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.
Ugo's link led me to an interactive map which I was able to click on to show all the best bits of whichever region you chose to click on. Which I thought was pretty good in context with the OP's post, so thanks to Ugo. Now maybe because I'm not into the crap that goes on behind the fake names and mutiple personae of this site, but I found it really useful, as I guess most visitors here would do as well. And because I don't know, and am not interested, in what Ugo (or anyone else here) does for a living, I fail to see why an otherwise informative thread should lapse into childish back-biting between the "regulars". OK, call me old-fashioned, but.............
Sounds really good, but my eco-input consists of easing the throttle back to improve my boat's petrol consumption to as much as 4 mpg . I'm not sure Tribewanted were aware of this when they suggested I join their commune! TK
After all the hype and "you simply must do Florence dahling" I have to say I've been singularly unimpressed by the place. I guess there's only so much religious artifact one's system can absorb before resistance sets in. The Uffizi is the acme of tedium, a museum, not a gallery, just room after room of dreary religious paintings ad nauseam (the odd Titian excepted). To me the city doesn't feel natural - it's as if Disney had something to do with it. And parking is a nightmare. There, I've said it - I feel better already . TK
I came across this from a recruitment email sent to me from "Tribewanted". Some may remember a few years ago a young chap set up a self-sustaining commune on an isolated island near Fiji. There was a television documentary at the time when he seemed to be in some difficulties, financially and otherwise. It seems though, that they have succeeded, as they have another commune going in Sierra Leone and are now trying Italy - which seems somewhat out of context with the first two, as it is a bit of a tree-hugging setup as far as I can tell. Tribewanted's mission statement is "to build sustainable communities in amazing places that benefit locals and visiting members; inspiring positive change within and far beyond the village". From what you describe, it rather looks as though your enterprising man in Monestevole may have his eye on the main chance in latching on to it! Terry
Ram, that's really useful to know. I had thought you needed to have residency for 5 years otherwise you would pay back the tax saving. In other words, no matter how you bought the house, it would be considered seconda casa until you got residency. It certainly was that way for ICI. I'm certainly not intending to sell my little bit of Italian heaven, so it sounds like it's of no account. But residency may no longer be attractive, which is a shame as residency does give a nice feeling of "belonging". Terry
If you are using the Brenner to avoid Switzerland, I can highly recommend Merano in the sudtirol. It's Italy, but quintessentially Tyrolean. Apparently just over 50% of people speak German as their first language. If you want to stopover there, I have good recommendations for an hotel and a restaurant. And if you had a spare hour to visit the castle gardens, that's well worthwhile. TK
We must be blessed as when we went to the comune to ask about it, they simply printed out our forms (already filled in) with bill attached, to be paid at the post office. Took all of 2 minutes. Trouble is we have to be in UK the whole of December so we'll soon see how they treat late payers.
What I really objected to (in a light and humorous sense obviously in case I get spat at) was that she puts Brits and Americans together as being similar, lord preserve us. If I ever come across as being similar to Americans abroad, will someone please tell me.
It's also hard for a Brit to grasp that the Allies - Britain, USA, Canada, Poland, France (incl Morocco) - did far more damage to Italy - in "liberating" Italy - than Axis ever did. Not that I'm suggesting the liberation was ever regretted, but for the ordinary people, the war in Italy post-armistice must have been hell, particularly as the Allies were "liberating" a former enemy. There is good reading available.
Comments posted
Fillide - glad to see we agree - you just put it so much better than me
Ugo's link led me to an interactive map which I was able to click on to show all the best bits of whichever region you chose to click on. Which I thought was pretty good in context with the OP's post, so thanks to Ugo. Now maybe because I'm not into the crap that goes on behind the fake names and mutiple personae of this site, but I found it really useful, as I guess most visitors here would do as well. And because I don't know, and am not interested, in what Ugo (or anyone else here) does for a living, I fail to see why an otherwise informative thread should lapse into childish back-biting between the "regulars". OK, call me old-fashioned, but.............
Sounds really good, but my eco-input consists of easing the throttle back to improve my boat's petrol consumption to as much as 4 mpg
. I'm not sure Tribewanted were aware of this when they suggested I join their commune! TK
After all the hype and "you simply must do Florence dahling" I have to say I've been singularly unimpressed by the place. I guess there's only so much religious artifact one's system can absorb before resistance sets in. The Uffizi is the acme of tedium, a museum, not a gallery, just room after room of dreary religious paintings ad nauseam (the odd Titian excepted). To me the city doesn't feel natural - it's as if Disney had something to do with it. And parking is a nightmare. There, I've said it - I feel better already
. TK
I came across this from a recruitment email sent to me from "Tribewanted". Some may remember a few years ago a young chap set up a self-sustaining commune on an isolated island near Fiji. There was a television documentary at the time when he seemed to be in some difficulties, financially and otherwise. It seems though, that they have succeeded, as they have another commune going in Sierra Leone and are now trying Italy - which seems somewhat out of context with the first two, as it is a bit of a tree-hugging setup as far as I can tell. Tribewanted's mission statement is "to build sustainable communities in amazing places that benefit locals and visiting members; inspiring positive change within and far beyond the village". From what you describe, it rather looks as though your enterprising man in Monestevole may have his eye on the main chance in latching on to it! Terry
Ram, that's really useful to know. I had thought you needed to have residency for 5 years otherwise you would pay back the tax saving. In other words, no matter how you bought the house, it would be considered seconda casa until you got residency. It certainly was that way for ICI. I'm certainly not intending to sell my little bit of Italian heaven, so it sounds like it's of no account. But residency may no longer be attractive, which is a shame as residency does give a nice feeling of "belonging". Terry
If you are using the Brenner to avoid Switzerland, I can highly recommend Merano in the sudtirol. It's Italy, but quintessentially Tyrolean. Apparently just over 50% of people speak German as their first language. If you want to stopover there, I have good recommendations for an hotel and a restaurant. And if you had a spare hour to visit the castle gardens, that's well worthwhile. TK
We must be blessed as when we went to the comune to ask about it, they simply printed out our forms (already filled in) with bill attached, to be paid at the post office. Took all of 2 minutes. Trouble is we have to be in UK the whole of December so we'll soon see how they treat late payers.
What I really objected to (in a light and humorous sense obviously in case I get spat at
) was that she puts Brits and Americans together as being similar, lord preserve us. If I ever come across as being similar to Americans abroad, will someone please tell me.
It's also hard for a Brit to grasp that the Allies - Britain, USA, Canada, Poland, France (incl Morocco) - did far more damage to Italy - in "liberating" Italy - than Axis ever did. Not that I'm suggesting the liberation was ever regretted, but for the ordinary people, the war in Italy post-armistice must have been hell, particularly as the Allies were "liberating" a former enemy. There is good reading available.