Ciao Tutti! It's been a few years since I visited Slow Travel. Hello to Shannon and all from the San Diego reunion in '04! I've been busy Slow Traveling! We've been living between LA and Civitanova Marche, Italia and plan a full time move in 15 months. This summer we're going to start taking small groups there to explore Le Marche and SHOE SHOP! We've found a wonderful place that is barely mentioned in the guide books. In 3 years we've seen only 1 American in our little town there. We'd love to share our tale of "moving to Italy." We started house hunting in Emilia Romanga, then Toscana and Umbria. Now we've fallen in love with the Adriatic and a very hip little area that seems to be off the radar of foreign tourists and a truly wonderful place to be. You're welcome to view our photos on [URL=http://fabshoetour.shutterfly.com] Case sensitive password: fabshoetour
We travel with our daughter, who is now 5 and has spent 28 weeks of her young life (on a budget) in Italy. A presto!!! Betsy

Hi Betsy!!!
Isn't it amazing that that ST GTG was more than 3 years ago?!
Great to see you on the board.

Hi Deborah!
Thanks for the welcome back. Where did three years go??? We're due for a bocci ball rematch, no? Boy have our experiences in Italy deepened since then! It sort of feels like we have two lives now — there and here. Where have you been off to recently?
B.

We were in Puglia last May. LOVED it. This year instead of Italy we are spending a month in Spain and Portugal. I've posted the plan on trip calendars.
We have guests coming from NZ the first of May. I'm taking them down to the Hill (St. Louis' Italian neighborhood) to play Bocci at a bar called Milo's. Should be fun. (if we can get an empty court, that is.)

We've been thinking about Puglia this summer. All of our Italian friends go there and say it's quite beautiful and not too expensive. Did you post a trip report about being there? We have friends who are coming on our first Shoe Tour this summer and then want to stay for two more weeks. We don't tend to go to touristy areas, though will end the trip with them in Venezia, as they've never been there. I'd love to hear your advice on Puglia. It's straight down the coast from where we live. Ciao for now!
Betsy

Betsy, I'm one of the 'black sheep' of the SlowTrav family. I have every intention of posting trip reports, but can't seem to get around to it. Instead I chat about my trips in dribs and drabs on the various boards.

We LOVED Puglia. We stayed on the western coast near Porto Cesareo. But we travelled all over. Even drove the entire coastline from Porto Cesareo to S. Cataldo. The seafood is marvelous. The people are warm and friendly. We were usually mistaken for Germans or Australians. Most of the people we met had never met Americans - who don't don't seem to find their way to the area in measurable numbers. The only exception was Lecce, probably because it's a larger city.
At the markets we had the young school children excitedly trying to practice their English on us. It's been many years since we've had that happen in central or northern Italy.

Deborah,
Part of what we love in Le Marche is that, with the exeption of the couple who first introduced us to the area, we are the only Americans. We only know of one other English family who are in the vicinity. All of our friends are Italian and we have been wonderfully embraced by the community. We go out for dinner and run into 5 or 6 friends every time. Our Italian is just coming around, and many folks there speak dialect! We are sort of the anomolies. Sometimes we drive over to see friends in Umbria, just to reconnect with the ex-pat community. Our life in Le Marche, is truly Italian and can be operatic at times. Are you going to Portugul this summer? We have English family who have a house there that they rent. It's not near Lisbon though. They've been going for years. I could you put you in touch if you like. We have a hard time traveling to Tuscany now. It's so expensive comparatively and the food doesn't compare. Plus it's hard being one tourist amongst many when you're used to another part of Italy feeling like home. A presto! Betsy

Yes, we are going to Portugal this summer. Arrive in Madrid on 5/25. Spend just a few days there getting acclimated to the time change. We're not big city people. Then we pick up our car from Renault and drive slowly (four nights) northwest through Castilla y Leon to western Galicia. Spend a week in a little town called Serra de Outes before heading south to Alto Minho.
A week in Ponte da Barca and then a two day drive through central Portugal to Lisbon. A week in an apartment in Lisbon then flying home.
Where is your family's house?

Hi Deborah,
Their house is somewhere in the Algarve. We were supposed to go there last Oct. for a 50th birthday party. We ended up changing our plans when we were invited to go back to an island in Fiji we used to spend New Year's at before Olivia was born. The folks who have the island don't usually have kids under 15 but extended an invite for us to come with Olivia, who is now 5. She's heard us talk about it so much she was very keen to go. We ended up having a fantastic time and it was actually a perfect holiday for a 5 year old who delighted in having an entire island to safely roam with her native best friend there. We hope we will be able to go back every New Years! It's a bit of a long trip from Italy once we move however.
Betsy