We spent the winter 1996/97 in Tuscany. It was fantastic! Upon returning to Norway, every now and then we would talk about the very last day when we sat on the terrace and pretended to seriously discussing to abandon the return and remain in Tuscany forever.
However, what has been said can not be un-said. We were slowly untangling ourselves from our lives in Norway. Summer 2002, all our things were scattered among our friends, our house was sold, and we sat in our car heading towards the Mediterranean.
We knew we wanted to live in Tuscany. That was about it. Adventure!
We lodged for a while with a friend in Pisa. In classical Italian fashion, he asked all his friends to ask all their friends for somewhere we could settle down. It took a few weeks, and we went to look at several sites, before we were pointed towards a large house in the small village Montemagno outside Pisa.
The villa was classified as a ruin. Not without reason: No electricity, no heating, no proper sewage, and so on. However…
Duing our stay in 96/97, Sissel had become convinced that it would be possible to make a living from helping Norwegians to visit “Tuscany off the beaten track”. A large villa in Montemagno seemed ideal!
It complicated matters somewhat that we did not master Italian. We had understood that if we were to wait until we spoke Italian, until all the stars were aligned, and what not, we would never do it. Our new neighbours did as best they could, the muratore tore out his hair, and quite a few things had eb be done more than once simply because we did not undertand the questions we had to answer.
It took eighteen month, but in the end Villa 72 was once again in its former glory, and dominating the upper part of the village. After 30 years of neglect, everyone told us how happy they were, on behalf of the village.
We bought the house with all the old furniture. Some has to be thrown away, but most of it is till there, where it belongs. Needless to say, it blends in perfectly. The furniture belongs in the house, and will remain for you to enjoy.