Lights, Camera, Action! House Hunters: Florence, Italy

Back in June, we hinted that we had spent a few days "working" on a fun little project. If you haven't already guessed by now, we're going to be on House Hunters International. Our episode is scheduled to air on November 28 and you can read more about it on the HGTV website.

A lot of people have been asking us what the experience was like. The honest answer? It was interesting. The UK-based crew we had in Florence was seriously awesome (the top photo was snapped by the camera guy). The shooting days are long, so you spend a lot of time with the sound and video guys and the director. They were at hoot and we had a great time (Rob may have even done his best British accent impersinations for them). I flew home to Philly to shoot "before" scenes and had a great crew there, as well. Although, I will always remember that 2-day trip home for the hellish USAirways experience more than anything else.

All that being said, as a previous diehard fan (read: addict) of the show, I will say that the experience has totally ruined the program for me -- simply because I now know how things really come together; what's real (not much) and what's fake (mostly everything).

A fellow blogger, Kirsten from Ivory Pomegranate, lives in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and recently had her episode of the show air. She did a great series of posts about her experience that sums up what it's like to film the show. Not great, not bad...just interesting, like I said. Fun sidenote: Kirsten and her husband are also both GWU grads and met there while undergrads. Small world, eh?

Anyway, get excited to see us (and Winston!) on TV. And, remember, take it easy on us :-)

Moving to Italy: Our Apartment

Late last week one of my favorite blogs, Desire to Inspire, answered a design dilemma for our apartment in Florence. To check it out, click here!

{photo via desire to inspire}

day 4 of the scouting trip

This has been one heck of a whirlwind trip! But, to simply call it productive would be a huge understatement. We have accomplished everything and more that we came to do, which is not only a great excitement, but also a relief. It takes off a bit of the pressure for the actual move in January!

We used our final day in Florence to take care of a few final errands and to also hike up to Kate's favorite spot in the city, Piazzale Michelangelo. And we do mean UP. It's the spot with the best overall view of the city, but it takes some serious leg power to get there. Here are a few of our favorite shots:

Next, we headed back toward to the city center to eat, grab some gelato and take care of a few more errands. Kate took some photos of the Duomo on the way to the Vodafone store...

We popped into the Vodafone store to check out our options for ADSL, cell phones and internet keys. We'll do an entire separate telecommunications post in the near future, because it's definitely an important (and somewhat confusing) topic.

After buying a few last minute gifts, we walked back to the B&B, took a quick break and then headed out to our last Florence dinner before we return again in January. We have a ton of topic-specific posts for you in the next few weeks (including ones on telecommunications, apartment hunting, apartment contracts, opening bank accounts, traveling with pets, etc), but do hope you enjoy these more fun posts in meantime!

(Confession: this final post from our scouting trip of Florence was written from the comfort of our home office. We got a little lazy on our last day in Florence!)

ciao from florence, day three

(We could dedicate an entire blog to cool Florence doors)

WOW, this day was busy. We're super tired, so this post will be short.

We spent most of the morning wandering around, enjoying some hidden streets and neighborhoods. At Rob's insistance we visited, Il Micio, a shop we had both read about on The Sartorialist. To call this guy a master craftsman is a huge understatement...it was like walking through an art gallery!

Next, we waited out a rainstorm in the one place we knew we'd be safe (OK, that's a lie): Gustapanino. Don't judge us -- this place really has some of the best panini in the city!

After Gusta, we visited a great coffee shop a few doors down. Bob Marely was playing and there were great books to read everywhere. We can't wait to go back to this place.

After coffee we took a break to do some work back at the B&B. Then, we met our rental agent to look again at one of the apartments we saw on the first day here. It's our favorite and we have started the process to rent it -- in Italy, you make a rental offer much like you would to buy a home in the U.S. Hopefully it will all work out! We thought about not writing about it in case it does fall through, but we know from the many future expats we've heard from that our honesty is very helpful...so whether we get it our not, hearing our experiences will help others!

This may or may not be a shot of the street that the apartment is on ;-)

ciao from florence, day one

Wow, what a long day it's been! When Rob and I got to Florence at noon today I was thinking to myself "How am I ever going to stay awake until bedtime?" But, of course, the excitement of being back in this beautiful city kicked in and now it's 9:30 p.m. am I'm doing a bit of blogging before bed. 

After arriving at our B&B, we headed out to meet our very nice real estate agent. She is so cute! Her English isn't great and my Italian isn't either, so it was this fun "lets try to figure out what everyone is saying" adventure.

We saw two apartments, both of which I absolutely adored. The first is in San Gaggio, a neighborhood about a 10 minute bus ride from the city center. It has a less of touristy feel and the beautiful backdrop of the Florentine hills. The home is cozy -- 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms in about 65 square meters (about 700 square feet). We love small, cozy homes so this place was perfect. It has been meticulously cared for and renovated by an older woman that lives in the primary house (the one we looked at is the secluded guest house). The outdoor spaces are stunning (i giardini e un terazzo) and the views fantastic. Everything is updated. It's quiet and peaceful.

The second place we saw is a true apartment in a typical old building in the Porta Romana area. It's on the ground level and has a great garden in the back. It's totally enclosed, which would make it much easier for Winston. The living spaces are bigger than the first place, but the bedrooms are a bit tighter. I believe total space is about 75 square meters (about 800 square feet) The kitchen is long, galley style, but totally updated and nice. The location of this place cannot be beat, but I was not thrilled by the lack of light and windows. 

There are many pros and cons to both which I'll talk about later as we make our decision. Until then, enjoy some more photos from our day!

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Eating a gustapanino, where I gave a big middle finger to my gluten and dairy allergies. Guess what? So far, so good. I think higher powers really wanted me to eat at my favorite shop.

Can we pause for a second to talk about how cute Rob is?

Next, we enjoyed walking to some of our favorite spots in the city, including my old apartment.

We ended the night at Golden View Open Bar, one of my faves from my study abroad days. It's somewhat popular with tourists (which can be annoying if you're looking for the totally authentic experience), but the food is delicious.

More to come a domani!