Since we arrived we dined at our basic but very Umbrian hotel restaurant on our first night. On the second day we dined on Proscuitto and melone for lunch – so sweet and salty. Yum. Thank you Susan! Susan left our frig nicely stocked and we are so grateful. That evening we dined on yet another amazing gift from Susan and Gary – an enormous truffle! I made fettuccine and we grated it on along with a mozzarella salad with very sweet tomatoes. So good! we had taken a run to the wine store we like and had some fine wines and then Luther went out into the Piazza which was buzzing with activity to smoke his cigar. The men playing cards and all around tables of things for sale, kind of a flea market.

Rocky and Simba are getting used to all the noises of the apartment. Here is Rocky keeping watch on the Piazza which he seems to enjoy. The second picture is Rocky with the ornate bell in the background.

Today, Friday June 27 – two days since we arrived we met the geometra (kind of a cross between a general contractor and architect) of Susan and Gary. He and they had already visited the apartment. His name is Emanuele and he noted many things that we did not. The conversations were kind of a mish-mash of English and Italian. Luther and Susan were pretty good with the understanding of it all, I also understood a good bit of the Italian happily. There was a lot of back and forth about all the logistics of moving the kitchen. Also water damage which could have been from before the roof was repaired but must be looked into. There is also a bit of structural work that needs to be done to stabilize the roof. Emanuele says that cost should be shared between the owners of the apartments in the building but I am guessing that will not happen. There are no condominium fees here it is rather an informal agreement among the owners. In our building there is nothing set up to take care of issues like this. So we shall see how that all shakes out.

We discussed the moving of the kitchen. Emanuele wanted it to be in a different room than I wanted it to be in for logistical reasons like running the gas and drains. I am pretty hard over that I want it to be moved to the room with the fireplace next to the current kitchen. We are going forward with that. The fireplace needs to be checked to see if it will draw. Evidently it has not been used in years. Our Geometra will check with our previous owner about water damage in the house and when it happened. They repaired the roof nine years ago so the damage could have been prior to then.

There is also a concept I learned about today called Zona di Notte or night zone. Our geometra is very concerned about us not having one. Evidently the Italians don’t want cooking smells getting into the sleeping area so install a door to separate the spaces. Well that never would have occurred to an American! But I think I am OK with a door being installed in the hallway but only because it would be handy to separate the cats from the kitchen/living room area should we need work done. Of course I will not tell Emanuele that!

I feel pretty positive about the progress we have made. We have a couple of “action items” that we need to do for Emanuele. He in turn has some as well like talking to Elisabetta about when the water damage happened and what they did about it. We will probably stay in this apartment until all the work is done. We will proceed with purchasing what we need to live there and having it delivered.