Ambrosia Stitches

Before we moved to Italy, many friends who had lived abroad warned us that we would have lots of visitors! They suggested that we would need to adopt a strategy to cope with all of them.  Whilst it is true that we have had our fair share of people coming to stay, on the whole, it has been a positive experience.  This is probably because we are only seven months into our stay in Italy and the novelty of our new life hasn’t worn off yet! Also, everyone who has visited so far have been family or close friends so it has been a pleasure to see them.

One of the things we gain from having visitors is the opportunity to see our new home through their eyes.  You know how it can be, what you marvel at whilst on holiday can quickly become common place. Being able to hear and see the reactions of new visitors has reminded us just how fortunate we have been to be able to come to live here for a year. In the last week, visit from my husband’s mum not only gave us the chance to go and see places like Venice, but also to appreciate our immediate surrounding a little more.

Udine is located between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps.  The mountain views are just glorious, especially since the day in November when they suddenly acquired their snowy peaks.  We were able to visit the best spots in Udine for views of the mountains.

On our walk, we got to see a particularly lovely sign of Spring.

Violets! There were banks of them!

We were also able to explore a sweet little fortress town called Palmanova and take in the views there.

But, everyone’s favourite thing is to simply sit in the palazzo and take it all in.  Last week, we sat in the sunshine, watching people coming and go, listening to a group of formidable older ladies complaining in a lighthearted fashion about their husbands and, of course, drinking coffee!

That is another nice thing about having visitors. Each time one comes to stay, we realise we know a little more about where we are living and that we are not completely failing when it comes to speaking Italian! Progress, albeit slight, is being made!

As for stitching….. I can always take it with me wherever I go!