Nonna's Mulberry Tree

My cousin Carmella is amazing.  When I called and told her we had decided to jump into the fire and try living in Pontelandolfo, she scurried about looking for an apartment for us.  I wanted three bedrooms in the hope that I could nudge the other USA members of our extended family to hop over and visit too.  That plus my two bathroom requirement made the search more of a challenge. Carmella knows everyone in Pontelandolfo and kept asking around until she discovered the gem of all gems.  We are living in half of a completely updated and restored stone dwelling.  Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, the formal kitchen and the working kitchen, dining room and well – just look at the pictures!

We are about a 15 minute downhill walk to the Pontelandolfo piazza.  Notice I said downhill walk.  This is a mountain village perched high in the hills.  I hate to admit it but, unless I  bump into someone in the shops who would give me a lift, I usually call Jack to come and bring me back up the hill.  You can see the mountains peeking out as you pull in the driveway.  Yes we did rent a car – but I’ll save that story.

Our landlord is an incredible landscaper and the grounds include topiary trees, olive groves, oodles of vegetable gardens, fruit trees and – well you get the picture.  Most homes don’t have the kind of landscaping that Nicola has done.  There will be pots of flowers but we seldom see lawns and shrubs.  Everyone has a subsistance garden, fruit trees and olive trees.  Food comes first!  We are lucky to be renting from a true artist.  The small building on the left has a wood burning oven.  It is where they smoke meats, sausages, bake bread and put up food for the winter.

Don’t let the beauty fool you.  This is a working farm complete with chickens .  At the end of every meal we go out our back door and pitch the left overs to the chickens.  They love fresh fruit and vegetables too!

Curious about inside the house?  Or what a great place like this costs?  Well, all I’ll share is that the rent for this heavenly spot is less than you can get a studio apartment for in Hillsborough, New Jersey.  Let’s take a look inside.   Walk up to our front door – oops beware the cat may be sleeping on the chair or Zia Vittoria may have left us some fresh eggs.

The front terrace is a great place to stare at the mountains, read a book or just – well – do nothing.

As you walk inside you are in the sitting room – note the fireplace.  That not only provides ambiance but is also the source for the heat in the whole house.  Many folks here have heating systems that are based on hot water being heated by the wood burning fire place or pellet stove.  You have to make sure that you have a fire going if you want to take the chill off the house.  I  spent the first night here  whining about how cold I was – all those summer clothes I packed don’t keep me warm in the mountain.  All the floors are terracotta that sends the cold right up my legs.

Nicola explained the heating system the next day.  Then I stared at Jack, moaned and  really whined until he made a fire and kept it going.  Yeah, yeah, I know I should have shut up and schlepped the wood in.  Pffff – sometimes a division of labor is a wonderful thing.  These wood burning systems absolutely work.  We also have a gas fired on demand hot water system that we turn on just to take showers or wash dishes.  Everyone says that electricity and natural gas are expensive so we honor that.  I will find out just how those prices compare to what we pay in New Jersey. We don’t have to worry about running out of wood.  The back of the house has a storage area that is chock full of wood. Much of it is harvested in the forest.  Everyone here really works hard and saves money by living off the land.

Look there is Jack reading his iPad in the dining room!  Note the interior archway.  The entire house is made of stone with colored cement overlaid.  It will keep us incredibly cool in July but today, I am still feeling the chill.

Enough chatter.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

I’ll let them tell the rest of the story.

   Just how much do you pack for three months in Italy?  I had it down to three washable summer dresses, three pairs of slacks, one washable dressy dress and five assorted artsy tops.  That should have fit in one carry-on.  But no!  Suddenly, I had one large suitcase, one small suitcase, one carry on suitcase and one very, very large purse.

What the heck is in all of those bags?  Presents!  Since we found our Italian family fifteen years ago, I delight in packing gifts for everyone – that includes children’s books in English. (Beginning in nursery school all students study English.)  Plus, my precious niece Alexandra Rose is graduating from the London Academy of Dramatic Arts this July and I had to lug along her graduation prizes.  OK, so that bag should come back empty.  Nah – it won’t – I’ll buy tante cose while I am in Pontelandolfo.

Shoes!  I forgot about the shoes!  I brought two pair of sandals – no make that three, black pumps, Clark quasi sneaker shoes and those funky shoes that you can walk in water with.   The carry on suitcase held a computer, iPad, Kindle, adapters, all sorts of wires, plugs and electrical things plus pads, pens, files, and books.  It weighed more than my clothes.  The big purse – well that was so stuffed I can’t remember what was in it – but no clothes.

Jack carried the Magic Jack – which  is a fabulous thing to own. You can migrate your home phone number to it and when someone calls your house in the USA it will ring anywhere in the world.  We now use it as our primary home phone and have cut our telecommunication costs considerably.  We are so glad we bought the Magic Jack and recommend it highly.   His two big bags and one carry on also contained his computer, camera, peripherals, sneakers, two pair of sandals, regular leather shoes, and who knows what else.  I didn’t pack it.

My awesome godson, Tony, owner of Kennette Productions ( that was a blatant plug-in case you need any video or audio work done) drove us to JFK Airport.  We got there in plenty of time to toast our new adventure.  The “test” to see if a tiny mountain village is the perfect place to spend our retirement years.  We flew “Premium Economy” which means seats that you can actually sit in without your knees in your face and the opportunity to schlep two suitcases plus a carry on.  It was an interesting trip.  We got to Rome, easily made our connection to Naples, took the cute bus to the plane, got on the plane and smiled at each other.  In one scant hour we would be in Il Mezzogiorno.  Or so we thought!  For about forty-five minutes we sat on the plane.  No, they did not serve us wine and olives.  They did, however, tell us that we would be taking off as soon as the last passengers arrived.  They HELD THE PLANE for someone!  No one would tell me who the someone was – yes I did whisper the question.  But a very well dressed older gentleman sauntered on casually,  took his seat forty-five minutes after everyone else did and we were off.

  The Naples International Airport (Capodichino) is very manageable.  It is small enough to make the end of the journey feel like a family style beginning.  You can easily get your baggage and zap out the door.  There are buses to Naples and from there you can catch trains to most of Southern Italy’s major points of interest.  We have a great family and my cousin Rosella and her husband Pasquale picked us up and whisked us off to what would become our home for three months – Pontelandolfo, BN, Italia.