Intercontinental History
Hi Welcome to A Thousand Acorns where I bring you insights into mountain living, cottage projects, home management, and home cooking!
My name is Chiarina (the “h” is silent). And I’m a busy career mom with an adventurous introverted spirit. I come from Southern California but I met my husband, Luca in Italy.
Luca instead is shy at first. But give him half a second to warm up because he truly is an extrovert through and through! He was born and raised in the exquisite Tuscan hills of Florence where we married and started our little family.
Four years later, we braved an intercontinental move with two active toddlers to California. Then we expanded our family some more.
That was years ago, however and we have since planted our family roots here. But we return to Italy regularly to visit relatives and friends. Despite our incredibly hectic work life, we enjoy traveling, eating homemade comfort food and spending quality moments together. And when we can, we love to share our joy with the great company of our wonderful extended family and friends.
City Dwelling and Mountain Living
We divide our time between our city home and mountain cottage. This means I’ve had to learn new ways of doing things as I did when I moved to Italy to marry Luca. And as Luca did when we moved back to California.
This time, though, things have doubled. We’re now managing two homes, a bunch of projects at both locations, meal plans, etc. On top of all that, we’re also learning about life in the mountains.
Why? Because we consider ourselves established city dwellers. Or flatlanders as our mountain neighbors call folks from down “the hill” in the coastal plains.
Our sea level, one-story home sits on a square piece of very flat property that includes our very flat backyard in a populous city of Southern California. Almost everything about it fits tidily within our “comfort zone”. It’s our safe place and that’s how we like it.
Acorns Cottage, a name we have given our mountain abode, represents everything our city home is not.
Nestled among oak and pine trees in the San Bernardino Mountains, the cottage is perched on a steep slope overlooking a lake that sparkles with serenity and promise. This mountain range rises 4,500 to 6,000 feet above sea level. Without traffic, only an hour and 20 minute drive separates it from our city home.
Stretching Our Limits
Many things about this cottage lie just beyond our well-delineated edge of comfort. Ironically I’ve discovered it’s been very good for me, for us as a couple, even for us as a family.
One of our goals is to share Acorns Cottage with loved ones after we’ve figured out all its little quirks and make some needed repairs. To date, the acquisition of this little gem has been a gratifying and equally anxiety-inducing leap of faith.
A Thousand Acorns–Your Resource for Mountain Living Full-Time or Part Time!
A Thousand Acorns is perfect for residents new to mountain living just like us. It’s also for prospective mountain neighbors thinking of taking the leap to buy a mountain cottage or cabin. That could be full-time or part-time. And for the mountain weekend or day traveler looking to escape city life even temporarily.
Or maybe you’re here just for the recipes! We’d love to hear how you’ve put your own personal spin on the home cooking recipes we use at our mountain cottage and city home.
Either way, I hope you’ll find this website a helpful resource as I bring you along our journey and share all the things we have learned to make your experience easier and more enjoyable!