Let's have a Coffee and Chat - getting to know you

INSPIRATION

Ciao lets have a coffee and chat!

Let’s have a Coffee and Chat
‘getting to know you’

I’ve been sitting here pondering what to write about, all the time aware that I have to get to bed early tonight (which means early as opposed to my normal after midnight bedtimes) and my mind is zoned out. Then Sam calls out to me from the kitchen telling me to check my facebook page someone wants to buy me a coffee.

What??

A dear friend Kelly sent me a message saying she wanted to shout me a coffee as she has been living her Italian dream vicariously through us.

So Kelly this post is in your honor…..and thank you for the offer, one day we’ll get to do that coffee together.

I look forward to getting to know you all in person one day.

In the evenings after the kids have gone to bed and the house is quiet Sam and I both get on the computers. Sam sits at the table in the kitchen and I sit at my little desk in the lounge, we talk through the doorway and he constantly calls me to come and look at things he’s found. It’s hard to concentrate tonight, the fire is making the room warm and I’m sleepy, I’m thinking of making a cuppa and thought wouldn’t it be nice if I could have one with you, a little getting to know you session.

You each enrich my life in so many ways, cheer me when I’m blue, lift me when I’m moping, laugh with me, and cry with me, and we have slowly gotten to know each other.

Friendships have formed within these pages, people have met, chatted through facebook, I’ve shared the images, books, poetry, and stories of friends here. I’ve met incredible people with big dreams living in Italy, incredible people living amazing lives all over the world, people who have dreams, people with big hearts, friends I’ve come to care about and who care about us.

So I’d like you to close your eyes (after reading this of course) and imagine you are in Italy, actually close by and heading my way. We’re meeting for a coffee, we’ll be a big rowdy group with lots to share, much hugging and kisses on both cheeks, delight at finally meeting in person, and sharing…..lots of sharing…..

Over to You…..

Where are you now, what are you doing, what are you reading, watching, writing, drawing, creating, thinking…..who are you with, who do you love, what did you want to be when you were growing up, what makes you laugh, if this is your first coffee in Italy how does it taste…..where are we drinking it….which city, village, town, are we by the sea, in the mountains, feeling the warmth of sunshine or the chill of snow…..

Let’s get to know each other Better my dear friends…..a meeting of like minds and kindred spirits xx

Take it away…..

Save

and the gang x

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52 replies

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Dana says:
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Ciao, Lisa! I came by way of Richard at Living in the Langhe. I’m a fella blogger who was researching for our trip to Italy this sumer. I’ve waited my whole adult life for this and now it’s happening! We’ll be in northern Italy for the month of June, visiting our daughter who is stationed at Aviano Air Base. We’ll be in the Langhe for 4-5 days and Richard has been full of info!
I would love to meet you for coffee ANYWHERE in your area! As long as it is outside with views. A deep smooth cappuccino, comforting and invigorating. A slow drink for a long conversation….mostly about how one might reach down and find what it takes to make ” a dream come true” such as you and your family have. Perhaps it would just be to live vicariously through your ideas….because we have an already amazing and fortunate life here in Alaska….or perhaps it would be to receive some seeds of inspiration, to germinate into something….else. Because there ARE things about living in this area, this self-centered, plugged in American culture that drives us to want to live more simply. Our BEST vacations are the ones that take us into the wild. No electricity, no cells, no screens….I know my daughter feels pain when we leave these places. For our second cup of coffee we would “Beam Up” to our deck here in Eagle River surrounded by mountains….and talk about whatever you want!
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Cindy says:
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Hi Lisa,
Would love to meet you in lake cuomo, in the early summer sun:). We would talk about our kids, and what life’s been like for you since leaving Australia. I’m home with my little girls today, and I’ve actually attempted writing this a few times already but they always need me! Anyway, just ate beef stew for dinner, settling down for the evening… I love reading your blog and looking at your renovations and ideas! Keep making your dreams into reality!!!
Cindy
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Trisha Thomas says:
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Hello Lisa — boy would I love to have a coffee with you, and I am sure we will some day. I am right now in the Dolomites, enjoying a week of vacation with my family in San Cassiano. It is spectacularly beautiful here. Today I enjoyed a fantastic long sledding trail with my daughter Caterina, the snow flying up in our faces and we sped down the mountain, careening around the curves and laughing.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Totally know we will and some time soon I hope, we plan to do some travel this year. We still haven’t seen the Dolomites and hear they are spectacular. Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy. I can just see you and your girl with snowflakes on your eyelashes and laughing, joyous moments xx
  sending love dear Trisha xxx
Jenny P says:
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Ciao Lisa,
Sunday night here in Milan and it’s NOT raining! We’ve had a beautiful weekend out and about doing some serious people watching, Fashion Week here, and enjoying the start of spring – fingers crossed. I’d love to take you across the road to our favourite spot for a cappuccino and brioche crema – Bar Foppa. Oh, but it has to be on the weekend because we’ve had to ration ourselves to brioche cremas as our weekend treats. I know Francesca and Angelo would make you feel right at home with their always cheerful “Ciao, cappucci con cacao?”. Even in the ‘big smoke’ we are finding the locals very friendly. See you soon???
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  How stunning was that girl in the long black skirt, and my daughter would be in heaven with all the fashion (mummy lets her down a bit with that). Yes totally love a cappuccino and brioche at Bar Foppa (what a great name). Weekends are fine, and I know what you mean about rationing it’s so easy to be tempted here. We do have to get into Milano and once the in laws arrive I’m sure we’ll hit the road for some travel. Milano sounds like the place to be.
  ciao ciao lisa xx
connie nesary says:
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Would love to see your house and village (Borgata) Coffee in your kitchen would be perfect, oh and meeting your neighbors! Smelling the air of northern Tuscany and taking a walk. Simple is best, meeting you and your family.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Big walks are the go here, the mountain air is glorious and the river water crisp and pure. I always have the kettle on the boil at our house so a cuppa would be perfect then we could head up the valley, over the Napoleon bridge picking wild berries and wild flowers, it’s certainly the simple life here, loved our ‘cuppa’ xxx
  hugs lisa
Evelyn says:
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Morning Lisa!! The sun is shining!! We had another miserable storm on Thursday and then rain in the night. Vlad and I chopped ice yesterday morning before he went to work. Oh please some nice weather and a little warm. It has been exciting here in this country. Canada has won Gold in both mens and womens event. The Canadian girls won Gold and the Men won yesterday beating the americans 1-0! They play Sweden tomorrow morning for the Gold. The woman’s hockey game was so exciting. The Americans were ahead 1 -0 for the first period and then then in overtime Canada won!!I listen on the radio and it is so exciting. Today is Saturday so Vlad is home. yeahhhh. I am going to cook a roast of beef in the crock pot today.
Have fun walking with the kids
Besos
Evelyn
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Awwwww Roast Beef yum…..and such great news for you all that Canada is doing so well, I have lots of Canadian friends and one couple from Canada volunteered here in Bobbio for two years so I heard it from them as well. They have only recently returned to Canada and are slowly settling back in to life. Give our love to Vlad and my husband thought it funny that he had to chop ice, we think we have it tough with a bit of snow. Sending love and hugs
  
  ciao ciao xxxx
Ryrie Wild says:
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Hi Lisa
It has been a sombre weekend here in Christchurch as we remember the 22 February 2011 earthquake that caused all the damage and loss of life to our beautiful city. It was 30 degrees yesterday and today it is showery.
If I was in Italy I would love to have a coffee with you in beautiful Orvieto. I loved it there with its beautiful clean streets and the lovely pot plants everywhere. My sister and I walked around and found a lovely spot to have lunch where you could sit outside and admire the plants and the people going by. Be lovely to sit and have a chat there.
Glad to hear you will be able to do some travelling this year so maybe you will get to Orvieto. I really hope so.
Chiao
Ryrie
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  I can’t imagine the sense of disbelief even still that such an event took place. My brother and his family live in Kinglake and survived the Black Saturday bush fires that took so many of their friends.
  I have friends in Orvieto and I have heard so much about it we will certainly visit this year if possible. It’s great to just sit back and people watch isn’t it especially with a good meal as well. If we get to Orvieto I’ll raise a glass and drink to you Ryrie xx
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Krista says:
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Hi lovely 🙂 It’s Saturday night in Allora, Queensland and Bear and I are taking turns watching Olympics (me) and Footy (him). 🙂 We’re also working on medieval research for our upcoming medieval events and finding it so inspiring. 🙂 It’s been a very cold and stormy day after a cripplingly hot and steamy one yesterday. We spent Friday going to doctors and making the day special with breakfast and lunch out and fun jaunts to Vinnie’s and Cash Converters. 🙂 Nice, happy, quiet things. We needed it. We’ve been going through so much lately and it’s absolute bliss to just stop and enjoy each other and do the happy little things that make life bearable when it decides to go wonky. 🙂 Biggest of hugs to you. XOXO
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Hey Hey hows things? I haven’t seen any of the Olympics this time. I love all your medieval events we went to the one in Qld and it was fantastic you were probably involved somewhere. The history here is incredible just the stories the old people tell and the way they are out and still working each day, they are inspiring and so tough, worn hands and crinkly eyes from laughing. Vinnie’s arghhh love Vinnies’ and we have found a few Italian versions here. It’s great to hear you are taking time out for you and have that quiet time to just stop and put the finger up at those wonky bits. Sending big hugs back, and love your spirit xx
budget jan says:
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It’s past morning coffee time here in North Queensland so I will definitely take you up on that cup of coffee. It has been raining here in Townsville Lisa for five days now. One day we got 9 inches of rain. It has been fantastic. Today it hasn’t rained so Marty fired up the lawn mower which he has been itching to do for days. The grass is so thick he got a real work out doing that. Our son just popped over with some lemon grass for our back garden. He dug it out of his friend’s garden (with permission lol) and brought it direct to ours so it might not even notice the location change! It was the belated part of my Christmas Present which I kept on reminding him about. Now back to that Cuppa. I have never been to Verona so I think we should meet up there. The buildings are supposed to be devine and I am sure we could find a lovely spot outside somewhere for a cup or two. Maybe Rambling Tart would like to join us 🙂
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Oh that made me laugh Jan, I remember trying to keep up with the lawn in Scarborough and the first time we mowed we thought we’d made mango smoothies because of all the mangos that we went over with the mower. We were totally clueless about our mango tree back then.
  I love your post with all the bright tropical color and fantastic to be getting so much rain. We are in the early stages of Spring here with tiny wild flowers coming up on the mountains.
  
  Ahhh don’t mention lemon grass to Sam it’s hard to get anything like that here, plenty of basil though. I still owe my Mum a birthday present actually you just reminded me.
  Verona sounds perfect, I backpacked there in my 20’s and saw a band at the arena. Arghhh and having Krista along wouldn’t that be wonderful, we’d be out all day wandering and chatting…..I’m smiling just thinking about it xxx
  sending love xxx
- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  PS guess what we just got ourselves a camper so set to travel now once we pick it up xx
- budget jan says:
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  How wonderful Lisa, it will be wonderful to be able to potter around Italy staying wherever you fancy. It is amazing that Basil grows so well there, it grows really well in Townsville too. When I get way too much of it I make pesto – but you know all about that 🙂
- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Sam loves the camper lifestyle and plans to retire into a campervan…..hmmmm as long as I can have my little studio home somewhere warm by the beach we’ll be happy. I love pesto and we ooops I mean Sam has made it fresh xxx
LYN says:
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Hi Lisa
I would love to have a coffee with you. Nice thought
As I read your post I am sitting in a beautiful part of Australia, Coffs Harbour.
In May I will be enjoying coffee in Roma and then 4 days later I will be drinking coffee in Toscana. I can hardly wait. Lyn
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Fantastic and great to have a coffee with you Lyn, Coffs Harbor is beautiful and I imagine it’s very warm now. Roma and Toscana lucky you, how long will you be in Italy? We hope to do some travel this year as well and I can’t wait to show the kids a bit more of the world. Ciao and thanks for the coffee xxx