Trauma in the aisles!

A little dramatic perhaps, but the dark clouds and fierce winds blowing outside are a good metaphor for my internal state just now!  Yesterday delivered what I believe is called a rude awakening!

It was my second trip round a supermarket since I started to think about my weekly shop, mentally picking out what I buy when in UK.  My first trip, I realised my love of international cuisine was going to be challenged: no curry powder, no tortilla wraps, no coconut milk and the herbs and spices section was less than 20% what you would see in UK.

This second trip, I set my sights a bit lower and focussed on the staples, only to be met by more disappointment: no fruit squash, no frozen chicken, no tinned soup and what I did find in terms of tinned tuna and packs of minced beef were easily 3 times the price I'd pay in Sainsbury's.  I know it's only food and it's not like my friends are going to let me starve out here, but the reality of not being able to make, eat and drink even the basics I live off in UK has really unsettled me.  I am coming to realise that it's not that it will be nice to learn to cook Italian out here: it's essential for survival!

So what do Italian supermarkets fill their shelves with?  Well, it's certainly not an indulgent range of fantastic chocolate, which I could have accepted as a trade off for a world food aisle!  Nope, here you find entire aisles dedicated to endless varieties of pasta, assorted dried bread snacks and I have never seen so many options when it comes to tinned tomatoes!

"But of course," some of you will be thinking, "you're in Italy: bread, pasta, tomatoes all the way!  Embrace it!"  The problem is, as discussed in my post on Food glorious food! carbohydrates are a no-no for me and I am not a fan of tomatoes!  So I may be forced to live off new flavours of old favourites!

Tuna philadelphia anyone?

Lychee or papaya tic tacs = part of my 5 a day?

There is a glimmer of hope (can't believe I'm about to say this!): Lidl!  As I understand they have the same products in their stores across Europe so perhaps I may bump into a bottle of soy sauce or even a pack of bacon in there.  My friends however have informed me they cannot be seen in Lidl and will be staying in the car while I check it out - strangely reassuring that some things stay the same!

Oh and just incase you you're thinking of telling me to get on with it and try some new ingredients, I'll leave you with a picture of these bad boys at the fishmongers!

Polpo grosso (literally "big fat octopus"!)

P.S. This "Top 5 tips tips on having a happy expat life" popped up alongside my emails today.  I think someone knew I needed a pep-talk!

The b**** word!

Some remnants of UK culture are hard to shift.  First, the sliding door.  As I see it, fine on wardrobes, but for proper doors, a bit 70's, a bit naff.  Not so in Italy!  In Italy they feature in new build houses and expensive apartments even where there's ample space to accommodate a swinging door.

So, it was with hesitation and trepidation that I changed what was on the plans (understandably, the biggest no-no with builders in any country, and we women have a particularly bad reputation for doing it!) and asked our builder to take down the freshly built (oops!) wall with standard door opening, and build instead a wall for a sliding door (the door slides into a recess in the wall).  It is definitely for the best, saving space and preserving natural light in one of the holiday apartments where I know Italians will think nothing of it, I just hope my British friends will still talk to me!

And so to the bidet!  Now that a few friends have brought it up in conversation, I feel it's okay to share it with you here!  It's no secret we Brits don't understand bidets - that we share with 99% countries in the world.  They're even falling out of fashion with the French apparently.  Not so in Italy!  Here you have to have a bidet if you want to rent or sell to Italians.  It's a deal-breaker and 100% non-negotiable.

Toilet paper AND towels?  I don't want to think about it!

But our holiday apartments aren't huge so we tried to be clever and put in Japanese toilets: hi-tech seats on top of a regular toilet that shoot water and dry you at the push of a button.  Functional for those who need a bidet and space-saving for me, yes?  Nope!  The idea did not cut it with my Italian friends!

So I relented and put a bidet in each of the apartments, but even then they weren't happy!  Not content with the amount of space you allow for a WC, the bidet needs more space either side as dictated by the position of your feet when using - memorably demonstrated by our wonderful and reserved architect!

Look at it!
Smugly taking space perfect for the basin!

So blase with its skinny waste - not even trying to fit in!

Bowing to the pressure, I've even decided to put pipework for a bidet in 2 of the bathrooms in the main house, photograph it and then tile over!  Future Italian purchasers can relax knowing they can easily have bidets to wash their privates and I get to keep some much appreciated space in my bathrooms.

So that's all I have to say about bidets.  They have turned my bathroom designs upside down and I have a brooding resentment of them!  After all this, they better still be a must-have when we come to sell!

Anyone out there brave enough to share their enthusiasm / confusion for the little blighters?!  I've heard they're wonderful for washing your feet/undies/small pets!

Snow again in UK - daydreaming of sun on my face in Italy!

Apologies it has been so long since my post but these few weeks have seen some exciting developments in our new Italian home and I have also just completed an intensive course to help me be a better English language teacher so the big move comes ever closer!

Incase you have ever wondered how to go about the re-construction of a many hundred year old Italian house in a protected area where you cannot change the outside appearance, here are a few photos of the stages of part of the roof terrace being rebuilt!  Kind of like a listed building in UK, they are very strict about retaining the original external structure so the roof terrace had to be rebuilt to the exact same height as is documented at the town hall!

Original raised roof terrace

First look at the 2 rooms below which will be the new kitchen

Supports for the new roof terrace (super-technical huh?!)

Roof terrace structurally sound again

Dividing wall taken down in my new kitchen - woohoo!

While we're on the subject, below is a photo of how the roof terrace progresses, with the surrounding walls being built up.  I am glad we are allowed to build them up a little as the existing wall was no higher than my knees and being 4 storeys up and hoping we may receive visits from children and alcohol-imbibing adults, the safety aspect was a concern!  We are not allowed however to build them up very high and so from there we can only put in place something less permanent and only to a certain height.

Privacy is important to me and I hate the idea of being overlooked but will it be a shame to put in fencing to head height around the whole terrace?  To me the surrounding buildings are on the whole rather dirty and unkempt (such a building snob!) so I won't mind them being out of sight but I think for some people there's a huge appeal in seeing all the other roofs around you.  What do you think?  We'll still be able to see some fancy buildings which tower above everything!

Safety first!

Sunshine on a romantic Italian tower - bliss!

The pope resigns, the election's next week, but I'm English, so first, the weather!

February is Italy's coldest month.  Up north, there's snow and putting chains on car tyres is obligatory but not in Puglia.  It does occasionally get snow but not in my new hometown where they haven't had snow settle in over 25 years.  I am so loving that!  Can't imagine I'll miss it at all!

Here it's typically 5-10 degrees, but still it feels a little like Puglia is in hibernation: bars shut early, pools wear covers and people submerge in huge coats or stay home feeling ill.  (Italians take their temperature a lot - doctors are obliged to make a house-visit if you tell them you have a fever!)

Nature isn't hibernating however.  The mild weather and bright colours feel like spring to me.

Mandarins are in season

Flowers are blossoming

Puglia is the greenest I've ever seen it

In fairness, although today is bright and sunny it did rain a bit yesterday evening and was unusually foggy which everyone describes as come Londra (like London).  Well it's nice to be known for something!

And the other stuff?  There are a million places online better than this blog for informed discussion of politics and religion in Italy, but in short, it seems to me they don't respect the pope's decision to resign as being pope is not just a job and they despair at the upcoming election as the politicians are all as bad as each other (sound familiar?!).  Well, almost all: the mere mention of Berlusconi's name amongst my friends guarantees an outcry about the latest ridiculous story - his ex-wife gets €100,000 per day, his girlfriend is 49 years younger than him, the endless plastic surgery, hair transplants and make up (the guy's 76 years old!).  Certainly, to my friends, Berlusconi is a major embarrassment for Italy.

So how does this man, awaiting 4 years in jail for tax evasion, charged with paying underage girls for sex at his bunga bunga parties, more gaffe-prone than our own Prince Philip, how does he have any chance of being forgiven his misdemeanours and getting back into power?  There are some interesting intellectual theories.  For example, psychiatrist, professor and author Massimo Fagioli says it's a Catholic thing to tolerate such scandalous behaviour: "Sin at night and confess in the morning".  To me it seems to come down to 2 things.  Firstly he owns some of Italy's biggest TV stations so he has strict control over content and pumps out his message to the masses.  Secondly he is a charmer!  While other candidates studiously answer an interviewer's questions, Berlusconi turns and tells a joke to the camera!

The intense frustration of some over the inability of others to see Berlusconi for who and what he really is, is best summed up by a story I was told by a doctor.  He was with a patient in hospital following her surgery and she said she liked Berlusconi.  When he countered with all the scandal and corruption, she replied, "But doctor, he's so funny!"  The doctor finished his story: "I should have let her die"!!

P.S. Is anything more lovely than a hand-picked posy from a child?

Allow me to introduce you to my wasps' nest!

Being involved in a project with people who speak no English sometimes proves too much for Google Translate.  This was the case with the mysterious vespaio.  

I was told it would be fitted after they had dug down on the ground floor in order to prevent damp.  Literally translated it means wasps' nest which wasn't much help!  With a few drawings by the project manager I came to have a better understanding, but still I hadn't quite visualised this:

The wasps' nest in situ

Little black plastic igloos!  I'll sleep better at night knowing these little guys are on the front line in the war against damp!  I've never seen anything like it!  Do we have this for damp proofing in UK?  

Wasps' nest covered in conrete

Renovation Ragazza - making sure you never look foolish on an Italian building site again!

Italian drivers

The idea of driving in Italy makes me nervous.  I'm not a confident driver at the best of times, the roads in centro storico (the old town) are ridiculously windy and narrow and Italian drivers are not known for their sensible driving.  The fact that so few of the ex-pats I know drive just compounds my fear.

Then I saw this video!  It is my worst nightmare made real!  Look at the unbelievable scene that ensues when this guy can't park his car!  Mamma mia!

P.S. Thank you Tiffany Parks for bringing this video to my attention.  For an insight as to how it perfectly sums up Italian life, check out her blog at The Pines of Rome.

The beauty of tufo stone revealed

It's the end of the second week of work on our new home in Italy and I am thrilled to see the tufo stone exposed in the holiday apartments.

Firstly, because it has been hidden under plaster and like any good period detailing, I consider it a feature and want it on show.  And secondly, because it has been hidden under plaster, so you never really know what it's going to look like 'til you get the plaster off!

The local tufo stone is a creamy to sandy brown colour, but some buildings have as much as 20% in a darker, terracotta brown colour and in my friend's house you can even see fossils in some of the stone.  Being so close to the sea, I wasn't sure just how much brown (or dead things) I was going to get!

Truth be told, this renovation ragazza likes pale neutral creams and greys and wasn't excited at the prospect of orangey brown in her home, so I'm loving the fact that 99% our stone matches what I hoped we'd find.  And the other 1%?  Well that just serves to highlight the beautiful imperfection of nature!

Plaster removed to reveal beautiful barrel vaulted ceiling in tufo stone

I couldn't wait to share it with you as the effect is so soft and earthy, quite different from the perfect red bricks we see so often in UK.

Exposed stone, double height rooms and vaulted ceilings = a big learning curve so I'm still gleaning all I can regarding optimising the use of space, lighting and interior design, but they also create such an exciting exotic blank canvas!  I love my tufo barrel vaults!

Wall seamlessly curves into the vaulted ceiling