I moved to Naples with my family for the next few years. I'm writing this so you can keep up with us and live vicariously through us, yes, but mostly because writing forces me to observe and to think and to drink deeply from the draught of life. So I invite you to join us in our quest to find that low door that opens on a garden not overlooked by any window, wherein dwells magic.

Friday, April 2, 2010

But you live in Italy, so you're always on vacation, right?

Sorry it’s been so long. We’ve moved into our house. We’re figuring everything out. Yes, we have to figure EVERYTHING out. We had to learn how to open the front door, plug in 220V plugs that don’t fit in our 220V outlets, reset the water heater after every two minutes of shower. We had to learn how to turn on the gas (or else we’ll freeze to death even when it’s 70 degrees outside), close every shutter before leaving or going to bed (or else they’ll break in and steal everything), open every window at least once a day (or else there’s mold), and buzz in guests with that phone-looking thing.

Living in Italy does NOT equal vacationing in Italy. We are not on vacation. In a few weeks we go to London. That’s vacation. We went to Bari two weekends ago. That’s vacation. It takes a week for a technician to cross the street from his construction site to tell us our water heater isn’t broken. That’s culture shock. Be envious if you like, but great heights are always accompanied by depths. So it may be a little while again…

1 comment:

  1. There are a few places where great heights aren't accompanied by great depths (like parts of the Himalayas), but those parts of the world generally don't have much breathable air. I'll take a broken water heater over no air. Then again, I seem to be the one planning to move to the Himalayas.

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