jepsonclough's activity

Questions Asked

Does anyone know of an English speaking doctor and dentist in the Amandola area?  We are jsut preparing information for guests renting our house and realised that it woudl be useful to put in contact details.  The pharamcist at Monte San Martino s

Fri, 05/28/2010 - 05:59

The Good Food Channel (Sky 249, Virgin 260) are currently showing a new series where Gary Rhodes travels to nine regions of Italy (Lazio, Sicily, Campania, Tuscany, Le Marche, Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Piedmont and Veneto)

Fri, 01/22/2010 - 04:26

Think this is going to take some getting used to - probably much more functionality but at the moment there doesn't seem to be a structure - while structure can be restrincting (eg all the sniping on the forum about setting up new topics) it does

Sun, 05/17/2009 - 08:48

Comments posted

Sat, 10/17/2009 - 19:55

We have a pool at our hous ein Le Marche and went for a sand coloured liner as we think the blue loooks too artificial.  I understand from the guy who did our pool that this sort is allowed in Tuscany.  If I can work out how to do it I will post a photo.  It is otherwise a normal pool with chlorine and filters.Chris

Sat, 10/17/2009 - 09:36

taxes are standard across uk but fees (which is what you pay to the airport ) vary depending on the airport, how well the airline has negotiated (which explains why the low cost carriers at big airports are at the furthest gate or in a satellite terminal). Hence the difference iwth different airlines and airports. Chris

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 18:27

... bit further than Ancona but preferable to Rome.  Oh well we dream...Chris

Tue, 10/13/2009 - 15:50

...but not all of us live in the home counties and so don't have a choice.  If you have a choice then great for you but PLEASE stop assuming we all have access to BA et al.Plus everyone seems to have forgotten how expensive flights were before Ryanair Easyjet et al came along.  Yes you could get a cheap weekend away with BA et al but if you didn''t stay a Saturday night or needed a one way ticket you were stuffed.  In 1986 I paid £600 to get back from Barcleona - ok i got a drink and free hold luggage but I'd rather take Mr O'Leary's prices any day - even with the add ons.  What the low cost carriers did was break the oligopoly that was the airline industry and give consumers a choice.incidentally we first came to the Marche (where we subsequently bought a house) because train tickets to London for 4 of us were over £200 and we could fly Liverpool - Ancona ("where ever that is - it'll be fine - anywhere is ok for a week") with 2 bags (between 4 of us) for £72.  And in February I am takign a group of undergraduates to barcelona for 5 days fieldwork for about £220 - I am taking some first years to Wales for 4 days next week and that is going to cost them £195.If you don't like Ryanair don't fly with them, go somewhere else but even with the add ons they are usually the cheapest (we have to drive past Manchester airport to get to Liverpool airport so I always check Jet2 to Rome prices but they are always more and when you are paying for 4 tickets it adds up) Chris

Wed, 10/07/2009 - 02:33

The apostille is a service provided by the FCO but it is NOT in London (unless you are a business cusotmer and are prepared to pay for a perium sevice).The office is in Milton Keynes and provides a counter service.  Very straightforward and quick (according to my husband who travelled down by train from manchester, got it done and came back in 6 hours).  You can send them off if you are not in a hurry.More info from the FCO websitehttp://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/what-we-do/services-we-deliver/legal-s...Not everything needs to be Apostilled - we only needed it for some litigation, everything else just needed notarising (you can find noraties in yellow pages)Chris

Wed, 10/07/2009 - 02:26

HiAs Alan says the only thing the swiss seminterested in is whether or not you have a vignette.  We have never been stopped and usually have about 100 bottles in our boot.  If you want to miss Switzerland though to avoid the customs then you can go via Brenner pass into Austria. Chris

Sat, 10/03/2009 - 05:42

The issue with Ryanair is not how busy the flights are - they can always fill flights if they charge very low prices - but how much revenue they are getting per flight.  It is simply not sustainable to be flying with planes full of people who have paid on £5 for their seat, hence the cancellations of what people think are popular routes. We first visited le Marche on flights from Liverpool that cost £73 for 4 of us at Easter - clearly that was never going to last -sadly for us the flight was pulled the week we signed the papers to buy our house.  We now go via Rome if it is a short trip or drive if we are going for 2 weeks.  Not ideal but you have to make the best of what is available.  At least with Tuscany there are a lot of options - in Le Marche there is only Stanstead to Ancona or the various rome options and summer is not much better than winter. Chris

Mon, 09/21/2009 - 18:54

Hi TinDon't knoe if you are online now to see this in time but BBC4 has a tv programme Dark Heart of Italy - not seen it so don't know if it is any good (OH had just set it to record befor ei came onto the forum) 0 knowing BBC 4 it will be repeated several times in the next week. Chris

Answer to: Ryanair to Pisa
Fri, 09/18/2009 - 22:03

I've never seen a list of Ryannair ceased routes - a couple of years ago (the week after we signed our papers for our house) they dropped Liverpool Ancona but it was never announced - it just never came back on the schedule (sadly) - you just have to hope (unlike Ancona) it comes back in the summer.Chris

Sat, 09/12/2009 - 17:57

have only just caught up with the forum - sorry I mean community lol - since our recent trip to Italy.  Although we don't live in our house all year we designed it with the intentions of using it all year round.  We have an open plan kitchen, dining, living room but we also have a small cosy sitting room with working fire place - in good weather it is a tv / play staion room, in winter it is warm and cosy.  We have underfloor heating throughour with each floor separately controlled so we can heat just the ground and middle floor if there are only 4 of us.  We have a rear porch - this is on the back of the house and was designed as an external access for the downstairs loo so that wet children didn't drip through the house en route from the swimming pool.  The rear porch though is a great place for shoes and coats and through the downstairs loo is the boiler room with hot water tank which although well lagged is a warm room for drying wet clothes after skiing.  We also have the tilt / open windows (on the top floor the low windows only tilt for safety)chris