The Brandt Blog

(Title trans. Morning Joe in Our Villa) So… after mastering the arts/sciences of home barista-ing back in the ‘Ville, searching out that ‘perfect’ brew whilst out of town can be difficult and discouraging. Even in a caffe-centric culture such as Italy, convenience breeds a contemptible compromise. Hence, the utter disappointment seeing that in our villa […]

Some pics of the Fiume (translated: River) Arno from/with it’s famed crossing. Looking: Upstream, Downstream and Mainstream. Yup – EVERYONE who passes through Firenze takes a pic with the revered Ponte Vecchio as a background. Well, everyone except for the little cold-blooded critter who posed for this pic simply on the GROUND of the Ponte […]

Anne asked me how I can concentrate on riding when the views are so beautiful. I reminded her that it’s SAFETY FIRST and CRASHING HURTS! That said, I must have pulled off the road six times to take pics … and this is just the first ride. That dome in the distance … it is […]

With a little help from (enthusiastic product endorsement) Ambien, we slept soundly across the Atlantic… transferred with relative ease through Munich and hopped over the Alps en route to Firenze. Our hostess Ginerva greeted this jet-lagged duo with a warm, N95-masked Italian, “Buongiorno” and a plate of meat, cheese and bread, of course. We chatted […]

And so… we’re off. Leaving Hannah with big hugs and toting big bags.

No cleaning person on earth can rival Anne’s vigor, vigilance and validation in keeping our house tidied. Small detail that we’re not yet moved in; but Anne sleeps better knowing that her small piles of dust and debris properly deposited in the trashcan will not be later mobilized against her from the bottoms of the tradesmen’s boots.

There are still plenty of the skilled tradesmen working on their respective last details of the construction project – but none have been so welcome a sight (at least since Ted and the guys started framing) as was the cleaning crew today at work on the windows.  They represent the final step before we move […]

The painters, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, ironworkers, A/V guys, cabinet installers, carpet installers and fireplace installers continue racing to finish all the remaining details before next week…and seeing all of the pieces come together is a lot of fun. It’s all running pretty smoothly except the two doofus’ (doofi?) responsible for ordering the plumbing and electrical fixtures […]

We are Blogging for the first time while knowing the move-in date.  February 2…well…sort of, because Anne and I will over that weekend be carrying over the artwork, the kitchenware (to avoid packing) and some other stuff we’re not leaving to the movers.  There is a lot of work on the house that still needs to […]

We might have a light at the end of this 6-year tunnel…but so as not to jinx anything, we won’t mention what that potential move-in date might be.  There’s a lot of work yet to be done. For starters, the cabinet guy has been mysteriously MIA for the past few days…the painters are juggling us […]