Ram's activity

Im going to take issue with Adriatica here.-- Italian paint IS expensive,precisely why she said in her post - you will need 3 coats - The quality is pretty terrible - the majority of inexpensive paints are like brushing milk onto a wall, (one coat Dulux anyone?) .  Pay through the nose and you can find something viscose and paintlike enough to cover, but to which Italians add litres of thinner/water.   Gloss is hideously expensive unless you want to buy something that stinks so much that you cant use the room for a month.  Primer - yes please - that would be nice instead of cementita,    Washable emulsions that arent,  want an anti muffa paint - then get a mortgage.  Tempura - lasts a year.  Thanks God Lidl is now selling paint every now and again - good quality washable emulsion that covers in one coat (or as good as). If you're like most Italians and you get the decorators in, 3 coats of paint at 8 euros psm  costs a lot lot more than 1 coat.   (I do my own painting though and hate rubbish paint)

Bang on Sebastiano - I was born and raised in rural Yorkshire and didnt even see a black person till I left home at 18 - then 25 years in London and now in Sicily - where you can eat Italian only.  No Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian or monosodium glutamate franchises.  Even the Macdonalds closed down - (now that is record worth shouting about). I started in Tuscany and fled further and further south avoiding English couples from the home counties barking their bar orders in English at some hapless cameriere, and I find the expectations of some foreigners coming here to be completely out of kilter with reality.  Italy is not Wandsworth and Sicily is certainly not Primrose Hill, but the people who succeed in their Sicilian dream are those who want to integrate, who want to learn italian, do the passeggiata thing, chat to locals at the barbers shop, and absorb the way of life.  Those who think they can impose what they had at home onto a Sicilian lifestyle will leave deflated and often bitter.  

The maximum age for prelazione is 70 years old, so one of the owners is now ruled out. If you already have a project approved for the land, then the costs of obtaining the permissions with the associated professional fees should be included in the price they would pay, as far as I know.   

if your land is agricultural, the only right of prelazione which can be exercised is agricutlural.  You say you were planning to build on a lot of 7500, so its possible it has been rezoned and is not agricultural any more??  If it is agricultural your neighbours must be either coltivatori diretti or an azienda agricola at the time of the sale.  They have the right to buy within 12 or 18 months and its either all or nothing - at the price you paid, plus any money you have spent in the meantime improving the 'fondo' .  thats it - there is no other option.  They cannot pick and choose what they want to buy.   So your port of call is to find out if your neighbours are an azienda agricola or a coltivatore diretto.  Basically you should ask at your CCIAA or ask around - if they have another job they cannot be one of the above.  Then bear in mind that the land must be confinant with yours.  If the vineyard is rented out and not confinant there is no right of prelation from the 'rentee'- As for how you ended up in this mess - I blame your lawyer and your notaio as well as the seller.  Its basic pratcise to check automatically for prelazione when you sell agricultural land.   The idea that yoour seller is entirely at fault though is wrong.  They should not have sold the land with debt, problems etc - but prelazione is not mentioned anywhere usually - and if it is the notaio should have queried it.   You will be hardpushed to get your money back from the seller.    However, you do need a sharp formal letter from a lawyer to the neighbours, at least to find out why and how they want to exercise the right of prelazione.   

Sebastian is right when he says you should think about doing it all in one go, or at least the basics in one go -once its certified its done and you can tweak later till your hearts content.  Also Adriatica is right about the finishing.  But - round here electricians wont even do the channeling out - its all jobs for the boys -. so a builder to prepare, and finish off....  (Thanks Capo Boi for the compliment - experience is a great teacher!) 

And in my part of SIcily where electricity only arrived in the 1970's this way of life continued until long after the war. But here too, now, it is a distant memory.  

Your list of buffoons curiously includes only left wingers - surely you should not omit Jonathan Aitken, Derek Conway, Andrew Mackay, Jeffrey Archer - and they broke the law as well as being buffoons.  The real buffoon is Osborne, possibly one of the most intellectually challenged Chancellors in history.  The people on your list are not buffoons, they are mostly very clever, but merely have different political views to your own.  They also have not repeatedly broken the law, insulted foreign leaders and MPs, lied repeatedly to parliament and then counter lied the next day, 'joked' in appalling taste managing to insult most minorities in the process, and spent years devoted to passing laws of direct relevance to themselves at the expense of 'government'.    Diane abbott et al may not be everyones cup of tea, but dont compare them to Berlusconi - it shows a political ignorance that can only be born of the Daily Mail.

Putting aside the trial by media, the indiscretions, and the 'private' behaviour,  the problem for me is more basic.  Berlusconi cites the power of the people - the people are not sovereign in a constitutional democracy, it is the constitution that is sovereign, and he has patently abused his position.  To appeal to the people as his judge is the worst sort of tinpot dictator politics.  But then he has spent 20 years consolidating an otherwise untenable position thanks to his media network and powerful allies.   The hypocrisy shown by the right to keep in him power is shameful, but they know that without Berlusconi there is a void in the centre right as big as the vacuum in the centre left -Without B there is no PDL -  Berlusconi for all his faults has provided - a strong personality - charismatic if you like - as a focus for the last 20 years.  There has been no other politician with an ounce of charisma or personality.  Italians crave this - but Itlaian politics,has remained stuck in the 19780s as far as the British would see it.  Its like watching Michael Foot against Enoch Powell - the idea of images, decent publicity, soundbites, etc does not exist in Italy.   And it is here where the left fails so dismally.  If, for example, the left did the famous Thatcher shopping basket that basically won her the election in 79, it would show just how much taxes have risen and buying power has fallen under Mr B - but they are incapable of delivering a pithy sentence and an image when a lengthy discourse will suffice.  As for Tremonti, can you name another country where a 'tax efficiency' accountant would be also chancellor while keeping his day job?  This is a man who makes laws, safe in the knowledge that he earns 4 million a year (2008) telling his clients how to avoid paying tax, and salting money away in off shore havens and then he has the gall to say he has no conflict of interest.   Until Italy sorts out its parliamentary laws - ie, an MP is only and MP and cannot keep their day job:  the electoral process where a dental hygienist can become a regional counsellor on state pay in the space of 24 hours with no previous experience over those who have spent years involved in politics on a voluntary basis:  the obscene pension arrangements of MPs who only have to hang on in there for 5 years and then receive a lifetime pension of 8000 euros per month:  the odious possibility for Ghedini to be an elected MP and be paid copiously by the state, but who works exclusively for Belusconi on his private legal matters, etc etc etc there is no hope for Italian politics, because it is the worst of the worst old boys clubs.  Electoral reform, parliamentary reform, media and reporting reforms, conflict of interests,  are the basics to bring Italy into the 21st century, because its much treasured democracy has ceased to exist, and is waved by both sides merely as a banner to keep them safe within the hallowed halls and line their own pockets. 

You pay per point - so every socket, say 50 euros, every switch, 40 euros and so on - the rest is included in the price.  With a complete rewire you will have a new 'quadro' which is extra, circuit breakers - 25 euros each, etc ertc etc.  Low voltage lighting is common, but its normal voltage with a transformer.  You should decide how many circuits you want - one for water motor, one for immersion, one for lights, sockets, each floor etc - and then you can calculate - albeit roughly how much it will all cost.   If you want certification (now a requirement) ask for it at the beginning and make sure you use a qualified electrician with fatture. 

YEs the Poste does issue assegni circolare - I think you pay 3 euros each, and I dont think you even have to be an account holder... but it depends on how much it/they are for...