Living the Italian Dream

Book 2: Moving to Molise

De: Karren Urben

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

What on earth makes an English couple, who are not, by any stretch of the imagination, a pair of spring chickens, purchase an Olive Grove? It is in one of Italy's smallest and least known regions. Not only do they buy the Olive Grove, they up sticks and move to Molise permanently from England.

Of course people make life changes all the time so it's no big deal. But what if I told you that right at that moment in time there was a Pandemic wreaking havoc around the world. This virus was called COVID and the world as everyone knew it was in crisis. At the same time there was the issue of Brexit. Britain had left the European Union and there was a deadline... December 31st 2020. To be able to register as an Italian Resident, with the rights of a European Citizen, all paperwork had to be received before that date. Could they make it in time?

It was early in October 2020 when our intrepid couple had stood under one of their very own olive trees. They had purchased the Olive Grove that afternoon. The news and social media headlines spoke of another Lockdown. Would travel between countries be forbidden?
They had to move fast.
They flew back to the UK.

Within a few weeks Karren and Charlie had packed most of their belongings into boxes. Packed up their Fifth Wheel Caravan and were ready to travel back to Italy. The hardest part of all was saying goodbye to their family but with that done, and with cheeks still wet with tears off they drove.

As October came to a close, the pair of them drove into the Olive Grove which is now known as Casa Phoenix.
Their new home is five minutes outside the town of San Martino in Pensilis with far reaching views over the Adriatic Sea and the Tremiti Islands, to one side. The snow tipped Majella Mountains on another.
They had arrived and their new life was about to begin. But there was no time to take a breath, there were many details to attend to before the Brexit deadline. Which, without the help of their friend Rosa interpreting would have been a nightmare. Not only that, the rainy season was about to start. Bringing with it the very real possibility of being mud bound unless a driveway was created.

They hit the ground running. Karren sweeps us along with them as she draws us into their new life among the olive trees.

Attending Italian school, they are the oldest people in the building as they attempt to learn a new language. Adapting to Italian life may have been fairly easy but dealing with an emergency situation was not. There are snakes in the grass and a whole rollercoaster of emotions as they attempt to get their house built. There are highs and lows as they wend their way along the path of their new life Living the Italian Dream, Moving to Molise.

As Karren weaves the story of their journey, she introduces those of us who haven't heard of it before to the region of Molise.
We go along for the ride as Karren and Charlie discover more about their new home. They experience 'The Carrese' which is the ancient tradition of a cart race. Each cart drawn by a pair of oxen. They experience a magical encounter with wolves in the Abruzzo, Molise and Lazio National Park. And visit one of Molise's two archeological sites, Saepinum in Sepino, called by some Molise's mini Pompeii.

Join them as they deal with everything this new life throws at them. There are tears and lots of laughter and, certainly no holds barred as Karren shares her story of how the pair of them, and their dogs- Moved to Molise.

Karren writes with humour as well as with, at times, especially about herself, a brutal honesty.