I am not sure if it’s nerves, excitement or both. All I know is I feel a little restless. And considering our plans – and how fast things are getting real – it would be reason for concern if I didn’t. So I am not worrying, just noticing and accepting. Like clouds passing by. Thank you Headspace for putting that into words.
The thing is … shit ís getting real. So real that I ended up digitizing my entire admin in less than a week (a little pressure goes a long way). So real that there are sorted and filled moving boxes in the corner of the room with a sticker on it. So real that our apartment is getting a bit emptier thanks to all the things that have already been thrown out, sold or donated.
HOPPING ON THE TRAIN
Next step is having a date: getting a key to our new apartment (oh right, and actually finding that apartment) and then the actual date we will move. We’re aiming for mid November. We don’t know either yet, but we will hopefully figure that out in the coming weeks. Because – one of the reasons for this restless feeling – tomorrow we will hop on the train to the south of France where the ferry is waiting to drop us off on our beloved island. This is a 24h+ trip that I am on one hand really looking forward to and on the other hand also a bit nervous about with corona and stuff. Wearing a mask all the time, passing through ‘red zones’ and the constant changing rules in the countries we’ll be passing through: Belgium and France and of course Sardegna itself.
TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST
We had a little wake up call last week, because Sardegna decided that you could only arrive on the island with a test of negativity for Covid taken no more than 48 hours before (which was impossible since the test results alone will take at least 48 hours íf you can get the appointment at the required moment) or do a test within 48 hours of arriving on the island and waiting for the test results – for God knows how long – in quarantaine… A few days passed by with chaos at (air)ports and an argument in court about the validity of this new rule. Conclusion: the provision “would undermine the right to free movement of persons within the national territory”, so the court suspended the requirement for the test. *putting 250 euros back in our pockets*
ANDIAMO!
Now the road rail is free for us to go visit some apartments. We have been reaching out to at least 15 apartments (private owners as well as agencies) and the result was kind of disappointing. Most of them just never responded at all or told us the apartment was for holiday rental only. Luckily four of them eventually responded with a sì, certo! and I even had my very first phone call in Italian. Oh, the stress. I stuttered and ‘uuhm-ed’ my way through it and I may have thrown in a sì, sì where I had no idea what he said. But after my heart rate returned to normal I was kind of glad that first one is now forever behind me. The result is we have a couple of appointments for visiting the apartments. Hopefully there will be more once we’re there, via signs on houses, local agencies or maybe the barista knows something more. Let’s go and find out.
Andiamo!
