Our House!

After weeks of traveling, we arrived at the villa perched on a hill that will be our home for the next eleven months.  When we initially went to the house to meet our landlady, my first thought was that it was too isolated.  For the past seven years, we've lived in sidewalk neighborhoods where the houses are close together and the people who live next to you help sustain you whether it's to borrow a cup of sugar, go for a dog walk, play tennis, read about the Civil War, or join for a late night glass of wine.   Or produce a documentary, for that matter.  

But the house has its charms, to be sure.   All of the villas here were designed by a French architect who believes that while the floors of a house can be level (lucky for us), "the rest must be movement."   

The houses remind us a bit of Vienna's Hundertwasser.  The architect claims that his staircases are designed so that you can run up and down them all day.  We haven't tried that yet, but Luke and I, with Charlie, have run up and down the terraced garden behind the house where there are fig trees, lavender bushes and a variety of flowers that I can't name yet.  

 There is very little division between inside and outside, thanks to the warm, sunny days and the gardens that were designed as additional living space.  And we're all loving the pool. In DC, we frequently bemoan that it's usually too hot or too cold or too buggy to spend a lot of time in our own beautifully designed garden.  Not so here.  

And we don't have to worry about Hannah's F.F.s.   We usually have breakfast and dinner on the terrace just outside the living room. 

 

The vast expanse of sky behind the house provides a spectacular display of sunsets and an opportunity to track the rise and fall of the moon.   We've already seen a rainbow and even a shooting star!  

After living in a comfortably cozy house for the last six years, our villa here feels rather large to me.   On the other hand, that means that there's lots of room for visitors.   Book your trip!