Cave Houses

One of my favorite television programs is HGTV (I’ve probably mentioned that about a hundred times) and lately they’ve been running a lot of “House Hunters International” programming. I noticed that a lot of British folks buy vacation homes on the continent and a lot of people travel around the continent by boat. I think this is fabulous. I wondered for a long time how one would enjoy European cruises because I didn’t realize that so much of Europe’s beauty could be seen via a cruise. It’s something I’d definitely like to do at some point in my life (after I win the lottery, of course).

I particularly liked an episode the night before last. The couple (from England) was looking for a vacation home on the coast of Spain. They picked a town where all of the homes were built into caves. The couple mostly looked at two bedroom homes, but they were really neat. I don’t know that I could live in a home with curved walls and few windows (it’s built into the side of a hill, of course) and chilly floors, but I bet it would be awesome to vacation there. Of course, adding on if you need more space might be a bit of a problem. And the bathrooms seemed very odd. They were round and one was situated in such a way that the toilet and sink were back to back and you would have to walk through the master bedroom to get to it. There were also little niches in the walls where seating was available. Apparently the average rear-end in Europe is much smaller than what I see in my neck of the woods, because I can’t imagine being able to get comfortable in such a thing. Not much room. But it’s the walls that were the strangest. I don’t think a very tall person could possibly get around with ease in any of those houses.

Another couple ventured to an old part of Italy. They were in a town that was built on top of itself (it seemed that way to me, anyway). The buildings were so close to each other that there was no way any kind of car or even a bike could get down the path. I think they may have filmed a version of “Romeo and Juliet” there. At any rate, the homes were very small, but they had rooftop porches. So they could sit on their roofs and look over the city to the mountains. It was quite a spectacular view. But I wonder, where did they park their car? And how would they travel from that ancient town back to the 21st century?

I’m completely intrigued by these glimpses of old Europe. Little out-of-the-way places that just make me scratch my head and wonder how they get on with their lives there. Cave house and ancient streets built only for walking are just fascinating to me. Some day I may be able to afford to travel to Europe and find these little niches of beauty to see things for myself.

Yes, I do keep sane by dreaming of these things. I’m having a major flare right now and dreaming of traveling around Europe (not through– but literally around) is actually keeping my spirits up. When Grump and I retire we might actually be able to do that and that makes me smile just thinking about it.