Settling in a new place takes time: defining new habits, finding where to go, understanding its people, navigating through the various entities to get done with documents... These are things that can get overwhelming at first, but eventually are part of the journey and make life more enjoyable later on.
It took me a little while to go through the details of Italy's bureaucracy - I'll write another article dedicated to this topic - and to immerse myself in the language and culture. Now that I am more comfortable with it, I feel that I can fully focus on writing about my impressions and tips regarding the valley.
And how many discoveries I've been wanting to share!
One of the first things has been to discover the various hamlets that form the village of Mollia through an easy hike. I wanted to start the most locally as possible to then continue my exploration expanding to the villages around, and then to the various valleys that create the mountains around us.
Mollia is made of 9 main hamlets that span from 880m to 1,065m of altitude, and the village center - that I fondly call "downtown Mollia" - which is accessible through the provincial road.
At first, one aspect that I was fearing the most when moving from a city to the mountainside was the lack of accessibility to services and basic stores. What I've learned from this period of settlement is that it is in reality more a question of mindset. One needs to be ready to organize oneself according to the seasonal timings and to take the car (or bus) to fulfill certain needs, but it is definitely feasible and less scary than what it seems at first.
In the village center, you can find a basic grocery shop with fresh local products, a bar-restaurant which is the main social gathering point, the post office, the townhall, and a small free-entry library. There's even a sports center (focused on canoe kayak and mountain biking) that opened a couple of years ago to add to the fun of living outdoors during the summer months. Any other basic services (pharmacy, doctor, ATMs, etc.) are available in the neighboring villages within a 10-15 minute range of driving time. And here was actually the first change of mindset for me: when I was living in the city, wouldn't I travel anyway 10-15 minutes to get to the store? Perhaps the means of transportation were different (and that is one big topic here), perhaps sometimes it would require me even more time to get to these places. But all in all, I realized that this fear of lacking accessibility was simply not justified.
Aside from this first learning, what I've mainly understood throughout this first year is the importance of ultra-local habits and how people who were born here try to perpetuate them with a clear calendar of events that repeats itself every year. Some of these traditions date back more than a century ago and it is heartwarming to see these efforts to share old costumes, music, and stories, and to explain the context that shaped the modern-day lifestyle of these villages.
These events cover for example parties like the February carnival, the summer markets, the remembrance of Alpinists, the various hamlets' celebrations, and some Christmas festivities.
It's important to acknowledge them and to learn about them to understand the sense of community that reigns in these villages. The beauty of it is that each village usually adds its own touch to similar traditions, which enables one to always make small discoveries.
The last part of finding my balance has been of course about conciliating my personal life and my professional one. While my office is based in Milan, I am lucky enough to be able to partially work remotely, which enables me to organize myself on when to hit the road and drive to the city. There are approximately 150km between Mollia and Milan, and a lot of people are considering this type of travel worth it. It is my case as well. I like to think that the evolution of our ways of working and the flexibility that smart-working offers will eventually help small villages revive their economies.
Though only at the beginning of this journey, the initial fears have now left the space for more curiosity and adaptation; and I can't wait to see what's coming next!
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