5

Five years ago today I married my lovely husband Matteo. In his words "5 anni sono pochi ma sembra che ci vogliamo bene da una vita" (5 years are short but it seems that we've loved each other for a life time)Doesn't it sound so much more romantic in Italian! 

McBeth Photography

Click here if you'd like to see more pictures from our beautiful day.

Wishing you all a love filled Friday.

Love

Sarah Elizabeth

x

Welcome Mirryn Hope

On 16th March we welcomed into the world another beautiful daughter, Mirryn Hope. We are delighted with our precious bundle and Alba May adores her new little sister. 

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day yesterday by spending an afternoon in the centre of Perugia then going out for a meal and to the cinema. We don't usually exchange cards or gifts just spend a nice time together.

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with love x x

Beautiful Venice

The second day of our mini-moon we spent in Venice and it was every bit as beautiful as I had imagined.

Everywhere you look there is something even more spectacular to see.

We encountered acqua alta (high water), a phenomenon which occurs in Autumn and Winter when the scirocco wind blows causing higher than normal tides. Piazza San Marco was flooded and although there were raised walkways to cross the square we decided, like hundreds of others to take our shoes off and paddle about in the water. It was such a warm sunny day after all.

We had a (very expensive) aperitivo at a cafe where the waiters were wearing bowties, white jackets and rubber waders!

It was so surreal but at the same time magical, sitting there drinking our prosecco in the middle of a giant puddle while a quartet played a waltz behind us.

Unfortunately, just after lunch the battery of our camera died so I hardly have any photos. It's probably just as well, I don't think my limited photographic skills would have done Venice justice!

L'Isola del Sole

I don't know where this week has gone! It's taken me all week to get round to posting about our mini-moon in the North of Italy. We stayed in a hotel in Grado which is in the north eastern region, Fruili-Venezia Giulia, not far from the border with Slovenia. Grado, or L'Isola del Sole (Sunny Island), as it's known, is a lovely seaside town in the centre of a lagoon on the Adriatic Coast. We spent a lovely day exploring the old town, walking along the beach and eating sea food.

I love taking pictures of windows!

Lanterns inside the church

This room of the church was under water.

The most common way to get around in Grado is by bike..........

........or by boat!

an interesting quote on a blackboard outside a bar. It says,

'The worst prison is the one we create for ourselves"

I loved the bright sunny yellow of these beach huts.

After a lot of walking we definately deserved this tasty pot of mussels and a few glasses of the local wine.

Tomorrow I'll be back with pictures from Venice (the few we managed to take before our camera ran out of battery - school boy error!)

A mini-moon in Venice

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go." --Truman Capote

We're off this weekend on our second mini-moon to Venice! As a wedding present Matteo's aunt has given us a weekend in a hotel in Grado, a spa town which is about an hour away from Venice. I've never been to Venice before and I can't wait to explore the labyrinth of canals and streets, to see Piazza San Marco and to take a vaporetto down the Canal Grande.......

Photo from here

Italian Wedding

Our wedding celebrations finished with a bang at the weekend and now life is slowly returning to normal. I feel incredibly lucky to have had two weddings and celebrations that have gone on for over a month. We're truly blessed with wonderful family and friends both in Italy and Scotland and we've been overwhelmed by the kindness shown to us by everyone. Here are just a few photos from Saturday night but there are many more which I'll be sharing over the next few weeks.

We're married.........

.....and it was perfect!

Beautiful photo from our talented photographer Craig McBeth

Things that Make me Happy Part Three

3. My Fiancee

Since it's his birthday today I thought it was a good day to post about Matteo, my soon to be husband. We met three years ago on a night out when I first arrived in Perugia. This is what I wrote in my journal the day after we met for the first time, "Matteo is one of the nicest and hottest guys I've ever met - unfortunatley way out of my league!"

I still can't believe that I'm getting married to this gorgeous, kind man. He would do anything for me - he even spent hours trailing round Perugia to help me look for the right ribbon for our wedding invitations without complaining. I don't know many men who could do that.

These pictures were taken by Matteo's sister at the nearby Lago di Bolsena, just a few months after Matteo and I got together. I love these pictures and think that they sum up our relationship perfectly - a mixture of romance and silliness (we were doing the dance of the crab in the lake!)

St Valentine's in San Valentino

We decided not to exchange gifts for Valentine's Day this year since we are saving money but Matteo did take me out to a lovely little pizzeria in the nearby village of San Valentino - what better place to visit on Valentine's Day! Matteo is going to Australia tomorrow for 2 weeks with work so it was nice to have a romantic meal together before he leaves. This picture is one of my favourites of me with 'mio amore.' Hope you had a love filled Valentine's Day too.

More House Pictures

It's taken me a while to get back to my blog. It's been a bit busy the past week or two. I've been helping with the olive harvest which is a lot of fun but quite tiring. School's getting busier too as we start to prepare for the run up to Christmas.

There's been no progress on the house as we are waiting to get rid of some of the furniture that is being stored in there at the moment. Here are some more of the pictures we took a few weeks ago.

The front door. It's in pretty bad shape but hopefully we'll be able to restore it. I love how the key hole is upside down!

This is the view from the side of the house. There's not much of a garden but I'm hoping that we'll be able to buy a plot of land nearby for growing vegetables and keeping chickens!

Beginnings

I've only recently discovered the inspirational world of blogging and decided I'd give it a go. My fiancee and I are about to start work on a 16th century property in Italy. My main reason for starting a blog is to keep a record of our progress on the house and to share ideas and inspiration with others. I'm also planning a wedding and working as a teacher so there may be bits and pieces about those projects too. I'll start off with a picture of our house as it is now. There will be more pictures and details to follow.