Life in a medieval village in Italy. How spectacular is Italy really???

I mean, what? The food and vino? The hot men? The art? History? Architecture? Traditions? People? Well in a nutshell, it’s all that and so much more!

The unbelievable stories of thousands of years in Italian existence…are beyond extraordinary. Seems there is a statue for anyone who prayed hard, dressed well and could sit a horse or was just crazy to win wars! Yes that’s a bit overly dramatic but did you count the statues in St Peter’s Square in Rome? Really? That many guys should be remembered in perpetuity???

But I digress. What happens when a city girl decides to marry Rome? She realizes there are some shortcomings. Like too many tourists – in bad clothes, lost, perspiring and crazed. Rome is quite overwhelming in hot humid weather. And every street has at least one church! How anyone is sinning in Rome is beyond me!

And yet the many many steps to everywhere don’t dissuade us. We groan, breathe heavy and force ourselves to step up each one. Knowing the visual treasures will be extraordinary at the top! Could I live in Rome? Yeah if … so….. no. I must find a place between my two favorites, Rome and Florence. Roma e Firenze. Let the map games begin!! It took a month of looking in Italy to come back to what I thought was my best option and indeed it was. Orte hit all the ‘needs’ with a train station that is almost fabulous (a few elevators would be the whip cream on top of the gelato glee).

Having worked in NYC for 15+ years, I can drive there easily. Piece of cake. Tool around the boroughs, let’s go. Drive in Italy? Uh nope. Florence to Rome on the autostrada is an experience to be missed!!! But you only realize that after you do it. My lead foot is highly respected on every highway in America. In Italy, I’m simply chicken liver! So in keeping with international policies of ‘don’t be an idiot’ I have agreed to not compete with Italian drivers on the autostrada or their freeways. I am letting them win. It’s their culture, in their blood…their driving mode is: get past everyone now! So realizing that, I have no wheels, I must find new ones. Like say a train! Yup. That’s the ticket!

What’s a great train station (trains everywhere all day to Italy and beyond with a cafe and cappuccino) between Roma and Firenze? With a bit of research, yes we have a winner!!! Orte! Medieval village on a mountain top! Such a beautiful village. Trains and buses everywhere! Fabulous! Hey we don’t have a great train system in America and our buses are highly suspect in many American cities.

I find an apartment in Orte that just attached itself to me. I look in surrounding villages but I keep coming back to my apartment in Orte. Having extensive American real estate credentials (Brokers licenses in 2 states and my own agencies) may be of some assistance in this sales transaction. Yes it helped. And I bought an apartment in this beautiful village. Nope I didn’t know anyone except the 20-something realtor who spoke no English. But I managed to google translate my way through the process. And I enjoyed it immensely!

I live in Italy 90 days at a time. I am on a tourist visa. I must depart to a non Schengen country for 90+ days, then come back to my home in Italy. Not a perfect solution – now I must make these new countries adventures! Places I have never been. That’s coming up…Montenegro. We’ll see.

So what is it like in a village built by the Etruscans in 600 BC? My building was built in the 1200’s. The walls are over 12″ thick. Quiet usually…and everything in this home is mine…well okay, that was true in all my homes but this is especially sweet as at some point we realize we have lived most of our life, and we are on the downhill slide. What do we do? Anything and everything we want to. As fast and fun as we can! And grab the fun, the silly, the beautiful and gorgeous…and revel in the irony of at this late stage, how come I know so much? Geez I could have used this wisdom/information about 40 years ago!!!

Some mornings I lay in my bed, pinch myself figuratively and decide where will I go today? Rome? Florence? Ovieto? Arezzo? It’s a long list. And so many more are waiting. Has my life become one of an adventurer? A prolific writer of life’s scenes unfolding to me?

Dressed, phone, purse…I’m off!! I smile at everyone I see. “Buongiorno, come stai? Ciao”. And they respond in kind. Yeah I don’t get that in the US. Would be a lovely exchange but in America, that would be met with hardcore distrust. (What is wrong with that person? Speaking to me, what do they want? Mugging me?) If you’re an American, you can relate…at the grocery store, etc. But here, it is just kindness, respect. You are my neighbor, my tribe…you matter. One lady always says to me “Ciao Bella”. (Hello beautiful). Man, I love her. She makes my day. The older people here are the most prolific in their statements of greeting and responding to my greeting. Sometimes I come across a gaggle of young boys and / or girls. I always speak English to them: Hello gentlemen, good evening ladies….the kids speak English. They look at the Americana and invariably one of them responds Hello also. So yeah, I love that. All of it. Silly Italians, speaking like that to each other and anyone who speaks to them in kind. Who wouldn’t love it?

Orte has its own charm. So so old. Each building, each walkway, arch, open tunnel, lookout places…all there for a thousand years! What have they seen? So many lives, so many generations…oh for some of those stories.

The grocery stores hold extraordinary treasures, smells, stuff we only wish we had in America. By now, we all know the Italians and the French keep the best wines, cheese and olive oil for themselves. Yes they do. You make friends, chat up your friends, find the best local wineries, who harvests the best olive oil, grab the Bufala cheese and then you move in for the, ‘how much’? Praying they don’t filet you on the price. The wine store down the hill lets you select the wines, liquors you want and then delivers it free, places it in your kitchen and says ‘grazie’ and ciao. Yeah, that. And the Nonna there gave me a small gift. Think I am in there too much?????

For those of you who have seen the flowers on my home – out front….sorry to admit this, but I have the original black thumb. That any of them are still alive shocks me most days. My modus operandi with plants is ‘can you swim’? For those non swimmers, death is a yellow ugly fungus type demise. I have no idea what happens to these flowers when the weather gets cold. Do they hibernate and come back? Do they just die out? Am I supposed to bring them inside? Or let them die out, empty the pots and start over next Spring? Ah the mysteries of gardening. This is when I need my Mom. She was an exuberant gardener with so much love for her flora and fauna…not sure who got that trait in my family…maybe my sister. But she looks like a plant killer too…I’ll have to research that. (She won’t tell me but her kids will. Shhhhh). Anyhow, I just keep putting plants out there and hoping for the best. And honestly, I do my very best to be the nice American. Kind, pleasant, smiling and lots of flowers. I turned my taverna into some type of quasi plant nursery when it truly would rather be a hot summer disco bar. Maybe next year.

I do love this village, warts and all. And in all honesty, one of me, 500 of them. When I was first here, I could not remember names…who is who, why I should remember. What a mess that was. I am sure they thought I was an idiot with my blank stares when they spoke Italian to me…and heard the feeble ‘non parle Italiano’…per favore or I admitted to being ‘Americano’ – male version of American (I now know to say ‘Americana’). Slowly I have learned names and who is who. I think. They call me Chindy. The Ci is a ch sound in Italian. Hey, I’ve been called worse…haven’t we all. And I find it kind of endearing and charming. So this is my village, my tribe. With cappuccinos everywhere and they now just give it to me in the afternoon and no side eye looks. Many days I don’t leave the village…other times, I’m down the hill off on an adventure. I am safe here. I do exactly what I want and just enjoy the ride. Haven’t been to Orte? It’s pretty cool…and probably more than you know:

Orte in Lazio 

(Centro Storico)

  • 37m north of Rome
  • Excellent large train station to everywhere!! Including FCO!
  • 44 minutes to Rome
  • 1 1/2 hours to Florence 
  • Robust bus service 
  • Temperate climate
  • Medieval village on a mountain top
  • Properties are the lowest they’ve been in many years!
  • 2 grocery stores
  • Produce store (veg & fruit)
  • Bakery 
  • 4 cafe/bars
  • 2 Ristorantes – fine dining and home style Italian
  • Enoteca – wine bar
  • Wine store (they deliver)
  • Hospital (rehab) Dr on-site 24/7 – speaks English 
  • Farmacia
  • Jewelry store
  • Optical store
  • Pasta store 
  • Lingerie store 
  • Shoes/handbags store 
  • Makeup and clothing store 
  • Gift store
  • Tourist office
  • Theater
  • ATM
  • 5 Beauty salons
  • 2 parking garages (cheap)
  • Tiber River parallels the village 
  • Autostrade parallels the village
  • Taxi service

Orte Metro Area

  • Hardware stores
  • Appliance store
  • All tradesmen and supplies
  • Flower shop
  • Chinese stores
  • PosteItaliane (Italy’s post office)
  • Utility offices
  • 2 Gyms
  • Yoga
  • Large community pool
  • Huge athletic field
  • 3 Large grocery stores
  • Larger Produce store

I’m off to the Enoteca…my extraordinarily talented hairdresser refused to charge me today so I said we are having dinner tonight! Yeah it’s hot here…we’ll be throwing down those Aperol Spritzes like they are leaving the planet!!

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Consider this an open invitation to come visit my village.

https://videopress.com/v/mEPTGuqy?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
The Priest leads this sing and walk fest (guy with the guitar) – never found out what the event was but great fun to watch folks I know singing.

Author: Cindy Wilhelm

Just a travel blogger ... off on new adventures!!! Love to travel and learn so many new things! Make new friends, see new places, visit some favorites and share stories.

6 thoughts on “Life in a medieval village in Italy. How spectacular is Italy really???”

  1. I love this so much, and now I’m seriously considering Orte! (I’m about 2 yrs out from being able to move.) How is it to get around without a car to the places in the Metro area? Is that walkable from orte Centro?

  2. Is it Really possible to get to doctors just traveling by bus and train? We’d prefer not to drive.

  3. How fantastic – you are definitely living in the Now. My compliments to you for making it all work – Love the blog!

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