sebastiano's activity

we did not ask for permission from our comune we just informed them and repaired the road following the electric trench digging...later on we dug across the road again with our water line and again we simply informed them it is best to if you happen to dig up an all be it very minor road you will be expected to repair any damage.if you are not crossing roads or other people's property then just get on with it and no you certainly will not require a geometra to do this more like a man with an excavator and a plumber afterwards

hi,we had a vinyard about that size.two years ago i got the excavators in to dig them up.As a word of warning i would definitely NOT ask a neighbouring farmer to make the wine.The vast majority of farmers do not make good wine this is a fact not an opinion.Usually in a pretty unsalubrious cantina of sorts using dirty old utensils..mixing and "pottering" about..often rule of thumb additions of sulphites..or fermentation inducing yeasts..old barrels/containers often just rinsed out rather than properly cleaned can mean that even good quality grapes can be transformed into a hard rough sulphur smelling plonk.to acheive a good plantation it would certainly be worth having a brief consultancy with an agronomo specialized in wines/vinyards.to make soil checks to ascertain if it's worth it in the first place,the best field postioning of the vines,the most advisable grapes to plant.If you use wooden poles these would need to be hard wood or of good quality and have a section treated with asphalt to prevent them rotting.the posts would require boring holes to be aligned to permit the running of steel wires ending on a reel to permit the lines to be tightened periodically.Cement posts can be used but tend to be used less and less (a bump by a necessary tractor can easily fragment them)Vines do require specific fertilization but usually once per annum is sufficient.During the spring summer season they require a lot of work,cutting off of excess growth and constant tying up,grass cutting around the vines has to be done carefully by hand (strimmer)whilst in the pathways (made wide enough for tractor access) can be cut by a flail mower attached to the tractor.As soon as tiny "buds" of grapes appear it is vital that the vines are treated with dry sulphur in powder form (on the future bunches) to inhibit grape mould,this may have to be repeated depending on the weather etc.Once the grapes have seriously formed they'll require treatment with copper sulphate mix nowadays generally available in a generic powder form to disolve in water that must be sprayed on the grapes and leaves(grass cutting and the tying up of the vines is still ongoing in this period just as the bordolaise mix will also be repeated also dependent on weather conditions thru to september/october.The harvest is the "easiest"bit but in order to obtain quality over quantity it will be necessary in the period prior to harvesting to remove a good number of bunches especially any damaged ones,moulded.eaten by birds/insects/animals and to strengthen the remaining bunches.before creating a vine it would be really essential to have a suitably sized outbuilding without spiders and mud floors preferably tiled with stainless steel bins(the cost depends on size big ones obviously quite expensive),for good quality wines/special wines etc some even second hand oak barrels (from a good professional winery who use them only for two or three years) you could get them at Euro 200/300 each.you'd need a press for the grapes,and a length of specific tubing so that the pressed mulch passes from the press to the bins etc.The vines them selves are not particularly expensive but important to get good ones well grafted and obviously of the right type/quality,the planting would require all the posts,wires,an excavator,and would be all together a few thousand with the planting,important that a tractor can circumnavigate the vines so you'd need to leave ample space between and at the ends of the rows for turning,a tractor for that size of vinyard is necessary,you'd also require a hydraulic pump for the spraying treatments,probably between 60>100 large plastic bins for the collection of the grapes,the tubing as mentioned,reams of rubberized cord for tying up the vines.IF you get someone in to do all this for you (if you can find somebody)it is essential they they actually know what they're doing,that they can actually do it (it's just rained again got to get up there to spray sulphites again)it would be a lot of work.Bear in mind that there is (perhaps surprisingly) very little money in non professional vines/wine making in other words you would get very little for just selling on your grapes,the work on the vines is more than the crop's worth in other words.worth thinking about very carefully indeed....anyway just friendly advice(i got the t-shirt) 

From new a vehicle has 4 yrs life before it's first revisione is due..then, usually at a fixed charge of about Euro 60,. in an authorized center the car is tested etc. You then receive from the local motorization office an adhesive strip which you must apply on the vehicle's log book in the appropriate space..that is the ONLY way/system when the police ask for the car's log book thats the first thing they check.IF you're bringing into/importing a used italian vehicle over 4 yrs old it should have one or more (depending on it's age) of these on the log book already...if not...i guess the only way would be to get it done in Italy BEFORE bringing it into another country.

most of all the above is true.Personally i always drive thru Germany not only or because there are no tolls but because of that there are many exits which allows one to break the journey very easily and stay in very clean reasonably priced hotels/gasthaus etc.Plus if they're not digging up the autobahns again one can drive very fast on numerous parts of the motorway which i like. 

hi,we considered windows,given that we have many a fundamental.We wanted to remain as close as possible at least in style and aspect to the original windows.We chose wood but went for hard wood and used mahogoney.extra strong double glazed glass ,wooden internal shutters,no external shutters that are expensive and require maintenance.Our wooden windows apart from an annual "wipe" with oil have not required any form of maintenance whatsoever in fifteen years!.We also discovered that the abolutely essential fly screens have,besides protecting the inside from flies,wasps,hornets,bees,birds,bats,butterflies,moths,flying beetles,spiders have also contributed to protecting the wood from the rain when it's horizontal,snow,ice,and full sun.I'd suggest wood,get double glazing and fly screens and internal shutters included in your estimate.Go to a reputable local copmpany making these (they're in every area) don't bother with carpenters they take a life time,cost more are unwilling to give proper receipts/invoices (hence guarantee on the work) and i trust laser measuring more than artisans eyes!

we too have this problem.First our computer technician brought the above mentioned objects but that didn't solve the problem,so we told him to take them away.Then we called in a company they even came from far off Bologna saying they had the solution a sort of antenna like a laser stick from star wars, that didn't solve it either.The consensus is that the only answer is to run cabling to every single room in which wi-fi is required...the problem with that is that our electrician is in a fifties mind set and has put tubing too small into the walls which is already full of lighting and plug wires so there is no room left for the required cable.Although it pisses me off it looks like the only solution will be to run the cabling externally....

you may well get conflicting information however,as a business we had to take out third party insurance for guests etc on that occasion i asked my agent who is also a friend about house content insurance.He asked me if we had any important items in the house eg. expensive jewelry,icons,important paintings,objects of high value eg, antiques, and the like.When i replied that we did not his advice was not to bother with contents insurance the cost of which outweighed any particular benefits.This was not the first time i'd been told this.Fortunately we live in a country where theft of PC's,televisions and similar is negligable .of course we have insurance on the building flood/fire etc.The friend/agent represents Allianz  the giant german insurance group btw.All insurance policies in Italy are about twenty pages of tiny text, i have never read one nor will i.it's really not worth the time.it might indeed be worth trusting your banks suggestion.as solutions all appear very similar in the end.unless things have changed (recently) you will not get earthquake insurance in Italy but ,apparently, you can with Lloyds in London. 

Actually..i'm rather suprised at the replies.Would you feel like this if you had bought this house in the UK,U.S.A.,Germany,France...etc?...if you don't care about the table...let him take it away...if you like it..keep ittoday it's the table..tomorrow maybe he'll fancy something else..it is not a "cultural" story and if your "friendship" depends on the ease with which you can be "blackmailed".. you did yourself point out that if he liked the table why didn't he take it away when he sold you the house.We had a slightly similar situation years ago in Milano when we bought an appartment which contained a few pieces of very interesting furniture which were left.Then, a year later the previous owner had decided he'd quite like them again! we did not give him the furniture.

the tolls would be nothing against the lost time and increased petrol costs of trying to do it on non toll roads,not to mention the increased danger of local traffic pottering about,tractors.harvestors etc...the toll from como-chiasso at the frontier with switzerland to Pisa would probably work out around E.50. each way.Off the motorway you might even have to break the journey overnight which already eats up the toll costs.................

hi,yes we often make our own bread and often use speltflour ( farina di farro) instead of wheat.In most supermarkets you can now get a wide range of flours including ones that do not contain glutens it is not a problem...However reading again your post it wasn't clear if you wanted to find bread ready made without gluten grain flours because whilst most bakers know about it they make very little or only on request as there is little or no demand for it.If on the other hand you want to make it yourself you should have no difficulty whatsoever.we live in a fairly remote rural area but one can find these things without difficulty.