La Nostra Casa

Our Home!

Well, it took us a little longer than expected, and just 4 days shy of exactly 3 months in temporary housing, but as of June 14 we are finally moved into our home in Naples! So, as I sit here

and contemplate and appreciate where the last 5-6 months of organizing, purging, packing, farewells, moving, unpacking, and reorganizing has brought us, please come on a little house tour with us! 

We officially live in the town of Giugliano (Joo-lee-AH-no) in an area known as Licola. We are to the west of Napoli and not at all far from the beaches of the west coast. In fact, on a clear day, you can see a tiny piece of the island of Ischia (Isola d'Ischia) from the office balcony. And if not for the trees, you could see a sliver of the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

Now on to the house! Buildings throughout Naples are made of concrete, and the homes are no exception. This makes for amazing insulation and temperature regulation. Rather than central heat and air conditioning, most rooms have mini-split AC units in a corner near the ceiling (you can see one in the living room photo) for cooling and a radiator closer to the floor (you can see one in my first photo near the far doorway) for heating. We LOVE this design, because you are only heating or cooling the rooms you are using, rather than an entire house. It's both economically and environmentally friendly! 

The house is situated on a very generous piece of property. It's our own little oasis! And yes, the kids have taken advantage of the pool nearly every day since moving in. 

On the main level, we have a large living room (soggiorno), dining room (sala da pranzo), kitchen (cucina) and a full bathroom (bagno). The back portion of the dining room is currently full of broken-down moving boxes and packing paper, but we're planning on making that a cozy reading corner eventually. The table is also one that was already in the house, so we're using it while Sara works on a long-overdue refinishing of our normal table. 

The ground floor bathroom also has a great view of one of our lemon trees!

On the upper floor (what most Europeans call the first floor) we have 4 bedrooms (camera da letto) and another full bath. 

Our bedroom, the bathroom, and another room we are using as an office/game room/closet are on one hallway. Since the bedroom we chose is smaller, we put our larger dresser and wardrobes in the other room. It's still a bit of a catch-all, so no photos of that one. 

The kids' hallway is to the right at the top of the stairs. We are waiting for Olle's choice in bed frame to be back in stock, so he's still using a trundle frame for now and Audrey's mattress is still on the floor. Soon, though! We have a little more unpacking and organizing to do in their rooms, but they are both very happy with their set-ups. 

Finally, we have a lower level. I guess it's technically a basement (cantina), but it has doors that open onto a second driveway and separate garage so it doesn't feel completely subterranean. This has tons of storage space, so we have a play space for the kids, overflow storage for kitchen items, holiday bins, etc. There is also another room that will become the guest room (who's visiting first??) and a third full bathroom / laundry room. Olle is working on reassembling some Lego sets and is excited to display them on the top row of cubbies. 

Luna would like you to take note of the exterior doors and natural light.

We have 2 very productive lemon trees that have yielded enormous and very fragrant lemons, along with a mandarin orange tree. We've already made our first batch of lemonade! We also have well-established jasmine growing along 2 sides of the yard. They are mostly finished blooming now, but in the spring when we first saw the house, the fragrance was incredible! 

There are windows and doors throughout the house, including in the stairway, and we love all the natural light and breezes! I think we have only turned on a couple of AC units during the day 2 days this past week. Otherwise, we have only turned the bedroom units on overnight. 

We still need to pick up a few things in addition to beds, like rugs for the bedrooms, and artwork and things hung on the walls, but it's coming together! We also have the sweetest landlord/owner. He lives right across the street and checks in every few days to make sure we're doing ok. He doesn't speak much English, but he loves that we are working on our Italian, and we do most communicating through WhatsApp so we can translate as needed. 

The kids and Sara are planning out some day trips for the summer, including museums, the local aquarium, beach days and some hiking. Shane has a busy summer continuing to learn the ropes of his job, and without much vacation time there won't be any big trips, but we are looking forward to some weekends away exploring more of Italy.

For now, the kids are swimming to their hearts' content and enjoying la dolce vita!

Arrivederci e a presto!