911 reclamation

Welcome to Italy, there are a shortage of antique shops, car boots etc., BUT, we have some active members from your neck of the woods who will offer help, I'm sure (those, chairs, are they painted, or, just have ears missing?? :) )

Hi,
following on a similar theme, does Italy ( puglia in particular) have Auction rooms like we have in the UK.

Before we moved out here, I got some amazing bargains at UK auction rooms on Wooden Garden Furniture and several other things. (we used a removal company to bring most of our Uk stuff so got it all here OK).

I'd love to replace some of my 'old' stuff with Italian furniture as time goes on, but cannot afford the prices in the 'flash ' shops.

[QUOTE=Shiv]we have just bought a house (a.k.a. rat infested hovel) in Abruzzo. Having renovated a few properties in the UK, one of the most enjoyable parts of this for us is rumaging around junk shops, car boots (and Depot Vans and similar on trip sto France). Am I to find similare things in Abruzzo? - My initial enquiries in the area of where to find old building materials and housey kitchen implements and furniture drew blank looks.

Many of the houses we looked at had those gorgeos Van Gogh type chairs - surely there must be a warehouse with these things in somewhere in Abruzzo. Anyone come across any reclamation yards or the like?[/QUOTE]

We have put one of these in several bedrooms they were carefully restored...but we found them next to the rubbish bins along a main road..there's no real market for that sort of thing here...don't forget the dream is british...we just live here
you may find some second hand type shops but the stuff is usually a bit tacky and mostly bought to furnish student flats or by albanians & c°
in any case antique things in general are very expensive in italy and many people buy uk antique and old things as they're considered buon mercato in italy.Most good builders merchants periodically have pallets of old tiles/ or bricks etc till someone buys them they're not hard to find just more expensive than the brand new stuff.We got what we required like this from a normal merchants locally.no one is giving them away and even private people know their value and will charge accordingly so it doesn't represent saving quite the contrary.

Just thought, if you look around for "Fallimenti" stores, they sell bankrupt stock, end of lines etc., you can often find bargains there.

I have spent a lot of time at my local auction rooms with "furnishing my house in Italy" as an excuse

I've got some real bargains (unused and really not that offensive sofabed for £5) and got carried away with other stuff. It seems to me that English country oak furniture (think I've just made up a new category of antique) should go very well in an old marchigiana farmhouse.

Of course these things don't look quite such a bargain when you have to pay to transport them. I've decided to allow myself one more auction of big furniture, then transport what I've got and only buy small stuff I can tuck under my arm in the future

Sounds like there might be a market for English auction room furniture in Italy - even with the mark-up for getting it there. Anyone want to indulge me and be the Italian end of a partnership??

There is a store in Teramo called Mercatino ([url]http://mercatinousato.com/[/url]) that I believe is right up your alley. Used stuff for all of your rooms.
Casale in Abruzzo
[url]http://www.angelfire.com/film/casale[/url]

No Italian Auction rooms then ?

.... the store stefano mentioned is the biggest here in teramo.... there is also another smaller one in teramo at the commercial site where Cityper is located... near st nicola.... its smaller and there is more modern junk ...but they often have some older furniture at good prices.... the city of teramo also has sunday markets at irregular times.... if you go onto the cities web site you will find info on markets i am sure.... because i cannot remember the dates ... of which half the market is only antique sales .... the other option is to look at the large number of second hand sale newspapers... each area has its own local paper... and sections on furniture...

Where I live there is a small local dump where you can take all your bulky stuff - I usually go there to find "treasures" - It's only open on Saturday mornings from 8 - 9:30 or something like that.
There are usually a few interesting things - old nightstands, tables,ect.

[QUOTE=Shiv]we have just bought a house (a.k.a. rat infested hovel) in Abruzzo. Having renovated a few properties in the UK, one of the most enjoyable parts of this for us is rumaging around junk shops, car boots (and Depot Vans and similar on trip sto France). Am I to find similare things in Abruzzo? - My initial enquiries in the area of where to find old building materials and housey kitchen implements and furniture drew blank looks.

Many of the houses we looked at had those gorgeos Van Gogh type chairs - surely there must be a warehouse with these things in somewhere in Abruzzo. Anyone come across any reclamation yards or the like?[/QUOTE]

Thanks for all the replies – should give me something to get my teeth into next time we pay a visit – yes I know I should be pulling up the floors and blocking in the windows so the weather can’t get in over the winter but its much more fun rummaging for old stuff.

Just a thought – If vintage is difficult to find and transporting from UK prohibitive (she says with a growing mountain of English finds to take over to Italy knowing that I now actually need 3 italian homes to house all of these finds), perhaps it would be worth taking a van or car and trailer over into France for a little foray?

Annac – yes there must be an opportunity and I might consider your offer other than I cant see us getting to Italy for at least 18months due to my procrastination over actually getting some of the work done on the house!