Summary

November marked our official move to Italy. House purchase not complete and immigration not finished, what could go wrong? We packed a portion of our belongings, our cat and off we went. We now have full time jobs advancing purchase, immigration and living. We’ve been busy making the house a little more comfortable. The weather turned a bit colder and we kicked off some landscaping work. A bit odd not celebrating Thanksgiving this year. We did take in how much we have to be thankful for.

Construction

The construction work got underway on the 22nd as they built scaffolding around the structure to allow removal of the roof material. The scaffolding surrounds the water pump & treatment equipment, the well, and wagon wheel room. Luca tells us the materials and workers will be here daily now.

Our original goal of 12/15 for project completion is now moved out to end of January. Likely projected weather impacts and the slowness of the comune are the reasons he’s adjusting.

The other item needing repair is the septic system. You may recall the photo of The Blob removed by Sergio after we heard loud gurgles coming from the drains. Well we’ve come to learn a bit more about where the septic lines, tanks are located and where it releases the treated water.

Seems the tanks need adjustments, ground leveling, filters. This sort of conversation really doesn’t translate well with our poor Italian skills. I guess we’ll know more when the digging begins. We should probably get to the bottom of this if it means we won’t be able to use the facilities for a couple days.

Luca has provided a couple photos of them surveying with cameras and what the tanks look like. Sounds like the tanks will remain, they’ll need to be purged and some new piping to be installed. We’ll see how this goes.

Immigration

We had a bit of a set back this month. We had tried a workaround that could have sped things up but it flopped. Part of the challenge is for our investment visa, you must be able to prove where your funds came from. Italy has a real focus on preventing money laundering. So they make you account thru records and document where you got the money. We hoped our investment sources could provide documentation, but it wasn’t accepted. Now we need to move money to an Italian bank and it must remain there for 90 days. At the end of 90 days, we submit our application again and it should advance. Unfortunately this means we remain here on a visitor visa. Which has a 90 day stay limit. This will force us to leave Italy in January for a period to allow the visitor visa clock to reset.

The cat “Monkey”

This cat was a rescue, he’s near 8 now. He definitely has his quirks, it seems he was rescued from a parking lot which would explain his panic when he hears cars or really any noise. He hides most of the day, but had improved from the early days of constant hiding to occasionally coming out during daylight. Well with all the noise in the LA house during the sale, his stay with our friend Kristyn while we were in Italy before we moved. Then the move to the Airbnb, air flight, medications and now at the Italy house… He’s been through it. He’s begun coming out at night here (and a bit during the day), and seems to be making progress, if only incremental. We worry that he may need some additional support, so he has an appointment at the local Italian vet for a review and see what they recommend.

Thermostat Boilers and Radiators OH MY!!

We had a bit of a cold snap here upon arrival. The temps dropped at night to 30 F. Normally would still be mid 40s. The night we got here things were chilly but not bad. After 4 days, we looked at the gas meter and found it was burning thru gas very quickly. 5x what would be normal. We had to move thru the house adjusting the boilers, thermostats and radiators to match the right temps and only warming the areas we are using. Living in Los Angeles, we aren’t used to wild swings in temps. We’ve plunged ourselves into sweaters, blankets and slippers at night to keep warm. I’m sure some of you who live in colder climates are chuckling. Have pity on us, its not even January yet.

Italy Roe Deer

Roe Deer. We’ve now had several deer sightings, typically while driving at night and most recently on the white road leading to the house. Fairly typical looking, with of course the white rump patch. Apparently known for being the smallest in Europe.

Crested Porcupine – On a morning walk, I came across this hole. We had just been discussing the inner fence and wall on the property and how it’s meant to keep wildlife from accessing the area just around the house. Seems we have some fence posts that are falling down due to age and they need replacement. Add to the project list.

I shared the photo of this hole with Oxana, she immediately responded with the photo below of the porcupine. George and I were driving to lunch at the time and I just laughed out loud. Porcupine. This creature was not on my list of considerations. Turns out the Crested Porcupine makes its home in central and southern Italy as well as northern Africa. Apparently Italy is the only European country it calls home. We haven’t seen one in person, but will now be on the lookout.

Badger

We’ve now seen several badgers on the side of the road, usually late at night. Like the porcupine, they are known for digging things up and must be kept out of gardens or the inner wall of the house.

Landscape

We have begun to build the project list of things we want to do with the property. To sort of kick off the process, we picked a couple things that could happen during the colder season. For example, the trees in front of the entry way are big and beautiful during summer. So big you cannot see beyond the front door. While this has a particular beauty, it prevents you from seeing the beauty of the larger property. So we asked Sergio to trim up the bottom branches so when you sit on the patio (Terrazza) you can look out. Another project is to trim all the bushes around the Cantina entrance. Its pretty creepy to enter now and if we can at least clean up the door way it will feel better as we make our way in to start cleaning it up. Lastly was the old stables.

They haven’t had much love in many years and in the last couple years the brush has overtaken all around it.

So we asked Sergio to clear completely around the building so you can easily get in and move around the structure. This was the project he started with and has made great progress. Ideally we’d have chickens and goats around spring time.

In the photo below you can see the overgrowth around the stables from Google Maps, this is all cleared now. Will update again when there is a new google map update.

Home comforts

We’ve found the house needs some immediate comfort items. Rugs in bathrooms, better shower heads, organization and cooking items and so on. We are still on the lookout for the right furniture to outfit the dining and living rooms.

We’ve been killing it with Amazon deliveries. We try to buy local first, but it can be hard to find just the right item without traveling 90 minutes. So we’ve made friends with the local Tabaccheria (sort of a 7-11) and now they know us upon arrival. This is another small part of making connections here.

People, Places, Things

Amazon has not been successful yet delivering to the house and we tried another delivery service for a part we ordered for the garden tractor. We placed all the delivery details they would need in the request, but he only texted when he was near and offered to drop it off at our local bar Tiziancaffee, it’s a local hang out for motorbikes (motociclette), bicycles (bicicletta) and the local townsmen. Not uncommon to see bikers screaming up/down the windy roads leading to Colonnetta, they are usually all stopped here. We hadn’t gotten the strength to stop in, until the delivery guy forced our hand. Of course the woman behind the counter was kind and quickly grabbed our delivery for hand off.

We did receive our first piece of mail from the US, congrats David on your mailing skills. We provided the full address in the Contacts in the header above as a few of you have asked.

That’s a good overview of November. Next month we’ll share some of our interactions with Italian Healthcare system. We’ll give some updates on our work learning Italian. We’ll also see how Italy does the Christmas season.