Ciao Umbria

We are getting ready this morning to leave. We will stop by Manuele's office to look at new plans for the restoration. These include a third apartment on the same floor. We know we can get apartment two, we are unsure of apartment 3. It is very small but there is a possibility that we could use it to put in an elevator. The problem is the mother and grandmother. The mother wants to sell at any price the grandmother thinks it is worth more than it is. The mother says if the grandmother doesn't sell the mother will give her half to the church! (they are actually mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.) anyway, Manuele ever the optimist wants to show us a plan that includes the entire floor. We'll see. One week here. Not sure what we accomplished. We leave today and Joseph and Paul arrive to stay in our apartment tomorrow. Simone will drive us to the train station. We will train it to Milano and fly out tomorrow.

I am sad to leave.  Such a short trip has allowed me little time to relax into my life here.  There are so many things that I want to do, on the other hand there are so many things that I need to do back in Oakland. Work still calls to me.  I am waiting to get my "manuscript" back from the editor, and we need to really start thinking about our transition from here to Italy.

This is what we leave behind.

The view from the living room into the dining room.

Here is our adopted family we leave behind.

Antonietta on the left, Antonio, Martino, Barbara and Manuele in the back.

We will miss them.

The train from Florence to Milano.  It goes right into Malpensa.  Lovely.
We will return to Italy June 16th.
Arriverderci!