So in April 2012 I moved to Italy. To Cottanello, a VERY small VERY old medieval village in the Sabine Hills of Latium, 70 km North of Rome. Why here!? Because William lives here.
So how is life in a village where the average age of the inhabitants is around 84 years? Well, it is quiet. VERY quiet. Like, if you have adrenal fatigue, this could be the place for you! The old folks spend their days sitting on benches having a chat, drinking coffee at the bar, and... well, that's about it. But it is very sweet. It is like a big elderly home where everybody looks after each other. On the other hand they also work hard, chopping wood for the winter, harvesting the veggies from their garden and the olives in November. Due to a big underground reservoir it is actually one of the greenest regions of Europe, with green lush hills and fields everywhere. Our house is a bit outside of the actual town walls. Most of the houses are empty these days because many people left the villages in this area to move to the cities for work. There are supposed to be still 5-600 inhabitants here. I think I counted 40 maybe, haha. In fact, when I arrived, William made it a game to teach me the names of the villagers. He was asking me randomly at dinner time: "What's the name of the mother of the supermarket owner? Who is the best friend of our neighbor Liliana?" and so on. William knows them all, he is quite the opposite of me, being super social and outgoing and loving to chat with everybody, despite his super limited Italian. So now I am acting more as his translator. They actually started to build a swimming pool here but nobody knows if it will be finished because the plan was to teach the students from the local school how to swim (most people here can't swim since they have never left the region to go to the sea) - but now they are planning to shut down the school - too little kids around. I am helping William at the moment with his business of renting out holiday houses in the area. So we sit in our living room at our laptops and put up photos and descriptions of houses, or we drive around to houses which the owners would like to have rented out, take photos and put it all up. Quiet tranquil life.
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