As youngsters spending our summers at the beach clubs that surrounded Long Island Sound, the male members of the family would gather on a Sunday afternoon at the rustic dirt bocce court after a copious lunch to play their favorite game. No women were granted access to this fraternity; and only as children were we […]
Painting for the interior of the house had been included in the ‘preventivo’ (estimate) for the renovation. However, as with most construction projects, costs mount, and Arturo and I were quite confident we could paint the house ourselves in an effort to save some money; especially as the quote we had received was 6,000 euro […]
A possible downside of renting out your home is running the risk of having your personal possessions and well furniture broken or damaged. That was the case with the previous owner. Not sure if all his tenants were large, clumsy or just uncaring; but the more than dozen chairs that filled the house had either the […]
When we hired Omega to ship our household goods to Italy, we knew the nearest port was in Civitavecchia, Rome; so when we were told our goods would be sent to Naples and then trucked to Ficulle we were a bit surprised. Well, who were we to question the wisdom of this. Once the […]
When anyone came to Casa Le Crete to have a look around or give an estimate (preventivo) for some needed work they would survey the interior, shake their heads and murmur, ‘tutto IKEA’. (ALL IKEA) Yes, the house had been furnished almost exclusively with furniture and accessories from this mammoth Swedish store. Don’t get me […]
The town associated with the house is actually Ficulle, but the home is located in Zona Le Crete up in the hillside and far removed from the little town itself. Today we took the scenic drive to see and explore the little town. We traversed the windy road and eventually arrived at the medieval stone […]
Even though we ultimately had to purchase the property as three separate homes, we began to develop a plan to combine the houses and ultimately have two houses with three bedrooms and two baths respectively. Along with this our renovation included updates to the septic tank, heating and a rather large dampness issue that […]
In our lives we have bought and sold a number of properties. Some fraught with angst and some uncomplicated. However, nothing could have prepared us for the intricacies and nuances of negotiating in another language and in another country. I compare it to line about Ginger Rogers. “She did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in […]
Fall 2015 We arrived back in Italy on Thursday afternoon after a long but comfortable flight on Alitalia. We had used our miles to upgrade from economy to business class and it made for a more comfortable flight. Watched a movie, had a nice meal with lovely service and slept for […]
Last autumn we traveled to Italy again with the hope of finding a place to purchase. Our first instinct was to buy a ‘city home’ in Firenze or Lucca that could be rented when we were at our home in Coral Gables. However, after looking at several properties in various locations in Tuscany it […]