If someone would have told me 5 years ago that I would be starting a blog I would have laughed at them. But to be fair, if they had told me five years ago that we were about to experience a global pandemic that would see the world and my relationship of 13 years grind to a halt, I also wouldn’t have believed them. At the end of 2021, at the age of 31, I left my marriage and my home in South Africa with 2 suitcases and boarded a flight to figure out what to do with my life now. My first question was: Where the hell do I start?
The answer, according to many popular culture films and novels was: Italy, of course.
Despite the constant fear that I was being scammed and would end up on some UK afternoon TV show like Watchdog, I successfully bought myself a little 200 yr old stone cottage in the northern Italian vineyards in October 2023. The hard part was surely over now and I could settle into La Dolce Vita? However, unlike Diane Lane’s and Julia Roberts, this renovation and journey was going to take more than the length of a movie.
My aim is to document this journey here and capture the many highs and lows of this new chapter. I hope to share the laughs and the mistakes that I make along the way and perhaps, by the end of it, some wisdom as well.
I’ll be transforming the old 2-bedroom section of the house with a brand-new kitchen, bathrooms and windows. The whole house needs re-plastering, re-tiling and rewiring. On the outside of the house I will be restoring the beautiful stone that the region is famous for to its former glory and refurbing all the shutters. While the work unfolds, I’ll be calling the recently renovated old barn studio apartment home. As for the garden, I’m embracing its wild side and replacing invasive plants with indigenous ones to bring it back to its natural beauty
If you’re looking for DIY advice or Pinterest worthy before and after pictures then perhaps this isn’t the blog for you. It’s the authentic reality side of the ‘Internet V Reality’ memes. But ultimately, It’s just a story really, a story of fresh starts, YouTube power tool tutorials and Prosecco. So pour yourself a glass of wine (Italian of course) and let’s dive headfirst into this beautiful messy adventure that we call life.
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