I just put up a page, accessible from the top navigation, with a summary of information about moving and living in Italy. It is called “So you’ve decided to move to Italy”. I will constantly update it with things I learn that I think will be useful. Go to the page here.
It was a success! There were fire eaters, dancers, music, burlesque, beautiful stilt dancers, costumes. We had some friends come and have dinner with us Friday night. We joined in the merriment and were serenaded by the Briganti. Speaking of which, they got up to their usual antics on Saturday when they took over the town. This year they had a “christmas” theme. If you look back over my previous Otto Cento posts you will see they are very naughty boys.
An antique cycle. It was a cycle inside a big wheel with what looked like training wheels.
The decorated town.
The “christmas” tree. Look closely.
Victory flag.
We are having spectacular weather. Highs in the 80s and cool at night. We have been enjoying it with the occasional Gelato or Aperol Spritz. Last weekend we had the local Vespa club arrive in all their thundering glory.
We also had a great time creating and attending a BBQ at an Agriturismo of friends, Simone and Simona. They are from Milan and now living rough, off the grid on the old family farm of Simone. It was abandoned for many years and they have spent years working mostly on their own to make it into holiday apartments. They first fixed up the old barn for themselves. And have spent a LOT of time just on the structure of the old buildings. It is in an earthquake zone so there are lots of rules for stabilizing and protecting everything. They are now getting ready to finish the first apartment inside. Here are some pictures.
This is the main building. Underneath are the large, airy barns where the animals used to live.
The views are nothing short of spectacular. They are very high on a ridge. The electric grid stops before their property. They use mostly solar and batteries.
The picturesque old chimneys. I love these. They are all over our part of Italy.
The BBQ grill with Fabio and Gary.
I had initially invited everyone to our house and was going to make the ribs. But Simona wanted us all to come there. So I got up early to prepare the ribs. I wanted it to be all American so I brought spicy guacamole, spicy salsa with the wonderful tomatoes we have now, and my moms potato salad. We found tortilla chips in the store! Everyone was open to the experience and had fun. We also had great, grilled vegetables, and one of their chickens. He was supposed to be grilled but he was deemed too tough so he was stewed. Dessert was a very light cheesecake and cool watermelon. What could be more perfect?
Random scenes. Here is the wind ruffled Tiber one afternoon.
I found CORN!! it is one of the things I miss most about the US. Summer, sweet corn. Alas, it was not to be. Tough as an old shoe. Horses probably wouldn’t touch it! BUT the good news is that I have started volunteering at the Books for Dogs booth at the market. It is run by mostly British women. They take donated books and DVDs and sell them to support several dog sanctuaries. Anyway, one of the ladies also bought corn. Later I asked her if we could plant a few rows next year in her garden. So MAYBE next year we will be able to taste that sweet summer corn!
Impending storm.
Volunteer sunflower against a blue sky.
The placid river in morning.
Here is a spider who has caught a tasty fly on our pepper plants. If you click you can even see the spiders little face. It looks so much like a human face.
Finally, we are looking forward to welcoming our next guests, Mary and Lenny! Their first trip to Italy and great old friends of ours. They will be with us for five nights and we will do some lunches, markets, wine tastings and sightseeing. Stay tuned…
People always ask us what we do on a daily basis. Today we decided to work on a big list of errands we needed to do. Usually it is hard to get multiple things done all in one day. First thing is we decided to drive since we had so many things on our list. We almost always walk everywhere.
We had recently gotten a really big gas bill. 586€ to be exact. For two months. We noticed that 314€ of that amount were taxes(!) so we decided to visit Aimet Luce & Gas which is handily just about 1 minute from our front door. They had been a scary experience when we first got signed up but today they were very nice. They assured us that this tax is imposed on all Italians and is not more for us Stranieri or foreigners. Sigh. Oh well. We have to pony up the money.
We next visited our bank. We are trying to change our bank account from one for Stranieri to one for residents. Our bank is the Monte dei Paschi di Siena. It was founded in 1472. Get your mind around that! They bankrolled Christopher Columbus! In order to physically enter a bank here in Italy you must go through an airlock…. Yes, an airlock. You push a button and a rounded door slides back. You enter and it closes and you are in a tube. You then place your index finger on the sensor plate. If you pass, the interior door opens to let you in the bank. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stuck in there! We had visited the bank last week and they affirmed that we were being charged a LOT of fees because we have the type of account we have. He said he would work on changing it for us and since we had not heard back went there first. Alas he was not there so we left through the exit airlock.
We then went to the pet store to buy kitty litter and food. The people there are super nice and give us the sconto, or discount, when we come. They also signed us up for their new point system! Um… I am not sure this is as great as they seem to think it is but we can earn points and get “stuff” later for the points. Sorta like green stamps… OK I’m dating myself! Anyway… Checked that off our list.
Next we headed to the dread Poste Italiane, or post office. Here you can spend a lot of your life waiting. The post office does not just do mail. You can pay your bills there, also arrange for your permit to stay (in Italy) appointment, and they function as a bank. So when you enter you are confronted with a machine with an array of buttons that you will push depending on what you want to do. They are not always completely clear. I’ve watched Italians punch all four buttons hoping to go to a window and apologize but still get what they want done! Hah! So miracle of miracle we punched the P button and within five minutes had mailed our letter to the US. This is not normal. At. All. We usually spend at least thirty minutes in there whenever we go. I am not really complaining, I enjoy watching the show so to speak. In fact, the people working there (who have jobs for life and cannot be fired) are a sad lot themselves for some reason. They seem to take delight in flying through the numbers really fast. If you don’t jump up when your number is called you are out of luck. I witnessed an old man get passed by because he couldn’t get there fast enough. He resignedly went to the machine for another ticket.
So that mission accomplished we headed for our doctors office. This is always an adventure. Our doctor has published office hours five days a week. Usually two hours a day. Heretofore we had gone early, like if her hours start at 9:30am we’d aim to arrive at about 9:15. Only problem with that plan is that she is frequently late…sometimes an hour or more. So today we went later figuring if she was late we’d get there after she had worked through the people waiting. Here in Italy you don’t make doctors appointments. You go during the hours. There are no staff, no receptionist. When you enter there are usually a number of people ahead of you…and multiple doctors use the same building. So you must ask, “who is the last for [doctors name]”? Someone pipes up so you know you go in after he/she leaves. My plan to come later worked as there was just one patient in front of us and best yet(!) the doctor was there. So we got our prescriptions refilled.
Next we decided to visit Paulo, Manuelle’s right hand man. He helps with bureaucratic things. We knew our real estate taxes were due next week and he can calculate them for us, then we pay. We were happy to learn that since we just had the one house, and it was our first in Italy, we owe no real estate taxes! Hooray! We did pay last year but Italy passed a law saying first time owners are exempt.
Since things were going so well we went over to the car wash. Our car was filthy so we vacuumed and washed it and were off to get some diesel. Then we dropped off our purchases and got our prescriptions filled and parked in the garage. Wow. What. A. Productive. Morning.
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More good news…Yesterday I got my diploma for passing the required A2 level Italian proficiency test! So at least I got that one under my belt.
I was in the mood for my first gelato of the year. I got Pistacchio and Nocciola. We are lucky to have an artisanal gelato shop called Delizia Gelateria in our town. Yum!
Today I bought new eye glasses. There is a shop just a block away owned by a very nice man who “tries” to speak English. We ended up speaking more Italian but that was OK as I understood most of it. I am sure I’ve mentioned the “culpo d’aria” or “hit by the air” notion here before but I am endlessly amused by it. The nice man who sold me my glasses was wrapped tightly in his scarf, inside his shop. It is not cold right now but Italians are terrified of being “hit by the wind” on the neck and getting sick. They also are still wearing their puffy coats with the scarves and it is near 70 out and warmer in the sun. To my chagrin I find I feel the need to wear a scarf much of the time now too! Grin…
I also did a bit of organizing this week. I ordered a bookcase from IKEA which took a month to be delivered. I have been juggling piles of papers since we came. It seems the idea of a filing cabinet is foreign here. They use boxes that sit like books on shelves. I finally decided to let this system into my life because the Capricorn in me could not stand to be so unorganized. The bookcase arrived and I assembled it. Then I purchased a number of these organizer books in various sizes and managed to get everything organized. Happy days!
While I was going through all my papers I came across the printed copy of “Italy, the Owners Manual” which I bought when we were contemplating our move. It has lots of useful information. I decided to go through it to see if there was anything we still needed in it. Most of the information was about things we had already done to get here. I was discarding these pages but came upon a section on taxes. Car taxes specifically. We already pay real estate taxes (€50.00 two times a year), and garbage tax (€76.00 two times a year) – TV tax (about €100 a year)…but we hadn’t known about car taxes which are called auto bollo. We actually should have paid them on both vehicles when we bought them last year but since we are clueless Stranieri that didn’t happen. It was no problem to go to the auto club to pay the Volkswagon taxes for two years. It amounted to about €500.00. The taxes on the Porsche, however were a bit of a shock. Shouldn’t have been I guess. The bollo is based on value. There is also something called a Super Bollo on high horsepower cars. Turns out the Bollo for the Porsche was about €800 per year. The Super Bollo was €1,200 per year. Ouch. What we pay for our toys!
Another interesting turn of events here in Umbertide is that they are building a regional Mosque in town. This, as you may imagine, has caused quite a stir. Our friend went to the town hall type meeting last night. It turned out to be a several hour shouting match where nothing got done and no real information was shared. The odd thing is that they have already started building this Mosque. I wonder at the timing here. We are going to get the Americans together and compile a list of questions. Luther and I have two primary questions. Where is the money to build it coming from, and who will the Imam be? Pressing questions…we have no problem with a Mosque but if it is financed and staffed by radical Islamism, well we DO have a problem with that!
Pasqua or Easter is a big deal here in Italy. They start on Palm Sunday with a Mass held outside with olive branches in lieu of palm fronds. Then on Good Friday they have a procession through town. They have a body representing Christ that they carry behind all the priests with big torches burning. The band plays a dirge and the faithful follow behind with candles. It is pretty moving to watch. I took a film which is below. It is from our third floor window down into the street below as the procession passed by. On Easter Sunday they have the traditional big lunch after Mass. Lamb is the tradition. Tomorrow is Pasquetta (also a holiday) and traditionally all the Italians go for a picnic but sometimes to a restaurant for ANOTHER big lunch! Their reward after Lent I guess.
We have been trying to get out and about more lately now that the weather is improving. We took a trip to Cortona (of Under the Tuscan Sun fame). We had been once before on a vacation and in all this time here we had not returned. It was a blustery day and the parking lots, normally full, were empty. The front of the theater has this cool lantern on it
We went to the Osteria del Teatre for lunch. It is a very old fashioned Tuscan place with friendly service and was pretty popular. Note the projector and retracted screen for presentations on the beamed ceiling.
I had the baccalà, or salt cod. It has to be soaked for days to go from it’s totally dried out state to something edible. It was good.
I don’t normally have dessert but my interest was piqued by this odd looking thing below. It had a handle inserted into the center which they turned and a blade shaved it into curls. It is made of white chocolate and ground pistachio nuts. I had it on homemade gelato and it was divine!
Our wine had the same name as the house from Under the Tuscan Sun. I don’t think they are related, but maybe?
View from the town. See Lago di Trasemeno in the distance? Also the town, named Terontola, on the flatlands has the main Rome to Florence rail line. You can see the straight arrow of the tracks. This is the station we use to go to either place. It has safe, free parking.
Then on Friday we drove down to DiFillipo winery in the Montefalco area to taste and buy some wine. They don’t call this the “Green heart of Italy” for nothing!
And continuing my food theme. Another of the odd differences between Italy and the US. This time of year there is a lot of lamb for sale. Not other times very much. It is hard to find. So I indulged in the lamb shoulder roast as I had a recipe. As I unwrapped it I noticed that it had the actual leg attached to the shoulder. And on the leg there was what looked like the hoof! Or what was left of the hoof. Note below. I am here to report the lamb was very good. I just ignored the hoof!
Just before Christmas Househunters International came to town to film Joseph and Paul, our neighbors across the Piazza. Luther and I had applied also but they rightly picked them. They are tremendous Umbertide boosters and were very proactive in showing the town in the best possible light.
I found the whole process very interesting to watch. They spent 5 days filming around 10 hours a day. They did a lot of B-roll filming of them walking along our little river path, through the pretty arches and visiting the Saturday Kilo-0 market. Then they filmed in their art gallery, Gallery Grefti, and in the local Jazz club. They, of course, saw three houses, one of which was theirs. The show producers wanted to have a moving company come and empty all of their belongings and furniture from their present apartment and put it all back! But Joseph and Paul objected. They had an alternative which was to see the apartment beneath them which has been vacant for years and was similar to theirs. I enjoyed watching them film and even got filmed with Joseph in the Gallery.
If we hear from the HHI people telling us of the air date for the show I will be sure to post that here on the blog. We cannot see the show here so I hope they will send DVDs.
Then, at the Kilo-0 market we again saw cameras. “what the??” we said. Well they were filming a TV show shoot in one of the stands. Cameras, lights, sound equipment, police! My my, Umbertide is getting a LOT of press lately! 🙂 turns out it was a show that takes place in Gubbio normally.
Well I couldn’t put off visiting my doctor any longer so I steeled myself to do it last week. The way the Italian health care works is like this. You go to the Sanitario office at the beginning of each year. I wrote about that experience earlier this year in this blog. At this time they assign a doctor. I was assigned to a woman doctor who was an OB/GYN as well but she would be my primary care doctor. I had gotten her name from friends who had been through a lot of health care issues and had finally found her. We all speak some Italian but when dealing with something like your health you want to get it right. You don’t want to misunderstand.
I had looked my Dottoressa up on the internet and had her hours. Off I went. After a little trouble I found her office but her hours were completely different than the site said. Dutifully I wrote down the hours that were posted on the door. Rats. So yesterday I went back arriving just before the opening time to find several people there ahead of me. I noted my place and after about 30 minutes I went in. I introduced myself in my best Italian and then politely asked if she spoke English. And she did, and it was good. I had checked my blood pressure myself and it was somewhat high so this was my primary reason to go. She agreed to put me on some medicine for it. She commented that she had not seen me in any of the bars and did I only associate with other English speakers. I got the feeling she didn’t like the expat community. She said she would speak to me in English but if she met me somewhere else she would speak to me in Italian. Fair enough!
As we talked I was surprised at how, how to say it…maybe unprofessional… she was at least when compared to a US doctor. She asked if my husband came to her and I said no he went to a different doctor. When I told her his name she snorted in derision. I asked her if she did not like him and she replied, “have you met him?” I don’t think a US doctor would do that to a colleague. We talked about her daughter who has several degrees. I commented that she should be proud. She talked about the person who headed the Umbria Sanitario office who had “only a high school degree!!” and SHE was trying to tell the doctors what to do, how to save money… I commented she must know people in high places. She replied she was F***ing everyone! OKAY then. So this was my first visit to the Dottoressa.
Weather is a-changing
Fall is here. The temperatures have been quite cool but nice. The morning fog is again enveloping the big city. It usually burns off by mid-morning. The farmers are bringing in the biggest cash crop around here right now – tobacco. Everywhere are tractors with trailers full of the bright yellow leaves. Sprinkled throughout the countryside are tobacco drying buildings with ovens to partially dry the leaves before shipping to the big tobacco companies. Umbria is famous for it’s tobacco, primarily for cigarettes.
The sunflower fields are now just stubble. The corn is mostly harvested. And so are the grapes. It was purportedly a good year for the wine. Happy happy for the vintners after such a poor year in 2014. Next we hold our breath to see if the olive crop is OK this year. Last year it was devastated by an insect because the winter had been too warm to kill them off. Last year would have been my first olive harvest season. So I am eagerly looking forward to this years harvest and the production of the Olio Nuovo or New Oil. Umbrian oil is particularly peppery and grassy and brilliant green. So good on toasted bruschetta. Can’t wait.
Yesterday we had a gentleman named Marco come and take a look at our big fireplace in the kitchen. We are going to have him make glass and steel doors that fold back for it. He “said” he could get it to us by November. It is Italy after all…Our friend Vera just said to him “before Natale?” (Christmas) He laughed and said November! We shall see… Maybe I will be able to try it out this winter.
This week we have had a lot of storms rolling through. A lot of times they stay west of us, behind the mountains. The Tiber river tells the tale of what is happening up-stream. It is brown with mud and very high. I must have taken 100 pictures to get this one picture of the light show we were having.
Well it was four days of mayhem…fun mayhem. I got out and about more this year. My friend Michelle being involved got me more involved. I hung out with the briganti bad boys and girls. Luther and I went out one night and ate dinner in one of the venues. I felt this year it was a more authentic 1800s experience. All the entertainment was what you would expect in the 1800s. Juggling, magicians, stilt walkers. It seemed more people were in costume this year. Maybe the drag queens were a little out there but hey! They had fun too! I did my duty and snapped some pictures.
Costumes.
Ladies of the night.
Michelle and her brothel friends.
Michelle and I.
One of the briganti. See his gun? I noticed one waitress who had an ammo belt on. Another showed me her pearl handled revolver which she kept tucked in her waistband.
Drag queen. Two of them did a choreographed dance in one of the bars.
One of the stilt walkers who wandered the streets.
I woke up at 4:30 AM to catch the briganti at work doing their worst to shock and appall. Last year I put in pictures but I thought I’d just link to these pictures. I need not describe them here but they are pretty raunchy but lovely workmanship. The first picture was taken at 4:30AM when they were setting it up. The second picture was the finished product in the light of day with the supporting structure. I will say, this was gone by 9:30AM when the police and town workmen showed up. Hah!
Taking credit for their work!
Mounted Carabinieri band.
Isn’t Luther cute?
Umbertide. All dressed up! It was a fun festival
So. Next up is a week trip to Romania and Transylvania. I am actually looking forward to it. Michelle will cat/house sit for us. Off to pack…
