After a relaxing weekend when we visited Gubbio again and had a lovely lunch on Saturday. It was mighty cold! The Appenine mountains were beautifully snow capped. On Sunday Susan and Gary invited us to lunch and to meet some of their Italian friends and helpers, Simone, Simona and Fabio. It was a lovely lunch of assorted antipasti and a rolled pork dish with beans and zucchini. A ricotta tart was the dolci to finish. We really enjoyed meeting their friends and the lunch was delish.

We have not heard whether we have gotten the house yet but should by tomorrow. We had an appointment with Jim to go to the tax office and get our Codice Fiscale stamped and official. It took very little time with a serious government worker. Then we proceeded to the bank to open an account. That took a while with many, many papers to sign. Jim will be our agent until the house is bought so he has access to our account. We applied for a bankomat card and on-line banking. We exited the bank into a horrible sleet storm.

We bade Jim goodbye until tomorrow morning when we will meet him at the Pink Panther (really!) which is a café near his house tomorrow at nine. We will go to Citta de Castello to meet with the Notaio to sign power of attorney for Jim to transact for us. A Notaio is a cross between a Notary and a lawyer. They handle all the legal stuff on the sale.

We went to Bar Mary and had two more cappucini. We have learned to say senza schuima which is cappuccino without the foam. More coffee but just as good.  Oh and on Saturday we ordered machiatto after lunch which here is espresso with a little cream. Very nice. I like it much better than espresso black.

Since the weather is so vile we ducked into the little alimentari to pick up something for lunch in the apartment. The proprietor is just the friendliest man. He tells me the names of the things I want and I repeat them back. He is so nice. We bought onion bread, baguette, cheese and ham. We decided to eat our lunch in and eat in the restaurant that is almost directly under us tonight. It gets mixed reviews from the people we have spoken to. Most don’t like it. We decide to try it ourselves and form our own opinion.

Right now we are sitting in front of our little stove all toasty and warm. A while ago we got a call from Jim. He is now in negotiations for the furniture. They rejected our lower price. I hope they are more willing to throw in the furniture we are asking for. We shall see.