ITALIA ! Homes Italy in

www.italia-magazine.com

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A professional property sales service

A selection of property for

sale in Abruzzo, Piemonte,

Tuscany, Umbria,

Le Marche, Lake Maggiore,

Liguria and Sardinia

EDITOR Paul Pettengale paul.pettengale@anthem-publishing.com

SENIOR ART EDITORJenny Cook jenny.cook@anthem-publishing.com

PRODUCTION EDITORLewis Brangwyn lewis.brangwyn@anthem-publishing.com

CONTRIBUTORS Christian Baker, Leanne Casellas, Will Crerar, Phil Denton, Jill Gifford, Luca de Giorgi, Gideon Kibblewhite, Fleur Kinson, Carolyn Lyons, Andrew TurnerKim van Woerkom, Jake Woodhouse, Aldo Zilli

ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES Sarah Hartley sarah.hartley@anthem-publishing.com Giuliano Cosentino giuliano.cosentino@anthem-publishing.com

ADVERTISING DIRECTORSimon Lewis simon.lewis@anthem-publishing.com

PUBLISHING DIRECTORJon Bickley jon.bickley@anthem-publishing.com

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Contact Homes in Italy:

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YOUR LETTERS

LETTERSTOITALIA!

We’re getting wonderful responses to letters previously published in Italia!, particularly on the subjects of moving to Italy and learning the language. Please keep them coming in and help smooth the way for your fellow readers.

LETTER OFTHEMON TH

JUN 2006

LETTER OF THE MONTH I have been a subscriber to your magazine from the very beginning and have found the magazine a big help while I have been fixing up my house in Italy (I still do, now that Casa Miele is finally acceptable to my Italian grandchildren!). I just want to make two comments about the final item in the Question and Answer section of the April issue, dealing with the codice fiscali. You say that you need it for the purchase of, among other things, a car. Unless the law has changed very recently, non-residents cannot buy cars in Italy. My car, paid for by me, officially belongs to my daughter, who lives in Milan! Secondly, you say: “You should always use your name exactly as it appears on the passport or your codice fiscalemay be considered wrong or false”. You have not warned your female readers of the Italian affection for the maiden name! My codice fiscaleHAD to be in my maiden name as I am a widow and I was told at the consulate that it would be illegal for me to use my married name. However, my passport is still in my married name, as it has been since 1963. My Italian bank account is in my maiden name because of the codice fiscale, but I still use my married signature! And I keep a set of copies of my birth and marriage certificates and my husband's death certificate in Italy for those times when they view me suspiciously! Kate Lee via email

Thank you for clarifying matters – and I hope you enjoy the wine kindly provided by Enotria Winecellars.

My car officially belongs to my daughter, who lives in Milan!

We featured the difficulties of buying a car in Italy in the very first issue of Italia!.

LEARNING THE LINGO Having read one of the letters in the March issue of Italia!, I wanted to pass on a few of my own experiences in Italy. I went over there for an extended holiday in 1999, but then returned to the same area in the south more permanently a year later. When I arrived I spoke no Italian and had no friends or family over there; I can’t say it was easy, but I settled into the life there very quickly and made friends, both Italian and English-speaking. In my case, being on my own worked to my advantage and I can now see that in many ways my independence paid off – I was perhaps accepted more than Brits who have married locals, and my willingness to learn about both the language and the culture certainly helped. I did make mistakes – I think everyone does – but perseverance helped and I learned something from every situation I found myself in. When I decided to go there to live I did a TEFL course, and this meant I had a way of making a living. It might have taken some time to get a lot of work, but in time word of

mouth also helped. Unfortunately, I did have to come away after about four years because of some health problems, but I certainly hope to return at some point and still spend a considerable amount of time there each year. My Italian is also now fluent, so practice has (to some degree) made perfect! I lived in Campania, in a very small village, and was among a handful of stranieri, or foreigners (although in a tourist area such as the Amalfi Coast there are large numbers of them around). While among Italians many spoke some Italian, although not necessarily fluently, so some patience and diplomacy always comes in handy. As a rule, being prepared to try to speak Italian and fit in with the locals appears to work well, and as such Italians can be extremely welcoming. I think for many people an Italian life could be more than just a dream, but along with the sun cream, flexibility and enthusiasm certainly come in very handy. For anyone considering making a move, I personally would recommend researching an area

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OUR ITALIA!

Road tonowhere

Buying a car might seem like a straightforward enough task, but as Carolyn Lyons finds out, even the winding mountainous dirt tracks are no obstacle to progress when compared to the maze that is Italian bureaucracy...

On every bend of the Umbrian road came a deep, low, agonising groan from under the car. I hadn’t heard it previously during the one-mile journey on unpaved track leading from my

for the non-existent rubbish collection (I have to take my rubbish in the car to the nearest bin, which is in the village two miles up the hill). No: what you need to buy a car is what you need to do anything in Italy – an official document. This one is called a Residenza. In

London, in the photo box at my local Woolworth’s, when I thought I was finished after smiling at the first flash. Unfortunately, this was not the case, so the second flash caught me leaving the booth, the third coming back and the last sitting on the seat once again,

Each issue, the writer of theLetter of the Month will receive six bottles of Eremo, a fine red wine from the Langhe region of Piedmont produced by Fontanafredda. The prize is worth £60 and the winner will be contacted by Enotria wine merchant on behalf of Italia!magazine. No correspondence will be entered into and the Editor’s decision is final. www.enotria.co.uk

June 2006 ITALIA! 9