We checked into our hotel in Anghiari on July 13, happy to have finally arrived in the place we had chosen to live. The hotel was on the edge of Piazza IV Novembre across from the theater and our new home was nearby. We were given a top floor room with a large terrace where we enjoyed having a late afternoon glass of wine and the dogs could lounge in the sun. From there we could see across the Tiber Valley with the Apennines in the distance as well as most of Anghiari and its surrounding wall to our right. We also discovered after a day or two that if we walked to the far edge of the terrace and peered around the corner of our hotel, we could see our house.
An annual music festival was due to start in a week, which everyone in town was looking forward to. We were as well, but it meant that all the rooms in our hotel had been booked for some time and we would have to find another place to stay until our furniture arrived on August second. With the help of the hotel staff, we found an apartment a couple of blocks away though there was a two day gap between the last day at the hotel and the first day at the apartment. Funnily enough, we spent those two days staying in what was to be our new home. Roger, the owner, had used the suite on the top floor as an Air B&B, so it was well set up for our weekend stay.
The closing on the house was set for July 23. Roger had moved out the day before while we relocated to the apartment. After a lengthy closing session, we became the official owners of Vicolo di Monteloro 5 and went off to celebrate, having a final drink with Roger in a nearby piazza. With the house now our own, we were impatient to start making our mark on it and drove the next day to nearby Sansepolcro to purchase a couple of chairs and a small table for our little terrace. Although options were limited due to the space restrictions, we managed to find a small outdoor set and finished off the terrace with red geraniums and ivy to place along the railing. Now we had a place to sit and relax whenever we went to our new house to prepare for moving in.
There were also appliances to buy–a refrigerator and washing machine, both purchased at what would become a much frequented store, Euronics in Sansepolcro. Both appliances were delivered and running before the anticipated arrival of our furniture and I scrubbed, and scrubbed some more, the stove Roger left behind. More fun was walking through the rooms determining where each piece of our furniture should be placed. The house was, after all, three stories tall and we didn’t want to shift heavy items around once it was placed by the movers.
At last, August second arrived and with it one last move after so many. We left the apartment by 7:30 and headed towards our new home, pulling our luggage behind us and led by two eager dogs straining at their leashes. We arrived well before the movers, who were circling the town trying to find our house. Finally they appeared at nine o’clock and before long we were telling the three men where to place each piece. And sometimes, in spite of our pre-planning, where to move it when we realized that the designated spot was just not going to work. While they carried and heaved, we tore off tape and paper, unwrapping the furniture we hadn’t seen since May. When Django’s favorite couch was uncovered, he immediately jumped onto it and settled in, recognizing that he was at home.
By the end of the day, with the workers exhausted, we paid the extra fee incurred by the unanticipated difficulty of the job, and then we too claimed our new home. The weekend would be spent in fast and furious unpacking of the many boxes that had been packed over months at our previous home. A delightful break came when Terry ran up to me saying, “you’ve got to see this!” A parade was working its way along the street in front of us, led by a man wearing drag and carrying a sign that said, “Finally, tomorrow I will marry Gigi and you’re all invited!” I missed that scene but saw oxen, mules and monks along with a few antique tractors celebrating times past. Anghiari was not only beautiful but promised to be interesting as well.
Lurching towards Italy 