Living off-grid
August 4, 2020
Where are we?
We have managed to get to Italy and are living off-grid in our little ‘rustico’. Our house is 1100m up a mountain in the pre-alps and our nearest neighbour a good ten-minute walk away; this is what you call isolated.
We hadn’t planned on a place in Italy, but while living and working in Monza it seemed we were spending a lot of our weekend travelling to the mountains and back. So we bought a temporary bolt-hole. Having now left Italy, we’ve decided to incorporate it into our long-term plan. You see, our mountain house is ‘off-grid’ (in other words it’s pretty inexpensive to live up here).
Off-grid living - what are we talking here?
OK, we don’t live on a remote island and hunt and forage for our food, but our house is not with all the normal amenities taken for granted. Our only source of electricity is our solar panel, so washing machines, dishwashers and other mod-cons are not an option (we do have a fridge – beer and bubbles can continue. We are not that uncivilized). Gas is from a bottle – to be taken down the mountain and replaced when needed. The heating is a wood burner, so we have to collect wood come the colder months. Our water is tapped and sourced from mountain springs, very fresh…and free. And our internet? There isn’t any. Telephone signal? Not much. Don’t panic!
Why here?
Location, location, location. We looked at houses with amazing lake views in actual villages with amenities. But we had seen the views of the mountain from photos on the internet and absolutely had to see this house (difficult as the snow stopped us viewing the house for 3 weeks). I think we both knew we were meant to be here and so waited the snow out.
What we weren't expecting
We knew the house was great, we knew the views were amazing and we knew we were 30 minutes from Lake Como (up). But there is so much more we didn’t know we were getting with the house –
- It’s possible to walk to the Swiss border from our house. The border is along a ridge of pre-alp mountains, with a bonus Rifugio serving local food and wine.
- There are so many walks from our door which we were not expecting…and we’re still discovering more.
- We have to “go shopping” for wood in the forest on our doorstep; one of our favourite activities.
- Lighting fires with said wood comes a very close second. Whether it is indoors in a wood burner, or outside with a bonfire, fire-pit or the BBQ. Man, fire, need I say more?
There’s free food! We forage (yes I said it) strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, fresh herbs, chestnuts and mushrooms (hunting for porcini is a favourite Italian pastime).- Thunder and lightning storms up here are amazing and a great source of entertainment that we can spend hours watching. Who needs a TV?
- The barrage of wildlife we’ve seen in our garden; deer, wild pigs (not good, they totally churn up the ground), fox, marmots and mice to name a few.
Our loaner pet horse. Every year, Stella (which means ‘star’ in Italian). stays with us for the summer as our personal lawn mower and eater of scraps from the kitchen (we do treat her to apples and carrots too). We had been in the house for less than an hour before a local from across the mountain spotted us and asked if they could use our paddock. Why not?- Amazing Italian neighbours. We are always invited for caffe’, cake and grappa. They look out for us and our house and stay in touch when we are not here. They are our main incentive to keep improving our Italian.
Some realities to living off-grid
As I’ve said, we only have a solar panel for our electricity. Although we are in Italy, unfortunately it is not always sunny, especially in the mountains where the heat can cause mountain storms to pop up. A few days of rain and clouds and we are out of electricity.
In the height of summer, when it’s 38 at the lake it’s about 24 up here. Perfect. The other side to this is that in spring and autumn, when the temperature at the lake is a pleasant 26/27, up here we’re wearing jumpers and lighting fires. It’s definitely a case of cuddling being a necessity at night….actually I need to put this part in the ‘good surprises’ section.
Closing for the winter. It snows up here…a lot. A normal winter will see snow between one and 2 meters deep. Impossible to drive through and impossibile to live in. The pipes would crack if we couldn’t keep a semblance of warmth 24/7. So we close the house for the winter. This involves turning off the water and emptying all the pipes. It sounds simple, but the first year we forgot to empty the two small pipes that run into the boiler. Of course they burst over the winter and ruined the boiler (did I mention we’d only bought a new one that year?). It’s a steep learning curve.
The last? We have no wi-fi. I’m all for a simpler life and not being permanently glued to phones or computers, but no wi-fi? (we can sometimes get a terrible signal on our hot-spot). It means simple things like finding shops when you need something, or opening times, is difficult. It takes 30 minutes to drive down the mountain. I want to know that when I get there, what I’m going for is (a) there and (b) open. Blogging? Interesting concept with no Internet, we need to find a really good café with Wi-Fi. Mostly though, I miss seeing family and friends on video calls. It’s just not the same on the phone.
Our plans while we're living off-grid?
We’re going to keep exploring and searching out new walks. We already have some suggestions from our Italian neighbours.
We’re going to tour the lake-side towns of Como. Starting in Sorico in the north, down the west side of the lake to Como itself. There are so many small towns that are easily passed by. Who knows what we’ll find? (Hopefully I’ll see George and we can at last invite him for a BBQ, with reciprocation of course).
With some new brakes on the mountain bike, we’re going to get in the saddle and check out some different areas.
As ever, we are going to continue to sample the very excellent Italian wine and food. It would be rude not to.
Check out all of our findings along with our previous Italian explorations on our Italian page.
Alla prossima! (till next time).
