In a nutshell

An ordinary suburban Australian family decides to take the plunge and do a sea change. But not just to Pearl Bay – their hearts are set on a year in Italy. The father works as an internet translator; all he needs is a power point and a phone line. What could go wrong?

The problems begin as soon as they arrive. The family find themselves holed up in a lonely isolated backwater called Valfabbrica, surely the unloveliest village in all of Italy. Their home for the year is a grotty run-down old farmhouse complete with a grumpy old miser of a landlord who lives in the flat below and complains endlessly about the noise. To top it all off there is no phone line — meaning no work and no money.

Over the next two and a half months the family struggles to come to terms with the crushing disappointment while waging a series of ongoing battles with Telecom Italia, the recalcitrant landlord and the gormless local travel agent who set them up in the first place. The whole notion of the Italian Odyssey is looking like a giant mistake.

But just when all hope seems lost, a friend puts them in touch with real estate agents in a nearby town called Sansepolcro and the unbelievable happens: they find a suitable home. Four days later they load up the car and speed off into the hills, leaving the penny-pinching landlord fuming in the driveway.

Sansepolcro turns out to be every bit the country Italian town the Australians had been hoping for – medieval and full of good food. Not only that, but they find themselves summarily adopted by their kindly new landlords upstairs. Even Telecom Italia comes to the party and connects the phone. In a flash, the Italian experience has gone from depressing to exhilarating.

The next few months are spent living the dream, hunting out new bars and cafes, chatting with the landlords and revelling in the minutia of small-town life in rural Italy. Before long our heroes begin to venture further afield: to Venice for Carnevale; to Sicily and Pompeii for the ancient ruins; to Cinqueterre for the beaches; to Verona for the local version of the Colosseum; to Liguria for olive terraces and pesto; to the island of Corsica for the French experience; to Pisa for the tower; and to the Amalfi coast, because everyone says you have to.

Then summer arrives, and Sansepolcro shifts into high gear with a endless succession of outdoor festivals, concerts and community events. Meanwhile, the landlords move out into the back yard for the summer, and our heroes find themselves being treated to genuine Italian long lunches with the household on a daily basis. In this way, they settle steadily into the embrace of their adopted family and discover that their year in Italy has yielded more than they had ever imagined: genuine friendships.

All too soon summer is over, life quietens down again and the Australians are obliged to confront the thorny question of their return tickets. Do they belong in Italy? Could they stay on indefinitely? Do they want their children to grow up Italian?

Eventually they resolve to remain honest to their roots and return home. But the de-Sansepolcrisation process proves to be drawn-out and agonising.

Cut to nine months later. The family, suffering from withdrawal symptoms and still in denial, journeys back to Sansepolcro for a holiday to find everything just as it was and ever will be. The return visit brings closure, and the realisation that life goes on but friendships remain. And that their year in Italy was the most wonderful adventure ever.