An apartment in the Veneto! 2.1.06

We found an apartment in the Veneto. We searched and searched online and asked all the expats we know (www.expatsinitaly.com). We put out feelers with SlowTrav (www.slowtrav.com), asked friends (as far away as Australia!) who had friends if anyone knew of anything and put a desperate plea out on our blog. We were really hoping to find a two-bedroom place but could not find anything that big in this area that we could afford. We wanted to be in the Veneto so that we can visit Venice, a city we have loved, at least a few times during the summer and to see the Dolomites and the lakes area, which is definitely out of our budget to live in, but close enough to drive to from Verona.

We want to do some traveling into Germany and Switzerland, which will be more convenient from the north of Italy. Andrea, our "German daughter" (who was our exchange student when she was 16!) is getting married and has invited us to the wedding. Plus, we just want to experience life in this part of the country.

We did finally find an apartment which is in the suburbs of Verona, not in centro, but close enough to be able to take a bus into the center while living in a neighborhood that will hopefully be quiet and out of the tourist routes. It is about the same size as the one we had in Perugia and that suited us just fine. Laura, who owns the apartment, has told us that there are all the shops we need in the neighborhood and we are excited to be able to explore the city of Verona and all that it has to offer.

So, thanks to all of you who tried to help. We appreciate it very much. Now next on our agenda is to find something in the Naples area, which will be the last stop on this great adventure of ours.

It will be really hard to leave Sicily and the Mediterranean but Elio and Giovanna will want to enjoy their apartment on the sea, with their sons and family. But we don't have to think about that now. We will be here for four more months. Enough to explore the other cities in Sicily and enjoy all this peace and quiet and daily walks on the beach. Not too bad.

Ciao,
Rosemary & Robert