#8 Making our first winter in rural Italy beautiful

Say Ciao! We are sharing our beautiful journey as we prepare for winter in our new home in the rural mountains of Italy.
Watch the first episode: https://youtu.be/IZk92O2xtDk
Watch the entire series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqIuGt9ZBvtTBxIgKPiN4wbgf3YRh1Q2z&si=kPz7p2ZDrouIaBbz

It’s our first winter in this rural mountain village in Italy. The weather has been surprisingly warm so far, but the evenings are getting colder. It is so heartwarming to spend these long evenings by the fire with a hot cup of tea, looking back on all our efforts that made these cozy moments possible.

In summer we were very busy clearing our land, especially the trees on the side of the house. They have not been maintained for years. Many of them have grown uncontrolled and are dangerous. And we even have to get rid of some of them. Sergio here is pushing his chainsaw to the limits.

Mama Marina and I are helping Sergio in moving and sorting the branches. Tatiana took a break to pick some fruits from our orchard. We have an abundance of fruits in our orchard this season. The wild plums are fully ripe and perfect as snacks.

There is so much difference in taste and nourishment between organically grown fruits and those from the store. There is much work to be done ahead of us before the winter comes. Mama Marina is cleaning the outdoor lamps. And as they are currently not connected to electricity, she wants to put LED lamps inside.

Let’s see how it works. The wood for the winter has arrived. Our comune, or municipality, informed us that we could buy wood from a local forest at a reasonable price, an option which is available only for the residents. So, this year we’ve been asked for 11 euros per 100 kilograms of wood,

And we ordered 5 tons of wood. Let’s see will it be enough. We were expecting that it will come already cut and ready to use. But what a surprise! Other work is ahead of us. We still haven’t finished cutting the wood after clearing out this part of the land.

Lukasz is picking up the cut branches and stacking them to dry. We will use them for firewood in winter. Pine wood is good for starting the fire, but it does not produce much heat. As usual, our neighbor Jack came to say “Ciao”.

We will keep the remaining twigs in a pile and use them as small fire starters in winter. Jack has found a persimmon fruit in the orchard. He looks very happy about it. We are collecting the cones as they can be used to make beautiful Christmas decorations.

The persimmon tree is very abundant in fruit this year. Some fruits are ready to eat, but most of them still need a few weeks to become ripe. Mama Marina wants to paint the house before the Christmas holidays.

The wood we have this year is not seasoned, so it is better to store it in a covered place. Currently, apart from the patio, the only covered space we have is the chapel, and we’ve decided to keep the wood inside. Holy-wood, you know?

It’s time to cut and store the wood that we bought for Winter. Beechwood is one of the best choices for the fireplace as it produces a lot of heat. Mama Marina preparing the wall for painting. Winter is coming and I want to apply a protective layer on the post box

that Mamma Marina and Sergio built just before we moved here. We are piling up the large chunks because we need to chop them into smaller pieces using an axe. The mandarin and lemon trees that we planted in spring by the side of the chapel may not survive the winter.

We are making a cover to protect them from the cold winds. Mama Marina thought that these widely growing reeds would be the perfect material to build a protective wall for the citrus trees. Now that the wall is ready, Mama Marina is starting the work.

When we were renovating the patio, we found a bucket with the original paint in the garage and Mama Marina is going to finish the wall with it, hoping that it will be enough. We are shifting the biggest logs to the rest of the remaining wood.

In spring, after trimming the olive trees, we also gathered many branches to use as firewood. Now we are shifting them under the covered patio because the rain came. The weather is getting more and more moody. Some days are rainy and other days are windy or sunny.

Snow is already visible on the Maiella mountains, but here in our place it’s still quite warm. Last night the snow reached closer mountains. Let’s see, will we also get some snow here? Snowing! This morning the sun greeted us again and yesterday’s snow did not last even for a moment.

We are preparing some brush wood for the fireplace. We borrowed an axe from our neighbor Gianluca to finish cutting the big logs. But it’s much harder than we thought. It broke. We’ve just started and we’ve already broken the handle of the axe. We will have to figure out something else.

We are picking the rest of the persimmon fruits to store them in the house. Otherwise, the birds will eat them as soon as they start to ripen. Inside, they will mature very slowly. And this is great because you can store them for a very long time.

It’s so great to have such wonderful neighbors. Gianluca came to rescue us again. This morning he brought us his tractor with the hydraulic log-splitter attached. And now he’s giving me instructions on how to use it. – Ok, ciao! – Ciao, thank you a lot! – Lasagna yes? – Lasagna yes! – Lasagna no!

– Lasagna yes! –Why not? – Why not? – Lasagna yes! With this machine splitting the wood is so easy. Finally, the preparation of the wood for the winter is over. And for lunch, we have a delicious vegetable lasagna. Since we’ve settled here,

We’ve been wondering what winter will be like in this area of Italy. So far it has been incredibly sunny and mild. And the lack of snow did not prevent us from making a snowman. We found this old beautiful window in the ruins at the back of the house

When we were putting them to the ground. Mama Marina and Sergio had an idea of how to restore and reuse it. Along with the window, they also prepared these beautiful cones and other winter decorations. Gianluca! – Always working! – No, today artwork! – How are you doing, Gianlu? – Good.

– Gianlu will it snow? – It will snow, I think. – I don’t think so. – There is already snow on the Maiella mountains. – It’s still early. It’s hanging well now. – Bye – Bye And now the final touches to our Christmas setting.

We will only need to add the star on the top of the Christmas tree. We are also preparing a little Christmas gift for Gianluca’s family. Is it ok like this? Beautiful! Very beautiful! Thank you! – Thank you! – You’re welcome! – Bye! – Bye!

Since we moved here we’ve met truly wonderful people and they made us feel the beauty of the community we live in. And we thought that it would be nice to create a chat group to connect all of us. Our mayor Guido helped us to add everyone to the group.

In all these months here we also realized that there are not many occasions for everyone to get together. Apart from a few times a year during the town’s main celebrations. And we had an idea. What about organizing some evening gatherings with games where everyone can participate?

And we announced the event on the chat group hoping that people will love the idea and participate. We are preparing some prizes for the tombola. We are a bit worried. Will people come? Will it be a success or a failure?

We talked to the local municipality which supported the idea by making available a beautiful hall for the gatherings. Maddalena and Tonino came earlier to help us preparing the space. We talked with a few people about the event and the idea of organizing a tombola game or bingo came out.

In the Christmas season in Italy it’s very common to play tombola. Along with food, drinks and table games people offered also beautiful prizes for tombola. We were not expecting such a beautiful response from the community but the event turned into a huge success. And we are already thinking about organizing the next one.

For me, coming from Poland to see green grass, sun, blue sky, birds chirping and 20 degrees Celsius on the 19th of December is a completely new experience of life. Elena, Gianluca’s wife, and their son Alessandro came to wish us a merry Christmas.

As a gift, Elena baked two traditional sweets from the area, pizzelle and parrozzo. It’s beautiful to have heartfelt relationships with the people around you And we treasure this aspect of our life here. May love, peace and happiness be with you and your loved ones during Christmas and throughout the upcoming New Year.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, Katarzyna and Richard. And Christmas has finally arrived. We came to Martinsicuro to spend this time with Mama Marina, Sergio and of course, Silvia. Mama Marina is preparing a traditional Christmas dish in Abruzzo called “scrippelle ‘mbusse”.

It’s made of thin crepes, rolled and filled with parmesan cheese and served with hot broth. How is it? How is it? Very good. This is a typical dish from Abruzzo. Scrippelle ‘mbusse. That’s the name? Scrippelle ‘mbusse. You have this, the goal is…

Today we have a guest. Pieter came to Corvara from the Netherlands. He moved here a few months before us. He bought a house that is still under construction and is finishing it on his own, as he has skills in construction and woodwork. It’s more about precision than about strenght.

Pieter brought something very interesting, a shuffleboard, a very popular game in the Netherlands, that he specially built for the next community games evening. Such a nice offering to everyone. This is my first round. The system is 1, 2, 3, 4.

So the idea is if you have one in each, you have 10 points. Yes, but if you have one in each, the points get doubled. 20. Yes! Mama Marina and Sergio handcrafted some beautiful Christmas souvenirs as prizes for the tombola. And we are almost ready for the second evening with the community.

Lukasz and Sergio are warming up before the games. This game, built by Pieter, is a great success and everyone loves it. Mattia placed second in the shuffleboard game And he will receive a prize from Pieter. Before moving here, we had lived for so many years in the city,

Taking for granted all the conveniences. Here, in our new home, in this rural mountain area, we realized that we have to take care of so many things to live well, how crucial it is to have a close, loving and supportive family,

And how important to be in touch with the community we live in. All these things have profoundly enriched us and brought a deep sense of fulfillment, gratitude and purpose. As the new year has already begun, we are looking forward to what it will bring next. Subscribe for more! – Oh, Jack! – Jacky!