Ciao Italia! 'ello England!

Friday started as a beautiful sunny day in Radicondoli, but by evening it had begun to rain and it felt like fall in Italy had finally arrived. We packed up our stuff, said goodbye to the dogs, got some free gelato from our new friends in town, and slept for the last time in our lovely Italian farm house.

Saturday morning we drove to Pisa for a 2 hour flight to London. Despite mailing back some boxes of stuff on Friday, we still had an enormous amount of luggage: our three original suitcases, a box of vellum John needs to sign for his publisher (long story), my pregnancy pillow (acquired after my back went out), a backpack each for our computers, and one more bag for all our electrical paraphernalia we didn't want to check (iphones, adaptors, speakers, fitbit,etc). Since I can do little to help, John was really a hero, rolling two large bags with additional bags/boxes on top, wearing two backpacks (one forwards, one backwards). John always calls me the queen of Sheba when I sleep in, and now it felt like I was definitely deserving of the title!

We're now cozily ensconced in a little stone house in the Cotswolds, Rose Cottage. It's tight after the vastness of our last residence, but it's also much, much, much colder here in England, so we're happy with the smaller spaces since they're easier to heat. Today it's raining a light drizzle, and I think that's probably going to be par for the course. It does make for a gorgeous green landscape with lots of flowers. Whenever the rain does stop, the birdfeeder out back is crammed with birds trying to fatten up before the cold gets worse. I think we're going to enjoy our new home for the next month.