VIRTUAL FRIENDS BECOME REAL!

One of the nicest, and most fun things we do here in Italy is meet with people we've come to 'know' through the internet. Sometimes these are people we've chatted with for months, even years, on various message boards. Quite a few people have contacted us after reading our blog, or after reading about our house for sale. Sometimes we've been able to help someone who wants to move it Italy, or sometimes we just represent the dream of living in Italy. Whatever the case, we always share a love for Italy and 9 times out of ten the people we've met for pizza or a glass of wine while they're here in Italy have truly become friends.

One such 'virtual' friend was Kathy McCabe who publishes the wonderfully informative and entertaining Dream of Italy magazine, available by mail or online. I don't even remember how we first came in contact, but Kathy was so enthusiastic about our house for sale and generously wrote a special post on her blog just about our house!

When we spent time with our friends Bill and Suzy at their villa, La Fattoria del Gelso, not far from Assisi (and available for rent!), they had a special surprise in store for us: Kathy would be there too!
Kathy, along with her mom Kathleen, had begun her visit to Italy in Turin for the annual SlowFood celebration, then had traveled to Umbria for more good food and wine. Kathy knows Bill and Suzy because they're all in the Washington DC area. I'm sure Bill and Suzy's Italian import store, Bella Italia helps Kathy feel as if she's back in Italy.

Kathy and her mom Kathleen were loads of fun. Kathleen's nickname changed daily depending on the food we were eating....she loved it all and changed from the cookie monster to the truffle monster to the pizza monster!

Kathy also documented her trip on her blog, and I'm sure there will be more articles to come in Dream of Italy during the next few months. Not only we did we have a great time at La Fattoria del Gelso, we also got to spend time...real time...with people we considered friends but had never met in person. Once again the internet has made such a dramatic change in our lives! We could never had made the move to Italy without the internet and the advice and support of so many online friends, and now that we're here the internet keeps expanding our circle of friends. It's hard for me to remember the time when I couldn't see any reason why we needed a computer!