Advice on moving to northern Italy....

[TantiK]

We are moving to Northern Italy in April (to my husband's place of birth) so was wondering if anyone had any advice on the big move - what things do I need to think about?, what will I miss most?, how do I get my stuff to Italy? Also my DS is 13 months old - are there many mother + toddler groups? There seems to be such a good selection of groups that we can go to here and I am hoping that there will be similar groups in Italy.

lol @ sherlock holmes!
yes, hope we didn't put tantik off. however she is moving to trentino, which is far more civilized then lombardia... (well apart from christmas holidays were all the milanesi drive their suvs in madonna di campiglio, - which by the way is an excellent place for skying).
I was on the phone with my mother two minutes ago, who confirms the lovely weather. . I'm going to Milan for two good friends of mine wedding on the 10th of March (for a total of 40 hours), I'm sure it'll be the only day of crap weather

Yes, according to the meteo it's bound to be crap weather, they keep trying to predict the long awaited arrival of winter so it'll probably snow that weekend .

Agree that we should reassure Tantik that Trentino is a much saner place to be, all that mountain air, Germanic discipline and very little dog poo. However, all their vineyards seem to be beside motorways, have you noticed that? Do you think they wash the grapes before squashing them?

or should we mention the high consumption of grappa in those remote valleys? .
Tantik, sorry I was joking. I know that area quite well and it's fantastic. If you are not a vegetarian I could even recommend you where to buy speck
I've never really thought about the proximity to motorways, however up until the late seventies my nonna used to make wine (she still had 2 or 3 rows of vineyard - far from the motorway - in Piedmont)... with her feet. the wine was very good... ... can't remember if we washed our feet before joining her ...

I'm not fussed about toe jam, it's natural and probably adds to the flavour . I might be a bit upset if someone had stepped in dog poo previously, but then surely they'd have been wearing shoes... Not keen on diesel fumes, though.

well, if you ever have the time and voglia, you could go to piemonte and try to buy some wine from "cantina sociale", which is like a coop of local producers, whose vineyards are unlikely to be near motorways. The cantina sociale in vignale (close to my nonna's village) is very good. or you can choose a posher area for wines, like santo stefano belbo. the only downside is that you'd need a car in order to do that ...

That's alright we do have a car as a family, it's just me who refuses to drive. DP has infintely more patience to me (well, he is milanese so is per forza used to it).

Where's Vignale? What provincia is it or where's it near? I also have family in Piemonte and we have a place on lago Maggiore so if it's not far from there maybe I could combine a visit.

It's not very near lago maggiore, vignale is near casale monferrato, the province is alessandria, about 1.30 mins drive from milano sud. oh, I love lago maggiore! (used to go to cannero, with the other nonna)