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Hot town: summer in the city

4 Aug
4 August 2016. There is a hush over Rome that arrived earlier this year than in the past. Since our return from the Dolomites we’ve noticed traffic is already lighter. We cross the street almost without looking. Motorini do not disturb our sleep even with windows ajar.There are many empty parking spots on our street, although double-parking still plagues the commercial streets. Some stores are closed for the entire month. Are the Romans already off to the beach for their summer holidays?
Sure sign of August: closures everywhere. This on a cellular service storein our neighborhood. They'll be back AUgust 29.

Sure sign of August: closures everywhere. This on a cellular service store in our neighborhood. They’ll be back August 29.

It’s dreadfully hot: 35C/95F today. We pity the workers pouring concrete in the courtyard of our apartment building after replacing a gas line, as well as the guys doing construction on ritzy apartments whose dwellers have gone off to the beach during the renovation. But there are heat lovers: the sadistic bus drivers who do not turn on the A/C until afternoon. The 1940s-era trams that have no A/C are to be avoided after 10:00. 
How to survive in a city of bricks and pavement that retains more heat day-after-day, full of Italians who think air conditioning is the devil’s work? It’s all about taking advantage of the (relatively) cool morning and evening hours. We do not have A/C in the apartment or we’d turn it on full blast and wear sweaters to compensate. We had such great exercise in the Dolomites last month we do not want to backslide. But walking in 90-plus degree (Fahrenheit) heat is not an option. (The highs in Ortisei were lower than the lows in Rome right now.)
So here is how we structure our days.
October in Portland? No, it is August in Rome. The big trees on Viale Parioli have not had significant rain for awhile. Still they offer a welcome canopy as we shop.

October in Portland? No, it is August in Rome. The big trees on Viale Parioli have not had significant rain for awhile. Still, they offer a welcome canopy as we shop.

Up at 5:00AM, we open the house and allow the cooler air in, lighting citronella candles to keep the mosquitoes out while we have coffee and feed the cats. Only our bedroom has screens and we had to pay to have those installed. It’s about 22 Celsius in the morning. That’s 72 F. When we hit the sack at 10:30 or so, it’s still 29C/84F. We do our errands and appointments — always walking an hour at least — as early as possible so we can be out and back before 11:00. Or, as we did this morning with no big errands to run, we might take a purposeful walk of 90 minutes, leaving at 6:15-or-so, when the city is quiet and walking is tolerable. Home by 8:00 (stopping for cappuccino, of course!) we shower and then run to the store for any fresh food we might need. By 8:45, as the sun creeps up over the building next door, we have to close the windows and the heavy Italian serrande that hold the heat out. We become cave dwellers, leaving only a small cat-height opening onto the terrace as the girls still like to bake themselves. It is so dark with the serrande down, we have to use lights all day.
New on the street this year: motorino sharing from ZigZag. Three-wheelers.

New on the street this year: motorino-sharing from ZigZag. Three-wheelers.

Fans are on high, and we sit around the dining room table with laptops, both fans aimed for maximum air-blast. If we had Italian mothers they would be shocked. Air blowing on you can cause an illness called colpa d’aria. Or we may move a fan with us to a different part of the apartment to facilitate a chore: chopping up ingredients for dinner in the kitchen, for example. Use the oven? Certainly not, at least not after 7:00AM. We use the crockpot, but even that generates some heat. Salads are our friends these hot days and nights. We watch some TV, we read, write, manage finances, shop online, plan trips.
About dinner time (20:00) we can think about opening a couple of windows as we do not face west. Is there a breeze to catch so we can cool off the house a bit before bedtime? We light the citronella candles again against the dreaded mosquitoes. (Why don’t Italians do screens? Instead, they close the shutters tight and sleep in the hot rooms, fearful of killer night breezes and mosquitoes.) After dinner, we might take a stroll just to get some air and stretch our legs.
This store decided to only be open from 16:00-20:00 for 3 weeks.

This store decided to only be open from 16:00-20:00 for 3 weeks.

One evening we bravely took a bus at 17:00 (the street was shady at least, in the 31C/88F temp) to a movie theatre, where we basked in air-conditioned comfort for two hours. Then we walked an hour home in the relative comfort after 20:00. Another night we ventured to the opera at the Baths of Caracalla; starting time, 21:00. There is a lot that goes on after dark in summer and people come alive embracing the night time for socializing and getting out. Dinners run past midnight in many restaurants.
At bedtime,  we have to close up everything except the bedroom (so happy to have screens on the terrace doors!) and aim the best fan right at the bed. We sleep like the dead as with a diminished number of people in the city the motorini passing on our street are also miraculously few.
The beauty of Rome in summer is that it is eerily quiet and it’s kind of fun to wander around in the crepuscular hours.  We will live this way until September 7 when we head off on another trip. Somehow, magically, when we turn the page to September the heat is not so intolerable. The Roman sun follows the order of the universe and nights will mercifully drop below 20C/68F. We might even turn off the fans.
Not to be outdone, Enjoy, a cooperative effort with the national train service and ENI a fuel supplier, adds motorini to their car-sharing fleet.

Not to be outdone, Enjoy, a cooperative effort with the national train service and ENI a fuel supplier, added motorini to their car-sharing fleet.

If you’d like to read about past impressions of life-in-Rome in August, here are links to 2012, 2013, and 2014. (2015 we were in the U.S. lapping up the air conditioning.)
August 2014
August 2013
August 2012

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Cose italiane (Italian things)

12 Apr
Even after almost four years in Italy, there are things that strike me as uniquely Italian and a bit amusing.  

Cheek kissing

Funny how cheek kissing has become normal to us. You do not meet a friend on the street – male or female – without doing il bacetto, the little kiss. Even waiters and shopkeepers will do this with frequent and favorite customers. I’ve seen burly Carabinieri officers smooch my U.S. law enforcement colleagues. Famously, Italian politicians attempt to assault American presidents.  Il bacetto is a little air kiss, not a big wet smack and it takes some getting used to in order to execute one smoothly. When a group of friends breaks up after coffee, drinks, or dinner it can take a while for everyone to properly bid adieu as one cannot depart without giving il bacetto to each person. And then you have to say “Ciao, buonasera!” about a dozen times. No fast exits.  

 

President Bush doesn't quite know what to do when Italian Premier Berlusconi goes in for the bacetto. Remember: Always go to the right first!

President Bush doesn’t quite know what to do when Italian Premier Berlusconi goes in for the bacetto. Remember: Always go to the right first!

Il Cambio di stagione

Many Italians let the calendar decide their clothing. 80 degrees (F) in early April? Better keep a scarf around your neck just-in-case. You wouldn’t want to catch la cervicale (pain in the cervical vertebrae) or un colpo d’aria (literally “a hit of  air”)! These are Italian ailments that are hard to explain in English but are taken very seriously. A blast of air on your neck, throat, or head is the root cause of all illness. Although the temps have had Ric and I pulling out our short-sleeved attire, sending the wool sweaters to the dry cleaner, and assessing what new warm-weather clothes we need, we still see many Italians in their puffy winter jackets and heavy wools with scarf-wrapped necks. While in the morning it might be a pleasant 55F and the jacket is not too terribly hot, by afternoon it is 75F, way beyond needing the jacket. But it is too soon to do Il Cambio! Cold weather might come back!
When we lived in Portland, all of our clothes were in our substantial walk-in closet. I might shove the winter stuff to the back when warmer temps prevailed, and the short-sleeved tee-shirts came to the top of the drawer, but basically I could find warmer clothes in a couple of minutes.
The typical Italian household does not have a lot of closet space. We use wardrobes for what we are wearing now and some sort of under-the-bed or overhead storage for the other season. Typically, we have only about half of our clothes at hand. Il cambio (the seasonal change out of the closet) is a big thing twice each year. Sometime in April, but generally closer to May 1, Italians pull out the ladder to get things down from the overhead closets and unwrap the items in the under bed chests, deciding what to keep and what to recycle. Ric and I, in a decidedly non-Italian way, are well into il cambio but the temps did drop a bit the other day. I just hope we don’t freeze our necks when we go to dinner tonight. Maybe I’ll look for a scarf to wear with my spring jacket.
The only closets in our apartment are desigend for off-season storage, high overhead in the service hallway.

The only closets in our apartment are designed for off-season storage, high overhead in the service hallway.

Our bedroom wardrobes, one each, 100cm -- about 39 inches -- wide.

Our bedroom wardrobes, one each, 100cm — about 39 inches — wide.

Il cambio mostly compelte, my spring and summer clothes now fill my wardrobe.

Il cambio mostly complete, my spring and summer clothes now fill my wardrobe.

I love the wardrobe versus the American-style closet. I can see everything and I am forced into being quite orderly. 

 

Scarves & sundresses

As I mentioned above, a scarf is a way of protecting you from la cervicale. If the wind blows on your neck, you could become very ill. (Yes, you can call in sick with la cervicale. Try to explain that to your U.S. or U.K. supervisor.) You can also get colpo d’aria. So you will see women wearing scarves with sundresses. Air conditioning is generally considered to be a hazard to health, so if you have to go into somewhere cold (i.e., below about 80F) you want to be protected.
She is not taking any chances at developing cervicale!

She is not taking any chances of developing la cervicale!

Cornetti in the hand

When an Italian goes into a bar and orders a cornetto (croissant) and un caffè, typically the barista will grab the cornetto with a napkin and hand it to the patron, then turn to make the requisite espresso. The cornetto is generally eaten standing up, using the napkin to hold it, and is eaten before downing the shot of espresso, which is liberally laced with sugar. It’s all very fast, maybe 2 or 3 minutes for consuming the pastry as well as drinking the coffee. In fact, Starbucks cannot make a shot as fast as an Italian can consume this entire meal in a bar.
While we indulged in a seated caffè e cornetto today, Ric demos the technique. ONe always eats oneàs corentto wrappedin a napkin. More sanitary.

While we indulged in a seated caffè e cornetto today, Ric demos the technique. One always eats oneàs cornetto wrapped in a napkin. More sanitary.

When we go into the bar and order cornetti, 95% of the time they pull out plates and set our pastries on them. I actually like that as we tend to linger a bit more, but isn’t it funny in this land of slow paced living and reverence for food, the bar breakfast is consumed at lightning speed? And how do they metabolize all that sugar every day? We can’t do it and we walk 6-7 kilometers a day.

 

August

August is a weird month. So many people go on vacation at the same time that the nightmare traffic disappears and parking places are everywhere. How can so many people arrange their lives to be on vacation at the same time? Hospitals send patients home. Doctors’ offices close. Restaurants close so the entire staff can be gone at the same time. Buses are on a reduced schedule , special for August.
I love it. You can’t get anything done, but the city is so empty it is marvelous. You have to live it to believe it. And this does not happen in the center, in the tourist area. That remains hopping.
This is Viale Parioli, the major shopping street a few minutes walk from our apartment, in August at 17:30 in the evening,. Usually it is a hubbub of cars, motorcycles, buses and people scurrying to do their shopping.

This is Viale Parioli, the major shopping street a few minutes walk from our apartment, in August at 17:30 in the evening. Usually, it is a hubbub of cars, motorcycles, buses and people scurrying to do their shopping.

Portieri

When I was young and watched movies set in New York City, I would marvel at apartment buildings with “supers” and doormen. We had no such thing as far as I knew in St. Paul, Minnesota. How glamorous would it be to live that way!
In Italy, we have portieri. A portiere is a combination caretaker-concierge-postman-security guard. He – or she – will clean the common areas, collect your mail and packages, keep an eye out for trouble ensuring unsavory elements stay out of the building, and give advice. He’ll help you carry heavy packages to your door, assist the elderly up-and-down the stairs, and in our case, give the occasional Italian lesson.
One evening we lamented to Italian friends the problems we had with trying a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription because they’d deliver when we were not home and the produce would wilt in the sun in our driveway. Our friend  was shocked to hear we did not have a portiere to take the delivery in for us.
It is traditional to give the portiere a gift three times a year: Christmas, Easter, and Ferragosto. The latter is the mid-August holiday initiated by Caesar Augustus. Why then? Because the portiere stays on duty to ensure the safety of the property while everyone else is on vacation. If you have a portiere the incidence of burglaries is reduced.
Nothing happens in our building, on our street, or even in the neighborhood that our portiere doesn’t know about. He’s a font of intel when we need it.
Our fabulous portiere Pellegrino. Actually his wife is the portiera, and he is retired...but still helping us out every day. He calls himself "The Sheriff" and he is alwasy watching out for us.

Our fabulous portiere Pellegrino. Actually his wife is the portiera, and he is retired…but still helping us out every day. He calls himself “The Sheriff” and he is always watching out for us.

Dear Vacation Rental Property Owner

6 Feb
Dear Vacation Rental Property Owner (be you with VRBO, AirBnB, HomeAway, Sabbatical Homes, or Bob’s Pretty-Good Rentals),
There are a few 17 things I would like you to know about the needs and desires of travelers who rent your apartment or home. After several years of renting in both the U.S. and Europe, I find there are quirks or things lacking that, if corrected, would make a huge difference in our comfort level and willingness to return to or refer your property to others. I am not amused by your flea market furnishings or good-enough-for-a-college-student kitchen ware. I am appalled when you ask me to clean, and I am confused by the widely varying approaches to recycling.
  1. Put a chair in the bedroom(s) where one can sit to put on shoes and socks. I am short and when I have to sit on a high bed to put on my undies or socks, it’s very uncomfortable. I’m not asking that the bedroom be furnished like Versailles, but a bedroom with only a bed, a small table, and a dim lamp is not really furnished.

    OK, nothing this bad,m to date, but we've had our share of drapes sagging on wire and shades that won't stay up...others won't stay down.

    OK, nothing this bad, to date, but we’ve had our share of drapes sagging on wire and shades that won’t stay up…others won’t stay down.

  2. Make sure things work and are in good repair. Do the curtains, drapes and window blinds hang neatly and are easy to open? We’ve seen cockeyed blinds, drapes where the rod or support is drooping, shutters half falling off the wall. We’ve had a washing machine fail to drain leaving us with a soggy mess. My favorite was the water heater that did not turn itself off and heated water to scalding. The owner’s solution: turn it off during the day and on at bedtime. After all, why would you need hot water during the day?
  3. There should be more than two wine glasses in the cabinet. And it would be nice if they matched.
  4. We have indeed found broken glasses, hidden in closets by prior guests.

    We have indeed found broken glasses, hidden in closets by prior guests.

    The coffee pot must work. We checked into one apartment in Italy where they had the teeny tiniest single-serving Moka pot but the gas burners were too big for it. I could not set it properly on the grate over the burner: it fell through! So no coffee in the morning, which is one of the main reasons we like to rent apartments. If you supply a drip coffee maker, make sure there are filters. I’ve had to make them out of paper towels, which of course I purchased myself because there were none.
  5. When we check in at midnight to your check-yourself-in-no-one-will-meet-you-there’s-a-lockbox apartment, the toilet paper supply should consist of more than 12 sheets on the last roll in the place, and there should be hand soap. We have had to buy these items in several apartments. I don’t expect fancy little bottles of shampoo and lotion, but some hand soap would be nice in the bathroom.

    Please supply a spare few toilet rolls. Arrivng late one night we found our apartment down to a few precious sheets.

    Please supply a spare few toilet rolls. Arriving late one night we found our apartment down to a few precious sheets.

  6. Ditto in the kitchen: dish soap, paper towels, a hand towel or two. I should not have to buy dishwasher detergent or even soap for washing dishes in the sink.
  7. I am happy to run the dishwasher as I leave the premises, but please don’t expect me to strip the bed and wash the sheets and towels, too. It is YOUR responsibility to clean the place for the next guests, not mine. In one Portland, Oregon apartment, we were asked to strip the bed and start the washer while paying over $200 a night.
  8. Believe-it-ot-not, we actually make our bed wherever we are staying, but I do not hink I should have to wash the linens.

    Believe-it-or-not, we actually make our bed wherever we are staying, but I do not think I should have to wash the linens.

    In conjunction with #7, do not charge extra for cleaning. It’s really irritating to have to pay a cleaning fee when the rent is already $200 a night! Build it into the price. Maybe give a break for staying 4 or more nights since you won’t have to clean the place as often, or charge a little more for short stays to cover those times when it has to be cleaned two or three times in a week. And reasonable, please! I pay €48.00 a week to have my 1000 square foot apartment cleaned in Rome. Why does it cost €110.00 to clean your 600 square foot vacation let?

    Mommy Dearest would be appalled! So am I...

    Mommy Dearest would be appalled! So am I…

  9. Have some decent hangers in the closets and plenty of them. No wire hangers from the cleaners. Go to IKEA or Target and load up on nice wooden, or even heavy-duty plastic, hangers. If your guests are staying a month, they will need more than 6 bent wire hangers.
  10. We cannot intuit your city’s recycling and trash disposal rules, especially when we don’t speak the language. Explain the particulars and make sure your guests can comply without too much trouble. If you need to use pink bags for recyclable plastics and gray ones for garbage, supply them. We stayed in a place in Sorrento where the recycler only picked up plastics — in special green bags — on Thursdays and the plastics could only be set out on Wednesday evenings after 10:00PM.
    We were also admonished to remove all trash and recycling when we exited on Saturday. Since there was no place to put the plastics on Saturday we could not possibly comply. (See #8: it should be YOUR job to remove the trash anyway.)
  11. Expired food has to go.

    Expired food has to go.

    Periodically clean out the condiments and groceries left by prior guests. (Ironic that you want us to recycle and clean but you leave expired food in the house.) I never use the coffee left behind because it usually smells old. In a place we stayed last summer my husband tossed out a box of Cheerios that had an expiration date in 2013. It was July 2015 when he did this. Ric now makes it a habit to clean out the cupboards wherever we go. It’s a public service. Maybe you can label these items with the date you find them and if they are still there in 30 days, toss them out. 
  12. Reboot your router now-and-again. It helps the WiFi to function. By the way, strong, reliable WIFI is more important than almost any other amenity. We can no longer manage without it. It is the 21st century equivalent of “Direct Dial Phones!” in mid-20th-century motel rooms. We don’t need no stinkin’ phone, but we require WIFI. 
  13. Sort through the travel brochures and books left behind and only make available the latest and most reliable information. No sense leaving the Rick Steves’ 2010 Italy guide out when it’s 2015. Things change. The last guest’s crumpled map of downtown is not appealing. We’ve seen piles of tourist info in apartments that would make kindling for a bonfire. Maybe the visitors’ center can give you a stack of new maps to hand out. 
  14. When I wake up in the dark in a new place, I cannot remember what direction the bathroom is. Put a nightlight in each bathroom and supply a spare bulb. We need that for orientation when we wake up at night in a strange location. If you do not supply a nice low wattage nightlight, I have to leave on the overhead.

    Remember the elegance of a 1950s motel room? Many B&Bs in Europe have about as many electrical receptacles.

    Remember the elegance of a 1950s motel room? Many B&Bs and vacation apartments in Europe have about as many electrical receptacles.

  15. If your place is wired like a 1950s-era motel in Nebraska, please provide a power strip. I hate to crawl on the floor unplugging lamps so I can charge my phone. There should be a couple of convenient outlets for charging electronics. I should not have to put the phone in the bathroom or the iPad on the floor to charge them.
  16. If controlling the television requires an 8-year-old’s insight to the medium and the ability to juggle four remote controls, provide detailed instructions on which combination is necessary to watch the morning news. Best idea: pictures of each remote with guidance on how to use it and which buttons to push so I can figure it out in a jet-lagged state when I wake up at 4:00AM.
  17. Bathrooms should have decent towel bars or hooks so we can dry the towels out between uses. I hate having to hang them over the shower door or rod. So tacky. It would be nice to have access to an extra set of towels if we stay more than 2 nights. How hard is it to supply a couple of extra towels just-in-case. And don’t charge for beach towels in a resort location when you are already getting €200.00 per night from us!
Consider sleeping in your own property for a couple of nights now-and-then. See how it is to be a traveler in your rental. Can you make coffee in the morning? Do you like to hang your blouse on a twisted wire hangar? Can you read in bed? Do the pillows give you a crick in your neck? Are there enough pillows?  Is there something you miss? Your guests probably miss it too. You might be a more sympathetic landlord if you know what your guests are experiencing.
Sincerely,
GoodDayRome
P.S., Apartments we’ve loved have had:
  • Great WIFI
  • Lots of sturdy hangers (a dozen or more please!)
  • The Moka pot, Italian stallwart of the AM, must actually fit on the burner to work.

    The Moka pot, Italian stalwart of the AM, must actually fit on the burner to work.

    A crockpot so we could set up dinner and return from a day of hiking to a prepared meal (only happened once and it was so appreciated!)
  • More than 2 pillows
  • More than one set of towels for a stay of more than 3 nights
  • A Moka pot that makes two cups at a time (although we’d kill for a Nespresso machine)
  • Plenty of horizontal space for computers and personal effects
  • OUTLETS where they make sense! Bonus points to the apartment in London that actually provided a U.K. adapter! Double-bonus to our favorite apartment in Venezia where they have 110 and 220 outlets.
  • 4-or-more wineglasses and a corkscrew

    SMEG makes a fine toaster in Italy, but you seldom find a toaster in a gite.

    SMEG makes a fine toaster in Italy, but you seldom find a toaster in a vacation rental.

  • A welcome bottle of wine and chocolate (Can’t tell you how wonderful that was on a midnight arrival in San Francisco when we had last eaten a sandwich on the plane 6 hours earlier and after a transatlantic flight.)
  • A toaster (rare in Europe, loved by Americans)
  • Common condiments beyond salt & pepper: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, oregano, etc. so we can make a simple meal without leaving behind a month’s worth of supplies.
  • We love our wood hangers from IKEA. They cost next-to-nothing. ANd when I am somewhere for a week, I want more than 3 bent hangers.

    We love our wood hangers from IKEA. They cost next-to-nothing. When I am somewhere for a week, I want more than 3 bent hangers.

    Coat hooks by the door for our jackets
  • Towel racks in the bathroom

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Base Camp Barton

29 May
We are mostly settled now that we have been at Base Camp Barton for almost four weeks. Why Base Camp Barton? This is a place to keep our (limited) personal possessions and to park the cats while we travel around Europe for a couple of years. We wanted a “base camp” to return to, to call home, to make a headquarters. Here in Rome we have friends, contacts, doctors, and services we need, as well as access to the terrific transportation network of Italy’s trains and quick flights to other parts of Europe.
We have a large "sala," a combined living room and dining room. Some of our landlady's antiques combined with our comfy recliner, our rugs, and a modern sofa.
We have a large “sala,” a combined living room and dining room. Some of our landlady’s antiques combined with our comfy recliner, our rugs, and a modern sofa.
We wanted a furnished or semi-furnished apartment to make eventual departure easier as we have no intention of shipping large items back to the U.S. at the end of this adventure. I found out about SabbaticalHomes.com and started perusing it last summer. Here, as opposed to VRBO or other tourist-oriented rental sites (which I love and use when traveling), I found apartments with pricing more conducive to long term living that are fully furnished.Finding an apartment here is a very different process from finding one in the U.S. There you can fill out an application almost anonymously, submit it, have a credit check done, and with payment of a damage deposit you are approved. Here it is more of a relationship thing, unless you are a tourist renting a VRBO-type of apartment. I’ve had other ex-pats or would-be-ex-pats tell me that they were refused a mid-to-long-term rental, or that the rental suddenly disappeared when they went to meet the owners.
The bedroom has two French doors to the terrace. Very light and airy.
The bedroom has two French doors to the terrace. Very light and airy.
Eventually one popped up in our preferred quartiere of Parioli at a price that was within reach, which is a different concept than affordable. (Rents in Rome are staggering!)  The person who listed the apartment is an ex-pat Italian living in Boston, and the apartment belongs to his parents, so we made contact on both sides of the Atlantic. It was a perfect size, about 100 square meters. Would they be able to rent it for two years? Yes. Would they consider letting us bring our cats? Yes! So we went to what we have come to call “The Vetting.”
Janie models the bed.
Janie models the bed.
One warm September Sunday we met our landlords to see the apartment, had coffee and chatted in a mix of Italian and English. There was no application, no credit check, not even a question about income or finances. It was good enough that we were associated with the American Embassy. We went back for a second look and said yes, we’d take it. Constructing a legitimate rental agreement was another process that eventually involved an attorney, but not for any negative reasons. We all wanted to end up with a legal contract and in Italy there are some interesting requirements. For example a two-year agreement is not legitimate. It has to be a “4 + 4” contract or an 18 month (maximum) contratto transitorio. Perhaps most interesting is that once the contract is signed, it has to be registered with the State and a fee paid. In the U.S. I would stick a rental agreement in my file drawer on the odd chance I needed to refer to it, as would the landlord, but here it must be registered so the State can collect yet another fee. Oh, and just before the formal signing, the son from the U.S. was here to visit, so he dropped by to meet us too. A family affair!
The new apartment guest-room-office is not-quite-ready for occupancy.
The new apartment guest-room-office is not-quite-ready for occupancy.
Italian friends have told us stories about having to open a bank account in the name of the landlord and deposit an amount equivalent to a year’s rent! This is in case of default and only the landlord can withdraw from it. €1,000 rent = €12,000 deposit. To add insult to injury, the renter has to pay bank fees, so at the end of the rental period one has not only tied up a significant amount of cash but does not even get it all back as monthly fees are deducted! Luckily we were trusted and were able to put down only a standard two month’s rent.
The guest room now ready for guests.
The guest room now ready for guests.
Before we unpacked the last box our nephew and his fiancée were in Rome to visit. Luckily for them not in our guest room as it was the place we stashed all the stuff we didn’t know what to do with right away. We had lots of meals out with them as we were not ready to tackle cooking just yet. They left town, we unpacked the last two boxes and made up the guest room the morning our son arrived just two days before I retired. Immediately following our last day at work, we went to Sorrento with him.
So now we are alone for a week and doing the shakedown, figuring out how things work, where things are, where to put our still-too-abundant “stuff,” and how to spend our days. They are going by rapidly. We joined the gym across the street and did our first workout today. How nice it was to not be constrained by a lunch hour for a workout!
We’ve had to have some minor repairs on appliances and it seems the stove (which must be 40 years old) will need to be replaced, but the landlady has been an angel about it all. Yesterday we had screens installed in our bedroom, a blessing as the mosquitoes can be horrible here and very few Italian apartments have them.
The terrace is narrow, but wraps around the bedroom and there is just enough room for two to sip wine.
The terrace is narrow, but wraps around the bedroom and there is just enough room for two to sip wine.
Beautiful bougainvillea across from us.
Beautiful bougainvillea across from us.
Another view out the back door, off the bedroom.
Another view out the back door, off the bedroom.
The lady across the street has a terrace to die for...but she faces west which is less-than-optimal.
The lady across the street has a terrace to die for…but she faces west which is less-than-optimal.
We’ve already been yelled at by the portiera for parking in the driveway for 6 minutes after an IKEA run our first week here. “NON SOSTARE QUI!” she said. “NON MAI!” So we feel like we are accepted. She yells at a lot of people.
The cats love the wrap around terrace and have discovered all the sunspots. We have adapted to hanging laundry out versus having a power-hog clothes dryer. We do have a dishwasher to compensate, which the embassy did not see fit to supply us.
We are expecting guests – my brother and sister-in-law arrive Monday – and the first cat sitters are lined up for a 9-night stay. Base Camp Barton is ready!
Libby has found a good hiding spot, under an afghan on the couch.
Libby has found a good hiding spot, under an afghan on the couch.
This would be called an "ampio ingresso" in an ad for this apartment. I love these big entrances with room for a coatrack, umbrella stand, big table and mirror.
This would be called an “ampio ingresso” in an ad for this apartment. I love these big entrances with room for a coatrack, umbrella stand, big table and mirror.
Many Italian apartments have a service hallway, leading to the kitchen, that can be closed off. That's Janie trotting toward the camera.
Many Italian apartments have a service hallway, leading to the kitchen, that can be closed off. That’s Janie trotting toward the camera.
The kitchen is the size of a postage stamp, but functional. We were spoiled at our last place!
The kitchen is the size of a postage stamp, but functional. We were spoiled at our last place!
 

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Changing house

8 May
In Italian we say cambiamo casa: we are changing house versus the colloquial American “moving.” I like it. The Italian verb muovere is used for lots of things from “moved to tears” and taking legal action, to a dog wagging its tail, but never for the process of going to a new residence, hence changing house. Ric and I have been very busy changing house and thus there have been no posts to GoodDayRome and few to Our Weekly Pizza.
External view at Via di Villa Emiliani. You can see my head in the window to the left of the balcony.
External view at Via di Villa Emiliani. You can see my head in the window to the left of the balcony.
Some of you may not know, but we are retiring later this month and staying in Rome: the plan is to remain here for two years to travel and enjoy before returning to Portland, Oregon. We had to leave our lovely apartment on Via di Villa Emiliani because it was provided by the Embassy and a new diplomat is arriving soon. Last October we embarked on a search for new place (that alone will be a future subject as it was a process unlike in the U.S.) and May 2 we picked up the keys.
We have continued to shed stuff. We started to downsize in 2003 when we left our large home in Lake Oswego for condo life in NW Portland. We continued when we moved to Rome as our embassy-provided apartment was almost half the size of the condo. The new apartment is furnished, although we chose to bring a few pieces along, and as we will be paying to store anything we send back to the U.S., we wanted to send only those items we most cherish: Ric’s collectible trains, some family heirlooms, art, and so on. No sense paying storage for two years for a set of flatware that cost $130.00 10 years ago. We retained for use in Rome things that make us comfortable: our own linens, some kitchen utensils, wineglasses, espresso cups, our Nespresso machine (of course!) and so on. (The “furnished” rental apartment has two wineglasses. Seriously?)
 Our embassy community is a great outlet for selling furniture and we were able to unload sell almost everything we needed to: bed, desk, table and chairs, various cabinets, excess luggage, small appliances, etc. There are several churches involved in refugee relief and the local Episcopal Church, St. Paul’s Within the Walls, was able to take some things and referred me to another large relief organization that picked up dishes and other kitchen items we no longer need. When we get back to Portland my 13-year-old plates can be replaced.
Then there are the things that it is hard to find a “home” for. They might be disposable or unwanted by us, but they might be treasures to someone else. A “garage sale” is unheard of, so we carefully set these items out by the curb to see if anyone would claim them. If they are still there in a couple of hours, we take the next step and put them in the trash. There are people who make a life out of “picking” and no doubt some of their treasures end up at Porta Portese, and there are neighbors who will claim a watering can, flowerpot or lamp.
The train tables-- two-of-four -- momentarily used to stack things before moving.
The train tables– two-of-four — momentarily used to stack things before moving.
Ric had some hobby tables he used for his trains. They fit in the category of things-not-worth-storing-for-two-years, so we set one out in the street one day, and voila! it was gone in less than two hours. So a few days later we set out another one. Whoosh! It vanished while we went to the market. There were still two left and we figured we’d use the same magic act to make them disappear; However, in talking to our portiere who was claiming some garage shelving we wanted to give away, Ric said we should ask him if he was interested in the other two hobby tables. So we invited Emilio up to see them. Oh yes, he wanted them! At his casa al mare he has three storage units and can use the shelving for beach umbrellas, chaise lounges, gardening equipment, and all the paraphernalia one has at a beach house. Or he can put them at his son’s house. But, he wondered, did we set one of these units out the other day? Because Emilio was the
Items left curbside are retrieved by people who can use them.
Items left curbside are retrieved by people who can use them.
person who claimed it off the curb! He is, in his own words, un conservatore, a person who keeps stuff.
Changing house in a city full of apartments with tiny elevators is fascinating. Balconies and windows become entry-and-exit points for boxes and furnishings. The team rolled in with a small truck (easy to maneuver in the narrow streets) and a lift vehicle that provided an outdoor elevator. In less than 4 1/2 hours they boxed or wrapped everything for the new apartment and loaded it on the truck. By 4:00PM they had everything inside the new one. At each end the portiere (building superintendent) supervised the process. A second morning was devoted to packing up the items for storage in the U.S. Click on any photo for a slideshow and larger view. 

 

So as I write this it is early Friday morning. We are still not completely unpacked. The bedroom and bath are organized, but the kitchen is still in boxes and while most of the electronics are hooked up, the guest-bedroom-office is a dumping ground to be sorted out. We have 10 days before the first guest arrives so we need to kick into high gear. And we still have 7 days of work left before we retire.
So we are establishing “Base Camp Barton” where the cats will reside while Ric and I travel, and many cat sitters have been lined up for the coming months. More later….

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