On one of our trips we rented a house for a month in Le Marche area of Italy in a village called Pievebovigliana.   

Pievebovigliana is located within the Monti Sibillini National Park. It is a such  a beautiful and peaceful area.

We have friends, we met at the language school in Castelraimondo who live in this area and know the owners of the house, so they helped us to rent it from the owners.

The house was a few kilometers from the local village which necessitated the rental of a car.

It worked well as having the facilities to prepare many of our meals at home more than paid for the cost of the car rental. This house was fully equipped and stocked with everything that we could possibly need.  The agreement was, if we used any of the consumables we replaced them.

It was very easy to drive into the village to the local bar, Varnelli bar, for a café and dolce for breakfast or morning snack or a gelato or a vino any other time.

Also, staying in such a small village we found eating out to be very reasonable. With the car, we could go wherever we wanted to.

We were certainly not limited with our destinations. We quickly became part of the local scene, attending the weekly football matches both at home games and away games.  After the games we were always invited to the local bar or café for a gelato or coffee or even a wine. Being Aussies, we always had a vino.

It did not take long for the locals to accept us and within days we would come home to gifts left on our outdoor table, almost daily, including home made wine, home grown vegetables and fruits, fresh eggs and the local truffles.

We were invited to many of the festivities, of which there were lots, in the local and surrounding areas.

One day, by chance we went truffle hunting. Tell you about this in another post.

One evening, we prepared and hosted a successful Italian dinner party for 12 – more another time on this one.

This was living La Dolce Vita.