This is our first blog in Italy for 2010. We arrived on Sunday, July 4th in Roma, a holiday in the U.S.A., but just another day in Italy. It was so good to be home! We met the Meriggi's at dusk for dinner and it was such a glorious evening in the Mugello valley! The next morning we drove to Firenze (Florence for those reading back in the states) as we had to meet with our accountant to pay our Italian taxes. After you receive your tax bill, you head to the Italian post office as that's where you pay the tax bill. We got there and discovered we were 50+ people behind in the pecking order just to get to a window to pay, so it was over an hour which wasn't too bad considering some folks just got up and left!
After finally paying the taxes, we went back to the commercialista's office to have the bill stamped as paid.... on to lunch...
It's about a 10 minute walk to Il Giova, one of our favorite ristorante's in Firenze. There we dined on the cooking of Grazia, the owner of Il Giova. We had a simple Tuscan lunch, but very incredible!!! When it was time to pay the bill, Grazia said our tab was 0!!!! That's a friend for you.... we've dined there and became friends with her because a mutual friend took as there the first time. We learned yesterday that Eric Mosca Robinson passed away in April. He was an American we met at Hotel Lido in Firenze who was obtaining his dual citizenship and someone who inspired us to take the journey to Italy and buy a home.
I was devastated to learn of his passing and it's a reminder that life is short and to live it to the fullest... Ciao, Ciao, Ciao!
P.S. I also want to mention that Bill Gates screwed us again. Last year I had Windows VISTA and when I purchased an internet system from TIM here in Italy I could get the internet here at our house instead of going to an internet cafe. Now that I've updated my computer to Windows 7 the TIM system works really badly at our house and I had to spend extra money to adapt the old USB port key I had last year. I was planning on blogging every day, but because of this set back, I'll blog when it's convenient as the connection I currently have is like dial up which everyone knows just.... well, you get the idea... Ciao once again!
1 comment:
David,
I just read the blog you sent me that was written back in July 2010.
Eric and I went to IL Giova and he introduced me to the owner. It was great and he told me it was one of his favorites! It was such a whirlwind time as I had just arrived in Florence on the 17th of December and we spent that time before I took him to the ER on Christmas morning ... the rest you know! It was a very trying time for Eric and for me and I will never forget how bravely he handled his illness. Thank you for the wonderful sentiment you wrote regarding Eric.
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