We are in Sweden where I had to attend a conference for a week in Gothenburg. My department could not cover the expenses of a week stay in Sweden (very expensive hotels!!!) so we look for a home exchange. We found a nice guy who is now in our apartment in Pisa and we are in his. It has been an amazing and very inexpensive experience. We have been superlucky with the apartment, the owner sent his parents to pick us up at the airport and the area is great.

Now, let's see what happens to our apartment in pisa, but as far as we are concerned, this is an experience we are certainly going to repeat!

And we have to thank Slow Travel, because we won a subscription to a house swap portal as a prize for the Slow Travel contest!

Hej Gloria---

I love love love Sweden, and you are there at the VERY best time of the year!!! Enjoy. Does the apartment have black-out shades on the windows to keep the sun out at night?

SO happy that the home exchange is working out....

Hej do--

Ciao,

actually in theory it's the best time of the year.... in practice it has been pouring for a week...

We had one sunny afternoon yesterday (luckily my first free afternoon) and today it is gray and rainy again.

Tomorrow we are back. But it's ok: we loved it anyway.

I was in Gothenburg years ago~ It is such a beautiful town on the coast. Take pictures for us.
If I remember correctly some really good eating!
Meanwhile he is enjoying Pisa...

It's been pouring down on the west coast for months - literally! The entire southern Sweden is flooded, including Gothenburg. It's cold, windy and wet, which is a shame because it's the middle of July and usually this is the warmest, nicest part of the year. We can only hope that it'll get better, but the summer two years ago we had TWO WEEKS of what I'd consider 'summer weather' and that was it, so I wouldn't get my hopes up too high...

I'm sorry you don't get to see a Swedish summer at its best, because they truly can be wonderful.

It's too bad there is no sort of weather averaging function between Gothenburg and Pisa. I enjoyed visiting the island fortress in Gothenburg. The tour is good. The old prison is a bit scary.

Ciao Gloria
enjoy the cool weather, not a lot of chance for it here now!

Hi everybody, actually we have been back since Sunday 15th, but Civitella is never terrible because it is not humid. Pisa on the other hand...

We actually enjoyed Goteborg a lot. Even with the bad weather. It was a nice break from the Summer heat and actually on my only free day it was "sunny" enough that we could walk everywhere and even enjoy the gardens downtown.

The home exchange was amazing. We had this nice three-room apartment on the top of the Masthugget hill, overlooking the city. Great. There was an enormous park starting just outside our doorstep. The nicest part of Goteborg (we thought), called Haga, was literally a 10 minute walk and it was full of restaurants and bars.

Plus the tramline was close to go to the University (boy... that's a nice campus!!!) or to go downtown, we were right in between the two.


The apartment's owner's parents came to pick us up at the airport, told us all there was to know, left us a tram card and some food for the first dinner and breakfast. It was so so so nice.

Plus having an entire apartment is nothing like a hotel room. It is not even comparable, the freedom and the space. The comfort even.

And it cut our expenses down: we only spent 250 euros for the week!!!

What's scary is that Sweden does not seem more expensive than italy at all... and last time I was there, 10 years ago, everything cost twice what I would have paid at home!!!

The Euro killed us for real!!

Anyway, I highly recommend house exchange. It was really like being at home away from home.

Gloria

If you have any hankering for the American Southwest I am always looking for a home exchange.