October already…

Well it's October so that must mean we’ve been here 2 months now. So many things have happened in the last couple of months and it’s still difficult to believe that we are really living here permanently.

At last we have a temporary electricity supply to the house, the first electricity I think it has ever had. What’s so surprising is it only took ENEL (the electricity company) three days from us signing the contract to installing the supply, we were very impressed.

We are also a lot closer to commencing work on the house and have signed the contract with the builder, we hope he will start within the next couple of weeks and may be complete by March next year although this depends greatly on the weather over the winter. Obviously this doesn’t mean everything will be complete, just the work we are unable to do ourselves & can afford to pay the builder to carry out. Once he is done it’s up to us to try and get everything finished and get the house into a habitable state. It would be great if we were in a position to receive paying guests in the apartments during the summer but I think that may be a little optimistic!

My parents stayed with us for a week in September which we enjoyed very much. It was good to see them and catch up with everything. We also had the opportunity to show them the house and the area and for them to sample plenty of the local food and wine (see picture). Unfortunately they lost their passports at the end of the stay which was a little stressful & not to be recommended! On the positive side they did get to see Milan (well mainly the British Embassy) & spend an extra night in Pisa.