Flat

As most of you know, me and my parents have spent most saturdays since September going around looking for a new place to live. It has basically gone like this: my parents wake me up early saturday morning (if I didn't manage to beat them to it) and before I know of it I'm in the car, going towards Bergamo. If we're lucky, the trip takes just over an hour, but if there is some jam on the road, accident or men at work, we get a bit delayed and my parents start swearing a lot. Once we arrive to Bergamo we go from one flat to another, one agency to another, put on the jacket, take off the jacket, sit in the car, out of the car...you get the picture...! At lunchtime we normally go to a bar in Almenno San Bartolomeo, where the waitresses know us by now -and are willing to warm my lunch in the microwave! After lunch I get to sleep a bit in the car before we're off to see yet another flat with another agency, put on the jacket, take off the jacket, sit in the car, out of the car...the same circus over and over again. When we get really really exhausted we start driving towards Pavia. I don't remember most of the flats we've seen. But I do remember the comments and disccusion my parents had about them in the car on the way home. Some were too small, some too expensive, some had the bedrooms too close to the common entrance of the house, some were too old, some were too badly organized, some were unpractical, some were last floor no elevator and some were basically not our taste. It was like the quest for the holy grail, we thought we'd never arrive to a conclusion. But then, suddenly BINGO. We found the flat. Maybe not the flat of our dreams, but it had all the basic elements, was relatively new, perfectly localized in regards to all services and trains/buses and and most of all, we liked it :)
The flat is in Ponte San Pietro, which is a small town (<10.000 inhabitants) 7 km west of Bergamo in a zone called "the Bergamo Island", and which you can see highlighted in white on the first picture. PsP is close to the upper right corner of the white triangle on the map.
Our house is in the centre of Ponte San Pietro -but don't think that means that the street below will be crammed with cars, buzzling with people and outdoor cafe's and noise and the smell of garlic, dogshit and pizza -remember, 10.000 inhabitants is small on italian scale, so, yes, there are some shops there, but they do leave something to be desired and the neighbourhood is rather calm and quiet! The town is a bit cosy though, and our house is close to the river Brembo which passes through the town, and which at christmas-time hosts one of the most beautiful presepe of northern Italy. Our house is marked with a yellow label on the second picture, and the center of town is all around it. There is a kindergarten (for >3years) across the street, the trains that bring you to Bergamo in 5 minutes stop close by (but far enought so that we won't wake up to the trains at 5 o'clock in the morning), and we will be comfortably close to my dad's work.

The flat is in a relatively new house of about 20-30 flats, and we will be on 3rd (and last) floor (you can see it on the last picture, it is marked with a yellow label). It's a 3 rooms flat with a balcony and there is an elevator that brings us all the way down to floor -1 and -2 where the carpark is. We will move in, around the end of April, and I just can't wait. Think, I'll get a room all to myself to fill with toys and books and whatever I like -that will be amazing. We can expand ourselves a bit, and floors and corners of the flat wont be filled with books, brochures and other things that we now have no place to put. And best of all, when my dad wants to go home early from work, he can come and play with me immediately or we can go out to the close by playground, and he doesn't have to sit in his car, stuck in a traffic-jam on the ring road around Milano, swearing out loud for the time lost playing with his wonderful son.
We are planning to buy a sofa-bed for the living room, and I hope it means you are coming to visit us soon :)