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...and what I hope to get out of it.

I have loved Italy since I first went to Venice in 1988. In fact I tried to live there in 1989, but finding work was near impossible without, say, teaching qualifications, so I came back to blighty.

What do I love about it? Architecture, food, wine, the people, the lifestyle, and there is a particular kind of light that's difficult to explain.

I took the familiy (I have 4 children) to Venice for 3 nights in late 2003, and it cost a Bomb! Getting there was the cheap part!

But I would like the children, now that they are older, to experience life in another country (even if only intermittently) and I figure having a "base" is the best way to do that.

I picked Abruzzo because, well, there was no way I could afford Florence - and I'm not sure that a "big" city would be all that relaxing in the long term. But from where I "am" its a train ride to anywhere in Italy to stay for a night or two. So I plan to go out on sorties to Rome, Florence, Venice etc etc, as well as less well known places in the south.

And of course there's the beach. Penne has a bus service to Pescara, so the older children will be able to take themselves off for the day, much as they do now, and the wife and I need not fret, I think.

Buying the house was an "experience" as you will see from some of my other threads, but then its quite unrealistic to expect each country's legal and commercial system to be the same. I admit that I nearly jacked the whole thing in as a bad job, but didn't, for all the reasons stated above.

To me, Penne is perfect in the goldilocks kind of way - not too big not too small, not too remote, etc etc. But then I live on a farm, so I didn't want to be in the middle of nowhere - I wanted at least to be able to amble down the shops, bar etc, without having to get in the car, which is what I have to do at home.

There. Now let's all play nicley, think positively and be helpful.