Author: Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Momentous Happening of the Day

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I just watched the Tour de France pass by my window. There’s one more item to cross off my list of Things I Never Thought Would Happen to Me. All those yellow-shirted bicyclists were a stirring sight. I can’t imagine how it would be if I were really into cycling.

Tony will be sad he missed it. And even sadder, since he has the camera with him, so I couldn’t get a photo.

I can just see the newspaper article being written:

“Chiusa di Pesio itself lacks nothing, and now it can also boast of having been chosen by the Tour de France .… Read more

The Plague has Struck

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

We have chicken pox! Or more accurately, Axa has it. But I’m sure Raj is soon to follow. Luckily, he’s been guzzling plenty of breastmilk, which I’m sure is full of appropriately useful antibodies.

I can’t say I’m very upset about it. In fact, I’m quite happy. I had chicken pox at sixteen, and would have much preferred to contract it at three. She doesn’t even seem terribly uncomfortable. No fever, and she’s doing a stellar job at not scratching. Poor girl, she’s had a fair amount of practice with eczema. We’re also re-using her special shirts with sewed-up sleeves to help her not scratch in her sleep.… Read more

Romantic Interlude

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I’m home alone for the week (well, alone with my little bobbles). Tony is camping with the Boy Scouts. It’s strange to be missing my other half. Neither of us works outside our home, nor do we have many other separate activities. We mostly spend all day every day together. He works some on the computer, and I cook or blog or nurse children to sleep, but we’re rarely more than a room away from one another.

I’m sorry if this entry turns out a bit sappy. I can feel it heading in that direction. You can stop reading now if you can’t stand kissing scenes, and come back on a different day when I feel like ranting about bureaocracy or describing my latest encounter with raw milk.… Read more

Donkey Milk

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I originally conceived this blog as a clear, straight-forward guide to claiming Italian citizenship jure sanginis. I was inspired by Michael Santulli, from whom I first learned of the possibility of jure sanginis. His blog is a calm, detailed description of a logical process–claiming jure sanguinis through his Italian grandmother at his U.S. consulate. So I started the blog, and it ran away with me. Now here I am in Italy, but I find that my account is neither calm nor especially logical. At least I believe I can claim to be detailed.

And if sometimes I stray from my stated topic, it’s only to remind us why, after all, we wanted to move to Italy in the first place.… Read more

We’re Famous

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

An article about us appeared in the local weekly newspaper this week. It’s a little exaggerated (especially the part describing me), but it was fun to have our little bout with fame. The following is a (somewhat rough) translation, done by me in partnership with babelfish.

Chiusa di Pesio itself lacks nothing, and now it can also boast of having been chosen by a family of Californians as a residence. The family in question, coming from San Diego, learned of the little town just by chance, thanks to an encounter with the family of George Bertone. The head of the family, Tony, and his wife Sarah have literally fallen in love of the landscapes and the quietness that Chiusa di Pesio offers, and thus after before the first visit have decided to move here definitively and to raise their two beautiful children here.

… Read more

Buttermilk and Bees

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Carla is in Rome for the week with Rebecca, so we invited Giorgio over for dinner on Wednesday. I made him peach crisp for dessert, since he couldn’t make it on the 4th of July when we had Carla and the missionaries. Just before dinner, Tony went out on bicycle to buy gelato to go with the crisp. As he left the house, he noticed that Giorgio was just behind him on motorcycle. In fact, he seemed to be trailing him. They drove all the way through town, with Giorgio just behind. As Tony reached the gelateria, Giorgio veered off in the other direction.… Read more

The City Mouse and the Country Mouse Make Peace

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

We love to have a project waiting in the wings. Now that things have settled down (at least a little), we can think about the next thing we want to do. We plan to spend this next year in Chiusa di Pesio. We’ll be waiting for Tony’s citizenship to go through, learning from Beatrice across the street how to milk cows and make cheese, and enjoying life in small-town Italy.

We’d also like to spend the next several months exploring Italy a little bit. We were totally unfazed by our eight hour train ride from Trieste. There are many amazing Italian cities within that distance of us.… Read more

Isola di Mondo

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Well, I ate my words, and the cookies all got eaten too. Carla’s U.S.A. (which to my surprise is pronounced “oo-sah” in Italy) booth at the Isola di Mondo event in Cuneo was a great success. They sold out of every bite of American dessert they had. Carla informed me excitedly (but graciously, and without a hint of superiority) that the cold pancakes had gone first. Only one person even asked if they were warm, and then ordered them anyway. I stand corrected.

They were like no brownies, cookies, muffins, apple pies, and pancakes that I had ever seen, but they went like, well, hotcakes.… Read more

Daydreams

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

The Tour de France is coming through our little village this year. Not only that, but it’s coming right down our street. We can hardly believe our good fortune. Tony’s already setting up a photo shoot in his head. He wants to catch a few bicyclists going by our house, with me and the children waving down from the window. Maybe he’ll make it a video.

Yesterday I sent out the annual newsletter for the study abroad group with which I spent half a year in the Middle East. We spent a semester studying Arabic in Damascus, Syria, and then took it on the road to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and Spain.… Read more

American Heritage

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Since today is the Fourth of July, I have spent some time thinking about what being an American means to me, and especially what I would like to give to my children from that part of my heritage. Being a little distant gives me a different perspective, and allows me to separate out the good from the bad a little better. It also allows me to focus more on the ideals and less on the sometimes disappointing present reality.

Today I told Axa about how the United States wrote a special letter to the King of England to tell him they were their own country, and then about the Revolutionary War.… Read more