A message from Judy this morning....."....Plummer (sic) is set for next week so you will be able to pee at last in the house..." Who knew that the word "pee" was capable of making my heart skip a beat! Judy is the harbinger of news that alternately causes me extreme agita or total elation. This update is, I am delighted to say, one that brings the latter. In nearly eight years of ownership, the closest I've come to waste elimination on my property was a clandestine episode, an emergency, when I slipped into the subterranean entry way of the smallest house and dropped my drawers. No further details necessary! To know that I actually have a toilet and a functioning shower mechanism is absolutely thrilling.



Judy is my alter-ego in Italy, a dyed-in-the-wool, no-nonsense New Yorker, who can turn a full page to-do list into an "All-Done" list in a matter of hours. Or so it seems. Her better half is Fausto, a native Umbrian of mild temperament, good humour and an endless network of skilled laborers and artisans who he can call upon to help in the reconstruction of my house. He is honest and hard working and while he is retired from the Italian phone company, his days are filled with freelance assignments that help bolster his modest pension.

July 4th weekend is days away and I leave for Italy exactly on the holiday. If you are looking for a half-empty transatlantic flight so you can stretch out on two seats, travel on a holiday. It's only the day before and day after a holiday that are big travel days. Trying to wrap up things at work is excruciating. It's the end of the fiscal year, a time of frantic accounting and lots of activity before everyone settles into their vacations.

A quick phone call with Judy on Skype yesterday. The kitchen countertop is finally in place, after Fausto waited five hours for the installation team. The garden is clear of all debris. I am hopeful of mild warm weather, little or no rain and the opportunity to relax and enjoy my house in the first warm-weather trip I've made in a while. The beds will be delivered at some point during my trip, and I need only purchase pillows and linens in order to spend my first night there. As usual, I throw open a suitcase or two a week before leaving and fill it with a little bit more every day. I look for things that I can leave there, clothing, small appliances, a personal thing or two to add warmth. This trip has come up so quickly, just as the pace of my life in New York has accelerated in recent weeks.

I look forward to the lazy, food-filled afternoons of Italy and I feel myself giving in to the magnetic pull of my little casetta.