Italian Adventures – We Bought a House in Italy!

The day my true Italian adventure began!

On April 3rd I was booked on a British Air flight, departing Seattle at 7:15pm, arriving in LHR @ 2pm on 4/4. Jess was wonderful and drove me to the airport and helped me lug all of my luggage (pun intended!) to the check-in counter. Three checked bags, one carry-on and a large backpack. Two of the checked bags had random household items and some clothes, and the other was a wine case full of DeLille reds for when Gil arrives and other special occasions. I plan to store it in the Cantina so hopefully it will still be good in the future! Va bene!

Prior to my departure, I had packed 4 boxes to be shipped by SendMyBag.com. Three boxes contained a variety of household and garden items (including my collapsable wagon), lots of clothes and shoes, books, and other miscellaneous stuff I thought was well-suited for Casale Giulietta. The other box contained all new bedding, such as duvets & covers for 2 twin beds and 2 full sized beds, and sheets for same plus sheets for a queen sized bed. I created a post on this for anyone interested in how well it works and who I used.

When we were in Italy in January to close on the house, we could NOT find flat sheets or duvet covers that actually fit the beds…so strange. I mean, they ‘fit’, I guess’ depending on your definition. So, for example, the twin beds are 90cm x 200cm. IKEA had fitted sheets in exactly those measurements, but flat sheets were 100 x 200, as were the duvets, so they barely covered the top of the bed. This was true for all beds we purchased from IKEA. So silly! No matter where we looked, you could not find top covers in the right dimensions. If you went one bed-size up, then everything dragged on the floor. So for instance, the full beds are 140 x 200. Top covers for these are 150×200, so WAY too big for the 90×200 twins, and certainly not long enough in any case. OYE! All four boxes were picked up on March 30th and on their way! Now back to my flights…

After many flight delays, I finally left Seattle a little after 9pm and arrived in London around 4:30pm and headed over to the Sofitel for my overnight stay. Fortunately my checked bags went all the way through to Rome so I didn’t need to hassle with them in London. WooHoo!

I finally made it onto my flight out of Seattle to LHR. A bit hot and sweaty, not to mention tired, but hey, Business Class will make all of that better!

This is the boring stuff: I had a few work meetings and a presentation while in London and the WiFi worked great…Success! I grabbed dinner in the hotel and then settled in for a good nights sleep. My flight to Rome was scheduled to depart @ 8:20 am, arriving FCO @ 12pm. Alas, a few more flight delays and gate changes, we were on our way.

Weird note. I know I was tired, but I could seriously not find the hairdryer in the hotel and there was no way I was hopping on a flight to Rome without drying my hair. I searched the bathroom, closet, bedroom drawers, and eventually found it in the desk drawer across the room. It was plugged in through the drawer and the cord was Very short so I literally had to squat down to dry my hair and attempt to make it presentable. OOF!

Once in Rome, I collected all of the bags and managed to magically fit them all on the trolley (see pic).

Now off to find the shuttle to the offsite rental car place. I have always picked up cars in the airport so this was definitely a new adventure. A few nice people guided me in the right direction and when I got to the pick-up spot, the van was just pulling out. No problem, I can wait. And wait. And wait. But finally, it arrived. People rushed forward to get on the van and practically knocked me over getting their bags to the back of the vehicle. I dragged my suitcases, 2 at a time, back to the rear to get loaded. The driver was less than friendly, but hey, his job kinda sucks.

The van takes you to this sketchy area about 2.5km from the airport. Fortunately Jess, Andrew & I drove past this area in January when trying to find a spot to fill up on gas before returning the car. I recognized the giant, odd-looking things along the road…nope, can’t even begin to describe them and my apologies but I don’t have any pictures. Next time.

The van parks and everyone piles out, again, basically trampling me on their way. I pile up my luggage out of the way so I can figure out where to go. The guy in the wood hut that everyone else seemed to get keys from directed me to another building. So there I went, dragging 2 suitcases at a time over to the other building. By now I am sweaty and tired and wishing I had a glass of wine, or at least a pool boy to help me. (hee hee hee) But finally, there it was, a tiny door into a tiny room, more like a storage closet, but a young Italian girl was ready to ‘help’ me.

Now keep in mind, I booked my rental car months ago before prices soared through the roof. This was when I learned that it is very difficult to rent a car for more than 30 days at a time. I also learned that you don’t HAVE to take their insurance. My Costco CitiVisa card provides up to $50k in travel insurance, including rental cars. So I booked my little car for roughly $600 per month. Mind you, I am driving back to this sketchy place on May 5th to drop this car off and pick up another one. It’s worth it because right now you can’t rent a car for 30 days for under $2,200!!!

Side note: While I can buy a house in Italy, I am not legally allowed to buy a car until I am a resident. I can’t become a resident until I am fully retired with no active income, so not happening anytime soon. I think I will write a post on mastering the art of car rentals in Italy!

So back to my young Italian rental car gal. She sees the price I paid, knowing that they can get 4x this right now, she looks at her watch and tries to indicate that I am late picking up the car. NOPE! Not going to happen – I’m onto you missy! I explain the flight delay and show her where I provided my flight information on the reservation. Alas, she begrudgingly leaves to go get my car and drive it over, but nothing more. I ask if the seats fold down and she says ‘I don’t know madam, figure it out!’ OK, so I will! Or not.

Needless to say, my Twingo was packed to the rim with suitcases that I managed to squeeze here and there because I couldn’t figure out if the seats folded down or not. Va bene, I was on my way! Oh crap! After leaving the place I noticed that I am at least 1/4 down on fuel, yet I have to bring it back full. Whatever, I drive away knowing I rented my car for about 1/4 of the price you would pay today. You can call me the Rental Car Master!

Dinner my first night after all of the travel ‘stuff’. Hey, it’s fairly well rounded with some protien, dairy, fruit and water.

Notice that I didn’t waste the bottle of wine once empty…I upcycled it!