1350 living in a trullo

hello everyone.i have a couple of questions about living in a trullo.first-water.estate agents have told me that the water cistern underground which collects rain will provide more than enough water for a family of four with average demands if they want to reside in the trullo for about 8 weeks mainly during the warmer months.is this true and if not has anyone had to have water delivered by lorry and was that easy to arrange?the second query is heating.when i was looking at properties back in march,it was cold by southern italian standards and most local people were wearing coats.the trulli i saw were freezing inside and i could not wait to get outside to warm up.people say trulli are cool in summer and warm in winter-is this really true or are they difficult and expensive to heat .?

Category
Building/Renovation

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/15/2005 - 10:50

Regarding water supply - very easy to arrange, providing a small tanker can get to the property, and not expensive - around 20 to 30 Euros for 7000 litres, delivery same or next day.
Ensure cistern is sound and not leaking before you actually purchase, our first delivery of water vanished in 48 hours. Builder had to repair 5 large cracks and remove large root from olive tree growing into cistern. It was not particularly expensive to have the work done but it was very inconvienient.

John & Ronnie

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/15/2005 - 16:28

We are about to experience our first long time stay in a Trulli over winter. From past experience of short stays... yes it is cold (and damp) when you first arrive and there has been no heating on for a month or two but once the fires are lit and the doors and windows are not left open then it is very cosy. The degree of comfort is directly proportional to the amount you can afford to spend on heating.
During our visits last winter we had no electricity (we still don't, but that's another story) so we had to have our steel doors open all day to enable us to see around and once it got dark we would run our small generator for the inside lights, shut the doors, light the fire (logs and coal) in the living room and light our portable gas fire, moving it from bathroom to bedroom as required. We found this acceptable but not perfect. This year we have had wooden/glass doors fitted in front of the steel doors so now it is not dark inside during the day and we are bringing a log burning stove with us so we can leave the fire burning all night. We have got gas central heating but as of yet we have been unable to use it because of the lack of an electrical supply. I think the central heating will only be used for background heat ie low thermostat setting because of the cost of running it - see previous forum posts on this subject.
We hope to be able to report back next spring and say "nothing to worry about".

I think "cool in the summer, warm in the winter" in mainly a sales pitch from estate agents. This July the inside temperature of our Trulli varied from 75 - 85 degrees F but again it helps if the doors and windows are shut, this time to keep the heat out, but if there's a nice breeze blowing the last thing you want to do is shut all the windows. Yes it feels a lot cooler when you first go inside out of the hot summer sun but that feeling does not last long.

Hopefully someone who has spent a cold winter and a hot summer in a trulli with propper heating and electricity connected can comment on their experience.

hope this helps
John & Ronnie

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 09/26/2005 - 16:40

Whether you have sufficient water depends on the size of your tank and whether it is just for the house or you will be using it for the land as well. If it's a decent size (and not leaking etc) it should cover you for the 8 weeks you plan to stay.

We have found that our trulli is indeed cool inside during the heat of the day. As to "warm in winter", we're just about to find out. We've had gas central heating installed and are hoping it does it's job. Ask me in the spring!