
So you’ve completed on your property and are now the proud owner of your very own little piece of Italy.
Everyone is congratulating you and your raring to go, you are really eager to get stuck into the renovating and making the place truly ‘yours’ and putting your stamp on it.
You head back to your new home in the Country to plan it all out and start tackling all the wonderful ideas you have for this ‘little’ project and very soon reality sets in.
Usually the first job is to start clearing out the old stuff left there that you have now inherited because you are now also the proud owner of a ton of unwanted trash that came with the property and a few acres of land you you thought looked like a great idea at the time when you were in the throws of buying the place.
Dreams of wandering through your own olive grove, glass of wine in one hand and your beloved holding the other quickly evaporate within a few days when you actually realise the enormity of the mammoth task that lies ahead.
Small cracks are starting appear in your well laid plans - You have no way of getting rid of the rubbish you were kindly left because you haven’t sorted out your TARI yet and don’t forget the IMOF (Septic Tank) needs to be changed because the existing one is illegal - You were told about this at the time you were buying your little piece of paradise but in all the excitement you thought that the little hole in the ground that they casually mentioned needed changing was going to be an easy peasy job - not knowing that 12 inches below the surface of the soil of Italy (Well here in the South at least) is an unknown monster called ‘ROCK’.
And before you can even start any of that ‘knocking stuff around’ malarkey, to put your kitchen here and your bathroom there, you know the one with a wonderful view over the beautiful olive groves and 2 acres of bind weed, you now also need a Geometra to submit your plans to the Commune before you can even start your ‘little project’.
The only thing to do is have a big fire to get rid of most of the crap you’ve been left to dispose of and watch the smoke of your dreams rise in to the air along with the sparks and embers of the previous owners families unwanted furniture and effects whilst drinking copious amounts of wine and convincing each other that everything is going to be just fine and it really was the best move you’ve ever made.
Welcome to the start of your Italian Dream !