After this “honeymoon
phase” it was time to realise our project: the idea was to open an agriturismo
with 4 holiday apartments and to become lavender farmers.
Why lavender? There’s no
big romantic story about Nicolas who asked me to marry him in a lavenderfield
or a family history of farming lavender or something like that. Very simply
put: the “presidente” of the local consortium of farmers came, looked at our
fields and said “lavender”. I read a bit about it, it seemed easy enough … and
so, lavender it was.
Next step: the
renovations. Until now we concentrated on making nice drawings about our future
apartments, but to get all the necessary permissions we had to go through a
geometra (if you renovate in Italy, this has to become your new best friend).
I remember our first
meeting in september, we were so happy to finally be able to start, because
suddenly we realised: Winter is coming … which means hell in a house with no
heating (only a small, cracked wooden stove) and an outdoor shower with 1.5
minutes of hot water.
I know, I know … how stupid
can you be, thinking that starting with the paperwork for a complete renovation
in Italy will get you functioning heating and a bathroom before the winter.
So, when the geometra told
me no way that was possible, I really had to fight my tears. I must confess: more than a few fell on the
way home. But you have to understand: I
really, really hate the cold ! I’ve
always said that the blood of my Sicilian ancestors is not made for this, and
the cold climate was one of the reasons I’ve always wanted to leave Belgium.
Luckily, we had a lot we could do to keep us warm and it also helped to channel my frustration about not being able to take a long bath or even shower decently. We’re not very handy, but tearing down walls became our specialty 😀
