October Recap & What's to Come
October was spent (almost) fully at home but somehow still a whirlwind, from family trips to looking for houses and starting Italian school.
I know I’m a little early with the recap given that there are still a few days left in the month but we have an extra Wednesday in October and next month I want to use the 4 newsletters to talk about language learning.
I started Italian school last week at a free program sponsored by the Italian government. It’s 2-days a week, 2-hours a time, and will run the entire school year. I’ve been anxiously awaiting starting so am excited it’s underway.
But has given me something else to balance, alongside the 2 websites, the full-time job, and basic life enjoyment. TBD how it’ll look in the long run but for now, all good on my end. Just busy!
This month started with the tailend of my mom and aunt’s visit to Venice and then me going directly to Rome to visit another aunt, uncle, and cousins for a long weekend. It’s always so special when friends and family come to visit and you get to show them a bit of your life abroad, even if it’s the wrong city.
The middle of the month had us staying put in Trieste, resting from an eventful September and because the 2nd weekend of October in Trieste is always a lot of fun. This is the weekend of Barcolana, the world’s largest sailing regatta. The city completely transforms, with live music, bustling bars, and streets overflowing with people all weekend long.
The Sunday of the race we were invited to our neighbor’s rooftop to watch the race in style. Usually we deal with the human traffic and squeeze on the bus to go up to the hilltops to watch the action. Just going 1 floor up was a huge hack, especially with the catering being a step above our usual lukewarm bottle of Prosecco and grocery store snacks.
And now we’re in Belluno. We weren’t actually planning on being back here but yesterday around lunchtime we decided to hell with it and left town as soon as our workday ended.
We’re back here to look at a few houses, hoping this will be our new home in Italy come spring next year. The house buying process is long here, if you’re wondering why we’re starting now.
Between tomorrow and Friday we’re looking at a handful of homes so fingers crossed for us! It’s honestly such a wild mental shift to go from sampling countries like you’d sample your next ice cream flavor to loving a place so much you actually want to buy a home.
We’re trusting our gut though and going where it tells us, and that’s to Belluno.
New on the site
This month I published a handful of articles written from women from around the world. Read up on:
For November I plan to chat about learning the local language abroad. If you have any specific questions there, feel free to ask and I’ll my best to cover it all.