Welcome to our Italian apartment! We have been unpacked for quite a while now, but as you’ll see in the photos, we have no storage, so finding a place for everything was a bit challenging. It took a while to get it organized enough for me to want to share photos, but we finally feel settled! There are a few things I still plan on adding, namely floor length curtains (when I can find some that are long enough!) and rugs since it is all hard floors.
This apartment was actually the first one I found online that I loved while we were still in quarantine. We saw probably 10 with our realtor, but this one really had everything we were looking for. I kept coming back to this apartment because of all of the natural light, the size (it’s actually bigger than the townhome we lived in in Georgia!), and the fact that it’s in a well-maintained building that still has the Italian character we were hoping for. We have a storage cellar in the basement and a garage spot for our car about a block away. The building is just outside the gates of the historic city center, so we can walk anywhere in just about 7 minutes or less, and Michael bikes to work in about 10 minutes. We have an amazing grocery store around the corner and several specialty shops which we’ve already become frequent and loyal customers. Within one block of our front door we have a formaggeria (cheese and other dairy products), a salumeria (cheese, meats, wine, and other specialty products), a pescheria (fresh fish), a macelleria (butcher), and a handful of cafés and fresh produce shops. The people who work at the formaggeria and the salumeria no doubt recognize us already because we frequent them so often. They are so kind and always offer for us to try new things while we’re in, probably because we always end up buying all of the cheeses and they are catching on! We didn’t have high expectations from the butcher, both of us being from the Midwest and all, but we grabbed steaks at the macelleria one night and they were wonderful!
You walk into our front door and everything is centered around this long hallway with the signature Venetian Terrazzo flooring. It was a perfect spot for the cabinet that displays all of our glassware and treasures. We bought the piece when we lived in Georgia at a local store and I think it will always be my favorite piece of furniture. I love having all of our entertaining pieces in one beautiful spot, and can’t wait to pull everything out when we have visitors over the next few years.
The first room on the right after you walk in is the kitchen and laundry room. It’s not the biggest kitchen, but it’s been perfect for us and we’ve already enjoyed cooking many meals in here. Again, I LOVE the natural light! I planted some fresh herbs and geraniums on the balcony. Our basil plants are having a hard time keeping up with us!
To the left of the front door (across the hall from the kitchen) is the guest room! This room is massive – potentially the size of our entire apartment in Tacoma. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but really not much. I can’t wait for all of our family and friends to stay here. It’s all ready for our first visitors whenever the time comes, and I’m hoping it is very soon! Since we don’t have a place for our barstools in the kitchen anymore, I’m thinking about finding a tall bistro table to put by the window with the chairs to have a little coffee and work spot for our guests!
Welcome to our closet/office/storage room! 😂 As I said before, we have almost no storage inside the apartment. That means not a single closet. This is common throughout Europe – in fact, I think only one apartment we saw had closets. Luckily, because of this, the Army allows us to borrow wardrobes for the duration of our stay here. They also lent us a washer and dryer, and we would be able to get any kitchen appliances we need from them if our apartment didn’t have those furnished. So this room is very multipurpose to include our borrowed wardrobes, storage items we need easy access to, and the desk space.
Next is the living room, where we spend most of our time. The floor to ceiling windows to the balcony in here are one of my favorite features of the apartment. We finally printed some of our wedding photos and I designed a fun gallery wall to go in here. I really love how it turned out! As you can see, we quickly are finding we need some kind of large-scale wine storage solution over here. Ideas are welcome! I planted some balcony planters on the railing and a few pots and we found a cute little bistro table to put outside. I am looking forward to sipping on some rosé out there this Summer!
The back of the apartment is the other two bedrooms and two bathrooms. After sharing a one-sink bathroom in Tacoma for three years, we each had our own bathroom in Georgia and we were happy to have the same situation here. The bathroom on the left and in the middle photos is mine, and Michael’s is on the right.
Our room is pretty simple, but I’m really happy with it. I’m hoping to find a pretty rug and some art to put on the walls, but I like the simplicity in here. It’s very cozy!
Last, but certainly not least, is my favorite room. The baby’s room isn’t done yet, but the big pieces are here. It’s such a big room to fill for a baby! I am hoping to find a big rug in here as well, a floor lamp behind the chair, and add some floating shelves and art to the walls. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the dresser is a really pretty sage green color, so I am planning to add some other green accents. I will share again once it’s more complete, but we love how it’s turning out!
It’s hard to believe we’ve already been in Italy almost three months now. I feel like we have just now gotten to the point that we have a routine down and know how to get around the area. Our building has five other flats and we’ve met several of the Italians that live here. Everyone we’ve met, both military and the locals, have been very friendly and helpful. I will speak for him, but I think Michael is enjoying his new job, and the people in his unit have been very welcoming to us both.
Unfortunately about two weeks ago our region went back to the “red zone” designation – basically, strict lockdown except for essentials. Everything is closed except for grocery stores, pharmacies, hospitals, and restaurants that can offer takeaway service. We have to carry around “self-declaration” forms any time we leave the house. We fill out our personal information and state where we’re coming from and where we’re going. They have checkpoints randomly where the police check your documents and make sure you’re following the rules of the decree. It’s… interesting, and something I can’t imagine would ever happen in the US. It’s pretty crazy to think they’ve been in some sort of lockdown status for over a year here now. We are hopeful that things will turn around as they get their vaccinations going here. The Army is luckily getting vaccines from the US and although it has been slow, the plan is to have a large number of the American community here vaccinated in May. Everyone seems to agree that Italy (and the rest of Europe) cannot survive another Summer without tourists. Crossing our fingers that means the country will start to open up in May or June. We are itching to travel and can’t wait to have our families here this Summer.
xx Hannah
HANNAH SHARES 
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