ABOUT




Ciao, I am Suzie, Welcome to our never-ending renovation and decoration of an over 200 years old house in the South of Italy! I started this blog on December 31, 2006 when still living in Beijing, China. The very first blog post is the story of finding the house. 

Soon, after starting this blog, I realized the advantages of blogging:

I could get "free" advice, and find inspiration online whenever I needed. It's fun and interesting because among my readers are some very talented interior designers and architects. Most of them have their own blogs! Over time I used this blog for some decision making processes. Since we were doing a "long distance renovation" between China and Italy, and later between Germany and Italy and Thailand and Italy, the Internet made it possible to co-ordinate the renovation work - by mail, skype and this blog!

Parts of our family live in Northern Italy and in Southern Germany. Right now, we (myself with husband and son) are based in Bangkok, Thailand. So, this blog is also away to keep family and friends updated. 

In summer 2011, finally(!), the house was ready to move in. We call Pizzo now our European home base. We spent spring and summer in our beautiful home, and are happy to welcome family and friends.

We are still working on our guest residence to rent it out to visitors.

 

PALAZZO ?

In this blog I call our house "palazzo" although it's NOT a palace. Italians do call residential buildings in the city that usually have no garden "a palazzo". If the house would be in the country side with a large garden, it would be called "a villa". 

Don't they have simple houses in Italy?, you will wonder.

If you translate "house" into Italian, it's the word "casa". However, this term is used by Italians more for "home", like in "casa mia" which means "my home". It can of course also stand for "my house" - or even "my apartment". Italians don't really say "my apartment", it's always "casa mia".

Have I lost you?

We call our house "casa" as well. Just for the blog name it's "palazzo", meaning "building". 

PIZZO ?

Over 40 years ago my husband CC was born in Vibo Valentia, in the region of Calabria. This the most Southern part on the Italian mainland. The peak of the boot! Only Sicily is further South. At that time his parents, originally from Venice and Torino were based in Vibo Marina, just 4 km Southwest of Pizzo. They loved the place and kept their "casa" even when they moved further on.

Many, many years later, when CC and I had met, I wanted to get to know his birthplace, Calabria. And so off we went with my car. From Germany to Venice first. And then from Venice non-stop to Calabria in 11 hours. We had a fantastic summer! We visited Tropea and Scilla, but most of the time we went to Pizzo. A laid back, charming old village on top of a rock, 54 meters above the sea. Here the delicious tartufo ice cream was invented. And therefor there are bars all over the place selling the most delicious ice cream of Italy. The most beautiful moment of the day is sitting in the piazza in the sunshine at noon and all church bells are ringing at the same time and the sound of Ave Maria is transmitted via speakers ... for me it feels like I have yet arrived in paradise. 

Since our son was born we spent here all our summers, staying at my in-laws place in Vibo Marina and going to Pizzo for a "passegiata" or "un giro in piazza". - And one day we passed by a real estate agency... and just for fun we asked for something with sea view.

This was back in 2006. An adventure had started.

ABOUT ME and CONTACT  

Italy, China, Thailand and Germany - we call(ed) our home. We are now in our 11th year in Asia (3 in China and 8 in Thailand). After I travelled the world with my previous job, I enjoy spending spring and summer in our European homebase - in Pizzo. One day, I hope, I can stay longer. Beside writing, I enjoy painting and photography.

If you enjoy this blog, please leave a comment. I am looking forward hearing from you.

You can also email me at "writing.Suzie(at)yahoo.com"

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This blog has around 10,000 hits/months and Google PR 4. In March 2012 we moved from blogspot to our own domain name PalzzoPizzo.com. In May 2012 this blog was mentioned in New York Times online and in the International Herald Tribune.

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For inquiery email to writing.suzie(at)yahoo.com

Thank you for considering Palazzo Pizzo as a partner.