LIVING UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN
Chicago Daily Herald
April, 29, 2004

Some kids know exactly what they want to do when they grow up. Not Katie Edmunds. During her youth in Glen Ellyn, she didn't know what career to pursue.

She didn't need to. Serendipity has always shown up at the right moments and pointed a big arrow for her to follow.

For example, while working at her first real job, at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., she saw a notice the LSAT was being offered. Like that, she was on her way to becoming a lawyer.

After passing the bar, she "fell into" intellectual property law, which she enjoyed. Then she "re-met" a college friend, Jim Edmunds, and married him. See how this serendipity thing works?

For about 10 uneventful (except for having twin boys!) years the couple worked as corporate lawyers and fattened up their savings accounts. Four years ago, that changed.

Katie's company, which she loved, was being taken over in an acquisition. Jim wanted to write and express his creative side. They were both 35 years old.

They decided to take an extended "vacation."

"Our plan was to come to Italy for a year or two," says Katie in a phone conversation from Europe. "But we sold our house in Evanston. It made sense to sell it.

"From there, they practically stepped into a script for "Under the Tuscan Sun." They haven't seen the movie, but they're living it.

While renting in Tuscany, they looked at real estate. The parents of their sons' playmate told them about a house up for auction. The drawback: it had been abandoned for 15 years.

They went to see it that night, taking flashlights.

"We had to hack our way through bushes just to get to the door," she says. "But we could tell it had good 'bones,' and the starting price was reasonable."

After miraculously surmounting legal and bureaucratic obstacles, they got the house and fields within a week.

But winter was coming, and it brought challenges.

"Our living conditions were not ideal. The villa lacked running water, electricity, telephone, doors, heating," Jim wrote in a Christmas letter to family and friends.

"Despite our worries, the boys remained oblivious to it all and perfectly happy ... how were they to know most families actually had heating in their homes? ... Then, on a cold rainy night in February, as I tried to get the fireplace to stop billowing smoke, Katie, in tears, told me she was pregnant.

"They buckled down to make improvements on the house. Spring came, and with it, the neighbors, who helped plaster and plant."

Every day someone showed up with a basket of figs or a loaf of fresh bread," Jim says. "Advice flowed freely. 'Relax. Don't worry,' they would say. 'Put down that shovel. They are still building Rome. Come, let's drink a coffee together. I have some candies for the boys.'

The friendships and the land blossomed. Trees sagged with fruit, the garden brimmed, and then it was time to harvest the grapes in September and the olives after that.

"Raising a family here has been a blessing," Katie says. "We've had to integrate into the community because of the kids.

"Everyone in the community went through my pregnancy. Everyone in town knows Emily."

The boys are 7 now, Emily is 2, and the house is in great shape. Katie, who has learned to cook Italian-style, is anxious for the family to have some income again after living off savings for a few years. So they've set up one part of the villa to rent to vacationers. They're also starting up tuscany4families.com, a vacation package for American families with children. It will provide trips to Florence and other parts of Tuscany, a driver and children's activities.

Katie's not sure how long they'll stay in Tuscany. Even with its attractions, she misses her family in Chicago. No big arrows have shown up recently to point her way.

"Jim feels totally rooted and grounded here. I'd say I'm a little less so. I'm more of a city person. He's so happy here, and I can go either way," she says, looking out at rolling hills of olive and cypress trees and a winding river. "But it's fun to have this adventure."
 

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