Rumble: Moving Again.

Since I came back from my sabbatical, I have been based in Rome. At first it was not clear how long I would stay, so I started off in a hotel, then moved for a couple of days to a serviced apartment, and ended up at my friend Robert's place for two months. After the holiday, I went back to a serviced apartment, and then... I had enough.
Since I left Kampala for Kosovo in 1999, and the family moved back to Belgium, I have been living out of a bag most of the time. Hotels, friends, short term rentals, a bit everywhere. That is 8 years living out of a bag... Enough.. Need to get firmer feet on the ground.
Even though with the type of work we do, we typically move duty station every two, three or four years (dependent on the type of duty station), I am pretty sure I will be in Rome for a while.

So I took the step to (finally) find a real place to live. Some permanency. A home away from home. This week, I am moving to one of the three apartments in the house in the picture above. A lovely, quiet place in Fregene, 30 km from work, 200m from the beach, in a pine forest.

Just the process of finding this place was a proof of 'when the time is right, things will come'... I was looking for a new nest since a while, but did not like any of the places I saw. During an occasional talk with an ex-colleague, she said "Oh, but I work in Fregene, and there are loads of lovely places coming up for rent!". One hour later, she forwarded an email from one of her colleagues, listing some apartments for rent. I called that lady, got the telephone number from the landlady, went to see the places three hours later. By the evening of the same day, I walked into one of the places for rent, and felt 'this is it!'. One week later, I am moving in.

Home away from home. A small step for mankind, a big step for a small man...

Let me take the opportunity to thank all those who helped making this happen: Enrica and Patti for the links to the landlady, Evelyn for all the translations between me and the (Italian-only speaking) landlady, Monica and Lerna for the hours they spent on the phone with the gas and electricity company trying to get things reconnected, E. for the final inspection of the place and the upcoming Ikea shopping trips...