Fussball Italia

When you think of Italy, what comes to mind? Food? Maybe stylish clothes or fast cars? Almost certainly, your mental list will also include football. The Italian national team, four-time World Cup winners, has featured many of the greats of the game whilst, for anyone of my generation, Football Italia on Channel 4 was the …

Parting Shots

When I first started my scribblings in this blog (if you can indeed scribble digitally), I promised myself that I would always keep a positive and upbeat outlook. I didn't want to be one of those people who moves to a new country and starts telling the locals what they're doing wrong. And anyway, if …

Moving On

With a move back to the UK only a few weeks away, if things go according to plan, I've been starting to think about some of things I will miss about life in Italy and in particular my little niche in Trentino. In keeping with the largely frivolous nature of this blog, I am going …

Freedom of Movement

You are now entering Phase 2. In the three weeks since my last Coronapost, things have slowly changed. The straightjacket has been loosened, allowing a bit more freedom of movement to return. The first unbuckling of this already strained metaphor came on 29th April, almost 2 weeks ago, when it was announced that we could …

Let’s go to… San Marino!

Way back in the distant before times of the start of February, we took the unusual decision to head south for the weekend, away from the mountains. We pointed the car in the direction of San Marino, a fairly long drive, nearly 4 hours. Emerging from our mountain enclave, we sped past Verona and across …

Here We Are Again

It is now more than 6 (s-i-x) weeks since the day when everything suddenly stopped in Italy. 43 days of staying at home with minimal contact with the outside world. It seems a very long time since March 7th, the last day I left the village, the last day I went for a hike, the …

A Grand Day Out

Last Christmas, as we couldn't go back to the UK, we decided to spend a few days in a little hotel in northernmost valley in Italy, the quiet 30km-long cul-de-sac that is the Valle Aurina or, as the locals call it, das Ahrntal. The cosy Gisserhof hotel, all wooden furniture and hearty dinners, provided us …

Going Nowhere

It is now two weeks since the emergency brake was abruptly pulled on the lives of us and everyone else in Italy, two weeks since the moment when we were all told to confine ourselves to our homes, two weeks since we were forced to postpone our plan to move back to the UK. Two …

On Days Like These….

Funny old week. I pride myself on keeping this blog as lightweight & superficial as possible. There are plenty of other places to find out about all the problems in the world and there are much more informed people writing excellent pieces about the specific issues with life and work in Italy. However, we are …

Going Down the Wrong Path

This is a story for fans of schadenfreude, a tale of what should have been a fun afternoon adventure but which actually, thanks to the compound effect of a number of small decisions, was not a lot of fun. A couple of weeks ago, I had a strong urge to get out of the house …