I travelled via Belgium last week and decided to stay overnight at Dinant, where I have stayed previously and found to be marginally less bad than most towns in Belgium.To anyone contemplating a similar stop - don't.The whole of the town is being
At La Dolce Vita exhibition at Olympia this year I bought a jar of garlic cloves preserved in a pizzaiola type oil and vinegar mixture.It is just amazing for snacking, the whole cloves are really crunchy with a fairly mild flavour of the garlic an
I need to buy a tyre for my car. I googled all the usual words but came up with nothing. Back in UK I would simply go to Kwikfit, or ATS etc and it would be done on the spot.
Does anybody have a contact for a sun blind maker?Think of a conventional, rather old-fashioned roller blind with the roller fixed at the top of the window and the blind hanging vertically down.
We use Autan to prevent and it works as well as you could hope for. For bite treatment I use a piezo zapper (called Zapperclick). You self-administer maybe a dozen small electric shocks to the bite itself and it immediately stops troubling you. I kid you not, it's amazing. If you are in the UK, Sainsburys sell them, or you can get one from Amazon. Terry
If you intend to apply for residency, there is absolutely nothing to gain from delaying. It seems many people think "there's no rush, I've got 18 months" but bear in mind that until your application is in, you are considered non-resident so, for example, you each have to pay ICI tax. In our case (yes, we delayed ) that came to several hundred euros over the 18 months, quite apart from the panic that set in when we thought we were not going to meet the deadline to avoid the extra IVA. Terry
Seems to me people have widely different experiences depending on comune requirements, so I would simply say ask your comune what they want, then provide it. My experience was that the comune had expected me to contract out of the NHS and into the Italian system through the E Form system (E121 in my case, as we are retired). We chose to not do that, so had to provide evidence of private cover. Our local insurance agent found a policy for about Euro 900 - which we think reasonable for two oldies (so please don't tell me we got ripped off ) - which we then presented to the comune. They didn't query what it covered (nor did we) but were happy they could tick the appropriate box and that was that. We won't continue the policy as I still don't know what it covers, and we do have cover elsewhere. So it all depends on what you want your health cover for - just to get residency, or to cover your health as well. Terry
There are lots of previous threads on buying cars, which you might like to check out. As non-residents, you can only buy a brand new car in Italy, and then only if you have the right paperwork. I would first check out with the Embassy what they think that paperwork is, then contact a dealer for your choice of car and get him to agree to the purchase on the basis of that paperwork. Subaru are fairly well represented here - about the same as in UK - which may be a lot less than you are used to in Oz. Tuscany should have all the world's cars represented so no particular reason to stick to Italian. Diesel definitely as diesel cars are more popular in Europe (think resale) and diesel costs a lot less than petrol. And I recommend you start saving now for your insurance Terry
If you have a known and ongoing requirement for euros, the sensible way is to buy some whenever you believe the rate is not too bad (like now) - even though you don't necessarily believe it won't get better next week, month, etc. That way you build up a fund to cover your outgoings during the times when you think the rate is really bad. If you try to second-guess the exact point to pounce and change all your money in one go, you are what is known as a currency speculator. In other words, do as I say, not as I do .
In case Raggio's post puts anybody off using the great route via Basel and Gotthard, the way to avoid queues is to not travel at the weekend. If you absolutely must travel at the weekend, then Gotthard will be hell, but midweek it's a breeze. And if there's a queue for the tunnel, you can use the Pass.
There are regular trains from Varenna to Lecco, where you change for Bergamo. From Bergamo station there is a shuttle bus to the airport. I'm sure there will also be a good bus service from Varenna to Lecco as well if you prefer. Terry
..........I have flown Ryan several times and have only ever had really good experiences. Admittedly I never check any luggage and always check in online. And they have the most modern fleet of all airlines, which is nice. The queue system used to be part of the Easyjet experience at Malpensa, but they have now sorted it out. However, priority boarding still means you get to board the bus first, rather than the 'plane. I still prefer to drive to and from Italy/UK.
Nothing worse than arriving somewhere stinking of petrol having filled the tank, that is after being poisoned by the fumes coming from the petrol pump!! A new Shell station opened just along the road from me. Instead of having a general shop as most do, it has a full bar. So you drive to the filling station, get tanked up and drive home. Brilliant. But of course you can't smoke in a bar, so they have chairs out front - next to the petrol pumps - where all the smokers congregate. Only in Italy! TK
Comments posted
We use Autan to prevent and it works as well as you could hope for. For bite treatment I use a piezo zapper (called Zapperclick). You self-administer maybe a dozen small electric shocks to the bite itself and it immediately stops troubling you. I kid you not, it's amazing. If you are in the UK, Sainsburys sell them, or you can get one from Amazon. Terry
......is here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAg0lUYHHFc
If you intend to apply for residency, there is absolutely nothing to gain from delaying. It seems many people think "there's no rush, I've got 18 months" but bear in mind that until your application is in, you are considered non-resident so, for example, you each have to pay ICI tax. In our case (yes, we delayed
) that came to several hundred euros over the 18 months, quite apart from the panic that set in when we thought we were not going to meet the deadline to avoid the extra IVA. Terry
Seems to me people have widely different experiences depending on comune requirements, so I would simply say ask your comune what they want, then provide it. My experience was that the comune had expected me to contract out of the NHS and into the Italian system through the E Form system (E121 in my case, as we are retired). We chose to not do that, so had to provide evidence of private cover. Our local insurance agent found a policy for about Euro 900 - which we think reasonable for two oldies (so please don't tell me we got ripped off
) - which we then presented to the comune. They didn't query what it covered (nor did we) but were happy they could tick the appropriate box and that was that. We won't continue the policy as I still don't know what it covers, and we do have cover elsewhere. So it all depends on what you want your health cover for - just to get residency, or to cover your health as well. Terry
There are lots of previous threads on buying cars, which you might like to check out. As non-residents, you can only buy a brand new car in Italy, and then only if you have the right paperwork. I would first check out with the Embassy what they think that paperwork is, then contact a dealer for your choice of car and get him to agree to the purchase on the basis of that paperwork. Subaru are fairly well represented here - about the same as in UK - which may be a lot less than you are used to in Oz. Tuscany should have all the world's cars represented so no particular reason to stick to Italian. Diesel definitely as diesel cars are more popular in Europe (think resale) and diesel costs a lot less than petrol. And I recommend you start saving now for your insurance
Terry
If you have a known and ongoing requirement for euros, the sensible way is to buy some whenever you believe the rate is not too bad (like now) - even though you don't necessarily believe it won't get better next week, month, etc. That way you build up a fund to cover your outgoings during the times when you think the rate is really bad. If you try to second-guess the exact point to pounce and change all your money in one go, you are what is known as a currency speculator. In other words, do as I say, not as I do
.
In case Raggio's post puts anybody off using the great route via Basel and Gotthard, the way to avoid queues is to not travel at the weekend. If you absolutely must travel at the weekend, then Gotthard will be hell, but midweek it's a breeze. And if there's a queue for the tunnel, you can use the Pass.
There are regular trains from Varenna to Lecco, where you change for Bergamo. From Bergamo station there is a shuttle bus to the airport. I'm sure there will also be a good bus service from Varenna to Lecco as well if you prefer. Terry
..........I have flown Ryan several times and have only ever had really good experiences. Admittedly I never check any luggage and always check in online. And they have the most modern fleet of all airlines, which is nice. The queue system used to be part of the Easyjet experience at Malpensa, but they have now sorted it out. However, priority boarding still means you get to board the bus first, rather than the 'plane. I still prefer to drive to and from Italy/UK.
Nothing worse than arriving somewhere stinking of petrol having filled the tank, that is after being poisoned by the fumes coming from the petrol pump!! A new Shell station opened just along the road from me. Instead of having a general shop as most do, it has a full bar. So you drive to the filling station, get tanked up and drive home. Brilliant. But of course you can't smoke in a bar, so they have chairs out front - next to the petrol pumps - where all the smokers congregate. Only in Italy! TK