2238 We just love Sicily!

Hello and happy new year to all members that may read this thread.

We have been travelling to Sicily for many years and are hoping to complete on the purchase of a small house in Saint Alfio 'on' Mount Etna early this year. It has only taken about 15 months of Italian bureaucracy so far!! hey but it will be worth it. We have actually been fortunate to carry out the vendemmia (grape harvest) the last two years and are slowly transporting the 500 litres back to the UK. (last flight home - 20 litres of wine and hardly any clothes in our cases!)

We love the Island, the people and the general passion that the locals have for life, and hope that some of this rubs off onto us.

Looking forward to our next trip out to Sicily.

Category
Introduce Yourself - Piacere Conoscerti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 01/01/2006 - 14:43

Hi,
We are excited to see your views on Sicily as we are moving there for 8 months form Sept. We are a family of 5 and we will be house-swapping with a another family of 5. We'll be living near Nicolosi - any advice would be much appreciated especially about opening bank accounts, sending clothes out i.e if we want more than baggage allowance will allow.
Hope to hear from you,
Boun Anno,
Jasmine

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 01/01/2006 - 15:14

Sounds really great, we are jealous. Have you got jobs etc already sorted?

Our aim is also to be living in Sicily hopefully by the end of 2006. I have an aunt who has lived in Giarre not too far from Nicolosi for the last 15 years or so and absolutely loves it. We try to visit 3 or 4 times a year if funds allow and have such a hectic time when we are there!

In terms of setting up bank accounts etc, you will need a 'codice fiscale' which is like a National Insurance and Tax code. We got ours from the 'Ministero Dell Economia e delle finanze' office in Giarre. If I remember we filled out a form and had to supply passports etc for proof of id. This code is then used in aspects such as legal documentation for house purchases etc..

Hope this helps, keep us informed of your progress.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 01/02/2006 - 12:34

Andrew and Carla
How did you transport your wine back to the UK - I put my olive oil in plastic bottles and take it as hand luggage each time I make a visit - I know I should't put olive oil in plastic thanks to this forum but daren't put it in the cases

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 01/02/2006 - 17:54

Yes the transporting of wine is always a little 'hairy'. We bought 5 litre plastic demijohns from a local garden centre that supply all wine making eqpt. They were very tough once filled with the wine and we padded out our holdall as much as possible.
The main issue the time before last was a call over the tannoy in Catania airport to go to the security desk!! I was really worried and was escorted behind the luggage handling areas by two staff and asked to open my case and explain the suspicious contents. It contained 3 x 5 litre containers with a special preservative tablet floating in each one. This must have looked really quite interesting on the x ray machines. Once I explained about the fact that I had made the wine from our own grapes they were really nice and wished me luck...All arrived back in one piece and was then de-canted into bottles once at home in the uk.

The last time we carried them in the 5 ltr water containers that most people buy their 'farm' wines in. Again they went into the hold and survived. Just a shame that we are restricted by the weight allowance so our 20 odd litres each time are drunk very sparingly.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/03/2006 - 14:04

not to do with wine but I had to laugh at your experience with the special tannoy annoucement and going behind the lines to explain suitcase contents - my 16 year old son was very much into Roman weapons and bought a particularly impressive sword from a specialist in Rome which insisted there would be no problems with customs - my husband found out differently when taken onto the tarmac at Ciampino to explain the content of our suitcase - the major worry seemed to be that the Italian officials were worried that the UK officials would think they hadn't been doing their job properly. The upside is that,after a lot of discussion, they let the sword through and now hubbie is now on talking terms with one of the head security officers at Ciampino