We Got "Beep-Beep'd"

I am so excited! I guess this means we have arrived.....

I was in the shower this morning.....and heard "Beep Beep" as someone drove by our house!!!!

I was so excited, I was screaming at Bob, "Bob, Bob, we got Beep-Beeped"...we have Arrived!!!!

That means we officially live here right...? Someone drove by our house and honked at us! I was so excited...that is what prompted me to get back on the blog! I'm so excited.....(of course it had to be Grace or Leyla, they are the only people we know!) But so what....someone knows us!!!!!

BACON OR RABBIT?

We went shopping today in Perugia..which is kind of a bigger city...just 30 minutes away.....larger stores and such....actually found some bacon...which we have been unable to find since we arrived....I was so excited...it was just a small package....maybe a quarter of a pound....not very big....so I told Bob "Get it, get it" well...he put it in the basket then looked at the price. Thank Goodness.....It was 25.50 Euros....which is about $33 today....guess we won't be having bacon this year....will break the bank....

Then we came back to Todi and went to our Super Mercato...and shopped for a few things...while we were picking out our chicken...we saw something on the counter that was whole...about twice the size of chicken...with legs....wasn't sure what it was....Bob thought he knew what is was...and called "Rabbit".....so I pulled out my handy dandy little dictionary and looked up the word...yep you guessed it...it was rabbit...hell, must have been a jack rabbit....it was huge...I mean huge...I didn't think about looking at the price.....I was too shocked to find rabbit in the meat counter....passed that up and just got the chicken...

They don't seem to eat a lot of meat here....mostly pasta and vegetables.....guess that's more plentiful than meat here....and their meat I think is mostly cured for about 2 to 3 years...hung up and salted and stuff like that for a few years...maybe that's why it's so expensive....

Also found a new coffee shop/Pizzeria/bar...that....get this....is open ALL DAY LONG....from 6:30 in the morning for our cappucino....to a pizza buffet at noon and pizza and coffee liquor and beer available all day long until 8pm....we are so excited...and what was even better...is the lady who owns it is from Australia...and yep...she speaks English...has become our new hang out...we are so excited to find it...she said she lived in an old castle on top of Todi...maybe we can visit it some day....(For those of you who haven't heard us ranting....we can never find anything open in town...all the shops close down at 1 in the afternoon.for Siesta ..and open back up at...well we aren't sure when they open back up...some open back up 3 or 3:30...some 4 or 4:30...most restaurants don't open back up til 6, 7 or 8 at night...there are never any hours posted on the doors...so every time we are trying to go into town to buy something..no matter what it happens to be...the stores, shops and restaurants are always closed...we can't figure out how they make any more...they can't work more than about 20 hours a week...maybe....but we will get used to it.....it just takes several trips to get anything......so we are so excited that at least we can eat any time we want now...that is a huge plus for us....we finally caught the pizza place in San Terrezano open..we have been trying to catch it since we have arrived...Leyla told us they have the best pizza...but no matter what time of day we tried, it was never open...either it was after 1 pm....or before 8pm...or it was Monday...or it was some sort of holiday...or something..but we finally found it open..we had to stay up late to do it...but it was terrific...and one of our favorites now...

Anyway, we will start our "traveling around" portion of this trip...just as soon as we get our own wheels...can't afford to waste any time with our rental....so have to get wheels first...then I think we are going to take a trip to Switzerland, Austria and Hungary....kind of my Birthday Trip....yes, I get to celebrate it all month...heck I get to celebrate it all year.....will post some pictures....probably won't go until mid March....

Got our first gas bill last week....for a 4 week period...that is one month right? ......475 Euros....that is $617 today...ouch...and we only use the gas to heat 3 small rooms (bedroom, kitchen and bathroom) and for hot water and our cook stove...that's it...just think if we had to heat the entire house.....we use our pellet stove for that....I think our utilities came out to about $1000 this month...ouch...can't wait for warm weather....that must be why everyone is always bundled up with layers....they keep their heat down and lights off....the charge for eletric changes depending on the time of the day....haven't figured out if it is more expensive in the day or night...but very expensive as well....They get their natural gas from Russia...someone is making a buck...at least they haven't cut us off anymore....at some point while we have been hear...Russia cut off all gas supply to Italy...not sure what that was about...but didn't affect us for whatever reason..or maybe it did and that is why it is so astronomically HIGH....and it hasn't been down below 30 degrees even.....can't wait for summer...did I mention that?

anyway...just thought I would share some of our new discoveries with you...stay tuned for more!

Oh, The picture is of a new lake we found near Perugia....we have found a great restaurant there that we have eaten at several times...great food! There are at least 2 islands on this lake that I can see and people live on them....that's what I want to do....it is very pretty with mountains or hills all around...it was very very calm on this day....

Ciao!