Share some details about the place you currently live

McD

I’ll share this: In 2016 we moved to Monterey, California. It’s most famous for the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the wild life of the Monterey Bay.

Almost daily my wife and I drive along the bay from Monterey near US 1 to Pt Pinos in Pacific Grove. We count several types of wildlife:

Otters
Oyster Catchers
Black Crowned Night Herons
Great Blue Herons
Egrets
Raptors
And deer (which use the PG Golf Course as their pasture)

We do this to help my wife have a connection to the world since a cancer has wiped out her immune system and we can’t go into confined spaces with people. Effectively we’re still in the Covid lockdown and wear masks when we go inside.

When @daveypoo came to Monterey when FabFilter’s apps dropped we met him and his family to get them into the Aquarium. After Covid they changed the terms of membership and we can’t get anyone in for free… we used to meet people on the coastal trail and get them in if we liked them.
Good times. Before the cancer was ID’ed.

The weather in Monterey is unlike California in general… we’re typically 10-20 degrees below state average. The cost of housing is off the charts… at 65 we bought a house and have a 30 year mortgage. At some point we will need to sell because the payment is double any mortgage I’ve ever had. I feel sorry for the first time home buyer because scooping up houses as an investment has become a thing… with many buyers coming from nations that are out performing the US (I’m looking at you China). Anyone have stories about being an ex-pat in China?

Daveypoo

@McD said:

When @daveypoo came to Monterey when FabFilter’s apps dropped we met him and his family to get them into the Aquarium.

That was a great day - thanks for that!

McD

@Daveypoo said:

@McD said:

When @daveypoo came to Monterey when FabFilter’s apps dropped we met him and his family to get them into the Aquarium.

That was a great day - thanks for that!

I remember you asking me “Did you buy the FabFilter Bundle” and I said “I can’t say.” Since the $126 price was a violation of my $10 rule which I still try to honor but sometimes fail when something like PianoTeq drops.

@daveypoo Dude. Tell us about Italy!

Daveypoo

Ok.

I live in Verona, which is right between Milan and Venice on the train line (a little over one hour to each). Bologna is 30 minutes south by train, and Florence is about an hour south (train). It's a really great location for seeing different parts of Italy. We're also 30 minutes by car to Lake Garda, which is the biggest lake in Italy.

I don't own a car anymore, so we spend lots of time walking around town. It's about 30-40 minutes to walk from one end of the main city to the other (not counting the outer neighborhoods) so it's very manageable. Verona is famous for being the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and the centerpiece of the town is the Roman amphitheater called the Arena. It's about 50 years older than the Colisseum in Rome and every summer there are operas and concerts held there. In a few weeks the closing ceremony of the 2026 winter Olympics will be held there, so the historic center will be a madhouse.

We live about a 10 minute walk outside the historic center, close enough to get there easily but far enough away to avoid most tourists. We shop for food every couple of days - since the food here has less preservatives, it doesn't last as long on the shelf. So every few days we're out and about around town.

We moved here in September 2021 from the San Francisco Bay Area in California. We have four solid seasons, and it's brutally hot and humid in the summer (100 degrees and 80% humidity). Winters are cold but not terribly so - hovers around freezing most of the time, but generally no snow, just cold rain. Spring and Autumn here are magical, as is Christmas with our close proximity to the Alps, Germany and Austria.

It's a beautiful place and we're super lucky to be here.

@McD I dunno what else to say - what do you wanna know?

McD

How hard was it on your children to learn Italian and are they discriminated for their American roots?

Daveypoo

@McD said:
How hard was it on your children to learn Italian and are they discriminated for their American roots?

We knew we were moving well in advance so we had prepped them. For a year prior any TV show that they wanted to watch which they had already seen had to be in Italian with English subtitles. About 4 months prior to moving the subtitles were turned off. We had post it now around the house with the names of things in Italian, I was taking regular lessons... We did a fair amount beforehand.

After 3 months of Italian public school they were speaking and comprehending around 80%, and they were 100% fluent by 6 months.

Discriminated against? No. They're not seen as Italian by the other Italians since they weren't born/didn't grow up here. Their mother is Korean, so while everyone knows that they're American they get more notice for being Korean since Korea is super cool at the moment. We've also now been here for awhile so everyone in the neighborhood knows us as the Americans on the block and we're fairly integrated at this point.

McD

Thanks @daveypoo.

Are you tracking events in the US? Everything has unfolded as you may have feared when you departed.

Daveypoo

@McD said:
Thanks @daveypoo.

Are you tracking events in the US? Everything has unfolded as you may have feared when you departed.

Yeah, I read the US news regularly - you can't escape it, even here. That's certainly not the reason we chose to move and we'd been working on it since 2014, well before the current incumbancy.

It's heartbreaking to watch it all. There's definitely a strong sense of "survivor's guilt" watching all the pain and hurt, especially for our loved ones still caught up in it. But I'd prefer to keep that discussion off this board - we can discuss it privately if you want to message me.