1856 encouragement required !

Hi Gary and Paola

Welcome to the forum and good luck if you do decide to make the move to Italy.

There are lots of people here who are better qualified to advise you regarding work opportunities in your field ... so I'll leave it to them. From reading posts on the forum however, I would think you'd be in with a chance as many people are looking for English speaking professionals to work on their properties.

Thank you Ladies for replying so quickly, I hope it's not a case of if I come but how soon I come to Italy, my wife is mother tongue fluent italian and I would not go hungry if left on my own.
My trade as a piastrelista is hopefully going to ease my passage to Italy and my wife as a barista would make the move less stressfull, please keep your messages coming, is www. casa.it a good site for finding properties or can you suggest another. Once again thanks for the response
Best wishes.

Gary & Paola

[QUOTE=gazzager]Thank you Ladies for replying so quickly, I hope it's not a case of if I come but how soon I come to Italy, my wife is mother tongue fluent italian and I would not go hungry if left on my own.
My trade as a piastrelista is hopefully going to ease my passage to Italy and my wife as a barista would make the move less stressfull, please keep your messages coming, is www. casa.it a good site for finding properties or can you suggest another. Once again thanks for the response
Best wishes.

Gary & Paola[/QUOTE]

As for finding a house, that would depend on what area you want to move to. In every area there are local agents that people on the forum will be happy to recommend. I expect however, that your preferred area will depend to a great extent on where most of your relatives are?

Now if you were thinking of moving to Puglia ... :D

Hello susan,
we had our honeymoon (2000) in apricena, puglia. we spent our days in torre mileto which was great, we sort of have a place there but won't be ours till an old aunt passes who lives in milano, don't really know if apricena is my kinda town it is however my wifes hometown through the family. I assume you live in brindisi, we have family in bari, should we consider bari as a possible. as I said we are willing to locate anywhere in italy, it's the life style we crave not a location. I know it might sound dumb founded but are we not all sick of the UK.

all the best.
Gary

...[url]www.buyahouse-italy.com[/url]
A lot of us have bought through them and been very satisfied with the service. :)

[QUOTE=Aliena]Ciao Gary e Paola

I agree with Susan - you would be in with a chance - a good one. Remember.. you could always learn italian as well.. I'm sure it wouldn't be long before you were up and running..[/QUOTE]

In agreement too!

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]...[url]www.buyahouse-italy.com[/url]
A lot of us have bought through them and been very satisfied with the service. :)[/QUOTE]

[url]www.interitalia.biz[/url] (for Puglia)

[QUOTE=gazzager] well I just need to know that I could find work hopefully as a english speaking tiler within the many brits already there. Do you guys need someone like me out there ?

Many thanks,

Gary & Paola[/QUOTE]

Well in case you do not find enough work among the English speaking community and have to rely on some of your work from the Italian community: here is an insight of the trade in the Val Dorcia area of Tuscany. To screed the floor “massetto” you would expect to charge around 12 Euros per square metre. As you know the “masseto” is around 5 cm high and is required to cover pipes and to bring the finished room height to building regulations requirements. The charge for tiling is between 15 and 22 Euros per square metre depending on the complexity of the pattern. To tile or put Travertino on the stairs and to finish skirting, tilers charge by the hour (approximately 20 Euros). Tilers are normally expected to do damp-proofing work (if required) prior to external tiling. A gang of 4 tilers would normally work together to finish a villa. A pair of tilers would be sufficient to finish a flat. A single-handed tiler would normally work on relatively small jobs where there are no time constraints.

I am sorry to have strayed away from your original point. I hope you find the information useful.

Good Luck!!

Thanks Serge, all your information is very useful. you seem to know a lot about it,are you a builder in tuscany.
As I speak some italian, I realise that when it comes to technical jargon regarding tiling then I would be lost, so think it would be best to start serving the brits until I master the language regarding tiling.
I have thought that tuscany would be an ideal location but have to consider if I would be better in one of the other regions where cost of property is still cheaper than the UK.
Please keep your information coming and if you know an english speaking builder who requires a tiler then I would appreciate it.
It may also be of interest that my specialised field is restoring old floors, we call it terrazzo tiles in UK but I think italians call it veneziano, it's the tiles that are found in most old italian homes made from small marble chippings and cement.
Once again many thanks

Gary

Gary,

I am italian, my name is Paola and I married a Scottish guy!

We live in Glasgow.

Let me know if you need any advices!!!

Paola

Hi Paola,
thank you for offering to advise me, could you possibly give me information regarding my trade as a restorer of old floors and if there is a requirement in Italy for this service and do you know the name used to describe the flooring that we call in UK ; terrazzo tiling, here it is very different to ceramic flooring and a totally different job but I get the impression it's not the case in Italy.
hope you can help on these issues.

Regards.

Gary.

can you put some photos up on this site? to show an example of your work?

Hi, sorry I don't have photos of my work as I am working on mainly commercial projects at the moment, I have been fitting and restoring terrazzo and marble floors all over the UK for 16 years now, I was given the job of fitting out the Spanish Embassy ( belgrave sq ) in marble around 10 years ago.
so my tasks are wide and varied, if you need advice regarding flooring then please ask I wil do my best to help.

kind regards,

Gary & Paola

Hello Gary

In my limited experience (Tuscany) - UK builders in Italy who cater for the English-speaking market tend to have so much work they can't resist the temptation to jack up their prices way out of line with what local tradespeople would charge local people. Anyone who doesn't speak much Italian seems to be too worried about the chances of something going wrong through misunderstandings to nose out locals who can be much cheaper.

On the one hand, I suppose this is a good business situation for someone contemplating going out to Italy. On the other, it would be nice to think Brits abroad would think twice before taking their compatriots to the proverbial cleaners.

Best of luck with your move - I'm sure you won't regret it.

Mike

Hi Mike, by the response I have had it seems I can't go wrong, it's now a case of deciding which area to settle in. Will rent for 6 months and then buy so not to rush in. I will keep you all informed as to my plans.

Many thanks.

Gary & Paola

In Italian Terrazzo Tiling is called graniglia. It was very popular after WWII, but its coming back in fashion now, you can have a look on the internet.

There is for sure a demand for this kind of specialism, I am not quite sure how easy it would be to find your market....
it also depends on which part of italy were you tinking of moving to!

Paola