New Neighborhood

Since we still don't have the internet - no big deal, we've only been here for three weeks - lately, we've been taking some time to explore our new neighborhood. Last year we lived in the Savoia which is a hotel/condo building right downtown. This year, we live in an area of Cortina called Chiave which is about a 15 minute walk from downtown. It’s great to be away from hotel life, and be somewhere new where we can get more of a feel for how Italians really live – for example, there are four wine openers in our kitchen, but zero wine glasses, and what we thought was a pull-out couch really turned into two twin beds!

So far we’ve found tiny winding roads that lead to the rink (which is very close this year), a little church, and a few little markets along the side of the road.

There are lots more fields out here, and we’ve found that most of our neighbors have gardens. Obviously we need to make friends with them by saying “nuovi vicini!” so that we can get some fresh zucchini blossoms and scallions.

And of course, we live right next to the Hotel Menardi which is convenient for everything including chickens who lay fresh eggs, lunch and dinner, beautiful window boxes and neighbors who we know and love.

Life is pretty good in old Chiave.