Our Arrival

We had an extraordinarily long trip getting to Arezzo (due to delays we were travelling for over 30 hours) and we arrived absolutely exhausted. This was on top of not having gone to bed at all the night before we left. Having our friend Jeanne meet us in the baggage claim area during our layover in New York with fresh food and friendship was welcome indeed! As soon as we got on our second flight Gabriella fell soundly asleep and didn’t wake up until we arrived in Rome. In fact she’s not sure she’s awake yet!

The delay posed a problem not only because it postponed our access to a bed, but also because our realtor was planning to meet us when we eventually arrived at the train station in Arezzo. We needed to find a way to reach her to let her know we would be arriving late. We had no success with the public phones at the train station in Rome (no, we don’t have a cell phone, and even if we did – would it work in Italy?), so we found ourselves on the train to Arezzo without having contacted her. 

Desperate, Gabriella mustered the courage to ask a woman sitting next to Henry if we could use her cell phone (yes, EVERYONE has a cell phone besides us, especially the Italians). Even in the sleep-deprived state she was in, Gabriella managed to stammer something like “Scusi, portrei domandarLe una grande cortesia? Dobbiamo fare una telefonata importanta, ma non abbiamo un cellulare. Potremmo prendere in prestito il Suo cellulare?” Regardless of whether this is grammatically correct, it got the message across and the woman kindly let us use her phone. (We know others might have achieved the same result without the protracted Italian phrasing, by instead relying on basic gestures – a name comes to mind that rhymes with Dana! - but we prefer the more excruciatingly elaborate way of communicating). When Gabriella explained we were calling Arezzo (and not the US!), the woman smiled and said that she was from Arezzo – small world!

Everything worked out well. Clotilde, our realtor, met us at the station. We went to her office to sign the lease, and afterward our landlord (who was also there for the signing) drove us to our apartment.

After a brief tour of our new home we collapsed and slept for over 14 hours. As a result we missed most of our first full day in Arezzo. However we woke to clear blue skies and a view out our windows that is simply charming. This city is even more beautiful than we remembered, and that’s saying a lot! We feel unbelievably fortunate!

A main street in Arezzo

The view from our balcony