The first month... aka the art of doing nothing

So I have been in Bolzano a little over a month now, it's been a major change to my life before the move. I was working the day I flew out, now I legally can't have a job (hopefully this will change soon, fingers crossed). Joe of course is busy with his PhD so I'm left to my own devices mostly, so what have I been up to?

Walking - Bolzano is beautiful and is set in gorgeous scenery. I have done more of this the last couple of weeks as the snow disappeared and Spring arrived.

 this is the Talvera, a river that runs through Bolzano with park on either side, we hope to find an apartment near here

 the mountain surround Bolzano on three sides

 The cathedral

 The main square "Walter Platz" great for grabbing a coffee and people watching

 The pyramides of the earth, impressive geological formations made by a glacier a short hike from our current house

This is me in the forest, very sweaty after said short hike.

Looking for an apartment - currently we are subletting a room of another PhD student who is abroad doing some projects. Our current place is in Renon, a plateau above Bolzano, you catch a cable car to town. This is very beautiful but not very convenient so I have spent a lot of time on the internet apartment hunting.

the view of Bolzano from the cable car

Reading design blogs and browsing IKEA online - as we got rid of almost all our belongings we will need to furnish our apartment (as the ones we like keep appearing to be unfurnished or only partly furnished). 

I've also been reading a lot and watching a lot of How I Met Your Mother. 

Of course I've been spending time with my husband which is nice since he left the country ten days after our wedding. To begin with we did a lot of little trips, a long weekend in London, a night in Verona and an excellent weekend in Venice for hubby's birthday but as uni work has increased trips have been put on the backburner. 

 Joe in Verona, outside the arena, the 3rd largest remaining Roman arena

 Venice

 Us beside a fountain in a square in Venice, it was pretty cold and windy

The 25 April is also a holiday in Italy, celebrating the end of fascism so hopefully we will do something then. We are also heading to Paris in a few weeks for a long weekend before I fly back to New Zealand to sort out my visa (so looking forward to this trip, I love Paris and cannot wait to share it with Joe who has never been). 

Lastly I've been trying to learn Italian, it's a pretty big challenge, I was doing quite a good job of doing a little everyday but then I was in kind of a funk last week and lost all interest. This week I'm trying to get back into it, hopefully soon I'll be able to order a coffee without the waiter instantly switching to English.

Ciao for now xx