1. What led to the decision to move from the USA to Italy?
New York was an incredible experience. After four years as entrepreneurs, we had the opportunity to sell our two companies. Life in New York is fantastic but also very stressful; it was too noisy and too expensive so we decided to return to Europe. We were considering both Spain and Italy, but Italy is the most beautiful country in Europe. We came to Italy, to Perugia, and we stayed there for 5 weeks, studying Italian at the Università per Stranieri. That led to the decision to live here.
2. Why choose Montecastello di Vibio?
Before choosing Umbria, we were thinking of Liguria, Piemonte and Le Marche as well.
We found this place on the Internet and we liked it immediately but it was too expensive so we waited and went back to Amsterdam. Our patience paid off because after about a year, the price of the house was lowered and we were able to come to an agreement with the owner to buy it.
3. How has your life changed living in Umbria?
It hasn’t changed that much because we are doing what we were doing before: for example, we continue to work together. But our quality of life has changed a great deal: the food in Italy is better and we live in the countryside. One thing has changed: we have lots of friends, even Italians. They have time to do things together. In New York, no one had time, not even us!
4. What was the greatest stumbling block you faced?
(Marc) For me, it was the language. We had already studied Italian but …
(Stella) But for me, it was not being in contact with a great number of people every day. In New York before, we had a shop, now we live in a cottage in the green hills of Umbria.
5. How did you come to know Lingua Libera Tutti?
Just by chance, one day we were in the library at Montecastello di Vibio and we mistook Giulia for the librarian. After talking to her for a while, we realized that she was a teacher and, even better: a teacher of Italian!
6. Would you recommend Lingua Libera Tutti to other foreigners who want to follow an Italian course? Why?
Yes, because the teachers are good, available, and we have the convenience of having lessons at home and the teachers come to us!!! We can have lessons together and not in a large group and the price is right.
7. What is the added value of taking a course with Lingua Libera Tutti?
One is the flexibility of the schedule. We can study Italian 1.5 hours a week while, in a school, the weekly schedule would be too intense and heavy for us. And having mother-tongue teachers is an advantage.
8. How did “Il Bacio del Lupo” come to be?
We wanted to buy a house with 3 or 4 apartments to set up a vacation rental property, then we saw this house that had only one apartment to rent and we fell in love with it. We found it through a real estate agency owned by a Dutch woman who lives in Perugia.
The house is named for the lupo or the wolf, the animal from the Sibylline Mountains, and for that Perugino chocolate par excellence, Il Bacio.
9. What are your plans for the future?
Apart from the Casa Vacanze, we are working on a documentary about a Dutch artist who spent her whole life in the difficult neighbourhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, because our interest was captured by the tenacity of this woman who managed to build a career in a neighbourhood like Williamsburg.
Other than that, we are planning a website for commercial activities and we are working on a site to develop a network between accommodation facilities and agricultural establishments in the area of Montecastello di Vibio.