The first few weeks / Agosto in Muravera

We have been living in Muravera for a week and a half now.  A few initial impressions..

We have never been here in the month of August, which is officially the high season. We were curious if the beaches here would be packed to the brim as we have seen on mainland Italy but fortunately that’s not the case! The northern part of Sardinia may be a different story but there’s a nice balance of lively and serene here. One very cool thing (which I’ve heard may just be an August phenomenon, but I’ll take it..) is that we have already been privy to a few concerts close to our house (one on our very own piazza!), and almost every evening there is some kind of cultural event in Muravera or in one of the neighboring towns. Last weekend I went to a fish fry in San Priamo together with new friends from Rome; Chris, Isa, and Gia went to a concert on Monday featuring traditional Sardinian music, and we have also had a beer festival, a blues and rock concert, and a Sardinian poetry reading all within 2 minutes from our house.

We are still in the vacation mode as school doesn’t start here until the 15^th of September so Isabelle has enjoyed partaking in some of these festivities, or even just late night walks with Gia. Tonight when we were walking an older lady poked her head out of her door and said that when she saw Gia she thought for a second it was her (cousin’s?) dog..and then her husband came out and we had a 15 minute convo (they talked mostly, I understood a good 40%) about dogs, their family, Isabelle, and some of the cultural events that they are involved in. I asked for their names (for the second time) and found out that the man is related to one of the guys who helped me and Elsa get our furniture out of the truck in July..è un mondo piccolo! Small world indeed!

In general it seems like most of the people we have met are happy to speak with us, even though we aren’t always able to follow or respond in such a lengthy manner. The speed at which people speak baffles me at times, but the warmth and seemingly genuine kindness gives me the confidence to continue trying.  I’m so proud of Isabelle, she has been ordering in gelaterias and restaurants by herself, and she has not shied away from any conversations so far. She even made a friend on the playground yesterday and will have her first Sardinian playdate soon.

Alex’s vocabulary is already growing, and he does a great job of saying buongiorno, ciao, grazie mille and arrive derci at the appropriate moments, so he is already stealing hearts here.

Chris and I have managed to accomplish quite a bit in the first few days. The house already feels like ‘our’ home, several admin tasks have been accomplished, and we are learning the ropes about when and where to shop, how the garbage system works, how to get our broken Jeeps fixed (his window has been repaired, mine is still at the garage), how to get a proper haircut (Chris was successful, the kids and Gia will soon follow), and everything in between. And in the meantime we have consumed quite a bit of gelato and spent a fair amount of hours on the beach. So far so good!