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Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
Arrivederci UK
Well, I got my Irish citizenship eventually, as my Grandfather was Irish and we just successfully applied for Italian residency (as much an ordeal as it was in Spain).
Hard to let go of the UK, but a new adventure is well underway.
Sorted out the house and dealing with the trials of country life. Here's where we live now. Built in 1613, it was a schoolhouse for many years.
The satellite dish is for high-speed internet. On the roof, you can just see a WiMax internet antenna and internet weather station.
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Wow! Simon! Very nice! After Amsterdam and Spain, you settled down in Italy. According to Cees Nooteboom, a dutch writer; Italy will Conquer you, but you have to conquer Spain yourself. Happy to hear how you think of it. You should now now.
Congratulations, Simon. Your place looks exquisite with magnificent views. What a place to settle in.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Nope, not with the European pet passport programme. Won't last much longer, but hey, the three dogs and cat got here ok. One dog and the cat are from England, the other was born by the river in my valley in Spain and the most recent was adopted here but is from Ireland.
Wow! Simon! Very nice! After Amsterdam and Spain, you settled down in Italy.
Amsterdam is my favourite city by far, but it's too noisy to live in the centre. Detached canal houses are built too close together for any sound insulation. There were always the British drunks yelling into the early hours and a lot of underpinning building work going on.
Still, I have a lazy Summer (out of work) sitting by the somewhat stinky Reguliersgracht to fondly remember.
My Spain was very rural and I loved Andalucia, but **** it got so hot! My wife didn't want to go to Spain as she is a Mexican and doesn't like the fairly basic, everyday food (after Mexico), bullfighting and animal neglect, nor the accent. So we drove 3000 Km around Europe and eventually decided on Italy.
I would have gone back to Spain or the South of France in a heartbeat, though. All in all, it was a good choice for us both. With us knowing French and Spanish, we find the language pretty straightforward for most stuff.
Wow! Living the dream. Love the idea of being a steward of a historical structure and keeping it a living home dogs and all. You are a fortunate man to find such a dream.
Can't wait to hear how once you settled down, made time to pull out your guitar, and had her ringing around the brick work and wood beams. Olé !
HR
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
The house looks stunning, as do the views from the Alps. Wishing you many years of happiness in your new home!
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
looks like you've landed in a lovely location, house looks heavenly!
quote:
dealing with the trials of country life
apart from the perils of rural broadband, what else are you dealing with? I know all about rural broadband, we are on an "up to 2mb package" and rarely get more than 1! Fibre is on it's way though.
Around 40 Euros a month, which is fine for me. It is my professional link with the world and I earn that in less than an hour The WiMax was an 8Mbps backup but I am trying to cancel it now. The satellite is very reliable and even good enough for mobile phone over WiFi and other audio calls. Just a slight delay.
If that all fails, I have 4G on the phone if I dangle it from the balcony
I program a lot and can work offline without hitting my APIs for a while, but I don't recommend it.
If that all fails, I have 4G on the phone if I dangle it from the balcony
AT&T just started providing their symmetrical FTTH 1,000 MBPS connection at a promotional price of $50 per month in the USA with no data caps. This is probably one of the best deals in the USA now for this kind of connection of which I know. Unfortunately, if the structure in which you live was not already setup with the infrastructure, you cannot get AT&T to come and setup the hardware for you to get this service even if the entire building with all its occupants are interested in subscribing. The system is so archaic, alas. I used to live in a building that was setup, and that connection at the time was $70 per month and likely the most solid connection I've ever had, but unfortunately I literally moved 0.2 miles (to another building which was NOT setup with the infrastructure) down the street, and now I'm stuck with Comcast and their asymmetrical connection (1,000 MPBS down, but a mere 42 MBPS up). Honestly, this connection works just fine, but it's now going for around $85 per month which is a total ripoff seeing what AT&T is now offering. Oh well, the obsession with fast internet (even though you can't really tap the speeds you get) continues!
Congratulations, Simon. The house looks really beautiful. I hope it's trouble free, and you have many pleasant and productive years there.
My brother lived for several years in one of the few houses in Galveston that survived the 1900 hurricane. It was big, lovely, and had a historical marker on the front porch. A few years after they bought it, he happened to mention what he paid for it. I told him it sounded like a real bargain. Then he told me what the average annual upkeep cost was.
Several years later they sold it and moved to a different house in Galveston, built in the 1930s or 1940s. I knew his wife loved the other house, which she had furnished with antiques. My brother explained that the older generation of carpenters, cabinet makers, plumbers, electricians, etc. were retiring or dying off. The newer ones were not as skilled or reliable, and many were reluctant to take on a job at a historically designated place, with its many restrictions and permit requirements.
What a wonderful view! I have what passes for a view in Austin, but it doesn't remotely compare to yours--nor to the one I had for more than 18 years in the Marshall Islands: palm trees, white sand beach, the blue Pacific.
Last time we were in Italy we fled with some of Larisa's friends to the Dolomites from hot weather in Venice and Friulia. The scenery was stunning, the hospitality heart warming.
I agree with your wife in preferring Italy to Andalucia, though I have an attachment to Spain from my youth. Until Larisa introduced me to Italy I felt like I had two Old World homelands, England and Spain. More than once I have said about Andalucians, "No better friend, no worse enemy." Reminds me of south Texas.
About the Italians I have met from the Amalfi coast and Capri to the Dolomites, I will say, "No better friend, no more gracious host." We have had such lovely experiences there as tourists, and spending time with Larisa's friends.
I'm old and set in my ways. Austin is culturally attractive. The symphony and the guitar society are wonderful. We get a handful of world class flamenco shows per year. My house is appreciating rapidly (or was until the plague). Having come here for university, and having spent a total of 38 years here at various times, if an Air Force brat can ever have a home, Austin is mine.
But if I were younger and in a less attractive setting, I would be strongly tempted to follow your example.
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Nowhere near fibre but fibre may get here eventually. 
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