My Italian Life
Duomo in Siena
This story starts with a 9-year-old who said he was going to go to college in Siena, Italy in 2010. He never outgrew that dream and is there today. Fast forward to 2023 and we have two apartments; one in Orvieto and one in Siena. All of this through the tenacity and courage of one person: my wife Terri. I never would have conceived of this adventure on my own.
Her bravery and courage has trickled down the family tree to our son. He has faced his demons and come out on the other side. He is one of the bravest people I know and has to wear sunglasses… because his future is so bright!
Orvieto
Orvieto is a beautiful hillside town in Umbria, just across the Tuscan border and has a population of around 20k. Our apartment, originally purchased as an investment to be a vacation destination rental, is in the historical section of the city and part of the apartment dates back to the 16th century. There were some add-ons by the family who owned the building. We are actually the first and only non-family members to own a part of their family home. We are honored and trying to it up right.
Siena
Siena is located in Tuscany and is about halfway between Florence and Rome. They have about 50k people. We have visited there as a family a few times.
My wife is continually viewing and scanning the Italian real estate market for deals and decoration ideas. One day she received a notice from one of the sites that there was an auction for an apartment in a historic building on the same street where we had rented an apartment for about a week a while ago. As she researched she realized that the apartment was in the same building that we had stayed in! Following a brief discussion with me we figured we had nothing to lose and probably wouldn’t win anyway, so SURE! Why not go for it!
Long story short - we made the winning bid!
While our son planted the seed that moving to Italy COULD be possible, all of this was made possible through the tenacity and courage of one person: my wife. I never would have conceived of this adventure on my own. It’s not hard to see where he gets his adventurous spirit.
