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Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 10:37 am
by Tumshie
Not too sure if I’ve posted in the right place.
I’ve been lurking here for over a month now and thought it was about time I introduced myself.
I’m a British expatriate living and working in the South of France. I’ve now signed my life away and invested in a Rustic farm in central Italy that requires a wee bit of work to be done to the house and quite a bit more to be done to the surrounding Landscape where I have nearly 3Ha, albeit mostly take up by Olives and Grapes but there is still the area that surrounds the house and the driveway. At present I have no fixed plans and hope to glean information from this site to get me started.
The biggest problem with Italy is the bureaucracy, as you need to jump through the hoops to get anything changed e.g. I have been waiting over a month to get permission to install a gate to the front of my house. Anyway, enough of my woes. 
I’m not such a hands-on person but more of a persistent fekker and “will give anything a go�. So if the answers to my mundane questions sound obvious please bear with me, as all of this is new territory for me.
PS – if any of you guys are looking for a Busman’s Holiday in Italy, please let me know, I can provided, Bed, Food and more local hooch than you can shake a stick at. 
Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 5:33 pm
by lutonlagerlout
welcome tumshie
PS – if any of you guys are looking for a Busman’s Holiday in Italy, please let me know, I can provided, Bed, Food and more local hooch than you can shake a stick at.
alarm bells are ringing
sounds like my pal and his villa in orlando
"come over for a fortnight m8,just bring yer tool with ya"
lol
where abouts in italy? the marche? nice there
LLL
Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 6:38 pm
by Tumshie
No need to bring the tools, all of that gear is there. Does that mean you might come over
Yes Le Marche it is. Just outside the city of Ancona, a place called Monte San Vito
Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 6:47 pm
by lutonlagerlout
i been to ancona,if you like sea snails with every meal your in luck,stayed in the roma e pace albergo,then portonouvo a bit south,its a lovely part of the world ,caves at frassissi are nice too but for all the crap they try and sell ya, 
had some happy days driving around there
LLL
ps all holidayed up right now
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 7:34 am
by Tumshie
LLL,
Ancona for me was pretty disappointing but to be fair, both visits were in January time and I’m sure this did not reflect how it actually looks in the summer months. The last four years I spent in Italy were in the small town of Fano that is located about 50km north of Ancona.
As for the sea snails… I’m not a big fan of anything that’s not walking around or flying around the land.
I have seen the signposts to the caves at frasassi but never actually been. A couple of my mates done some potholing in that area and made the visit to the caves… a breathtaking scene by all accounts.
T
PS – maybe next year :;):
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 8:33 am
by haggistini
I have never been to Italy it sounds nice!
and I love the food at "topo gigio" my local Italians I don’t know about snails though........id have to be pissed or trying to impress some fiery Italian beauty to munch in to a snail.
I have watched ‘grand designs abroad’ and they don’t half come across some dodgy regulations and tradesmen .upload a picture of your gaff and let the suggestions flood in. What is your local building suppliers like what do they stock and can they deliver
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 10:40 am
by Tumshie
Haggistini,
I once thought that the Italian restaurants in the UK were the dogs bo$$ocks until I actually came to Italy and tasted the local food. I can firmly say that after having spent time in various countries of the world the Italian grub is at the top of my list.
The snails are actually ok, once cooked in garlic and smothered in tomato sauce; its more just the thought of dragging them out of their shells and eating them that puts me off.
I have heard many comments about “grand designs abroad� but never actually seen the programme, although I have met expatriates that have fallen foul to the strict (sometimes bizarre) Italian building regulations. The strangest one for me is that if you have a window of a certain size, you cannot make it any bigger, and neither can you add a window that was not there in the original building.
To make any modifications to your home you first need to employ a local Geommetra (project manager) who draws up plans and submits these to the local authority for approval, then once approved, the Geommetra hires the local trades and labour to get on with it.
The only picture I have at the moment is one taken from a phone camera that is pretty poor in quality. I’m return home in a few weeks and will gladly take some better pictures, upload and welcome all comments.
The building suppliers provide mostly stock traditional types. However, anything else can be ordered and delivered from one of the nearer larger cities.
I’m not too sure where to start first, should I start with the house and leave the landscaping to last or get the landscaping done first and just plod on with the house in my own time.
T
If you want to PM me your email address, I will gladly send you the picture I have.
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 1:20 pm
by lutonlagerlout
ancona is like the gateway to the adriatic,a bit like hull but without the glamour,
when i was there there was a riot by the communist party (remember in italy communism is still big)great fun watching that,we drove down to pescara and they had a festival of the sea,
5 euro a glass of wine and various tasters of sea stuff,as tumshie rightly says italians eat probably the best food in the world,
but you will never see pepper there let alone one of those 3 foot jobbies they have in this country,deep pan pizza?? no chance ,the base is like a fag paper in italy
i was talking to some brummie fella on monte conero and he had lived there a few years,he told me to remember 1 thing
he said " deep at heart italians are all robbing barstewards" he told me that to sell a second hand car you have to pay a local notario about £150 just to sign your log book,local taxes ? astronomical
so what he said was that because its such a rip off its ingrained in the national psyche to do fiddles
i can vouch for this,i had a pedicure and haircut in milan recently,the bill was 65 euro but the receipt only had 40 euro,when i questioned this the lady winked and said " soldi neri"
black money
:;):
FWIW tumshie i would get the house sorted first start at the top and work down
roof
plumbing
electric
plastering
decor
floor coverings last
then external finish
then get on with the out side if you have a pot left to p!ss in :;):
all the best
LLL
Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 9:00 am
by Rich H
Watching Grand Designs last night on More4 which followed a development somewhere in Puglia. They were covered by the 'Condone' system of planning whereby, every ten years, you can build with retrospective permission provided you are not adding more than 1% of buildings in proportion to the land. Provided you have an existing roof, you can build whatever you like provided the new buildings don't require a larger roof. This is based on aerial photo's. You have to do the build, take pictures of it and submit them in a specific time window. If you miss it, you have to wait another ten years before your next chance.
In the programme last night, the authorities moved the deadline forward a few weeks and the couple concerned, who were doing the build themselves, stacked concrete blocks in the shape of the new build in 12 hours and submitted photo's of that! They got the retrospective approval, took it all down again and then started the real build!
Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 6:00 pm
by lutonlagerlout
was that the nutter that had a 7k budget?
who cut all the stones himself to make arches?
i take my hat off to that fella he had cojones of steel
LLL
Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:16 pm
by Rich H
That's the fella. He had 16k to begin with and then the planners had him for 10k for the approval! Brought out loads of mates for working holidays to get it all done. Made formers and dressed stones which were lying around the land to build 17 arches. Top effort.
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 12:40 am
by matt h
sounds great.went to matera last year, and they were offering some goverment grant equal to half your rebuild costs if you were renovating an existing property..you only got the money when the job was completed though, as far as i could gather, and whatwith italian legal system being so slow, you would probably be ready for your box before you could complete the project, unless of course you knew whose palm to grease that is;)
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 12:10 pm
by Tumshie
Like most walks of life; it’s who you know not what you know. And they don’t hide the fact in Italy.
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 8:30 pm
by seanandruby
....Its not what you know, its not who you know, its what you know about who that can get you the best deals :;):
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:57 am
by Rich H
I thought it's who knows about what you know about who you know. Better get to work.