Just to give you an idea where we lived in Italy, while working there one year. We left for Italy, from Pennsylvania, using the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia for all our paperwork. All our belongings went again into a 40-foot container across the ocean, back to Europe. Little did we know that in the harbor of Genua there was a strike so we had to make do 8 weeks without our belongings. Only what we carried in our 4 suitcases was all we had. We lived in an apartment at the top. We had bought a lot for building a house later...
That's the apartment building; part of it... Right above the coffee shop sign: BAR BELVEDERE you see two balconies. Those were ours at the time. One was from the kitchen and one from the living room.
Underneath the BAR sign was the entrance and via an elevator we went up.
To the right you could enter the very narrow parking garage. We just barely could fit our Ford Escort.
Dad's Ford Fiesta that we had to borrow to drive to Italy from The Netherlands, fit a lot better!
That's where we lived. Close to Venice in the Veneto Region.
Cornuda in the Province of Treviso, in Italy.
I did use Google maps because each time when we flew over this region, the weather was not clear enough and our cameras not good enough...
That's the map of Italy and you can see the snow in the Alps above.
Driving to the south to Sicily was as far as driving north to The Netherlands.
Italy is a very long, stretched out country!
The yellow marked places are Cornuda, below, where we lived. Pederobba where we worked and where the office was with two big mushroom farms and packaging. Quero, where yet another mushroom farm was, an older one.
That was in the mountains, on the foothills of the Dolomites and along the river Piave.
I've never had a more romantic drive, very scenic, to my work as in the spring of 1989 when I drove to Quero.
By the way, Pieter was in the hospital of Valdobiadene, that's where artist Mirella SOTGIU made that beautiful chalk drawing from me. See link to that post below.
Here you could reach the back of the apartment and the parking garages, very limited in number though! To the left you still see the two balconies that were ours.
Stepping back from the apartments. You see there is parking adjacent to the building and that's what we had to use mostly. There was a dirt road going up the hill to an old farmstead with horse stables. We have walked up there several times. It is mountainous.
Here you get a little bit of an idea about the hilly part.
This is from another angle, from a side street. The two left balconies at the top was where we lived.
Below the apartment were shops.
Here I've marked the bottom of our balconies 'yellow'... that gives again a view up.
Shops below and also showing the parking places.
This is just around the corner and I only wanted to show the shop Rosetto where before was a gift shop for luxury items. There I sold lots of my imports in consignment. The lady was saddened when I left...
Zooming in on the streetlevel I used the Google map from this link. Interesting how we still can visit places where we lived by using Google! At the time we worked and lived in Italy we have made very few photos. Studying in the beginning each day a lesson Dutch-Italian and working 6-days a week did not leave much space for other things. But we enjoyed living there for almost one year. Not so much the fact that building there had to be following the rules for the earthquake region. That meant we had to put as much 'money' in the ground as above by constructing with big concrete pillars in the ground, a thick concrete foundation and all walls had to be very thick concrete as well. We went back to Georgia, USA where we have no earthquakes... But we miss the shopping as Italy is the best country for design, for jewelry, for leather goods like shoes and hand bags and also for lingerie... The food part we can find here in Dublin, Georgia as well and we are lucky with our Italian friend and Lady Chef Maria from Ristorante da Maria.
Related link:
{HELP ME FIND ITALIAN ARTIST M. SOTGIU mother of Luigi Tramarollo} | previous post by me with photos from the River Piave
{YES, I did find the Italian artist who did my chalk drawing!} | previous post by me
living for 2 months without your belongings would have been tough, for sure. and earthquake construction, too...
ReplyDeleteYes...I'd hate to be anywhere without my belongings, but Italy is great, so maybe I would have put up with it, lol... Well, earthquake buildings may not be pretty, but are much more secure and they would know, as they had devastation in the past! Have a nice week.
ReplyDeleteFABBY
Dearest Fabby,
DeleteOh sure, those buildings were very pretty in their architecture but it was about all the money that had to go 'into the ground' that would make building there so much more expensive!
Happy weekend to you.
Mariette
Liebe Mariette,
ReplyDeletedas war wieder ein Gedicht!
In Liebe
Elisabeth
Lieve Mariette,
ReplyDeleteOok al was jullie woonsituatie toen anders dan het luxe onderkomen van nu,
jullie woonden er wel veilig in een aardbeving gevoelig Italië.
Leuk dat je daar nog eens terug kunt kijken op deze manier.
En van al het fraais wat je eens kocht bij Rosetto kan je nog elke dag genieten.
Heb nog even de krijttekening bewonderd, mooi.....lijkt sprekend, jij bent het helemaal.
Jammer dat je die Italiaanse kunstenares uit het oog verloren bent.
Fijn weekeind en liefs,
Ger
Lieve Ger,
DeleteJa sorry, had die link van het wèl gevonden hebben van die Italiaanse kunstenares er niet meteen onder staan. We hebben contact dus.
Ook nog een fijn weekend en liefs,
Mariette
liebe Mariette,
ReplyDeletehelfen kann ich dir leider auch nicht. Aber ich bin begeistert von
deinem Post. Das Ristorante ist wunderschön - hier schmeckt es
sicher besonders gut. Ich mag die gediegene Atmosphäre.
Ein schönes Wochenende wünscht Dir
Irmi
What an interesting life you have!
ReplyDeleteMarina
Leuk om in Italie te wonen lijkt me.Ja, zo'n staking is niet ongewoon daar, maar wel vervelend als het 8 weken duurt!
ReplyDeleteLiebe Mariette,
ReplyDeletewo du schon alles gewohnt hast! Das war bestimmt interessant, in Italien zu leben. Du hast von überall die schönsten Eindrücke und Erlebnisse behalten.
Schöne Grüße,
Johanna
Hi Mariette, WOW I bet you were glad to move on to a home after being in these buildings. Going so long without your belongings is no fun at all while living in a foreign place. But all an experience anyway.
ReplyDeleteHappy Weekend,
XO CM
Dearest Mariette, A wonderful opportunity to live in and experience other cultures. Italy is a beautiful country and my experience with the people was always great. I really love Florence (Firenze). I bought some beautiful jewelry there.
ReplyDeleteI looked up my childhood home on Google maps and was so disappointed. It is now a vacant lot, broke my heart. I am really curious as the house next door is there. I am thinking it possibly burned.
Meant to tell you, I love your new header with your home and flowers, beautiful.
Love to you,
Ginger
Dearest Mariette,
ReplyDeleteYour Pieter wet to England at the Britigh Mushroom day scotch House.
It was very nice to but his little daughter Lizzy Scottish tartan skirt.
Hugs and love to you always!
Michiko
I can't imagine living without my belongings..............I liked all these photos
ReplyDeleteNonostante la tua abitazione non fosse come la tua casa di ora, percepisco un pò di nostalgia per il mio paese, l'Italia. Lo so, la mia è una Nazione con tanti problemi, e quale paese non ne ha, ma la storia, la cultura, l'artigianato,le tradizioni, la cucina sono il fiore all'occhiello. Sono italiana e anche spesso e volentieri mi arrabbio per come vanno le cose, non sarei capace di vivere altrove! Paola
ReplyDeleteLoved to see your Italian "hometown" and the place where you lived!
ReplyDeleteHugs from the Piedmontese Alps :)
Dearest Anna,
DeleteThis means a lot to me. Part of our hearts are always in Italy and we're fortunate for having so many items from Italy in our home here! Feels good.
Hugs,
Mariette