INSPIRATION
Ciao lets have a coffee and chat!
Let’s have a Coffee and Chat
‘getting to know you’
I’ve been sitting here pondering what to write about, all the time aware that I have to get to bed early tonight (which means early as opposed to my normal after midnight bedtimes) and my mind is zoned out. Then Sam calls out to me from the kitchen telling me to check my facebook page someone wants to buy me a coffee.
What??
A dear friend Kelly sent me a message saying she wanted to shout me a coffee as she has been living her Italian dream vicariously through us.
So Kelly this post is in your honor…..and thank you for the offer, one day we’ll get to do that coffee together.
I look forward to getting to know you all in person one day.
In the evenings after the kids have gone to bed and the house is quiet Sam and I both get on the computers. Sam sits at the table in the kitchen and I sit at my little desk in the lounge, we talk through the doorway and he constantly calls me to come and look at things he’s found. It’s hard to concentrate tonight, the fire is making the room warm and I’m sleepy, I’m thinking of making a cuppa and thought wouldn’t it be nice if I could have one with you, a little getting to know you session.
You each enrich my life in so many ways, cheer me when I’m blue, lift me when I’m moping, laugh with me, and cry with me, and we have slowly gotten to know each other.
Friendships have formed within these pages, people have met, chatted through facebook, I’ve shared the images, books, poetry, and stories of friends here. I’ve met incredible people with big dreams living in Italy, incredible people living amazing lives all over the world, people who have dreams, people with big hearts, friends I’ve come to care about and who care about us.
So I’d like you to close your eyes (after reading this of course) and imagine you are in Italy, actually close by and heading my way. We’re meeting for a coffee, we’ll be a big rowdy group with lots to share, much hugging and kisses on both cheeks, delight at finally meeting in person, and sharing…..lots of sharing…..
Over to You…..
Where are you now, what are you doing, what are you reading, watching, writing, drawing, creating, thinking…..who are you with, who do you love, what did you want to be when you were growing up, what makes you laugh, if this is your first coffee in Italy how does it taste…..where are we drinking it….which city, village, town, are we by the sea, in the mountains, feeling the warmth of sunshine or the chill of snow…..
Let’s get to know each other Better my dear friends…..a meeting of like minds and kindred spirits xx
Take it away…..
and the gang x
Sitting down after a day off from my small business located in the heart of a charming little town in Sonoma County, California. We just returned from the Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe where we fled, escaping the toxic air quality created by the epic forest fires … once again burning in our region. This forum helps me look to the future and dream of our adventure to come within just one year. Although things seem overwhelming, your posts keep me hopeful and smiling. Thanks to you all ❤️❤️❤️
Ciao Lisa from deep down south.. in the valle d’itria Puglia. I’ve just finished washing the trullo floor.. the stone “cianche” always respond well to a good scrub with Eucalyptus oil and water .. it’s a great way to work out and the revel in the beautiful Eucalyptus smell..
Time for a coffee here in the pergola.. it’s warm outside and the chills are cycling, the dog barking, the cat is climbing and Tarta the turtle is simply quiet and reflective..
I don’t know if you have ever been to Puglia .. but I would strongly recommend it..
I have this idea of us all house swapping with each other so we can see each other’s areas.. not sure how this would work.. but it would be viable and fun and interesting… we may have to have a few coffees to work it out … but it’s worth considering no?
ciao to your family and to your lovely area… saluti Elisa e Franceaco Trullo trelisa
Hi Lisa and the renovating Italy family! I’m drinking coffee at my kitchen table in Wales, surrounded by half-packed household items. After years of planning, we will be moving to Tuscany on 1st November! Fingers crossed! My husband is driving over with all our stuff and I’m flying to meet him. I’m slightly terrified and will be sad to leave my wonderful (grown-up) family and friends, but I’m also very excited! Wouldn’t it be a nice idea to actually meet up, maybe once a year? Obviously when we’re allowed to.
Ciao from Brisbane Lisa,
Coffee would be lovely but who knows when we will be able to leave the country.
I’m actually reading about living in France – but don’t hold that against me lol.
I have visited friends in Turin and have been up the Aosta valley so looking forward to seeing your part of Piemonte sometime .
Stay safe and well 🙂
Howdy Lisa… great idea… I’ve always had the thought to sip a cup of coffee while taking over skype to someone who has similar taste 🙂 Can we talk ?
That would be wonderful, apologies I missed your comment ….xx
Hi Lisa, until we have our skype coffee or tea meeting, we can have our imaginary one now. Somehow I missed this post earlier! If I came your way, I would be totally open to any area of Italy. The charming village squares, watching the people pass by, or beside one of the beautiful lakes, or even down on the coast. I’m enjoying the coffee, because I’ve heard it’s so much better than the French coffee next door ;). Sitting in the sunshine, basking in the happiness of the people coming and going, trying to decipher Italian words and phrases here and there. And hearing all about your life.
If you came my way, I would take you to one of our coastal towns a half hour away. Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, they all have charming areas where you can people watch, with the ocean as a backdrop. There’s a lovely open-air cafe on the sand in Crystal Cove, where if you are lucky, you can sit at the edge and enjoy your meal with the waves crashing a few yards away. And I would tell you about my life as a mom of 2 college students, and my life as a grad student, and my dreams of moving to France someday with my husband (when we grow up!)
Ciao, and au revoir 😉
Karene
Buon Giorno Lisa! Annette here from the Great Dividing Range in central-west NSW 🙂 I’m sitting here in my studio, about to launch into a few hours of knotting pearls. I’d rather be creating new jewels, but a bit of pearl knotting never hurt anyone, eh!? Of course if I could be anywhere, it would be over there in Italy – hubby (Grant) and I are talking about taking a 12 month sabbatical and doing just that. Of course we’d have to get someone to mind the farm… and the kids schooling could be an issue. Are there any international schools over your way? (Celia & Meredith are in Year 8 and Langdon is in Year 11).
Grant would like to ship his plane over and spend the summer competing in aerobatics comps around Europe! Might all be a pipe dream for a few years yet….
If we make it over there, I’ll be letting you know Lisa… I’d love to come and say ciao to Sam, Carina and Luca and looking around your little village!
<3
Howzit Lisa!
I marvel at the photos you share and imagine a life somewhere else but know that my home is here. Home is in a suburb high on top of a mountain West of Johannesburg in South Africa. Today was like most days: cleaned a bit, wrote for my blog then for my first novel (such a scary process), then sewed for my crafty business and in between did laundry, picked kids up at two different schools at two different times meaning two lunch times too, shipped an order to New York and ran errands, made supper then crocheted a few rows on a blanket for a market I have on Saturday. Finally I’m propped up in bed with my coffee catching up on my blog reading and I’ve put Eat Pray Love on in the background. I think I better make a flask – one cup is never enough! 😉
Oops! Screwed up my website address on the last post!
Ciao, Lisa! I came by way of Richard at Living in the Langhe. I’m a fella blogger who was researching for our trip to Italy this sumer. I’ve waited my whole adult life for this and now it’s happening! We’ll be in northern Italy for the month of June, visiting our daughter who is stationed at Aviano Air Base. We’ll be in the Langhe for 4-5 days and Richard has been full of info!
I would love to meet you for coffee ANYWHERE in your area! As long as it is outside with views. A deep smooth cappuccino, comforting and invigorating. A slow drink for a long conversation….mostly about how one might reach down and find what it takes to make ” a dream come true” such as you and your family have. Perhaps it would just be to live vicariously through your ideas….because we have an already amazing and fortunate life here in Alaska….or perhaps it would be to receive some seeds of inspiration, to germinate into something….else. Because there ARE things about living in this area, this self-centered, plugged in American culture that drives us to want to live more simply. Our BEST vacations are the ones that take us into the wild. No electricity, no cells, no screens….I know my daughter feels pain when we leave these places. For our second cup of coffee we would “Beam Up” to our deck here in Eagle River surrounded by mountains….and talk about whatever you want!
Hi Lisa,
Would love to meet you in lake cuomo, in the early summer sun:). We would talk about our kids, and what life’s been like for you since leaving Australia. I’m home with my little girls today, and I’ve actually attempted writing this a few times already but they always need me! Anyway, just ate beef stew for dinner, settling down for the evening… I love reading your blog and looking at your renovations and ideas! Keep making your dreams into reality!!!
Cindy
Hello Lisa — boy would I love to have a coffee with you, and I am sure we will some day. I am right now in the Dolomites, enjoying a week of vacation with my family in San Cassiano. It is spectacularly beautiful here. Today I enjoyed a fantastic long sledding trail with my daughter Caterina, the snow flying up in our faces and we sped down the mountain, careening around the curves and laughing.
Totally know we will and some time soon I hope, we plan to do some travel this year. We still haven’t seen the Dolomites and hear they are spectacular. Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy. I can just see you and your girl with snowflakes on your eyelashes and laughing, joyous moments xx
sending love dear Trisha xxx
Ciao Lisa,
Sunday night here in Milan and it’s NOT raining! We’ve had a beautiful weekend out and about doing some serious people watching, Fashion Week here, and enjoying the start of spring – fingers crossed. I’d love to take you across the road to our favourite spot for a cappuccino and brioche crema – Bar Foppa. Oh, but it has to be on the weekend because we’ve had to ration ourselves to brioche cremas as our weekend treats. I know Francesca and Angelo would make you feel right at home with their always cheerful “Ciao, cappucci con cacao?”. Even in the ‘big smoke’ we are finding the locals very friendly. See you soon???
How stunning was that girl in the long black skirt, and my daughter would be in heaven with all the fashion (mummy lets her down a bit with that). Yes totally love a cappuccino and brioche at Bar Foppa (what a great name). Weekends are fine, and I know what you mean about rationing it’s so easy to be tempted here. We do have to get into Milano and once the in laws arrive I’m sure we’ll hit the road for some travel. Milano sounds like the place to be.
ciao ciao lisa xx
Would love to see your house and village (Borgata) Coffee in your kitchen would be perfect, oh and meeting your neighbors! Smelling the air of northern Tuscany and taking a walk. Simple is best, meeting you and your family.
Big walks are the go here, the mountain air is glorious and the river water crisp and pure. I always have the kettle on the boil at our house so a cuppa would be perfect then we could head up the valley, over the Napoleon bridge picking wild berries and wild flowers, it’s certainly the simple life here, loved our ‘cuppa’ xxx
hugs lisa
Morning Lisa!! The sun is shining!! We had another miserable storm on Thursday and then rain in the night. Vlad and I chopped ice yesterday morning before he went to work. Oh please some nice weather and a little warm. It has been exciting here in this country. Canada has won Gold in both mens and womens event. The Canadian girls won Gold and the Men won yesterday beating the americans 1-0! They play Sweden tomorrow morning for the Gold. The woman’s hockey game was so exciting. The Americans were ahead 1 -0 for the first period and then then in overtime Canada won!!I listen on the radio and it is so exciting. Today is Saturday so Vlad is home. yeahhhh. I am going to cook a roast of beef in the crock pot today.
Have fun walking with the kids
Besos
Evelyn
Awwwww Roast Beef yum…..and such great news for you all that Canada is doing so well, I have lots of Canadian friends and one couple from Canada volunteered here in Bobbio for two years so I heard it from them as well. They have only recently returned to Canada and are slowly settling back in to life. Give our love to Vlad and my husband thought it funny that he had to chop ice, we think we have it tough with a bit of snow. Sending love and hugs
ciao ciao xxxx
Hi Lisa
It has been a sombre weekend here in Christchurch as we remember the 22 February 2011 earthquake that caused all the damage and loss of life to our beautiful city. It was 30 degrees yesterday and today it is showery.
If I was in Italy I would love to have a coffee with you in beautiful Orvieto. I loved it there with its beautiful clean streets and the lovely pot plants everywhere. My sister and I walked around and found a lovely spot to have lunch where you could sit outside and admire the plants and the people going by. Be lovely to sit and have a chat there.
Glad to hear you will be able to do some travelling this year so maybe you will get to Orvieto. I really hope so.
Chiao
Ryrie
I can’t imagine the sense of disbelief even still that such an event took place. My brother and his family live in Kinglake and survived the Black Saturday bush fires that took so many of their friends.
I have friends in Orvieto and I have heard so much about it we will certainly visit this year if possible. It’s great to just sit back and people watch isn’t it especially with a good meal as well. If we get to Orvieto I’ll raise a glass and drink to you Ryrie xx
.
Hi lovely 🙂 It’s Saturday night in Allora, Queensland and Bear and I are taking turns watching Olympics (me) and Footy (him). 🙂 We’re also working on medieval research for our upcoming medieval events and finding it so inspiring. 🙂 It’s been a very cold and stormy day after a cripplingly hot and steamy one yesterday. We spent Friday going to doctors and making the day special with breakfast and lunch out and fun jaunts to Vinnie’s and Cash Converters. 🙂 Nice, happy, quiet things. We needed it. We’ve been going through so much lately and it’s absolute bliss to just stop and enjoy each other and do the happy little things that make life bearable when it decides to go wonky. 🙂 Biggest of hugs to you. XOXO
Hey Hey hows things? I haven’t seen any of the Olympics this time. I love all your medieval events we went to the one in Qld and it was fantastic you were probably involved somewhere. The history here is incredible just the stories the old people tell and the way they are out and still working each day, they are inspiring and so tough, worn hands and crinkly eyes from laughing. Vinnie’s arghhh love Vinnies’ and we have found a few Italian versions here. It’s great to hear you are taking time out for you and have that quiet time to just stop and put the finger up at those wonky bits. Sending big hugs back, and love your spirit xx
It’s past morning coffee time here in North Queensland so I will definitely take you up on that cup of coffee. It has been raining here in Townsville Lisa for five days now. One day we got 9 inches of rain. It has been fantastic. Today it hasn’t rained so Marty fired up the lawn mower which he has been itching to do for days. The grass is so thick he got a real work out doing that. Our son just popped over with some lemon grass for our back garden. He dug it out of his friend’s garden (with permission lol) and brought it direct to ours so it might not even notice the location change! It was the belated part of my Christmas Present which I kept on reminding him about. Now back to that Cuppa. I have never been to Verona so I think we should meet up there. The buildings are supposed to be devine and I am sure we could find a lovely spot outside somewhere for a cup or two. Maybe Rambling Tart would like to join us 🙂
Oh that made me laugh Jan, I remember trying to keep up with the lawn in Scarborough and the first time we mowed we thought we’d made mango smoothies because of all the mangos that we went over with the mower. We were totally clueless about our mango tree back then.
I love your post with all the bright tropical color and fantastic to be getting so much rain. We are in the early stages of Spring here with tiny wild flowers coming up on the mountains.
Ahhh don’t mention lemon grass to Sam it’s hard to get anything like that here, plenty of basil though. I still owe my Mum a birthday present actually you just reminded me.
Verona sounds perfect, I backpacked there in my 20’s and saw a band at the arena. Arghhh and having Krista along wouldn’t that be wonderful, we’d be out all day wandering and chatting…..I’m smiling just thinking about it xxx
sending love xxx
PS guess what we just got ourselves a camper so set to travel now once we pick it up xx
How wonderful Lisa, it will be wonderful to be able to potter around Italy staying wherever you fancy. It is amazing that Basil grows so well there, it grows really well in Townsville too. When I get way too much of it I make pesto – but you know all about that 🙂
Sam loves the camper lifestyle and plans to retire into a campervan…..hmmmm as long as I can have my little studio home somewhere warm by the beach we’ll be happy. I love pesto and we ooops I mean Sam has made it fresh xxx
Hi Lisa
I would love to have a coffee with you. Nice thought
As I read your post I am sitting in a beautiful part of Australia, Coffs Harbour.
In May I will be enjoying coffee in Roma and then 4 days later I will be drinking coffee in Toscana. I can hardly wait. Lyn
Fantastic and great to have a coffee with you Lyn, Coffs Harbor is beautiful and I imagine it’s very warm now. Roma and Toscana lucky you, how long will you be in Italy? We hope to do some travel this year as well and I can’t wait to show the kids a bit more of the world. Ciao and thanks for the coffee xxx
What a lovely post to wake up to in my morning email! I’m glad my offer could bring you such joy, considering all the joy and enrichment you bring to the lives of so many other people. It’s just going on 6am here in the Midwest of the U.S. I have the early morning news on and drinking my morning cup of green tea while I’m getting ready to head off for a long 16-hour work day. Wishing you, Sam, Carina and Luca and wonderful weekend filled with love & laughs. <3
See what you started Kelly, such a wonderful way to get to know everyone and all because of you! I’ll have a cuppa with you, I actually prefer tea to coffee as well, my Mum is a big tea drinker and I take after her here. Hope your work day wasn’t so long, that’s a long shift xx sending love from all of us here in Malpertus xxx
I have been laughing non stop today – finding everything funny and being silly with my beautiful daughter! She is in the process of moving from Byron Bay to Coolangatta ( there’s a boy involved otherwise why would you move from paradise!) and we’ve been dropping things, running away from toads, finding boxes full of absolute rubbish, sharing nachos with water dragons and generally laughing about nothing in particular. We’re both a bit nuts and laughter is such good medicine.I miss her terribly because I live in Adelaide so right now I’m sitting on her ratty old lounge overlooking the rooftops of the Gold Coast with two great big young men lolling around on mattresses on the floor. The winter olympics are on TV and there are pizza boxes, mismatched crockery and being Friday night, the beer bottles have come out of the fridge. I imagine if you and I met for coffee ( tea for me) we would find ourselves in hysterics at the crazy stuff that makes up our lives. I know we are kindred spirits – women with big hearts who love life, family and friends and are prepared to give anything a go! Women of passion!
Sarah you are such a gift, I love your spirit and all you share. I remember my Mum helping me move with my first boyfriend but no water dragons lol . I miss my Mum and can’t imagine a day when Carina grows up and moves out, a few years away yet for us. I’m actually a tea girl as well so we could brew a pot and laugh over life, talk non stop and come up with all kinds of plans for the future!! Here’s to us!!
Ciao Lisa- I’d love to share a coffee with you!
Oh, and thank you for the warm welcome. =) I recently discovered your blog and absolutely love reading about your family’s adventures in Piedmont. My husband, 2 kiddos and I moved from the US to Milan, Italy last year.
The sun is out this morning and the sky is blue- a bit of a rarity for Milan in winter. I am enjoying a quiet moment in the house after getting the kids off to school. I’m having a doppio macchiato right this minute. And then I plan to take the 2 dogs for a walk in the sun…
Your writing makes me want to explore every nook and cranny of Piedmont- an area I’ve only dipped my toes in. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and life with all of us. I hope someday to have a real coffee with you! Wouldn’t that be fun?
Hope you have a wonderful day-
Heather
Heather so great to meet you this way, love your blog and I understand some of the perils of moving the family to Italy. It’s been really nice up here in the mountains as well, most of the snow has melted and the first signs of Spring are showing. If you’re ever out this way let us know and come for lunch. Are your kids at an Italian school, how are they settling in to life here. So much to chat about, and looking forward to that coffee xxx
I’ve been in New York City for the past week, my first time here in several years. I’d practically forgotten how wonderful this city is. The streets are swarming with so much life and energy. There’s at least a dozen places to get a coffee within two blocks in any direction, so let’s just walk….we’ll find something. Anyway, Ive been on the road for work a lot the last several weeks. I go home today, and finally will have the time to get a plumber in to fix the pipes that froze and burst a while back. Looking forward to going home, but I’m sure not looking forward to that.
Hey Jeff I love New York, I back packed in America in my 20’s so that coffee sounds good. I’d love to walk a while with you, hope your trip home was okay and I never even thought about pipes freezing and then bursting arghhhh. What happens now do you have to replace them all?
ciao ciao xxx
Ciao Lisa!
I’m not a coffee person so I’ll brew up a tea for now! I’m not too far from you, just the other end of Italy but the weather is much warmer here..2 days ago I got back from a trip to Asia to find it was 24C in Positano, in February! Crazy, and I did think of you in your snowy valley! We’ve been doing a bit of renovating too over the last year, but nothing like on your scale…the hardest part was actually moving as our house is 465 steps down into a valley from road level, so getting all the furniture down was a nightmare! Today we’re supposed to be papering the inside of a new wardrobe that we just built, but I cant find the wallpaper paste and popping out to buy some is not really an option. Might have some visitors later as some friends are doing a hike in the mountains so might pass by our valley. We have some signs of spring already, trailing roses are in bloom on the trellis and the neighbours sheep have had a few babies, 3 lambs born last week! Have a lovely day! x
Ciao Nicki, I tried to leave a comment at your blog but couldn’t get it to go through. So here it is xxx
“Just stunning, so tranquil and that water so blue, what a perfect spot to go for a paddle. I can imagine wandering those tracks, we often went up into the mountains in Queensland and would swim in the rock pools and under waterfalls.
Funnily enough I’m actually a tea girl as well, and would love to have a cuppa with you. I can not imagine 465 steps, what a mammoth effort, how do you move with all those stairs? I used to work in a paint and wallpaper store in Australia so you made me laugh about the paste, maybe it’s pre pasted? Isn’t it great to live somewhere and just have friends popping in, we get that a lot here and one day Sam just got chatting to a couple up on the road who looked lost, turned out they were Aussies and they came in for a drink. Spring is showing signs here and I saw the first yellow primrose on the mountains. So great to share that cuppa with you and sending love lisa x”
I’d whisk you back to Oz, to Bathurst. We’d drive down to Keppel Street and grab some fresh bread from the French patisserie – it would still be warm. We’d stop for a coffee at Al Dente then swing by Country Fruit and stock up on some Trunkey Creek ham and Mudgee cheese. Then we’d take a drive, out past O’Connell and have a picnic under the casuarinas on the banks of the Fish River. We wouldn’t draw breath. We’d laugh about how our poor suffering husbands put up with our mad dreams, our blogging, but how they secretly love the adventures that lie in wait. And we’d plan a return coffee in let’s say… Imperia?
Margaret this sounds like heaven, and I’d love to introduce you to a friend of mine Shivanii I think you’d love her. One of my favorite childhood memories is going to get the hot bread with my step dad on a weekend, we’d bring it home still warm and eat it with butter and jam before everyone else was awake.
Oh the more I read and think about this the more I am longing to see you and your beautiful Bathurst. What a wonderful day you’ve painted, and yes those poor husbands would cop a beating lol. So now I need to check out a great spot to have coffee in Imperia xxxx
sending love xx
Imperia schmeria. Pick a town, any town in your part of the world 🙂
How about to meet over at the Langhe and have a coffee with Living in the Langue and the new baby?
We have wonderful sunshine in Monferrato today 🙂
You are SO ON!!! Lets make a date with them, can’t wait to meet up!!! xx
Hola Lisa, you always think up the greatest ideas!! It is supper time here and I just scrambled 2 eggs with a little piece of cheese and toast for supper. Vlad works 3 – 11 so we have our big meal at noon. We are having another storm also. It has snowed, really rained, strong winds.
It is suppose to be like this until tomorrow around noon. Did you see the Canadian team with Gold over the American girls? What an exciting game!!
I have a metal roof and now it is a little warmer the snow is sliding off the roof and it sounds like an avalanche !!
You and Sam sound like Vlad and I. We don’t have cable tv so each of us are on the computer. It is usually me saying to Vlad ” Come here, come here” or how do you say a word in Spanish. Life is good.
I think I will install Skype and we could chat in that form. What do you think?
Well my coffee has been good. Hope yours won’t keep you awake.
Talk to you in the morning,
Besos
Evelyn
Grazie Evelyn, I totally love scrambled eggs and when I moved out of home I just about lived on them and cereal. We have our big meal here at lunch as well. I haven’t seen any of the olympics I must admit but happy to hear Canada did well. I love that sound when the snow falls from the roof, most of the snow here has melted and we are already seeing the early signs of Spring. It’s been a very mild Winter so far. We have done skype calls with Sams mum and it was lots of fun to see her in person. Thanks for the coffee and great chatting, sending love
xxxx
How about an ice coffee frappe in the shade of the big trees out the back by the pool?
Coz it’s hot, hot, hot here in Qld at the moment.
And humid – urghhh.
The only civilized place in this weather is in the water!
Sounds fantastic, I love your post with all the towels and bathers on the chairs. We always had towels hanging over the railing at our house in Scarborough. I had to smile at your thong collection ….gorgeous. Do you have any Mango trees…..thanks for the frappe and great hanging out with you xxx
ciao ciao lisa x
Meeting you, Sam and the kids was truly a highlight of my 13-week European journey. Answering all those questions would take a novel, but having a cuppa here in NYC would be fun! In Greenwich Village, or the Lower East Side. Or overlooking Central Park or the rivers. So many options here in NYC!
Having a big, FaceBook gathering in a family restaurant in Bobbio Pellice would be quite a lark, wouldn’t it? We could plan it for Spring or Fall of 2015. Fun!
Oh I’d love to see New York with you Wynne, we’d have a blast!! Somewhere hip and comfortable, eclectic, oh and I love that idea of a facebook gathering in Bobbio, that would make the locals look! sending love and big hugs to you xxx