Monday 10 January - a banquet breakfast & a lot of chat

As we only had about another 290km to go, we treated ourselves to a mini lie-in, or at least we didn't drag our weary selves out of bed and into the dark, dreary morning.  It was rather nice to wake up, see it still dark and just turn over and go back to sleep.

The next time I woke up, it was light.  A bleary, apprehensive, peep through the shutters revealed a rolling ocean gently lapping an endlessly long and wide sandy beach, with a number of small fishing boats anchored in the shallows.  This explained the mournful ghostly fog horns that punctuated the night.  It was good to see the worst of the fog having lifted at last.

Breakfast was amazing!  A banquet of fruits, cold meats and cheeses, pastries, cereals, yoghurts, juices, toast, jams.  What a spread for an all but empty hotel!  We tucked in greedily, eating enough to last us all day and well into the evening.

Our drive, which took us all the way down the east coast of Italy was fairly uneventful and, within no time at all, we were rolling into Pescara.  We pulled into the airport office our our agents to touch base with them before the final signing on Friday.  Everything seemed fine and they made appointments for us to have a final check around the house with the Geometra, Enzo, on Wednesday and to meet with the Accountant, Walter, on Thursday.

The mess in the barn

As the house is an inheritance between 5 siblings, we're just a little concerned that they will have stripped the house of all useful items that we so desperately need and just left us with the job (and expense) of clearing out a load of old rubbish.  KP particularly has his eye on the tractor in the barn, keeping fingers crossed it will be staying.

More mess, but some interesting pieces

For my part, I doubt the tractor will ever start, but would look more at home amongst my antiques.  But he's desperate to get his hands on it and start tinkering.  We will be moving in on Saturday and don't have so much as a bed to our name, we don't even know if we'll have water and electricity.  I can see us on Saturday night huddled around the fire in our sleeping bags, cooking over a camping stove with only the flames and our head torches to light the way.  But KP just wants to play with the tractor.  Boys.

The coveted tractor

After we'd finished with the agents, we made our way to Serramonacesca, our soon to be village, and where we'll be B&B'ing until the keys are handed over on Friday.

Ian and Carol, our hosts, turned out to be English and also from Sussex.  Small world.  They'd moved out to Abruzzo 6 years ago, were the only other English residents in the area and had many stories and yarns of gossip to tell.  All very amusing.  They could talk for England!

Serramonacesca in the foreground

Over our evening meal, we learnt all about the lives and loves of the 500 or so residents of Serramonacesca and the 5 or 6 holiday home owners.  We learnt about the creepy crawlies that invade your home, and worse.  We learnt about the Mayor, the pitfalls of buying abroad, and the impossible nature of Italian bureaucracy that operates without rhyme or reason.  They also knew all about our house.

We finally went to bed with our heads absolutely reeling.  So much information!  All good though.  Very kind people and very useful to know.