masca's activity

A further thought if you want to keep paying road tax... I believe that you can renew in advance of the normal time frame if you have a valid reason for doing so, like being out of the UK when the renewal is due.  I think we did this in the past, and I'm sure a quick look at the DVLA website would confirm the circumstances under which this can be done.

Insurance has been discussed in depth many times here in the past...  I am of the opinion that, yes, few insurers will cover a car for theft, fully comp, etc. for anything more than a few months, but that 3rd party cover is valid for the full 12 months of an insurance policy, regardless of location.  It all therefore depends on what level of cover you feel you need.  Our insurance has always given us 30 or 90 days (depending upon insurer) 'full policy' cover, and after that we only have 3rd party cover, which we don't mind as we only have a cheap Fiat Punto!  I'm sure someone will disagree this this (they always do... ;-) ), but this is the conclusion that we came to after doing ALOT of research. With regards to UK road tax, I thought that the EU had a reciprocal agreement that any car taxed in it's home country did not have to be pay local road taxes in any other EU country (toll roads, vignettes, etc. aside).  I'm not sure what other local road taxes are payable in Italy, if any, but I seem to recall hearing about something at sometime in the dim, distant past.  Perhaps someone with an Italian registered car could confirm?  Therefore, if the above is correct and you SORN, you may find that you could perhaps run into trouble in Italy or another country enroute... but I could be wrong about this. The other problem with SORNing is what happens when you arrive back in Dover?  Whilst it's unlikely, you could be nabbed immediately upon getting off the ferry with an illegal car!  Can you not keep the car road legal in the UK (i.e.: taxed), so as to avoid any potential problems here or abroad (not to mention potentially invalidating your more than 3rd party insurance, if you have it) and get someone to post your new tax disc to you in Italy?

It sounds like it's probably too late, but could you not perhaps just consider reducing your electrical consumption!?  I don't mean to be controversial or antagonise, but why does the answer so often seem to be to upgrade/increase consumption/more, more, more, rather than to simply reconsider consumption and needs?  Especially if new poles and lines arre involved.  We have an, albeit smallish, house on a 3kw supply with lights, TV, computers, cooker (direct plug), fridge/freezer, washing machine, electronically fired boiler or electric water heater, power tools, etc., and we have no problems with black-outs.  We used to, before we had central heating installed and when we used to try to run three 1.5kw electric fan heaters at once (doh!!!), but we soon learnt and went out and bought a couple of extra blankets! Personally, and I know many here will disagree, but I think the 3kw supply idea is excellent, particularly in a world with ever increasing utility bills and environment problems... Okay, I'll get off my soap box and go back to lurking now....!!! ;-)

Further to Gala's suggestion of a HUAWAI wifi modem, you can often buy unlocked modems/dongles on ebay for quite a bit less - but DO make sure that they are unlocked before buying. The volume of data used is the same in any given situation regardless of whether directly on a tablet or via tethering through a phone.  However, some contracts (PAYG or otherwise) explicitly exclude tethering (and/or streaming) as the networks know that you're likely to use far more data doing this than just using your phone (e.g.: it's far more tempting to watch a movie on your tablet than on your phone, websites accessed may not be optimised for low data usage, etc.).

Hi, so just to confirm, please...  If we're not in Italy on the 9th, or in fact in October at all, we don't need to do anything (other than recycle the forms when we're next at the house!)?  Is that correct?  Thank you!

Thanks for all your lovely comments!  It is a lovely house and, although we're excited about possible new ventures, we will be very sad to sell.  We do appreciate that it's a difficult market at the moment, but who knows how long we'd have to wait for an improvement?

Thanks PennyAW!  I hadn't seen that option previously.  I've now created a gallery at http://www.italymag.co.uk/community/photo-gallery/house-sale-bagni-di-lucca .  I've only included interior photos but I'm happy to provide external ones to anyone who's genuinely interested.

BTW, I'm happy to email photos if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the replies.  Sorry, I thought in an open forum that 5km from Bagni di Lucca would be sufficient.  The house is in Benabbio.  I think Benabbio does attract a slight premium compared to some other villages within the commune, due to both it's facilities (which have improved even since we've been there) and it's proximity to Bagni di Lucca (we regularly walk to Bagni di Lucca and back, and that's why we chose Benabbio).  The asking price, as recommended by our (non-exclusive) agent, is 165,000 EURO. I'm probably being really dumb, but I can't see where to attach images to the post!  And yet I've done it before....  As I said, dumb...!

Thanks for your replies.  Sorry for the delay in my answer - we've been away camping for a few days! Sadly, the bill definitely shows a debit.  Not to worry, I will just pay with a smile, as always!  After all, it's my fault for not getting sufficiently to grips with the language to sort this sort of query out directly... :-( Thanks again for the replies.  Much appreciated, as always!