bits of chopped down tree we found in the village – and dragged the bits home! It actually looks like a whole tree!
Christmas tree coming home...
Thus, all that is left for us to do is practice our italian on the very suspicious elderly locals, wander, wander wander – and EAT – and DRINK! Oh yeah, on arrival here our host gave us a THREE LITRE bottle (seems to be how vino comes here!) of his home-made organic red wine. The smoothest drink I’ve tasted. In fact, oh look. Almost 4pm. In Italy, that’s wine o’clock! Ciao!!!