Italy is about as far from New Zealand as you can get – both geographically and culturally. We’ve experienced wonderful holidays it Italy for the last decade and the nagging question has always been – what would it be like to live there?

The only way to answer that question was to step out of our comfortable lives in New Zealand and into whatever a life in Italy has to offer. We did that on Wednesday April 6, 2011.

It sounds easy if you say it quickly. But it meant leaving behind family and jobs, renting out our house, storing our precious things and, most importantly, bringing our girls Poppie and Daisy along for the trip.

Poppie and Daisy are our dogs. Small, furry, white Bichon Frise. And they are definitely part of our family.

So what sounded so simple to say turned out to be a tad more complicated and I’m sure the fun is only beginning.