I arrived in Italy a year ago today, 22nd February, after an eventful trip from Australia. I had forgotten about the difficulties until I looked at the post I wrote shortly after arriving… The joy of travel
I guess it was an omen of things to come. I had no idea when I left Australia what was ahead of me. I arrived in Italy on the day of the first recognised deaths from covid in the country. A few weeks later Italy was in a severe lockdown and I was isolated at Casa Debbio, our house in the mountains. You can read about last year here… My covid year
We came out of the Christmas lockdown and enjoyed 5 weeks of lighter restrictions when Tuscany was deemed a yellow zone. We could move within Tuscany, shops were open and bars and restaurants open until 6.00pm. I made a few visits to favourite places not far from home. I avoided going anywhere on weekends as many popular places became crowded.
I had to use some of my valuable yellow days renewing my Permesso di Soggiorno and applying for Italian health care. Nothing offical is simple here and can never be done in just one day. I have also just renewed my hard won Italian drivers’ licence.
We are now back in orange, which means not leaving our community except for certain reasons, bars and restaurants are only open for takeaway. I recently bought a sewing machine to help me pass the time on days stuck at home.
After months of wet weather we finally have a week of fine weather forecast so I have come up to Casa Debbio to start planning some spring gardening. The garden is a couple of weeks behind last year probably because it was under snow for quite a few weeks, something that doesn’t happen often.
This was the view on my first morning. The view will start to change quickly soon when spring begins to show its lovely green face.
There are some tiny signs of spring. Daffodils are about to bloom.
You can see the difference from the same time last year.
I have some snow drops that I don’t remember seeing before. Filippo thinks they may have been eaten in past years.
All of the tree peonies have buds. About a third of the other peonies have tiny pink shoots.
If all my peonies grow there will be about 80 plants this year. Many were taken from pots in autumn and put into new garden beds. I hope they all survive. There are also a few babies that have grown from seed which are making an appearance in their pots.
I planted pansies on my table. They should cover it soon.
We have some new plans for the garden this spring. We would like to build some rock pools under the spring and we will put in a watering system to save some watering time. It is quite a big job in summer.
Despite being disappointed that I was not able to go home last year I am happy that I spent the last year in Italy. I have to keep reminding myself that we have all had our lives disrupted in some way and I have been fortunate that I have a lovely place to be. I was able to get lots of things done a Casa Debbio that would not have happened had I not been here. The garden is a beautiful work in progress.
When I can return to Australia is still unknown. Jim was to come in March, but that is not going to happen. I am hoping that once the vaccine rolls out in Europe and Australia restrictions will gradually ease and we will be able to travel more freely.