What a stunning day! And what amazing weather with 2 days to go until it’s officially Spring in Europe (apparently...) The Beast from the East, as this particular Siberian blast of arctic weather has been christened, arrived last night and the snow was just starting to fall when we went to bed - with no expectations of much really - though we knew it would be a cold night. It was -3 degrees (C) when we woke up with the wind chill factor taking it down to -11....

In the blink of an eye, three weeks have passed - including a day in Rome and the last week being devoted to the avoidance of homelessness (AKA: travel planning). So - what have we been up to. Well to hear expats talk you'd think the Italian postal service was staffed solely by deviant snails who hate delivering mail on general principle. However, this would have to be offset by Italian pharmacies charging illicit drugs prices for vitamins! I require a couple o...

It seems counter-intuitive, but time seems to travel faster for when we're in the slow-lane - go figure. It's almost impossible to believe we arrived way back on the evening of 16 December. Our stone villa is smack bang in the middle of a nature reserve (in fact the only dwelling in the nature reserve since you can't count the Ghost City of Monterano/Antica Monterano that dates back to the Bronze Age). Probably can't count the two Etruscan tombs next to the tra...