Years ago I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time in Spain and to find a wonderful, if somewhat ancient, apartment just off a little-traveled lane in Madrid.

The only problem was that using any of the very old, very rickety furniture in the apartment risked life and limb. “No problem”, I thought, “I’ll just pick up a dining room and bedroom suite”. But I quickly found that in my little town I would be lucky to find a broken-down bed. Acquiring furniture packages in Spain seemed like a distant dream.

But, being resourceful, I traveled locally and bartered for some lovely old pieces and even found a company which would ship entire furniture packages from America.

It wasn’t long before I had a cozy little cottage off a charming little lane - furnished in my own unique Spanish - American style.