• Home
  • The excerpts
  • The photos
  • The trailer
  • Other stuff
  • DVD extras
  • Feedback
  • Buy a copy

Home

The problems begin as soon as they arrive to discover that their much-anticipated romantic hillside getaway is a grotty run-down old farmhouse in a lonely isolated backwater of a village, complete with a grumpy old miser of a landlord who complains endlessly about the noise.

To top it all off there is no phone line, meaning no work and no money for pizza.

But just when the whole notion of the Italian Odyssey is looking like a giant mistake, our heroes manage to relocate to sunny Sansepolcro, which turns out to be every bit the country Italian town they’d been dreaming of — medieval and full of good food.

The next few months are spent living the dream, hunting out new bars and cafes, chatting with their kindly landlords and revelling in the minutia of small-town life in rural Italy. 

sansepolcro-countryside

Then summer arrives, and Sansepolcro shifts into high gear with a endless succession of outdoor festivals, concerts and community events.

Meanwhile, our heroes find themselves steadily enveloped into the warm embrace of their landlords and treated to genuine long lunches on a daily basis.

All too soon summer is over, life quietens down again and the family is obliged to confront the thorny question of the return tickets. Do they belong in Italy? Could they stay on indefinitely? Do they want their children to grow up Italian?

  • Recent news

    • NEW!! Watch the trailer
    • Adelaide here we come
    • Cold vs flu
    • Event: Stonnington Library
    • Sydney visit
    • The Book Launch That Was
    • Melb Festival of Travel Writing
    • Twilight talk at Waratah Hills
    • A physical reality
    • Book launch
  • Comments

    • Michael Eagle on Feedback
    • Maria Vendetti on Appy Bar
    • Sandra on Feedback
    • Glen McCullough on Feedback
    • Jo on Feedback
    • Nicci on NEW!! Watch the trailer
    • Shelley and Anthony on Feedback
    • Cheryl on Feedback
    • Gavin Flanagan on Buy a copy
    • M.Kalatzis on They said I was crazy…
  • Thanks to:

    • Avenue Bookstore
    • Margaret Connolly
    • Mondo Music
    • New Holland
    • Radio Italia

Random Snippet

  • Mid-life crisis

    What prompts an ordinary suburban father to take his young family overseas for a year? Is it a subconscious desire to conquer the unknown? Is it like the married-with-kids equivalent of a bungy jump? Is he having a bit of a mid-life crisis? Perhaps he's just after the pizza and coffee. Find out what on earth his story is in this quirky new take on the age-old theme of learning to fit in.


Italy? It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time © 2008 Simon Capp. All Rights Reserved.
Entries and Comments.