Annec's activity

my first port of call would be Stefano Lucozzi just past the Conad

Know what you mean Ken.  However it seems a waste not to re-use all that accumulated knowledge and my stock answer is that I WOULD do it again but only if I'd won millions on the Lotto!

Badger and Sagra Do your calculations produce "acceptable" warmth in every room in the house over the year?  What temp would that be by the way?? I ask because presumably most people don't heat up every room in the house in the same way.  If I can get intimate for a moment....I don't heat my bedroom in the UK at all except for a small De Longhi heater for 15 mins before I get into bed.  Can't see the point in having a radiator blasting away in there at all hours.  And I might put the heater on a timer to come on about 15 mins before I'm due to get up if it gets really cold. Ditto in Italy - we have stufa and underfloor in one large room  where we eat, sit and watch telly. Other than that I might turn on a radiator in the bedroom on for an hour before bed. I'm not trying to tell other people how to survive the cold, but am interested if your calcualtions take my situation into account. Ta A

Noone is ever going to make this forum be what they want it to be, with the possible exception of the "Nasty Brigade" who probably could put off everyone except their own kind if they chose to. So I don't see the point of complaining that there's not enough about Italian history, books, politics, culture (all of which I'd love to see more of but know isn't going to happen) A forum with that sort of content would have to be heavily moderated to stop it going off track, and (especially if politics or religion was the topic) to keep everyone on an even keel.  This old thing isn't moderated at all and is made up of a very disparate selection of people.  "It is what it is" - an annoying Americanism but pretty apt in this context

I reckon I learn one new thing a month on this forum, the latest being the existence of an itch zapper!  Not too bad a hit rate in my view

The one just outside Comunanza on the left going towards Pedaso is now called ElettroCasa!

Agree with Alan on bypassing Basel - we took his advice when we drove to italy and back in the summer. We stayed at the top of the Gotrthard Pass, but that will presumably be closed by the time you travel down On the way back we broke the journey for a day in Strasbourg - your 3-year-old might like the little tourist train that does a circuit of the old town.  Naf but actually great!

Sorry about the rubbish title, blame Monday morning.  Just to report that I have ordered a burgon and ball fork and spade from Capital Gardens www.capitalgardens.co.uk and they ship to Italy. I'm awaiting shipping costs but since my plan was to buy and ship myself this seems an easier alternative.

..we also have one horrible neighbour.  Fortunately he is not our immediate neighbour and anyway he has p++sed off everyone in the village over the years so his influence is zero.  Even so, his prescence leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, and he appears to have absolutely no problem with just standing outside your house and staring at you.

The Corpo Forestale can now fine you for damaging these trees - so emblematic are they of a former way of life.  An acquaintance had great difficulty getting permission to prune his - which of course actually does them good! Around our parts (S Marche), the girls used to pick the leaves and carry them in baskets on their heads (presumably to the silkworms who would be kept in a room in the house).  During the latter stages of the war, they would hide bread and other food under the leaves to take to Allied PoWs hiding out in the area