That first summer in Italy (2008) we lived like there was no tomorrow and as if we had all the money in the world (which was absolutely not the case by the way).
We went to all the village parties in the neigboorhood, tamed a wild kitten that became best friends with our dog Indy (unfortunately Indy died in 2013), had Belgian friends staying over, swam in the river, swimming pool or sea on hot days, ate the best food we’ve ever tasted, and one day we even found a goat we took for a walk.
I don’t think I’ve ever been able to live as much in the moment as we did our first summer in Italy.
It wasn’t all perfect of course: we had an outdoor shower with exactly 1.5 minutes of hot water and if we didn’t want to sit on the toilet while showering we had to shower with the door open (luckily we never had unexpected visitors the times we were having a supershort shower), we cooked on a stove that was a real health hazard, every night the doormice that made their home between the windows and the shutters woke us up … but this was all part of our big adventure !
Of course, this honeymoon phase couldn’t last forever … to be continued …
