Ram's activity

 Any translator can do a traduzione giurata of a document and have it stamped at the Tribunale.  Its not necessary to go to a lawyer and pay lawyers bills.  Obviously a translator registered at the CCIAA is better, but not always necessary. 

 Chalk and cheese!   I have to say that visiting Palermo is one thing, living there will be quite another - the lack of water, the bureaucracy and endless queues in the ASL, the anagrafe etc - if you want an easy life go to Florence.  But then Palermo is Palermo a vibrant grubby ity that packs more into 24 hours than Florence could do in a month.  ANd theres not many tourists, which drive you mad in Florence.   The weathers better in Palermo, it doesnt sit in a basin nad get stifling hot in summer, and it doesnt rain for days on end in winter, but its not an easy city to live in.  Its much much cheaper than Florence - half the price to live, though property now in palermo is by no menas cheap - youll be paying up to 4000 psm in the centro storico.    If I had to choose itd be Palermo,  for teh sea and the food and the Sicilian way of life.  But Siracusa is less of a culture shock than Palermo, and if I didnt live ronund here Id be in naples - so its horses for courses.

 It depends on your contract.  If you have a contratto transitorio the ICI remains at the charge of the owner.  If its a contratto libero 4+4 it usually falls to you.   Whether you pay ICI depends on the property, if it is a very large villa that results at Catasto as A8 or above, ICI will be payable.  If it catasto'd as A7 then there will be no ICI if it is the owners 'prima casa' 

 If you have had insurance in the UK until this year, your no claims will have carried over to your new insurer.  They should give you a certificate in Italian with your equvalent BM class which you present to your new Italian insurer.  As i remember max no claims is 60% in the UK - so you will probably only drop  or 6 classes at most.  The other possibility is to insure with Italsure or another UK company who insures Itlaian reg cars and is cheaper than Direct line!   

 Basically if you're a first timer insurer you're class 14.  If you're bringing your no claims bonus with you from UK (within 12 months) your UK insurer will give you a bit of paper which translated your no claims into the approriate Italian class.  You go down 1 class every year with no claims.  

 My favourite of all time: 321 with Ted Rogers: Ted:  Who composed Handels' Water Music?Contestant: Mozartted:  The clue's in the question.  Who composed Handels Water Music?Contestant:  Beethoven

 thanks charlotte.

 If you dont have permanent residence they will only approve your health care for 12 months at a time.  Once you have permanent residence theycan't.  I wouldnt draft a letter, Id go straight to the ccarabinieri and issue a denuncia against the Ascoli Piceno health authority.  

 The Dark Heart of Italy is an excellent book - and fills in all the blanks about the anni piombo - whether its a good read for someone thinking of moving to Italy is another question!   IThe issues raised in the book dont affect 99.9% of Italians directly, nor will they you - but its best to be aware of how the country works.  It has changed alot since the 80's - what you think about Berlusconi doesnt affect your day to day life -unless you want to become involved in the political arguments at the barbers.  I agree Tim Parks is a more laymans version - more of what its like to actually live here - but he's in Verona, and thats very different to being south of Rome or indeed anywhere else.  Put the shoe on the other foot and think whether you would want to live in America if you had read 'Fast Food Nation' or in England if you had read 'The English' - after all - it's only a book.

 "my conclusion is that you have two massicve problems in Italy... Communism and the Mafia..."I think its a rather simplistic conclusion.   Communism in Italy is now only a shadow evoked by Berlusconi to shroud wave about any protest or opinion that is different to his.  The communists of all shades - (democratic communist party - what is that?), have litle or no power locally or nationally any more.  The unfortunate truth is the remodelled fascist parties hold much more power throughout Italy than the far left.  Even the communist stronghold of Bologna is now a very pink version of its former self.   The magistracy is politcial its true, but they work with a constitution and raft of laws that no government has thought to remodel, and have the power and the obligation to pursue 'political' cases.   Nobody goes to prison because the system (not the magistrates) allow exorbitant periods of time for investigations and court cases resulting in the whole case being shelved because of a statute of limitations.  When one law is introduced it does not replace the former, but is merely added on the top - allowing lawyers to have a field day in 'interpreting the law' so a clear judgement is never reached. The mafia is a catch all word for organised crime - the MAfia itself, although still active in Sicily, is a small part of the organised crime endemic in Italy - the Camorra now has an annual income of over 30 billion euros.   the Ndrangheta is probably second in overall influence-  you only have to see the news this weekend of a scuttled ship off the Calabrian coast to see it is thriving.   It is a mistake to attribute all ills to the Mafia, it is much more subtle than that.