Casa Monal's activity

  Good Luck with your building plans…certainly not for the faint hearted  Where in Liguria are you?

  I don’t understand your logic Fillide. Everyone has to pay ‘contributions’ whether self employed or in employment! An hourly rate should reflect the market conditions, skills, knowledge etc and not be based on tax rates or statutory contributions.  We live in the 3rd highest taxed country in the world, not just in Europe!  I am self employed. If I had to base my hourly rate on the tax rate and statutory contributions, I would be unemployed!

Thanks for suggested route Raggio.  As Cassini said a bit too off course for us  @Cassini…we were there at the end of April until the 15th May.  We had the odd nice sunny day but the temperature was ideal for walking.  We averaged 20km a day and we were never rained on… good timing on our part…or luck  Due to work commitments, we won’t be down again until end September. We are hoping that since spring was a month late that it will still be summer temperatures in September!  Let me know if you are still there at the end of September so we can arrange to meet up 

  Thanks Pat and Capo   Yes €12-16 per hour sounds about right and fair.

@Raggio – its about an extra 100km for us as well but we would rather travel the extra kilometres and keep moving then sit in a queue for hours at the Gotthard tunnel!  The Swiss vignette is relatively cheap in comparison to the toll costs though (€29 for the year).  If we use the Gotthard tunnel, the Italian tolls cost us €25 x 2 = €50 + €29 for Swiss vignette = €79.  If we had to travel the route we did in April it would cost us €60 x 2 = €120 + 29 = €149   We went direction Bern then Basal to cross into Germany. Thanks for the tip and link Cassini  I’ve just checked it and it is certainly one we will take in September.  We live about 15 kilometres from the German border.  But direction Brussels is just as easy for us. We often travel that direction to Calais to take the ferry or train to the UK. Are you ‘in residence’ now?  If so, I hope the weather is better. It was dismal in April when we were there.

Ryanair back into profit

  We are considering an alternative route through France the next time we drive down. Where do you live Raggio?  

Thanks for reply Cape Boi  Our apartment is in the province of Imperia, Liguria. The work would be done by ’unskilled labour’’ and not by the actual ‘qualified builder’ who would be project manager.  Yes we were shocked at a quote of €25 an hour for unskilled labour...totally unrealistic…I wonder where they get these figures from 

  Does anyone know what the going hourly rate is for ‘builders’  We have been quoted €25 per hour by a local builder to do some general maintenance and cosmetic repairs to our roof terrace.  We think €25 per hour is excessive! We would never accept a quote based on an hourly rate for obvious reasons, but still intrigued to know what the going rate is. Thanks

  You get what you pay for with Ryanair  They’re not always the cheapest though.  I have to go to Barcelona at the end of June and when I added up all their hidden charges, it was cheaper to go with one of the big boys