Roll Call - time for you to say Ciao

INSPIRATION

Time for a Roll Call

It’s time for a Roll Call!

The thing that gives me the most joy blogging is meeting and connecting with you all. A huge thank you to everyone here, and also over at Renovating Italy on facebook where the conversations are brilliant.

I’ve been chatting with you all here for a few years now, and we’ve created some wonderful friendships and connections. You’ve shared our dream to move to Italy and seen it all come true.

So I am taking a page from my great blogging buddy Melissa from Suger Coat It and sending out a “Roll Call”

What’s this you ask?

Well it’s a chance for you tell everyone who you are… say Ciao!

I’d love to know if you have a blog (be sure to leave a link) and how long you’ve been reading along. Are you renovating, about to renovate or not intending to ever renovate LOL.

How did we meet??

Save

and the gang x

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54 replies

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Jill Pennington says:
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Not a blog but a book, plenty of renovating in here – http://www.amazon.co.uk/diary-single-parent-abroad-ebook/dp/B00871I0XS
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- Andreana says:
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  I read a small taste of it on Amazon and I’m hooked! Thanks Jill for letting us know about your book. Now I have to get a Kindle so I can finish it.
Trisha Thomas says:
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Hi Lisa — We met when I dove into the blogging world last fall with my blog http://www.mozzarellamamma.com and you were one of the first people to comment. I was so pleased that you could relate to what I had written about being married to an Italian and raising three Italian-American children in Rome. Then I began reading your blog and couldn’t help admiring your wonderful, positive, loving attitude towards, Italy, your husband, your children….just about everything. As Andreana said in the comment above, you are an inspiration to us all!
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  I am so happy to know that i was one of the first to comment on your blog Trisha! I just read every word and was captured straight away. The stories you tell are just wonderful and so alive. It is a bit of a club being married to an Italian, I know you understand the intricacies! Also being a Mum in a different country and seeing your children grow and thrive. I feel all those emotions with you also, a confident positive creative woman!! Brava
  ciao love lisa x
Andreana says:
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Hi Lisa,
I’m one of your silent followers. I enjoy your blog and everyone’s posts so much that I forget to jump into the conversation. I literally ran into you and your blog one day while I was in my “happy place” maybe a year ago. You know, that place where we go when all we want to do is think of what life could be if it were perfect? For me it’s to type into the web any question I have about Italy and reading the info into the wee hours of the night. My husband and I have talked at great lengths about moving to Itay for one year with our 2 boys ages 11 & 13. We are Realtors in San Diego, California and have a big dream of buying small town homes in Italy, renovating them and then putting them up for rent. As a mom I have so many concerns about schools there, the language or even how we would know if we are moving into a safe neighborhood? Your blog is so real and sincere I feel as if I personally know someone there that is over coming the challenges and making her dreams a reality. Thank you for letting me live my Italian dream through your blog. I hope next year to be there and possibly even putting together a blog of my own. You’re an inspirational person Lisa!
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  OH how fantastic that you have found your voice and jumped in!! I do know that happy place and I also go adventuring via the internet and get lost for hours till I can’t remember where it was I was heading.
  
  how wonderful to follow your dream and come to Italy with your family. I also had many concerns about the children when we first headed to Italy, especially coming through Asia. There are many strong expat groups who could give you information about places to live etc. That’s what I did as soon as we decided to return, and now I have the most incredible friends who are able to advise us.
  
  Yes you do know someone now and I would always be happy to help if I can just let me know. be sure to let me know if you start a blog and I’ll be right along to read it! ciao lisa xx
Carolyn - Holidays to Europe says:
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Hi Lisa,
I think I found you online via your great blog. Your passion for Italy resonates with my passion for all things European. I’ve been lucky enough to holiday in Europe on many occasions and I love sharing my knowledge with my clients and helping them to create wonderful European travel experiences. One of these years, when the kids have left home, my husband and I would love to spend a few months living in Europe, living like the locals. I’ll be following your tales of life in Italy with great interest. My kids have benefited so much from their European travels and I know yours will, too.
Wishing you safe travels and wonderful adventures in Italy.
Carolyn.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Well Carolyn I’m so glad you did! I certainly know your passion it comes across so wonderfully. It would be perfect for you and your husband to be able to stay and live in Europe for a while. The best gift we can give our children is travel, i can’t wait to see the look on our children’s face.
  Glad to have you along and please feel free to share your experience over at the fb page or here anytime. x
  lisa
Lisa Chiodo says:
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It seems far longer than that Krista and I always see your smiling face where ever I go! Between you and Tanya I get my daily kick of good cheer lol. With a name like Rambling Tart you’ll never be forgotten Brava xxx
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Krista says:
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I only found you a few months ago but I LOVE connecting with you on Facebook and your blog. 🙂 Your updates and comments never fail to cheer me up and help me keep going. 🙂 My name is Krista, I live in Australia and write at http://www.ramblingtart.com 🙂
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  and how fabulous is Rambling Tart!!! I just love the name and the fantastic outlook on life. We can cheer each other up…. and the cute baby goats you keep showing us are sending my daughter into fits of awwwww can we have a goat Mum? can’t wait, you can be honorary auntie along with Michelle from Bleeding Espresso xxx
Elizabeth says:
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Hi Lisa,

I discovered you today after your lovely Facebook message. I’m so glad you got in touch, because I’ve spent the past half hour catching up on your posts! I’m a Brisbane/Melbourne hybrid too.

I think your kids are the luckiest.

Anyway, nice to “meet” you!
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  And I found you through Melissa at Suger Coat It, I couldn’t seem to comment on your blog but I prefered the first portrait…mystery and better composition. And us hybrids have to stick together! ciao lisa x
- Elizabeth says:
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  Thanks, I think I agree with you about the photos! On Instagram the first photo was much more popular than the second.
  
  I’m sorry you had trouble leaving a comment. I haven’t heard of anyone having issues before, could you tell me what happened?
- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  I think it might be something my end as I use my husbands google account. Usually when I leave a comment on a blog it comes up with an option for Name/Url but every now and again that option isn’t available. I’ll see if I can comment now and let you know what happens. ciao lisa x
- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Went through okay this time! x
Caterina B says:
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Lisa, I think I found your blog while reading a travel Liguria website. I don’t remember, maybe
Beautiful Liguria? I read all the books by Annie Hawes and was looking around Liguria on the internet. I live on a little “farm” in Colorado. We are now having the worst wildfires in Colorado history. TEN are burning right now. In the biggest, around 140 houses have been destroyed. Most of them are far away from our little valley, though. We are very worried.There is only one way in or out of our valley. We would have to trek over mountains to escape if the road was blocked. We have the car packed with “survival gear” in case a fire starts below us on the road. We would just have to grab our two Westies, drive and pray.
We bought our little log cabin in 2001 and have put a lot of time and money into renovating it. But….not TOO much renovation. It is now perfectly comfortable and we are concentrating on the grounds. Just praying that we don’t have a wildfire, too, and see all our work destroyed. You can view photos of my farm on my Flickr page.
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Caterina it would probably be at Beautiful Liguria, it was the first blog I found when we bought the house in Veravo. I also love Annie Hawes, she describes life in Italy as an expat so perfectly especially the rustic side like we lived.
  I am hoping that you are safe and your house remains untouched by the fires. A friend on the fb page Don Bell also updates me on these awful fires. They were just on the news, as an Australian I can totally understand the worry. I grew up in Victoria and we had bushfires as part of our lives. My brother and his family went through the Black Saturday fires in Kinglake and survived while so many perished. Don’t take any chances, leave before you have no options. Sending love and hope, x
Lisa DeNunzio, La Dolce Villa says:
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Ciao Lisa. It seems the ‘thread’ that connects bloggers is so long that I cannot clearly remember how I encountered you and your blog. Most likely because, as I am a new blogger I try and see who is blogging about Italy. I feel that Italy is ‘under represented’ as there seems to be many more French blogs. Peccato. My desire is to spend more time in Italy, to learn the language once and for all and enjoy the Italian lifestyle. For now, I content myself with blogging about Italy and my home town of Coral Gables and living vicariously through other blogs like yours. A presto, Lisa
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  Lisa that thread is indeed fine and connects us all in intricate ways. It’s wonderful to be a new blogger, seeing how things develop over time. I remember how excited I was at my first comments and had to pinch myself that anyone would read my ramblings. I found my passion.
  All things French are the fashion at the moment and I love this also but my heart remains in Italy. I also should learn the language, another thing to add to my list.
  ciao for now
  Lisa x
  PS I totally love how you created those coasters with the Grappa labels!
Leanne - Getaway Guru says:
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Lisa, I can’t remember how we met but I know if was online and it was because of a mutual love of Italy and my interest in Australians in Italy (and France!)
I cannot wait to follow your renovating journey when your in-situ in Italy and one day hope that you have a self catering property for rental that you list on my site! That would be a wonderful circle!

Ciao Leanne
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- Lisa Chiodo says:
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  How wonderful would that be Leanne, I remember how impressed I was when I first found your website. It was clear that your love of both Italy and France had so many join you there. I am hoping to come full circle soon xx