To say that the story is loosely based on the truth is a bit of an understatement, Penny and George live out some of the experiences and situations we may have endured since moving to Italy almost seven years ago. And I can say that I do identify with Penny, though I don't think I'm quite as tough on Simon. He, of course may beg to differ. All the characters are based on a mish-mash of people, a trait here, a habit there and a splash of physical features and abracadabra! So to all the friends (and others) that I have met here, I can put hand on heart and say I defy them to identify with one of the characters. What they may see is a hint of others they know, but one rule of writing is never to use a real person. So apologies, but if you want to audition for a role in the TV sitcom, happy for you to apply.
Most people, those who don't live abroad, have a very rose tinted vision of people like us who have moved away from our natural home. Mainly they think that we have a swimming pool - ha! First we couldn't afford the maintenance, never mind the installation. And our land slopes downwards, a little tricky unless we were going to install a water ride. And, apparently, we sit on our terraces, sipping Prosecco until the sun goes down after a day at the beach basking in the sun. Well, the odd day may be spent like that, but more often than not we're growing and picking vegetables (cheaper), strimming (initially with two old hand scythes that were left here along with a number of other hand-made tools) the two acres of field-like land that is loosely called our 'garden' and feeding an array of abandoned animali that we've adopted.
But like Penny and George, we wouldn't swap it for the world.
More about P & G later...
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