So, I just got online and checked our Italian bank and the funds have arrived safely. We transferred the purchase price plus the fees and then some extra euro for necessary upgrades, furniture, and some running money in Euro. Too bad the exchange rate is not in our favor at all!

I sent a note to our agent (who is in Croatia on holiday). He will return tomorrow and I hope, will set up a date to close very soon. We are not sure how we will receive the final registered ownership document. Once we have that we can make another appointment with the Embassy.

Other things we are doing

The owner of the apartment, Elizabetta, has sent a list of furniture that she has decided she wants to sell to us. Her prices are very high. We may counter with lower prices. It is to her advantage to make a deal so she will not have to move it out. But if she won’t lower her prices I have alternatives. I did some research on Italian sites, primarily IKEA. I can get furniture that I like well enough for reasonable prices so that will probably be the way we go. We will need a sofa, chairs for the dining table, a double bed set with wardrobe and dresser and another dresser at a minimum. Then a desk for the computer and probably a sofa bed to put into the 3rd bedroom/office for extra guests and seating.

We also listed our house for sale here in Virginia. I spent a lot of time getting rid of things from all the closets and it looks pretty good now. We had some painting done etc. I hate living in a “staged” house but it must be done! Cross your fingers that it will sell soon!

We had 3 cars at the beginning of this year. As of this week we will be down to one car.

I am waiting a little while more before renting our UPackWeShip containers. In these we will bring some household goods and clothes. It is only 100 square feet so we can’t bring anything very large.

I am also renting a mailbox from an online company. It is interesting, they receive your mail and then scan it. You access a dashboard where you can view your mail. Then you can flag anything for the trash and have them send whatever you need to have physically in Italy. I hope it works!

I have chosen a moving company to pack up and move several items that we do not want to give away or sell. We will have them put into to a storage unit. These are family antiques etc. Who knows how long they will stay in storage.

I still need to have our cats microchipped and have the forms filled out by our vet. Another whole adventure, moving 2 cats to Italy!

That’s a short recap. Back soon!