Tucked away in Edinburgh, the historic capital city of Scotland, is the idyllic neighborhood of Stockbridge. It’s only a mile from that famous castle perched on ancient volcanic rock, but it is in many ways a village unto itself. On the street where I live, there’s a place selling 78rpm wax records and windup gramophones to play them on. There are shops selling antiques, flowers, and chandeliers. A little art gallery is sited right next door to an Italian-run café (with scrumptious Italian shoes in the basement!). You can eat ten different kinds of food in this street and have a drink in pubs packed with atmosphere. Just around the corner are an artisan cheesemonger, a repairer of 19th-century lamps, a game butcher for that essential Scottish haggis, and more cafés and boutiques. Edinburgh’s beautiful hidden river is a block away, where heron fish for brown trout and mallards rear their ducklings. Along the riverside, a picturesque temple was erected in the 1820s to the goddess of health. I always wanted to live in Stockbridge, and now I do and I love it. And although some tourists do find us during their visit to the international Edinburgh Festival in August, it’s largely for us to live in and enjoy.