Why do you live where you live?
So by now you all know that we live in Napoli, Italy.
How we decided to move here, is an interesting story: we got married in Crown Heights, New York, in the fall of 5763. Following the minhag of living in Crown Heigths for the first year of marriage we rented an apartment and we lived there for seven months.
Then, my mother's health deteriorated quickly, so we had to pack everything and flew to Italy right after Pesach: we landed in Venice airport, and there our adventure started...
We lived by my parents for a month, it was not easy because of differences in lifestyle and personality, and as painful as it was to me and my sick mom, we had to move on. We searched on internet for a place in Italy where there wasn't Chabad yet, and were there was a Jewish Community: we saw that Napoli was beautiful, and that it was the last Jewish Community of the South of Italy, with no kosher stores.
As a plus, it is a gorgeous city! On the sea, with a lot of castles and a nice weather.
We looked for a ticket, packed up only the stuff that we really needed, and took a night train.
We got to a rainy Napoli, i was underdressed and in a bad mood, but Alec saw potential in the city, and we decided to stay.
At night we would go to sleep in Pompei, in a camping site, with our pop up tent, and in the morning we would go back to Napoli, looking for apartments: after a week we found our first place, a tiny studio that was just enough for a young couple.
Since then, we moved 3 more times, and we are now renting a big apartment in the center, ten minutes from the Synagogue.
How we have managed to survive until now from a financial point of view, is a miracle: in the beginning we did a lot of Hashgacha, travelling all over Italy; then, after we had David, we had to slow down and look for more "local" parnassa: we started to offer catering service to the tourists that come every summer to the Amalfi coast. We had a pretty good income, enough to pay all our bills, food, etc. We were satisfied, we managed to be independent, and do what we like :)
Then the crisis started, and tourists stopped coming on vacation in this area, and those few that would order our food kept complaining about the price, asking for discounts that lead us to work without profit.
So now we are in a difficult moment, bills are piling up, and we are trying to figure out what the future offers to us: the Rabbi of the Community had offered us to get involved in a few projects that he has in mind, and helped us to stay afloat, but this is only a temporary solution, so we have to continue working and thinking...Alec is much better than me, he is very busy with our site (Judeah.com), he is doing a great job and i am very proud of him...
I complain a bit too much, but thank G-d he is next to me to encourage me to look at things in a optimistic way :)
How we decided to move here, is an interesting story: we got married in Crown Heights, New York, in the fall of 5763. Following the minhag of living in Crown Heigths for the first year of marriage we rented an apartment and we lived there for seven months.
Then, my mother's health deteriorated quickly, so we had to pack everything and flew to Italy right after Pesach: we landed in Venice airport, and there our adventure started...
We lived by my parents for a month, it was not easy because of differences in lifestyle and personality, and as painful as it was to me and my sick mom, we had to move on. We searched on internet for a place in Italy where there wasn't Chabad yet, and were there was a Jewish Community: we saw that Napoli was beautiful, and that it was the last Jewish Community of the South of Italy, with no kosher stores.
As a plus, it is a gorgeous city! On the sea, with a lot of castles and a nice weather.
We looked for a ticket, packed up only the stuff that we really needed, and took a night train.
We got to a rainy Napoli, i was underdressed and in a bad mood, but Alec saw potential in the city, and we decided to stay.
At night we would go to sleep in Pompei, in a camping site, with our pop up tent, and in the morning we would go back to Napoli, looking for apartments: after a week we found our first place, a tiny studio that was just enough for a young couple.
Since then, we moved 3 more times, and we are now renting a big apartment in the center, ten minutes from the Synagogue.
How we have managed to survive until now from a financial point of view, is a miracle: in the beginning we did a lot of Hashgacha, travelling all over Italy; then, after we had David, we had to slow down and look for more "local" parnassa: we started to offer catering service to the tourists that come every summer to the Amalfi coast. We had a pretty good income, enough to pay all our bills, food, etc. We were satisfied, we managed to be independent, and do what we like :)
Then the crisis started, and tourists stopped coming on vacation in this area, and those few that would order our food kept complaining about the price, asking for discounts that lead us to work without profit.
So now we are in a difficult moment, bills are piling up, and we are trying to figure out what the future offers to us: the Rabbi of the Community had offered us to get involved in a few projects that he has in mind, and helped us to stay afloat, but this is only a temporary solution, so we have to continue working and thinking...Alec is much better than me, he is very busy with our site (Judeah.com), he is doing a great job and i am very proud of him...
I complain a bit too much, but thank G-d he is next to me to encourage me to look at things in a optimistic way :)
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