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I think you'll find that €2500 is OK, but €2501 is reportable. Anyway - when I bought my holiday home in Italy several years ago, all the Bankers Drafts had to be under €10.001, as these were reportable to the authorities - so things don't seem to change much. [and as for having to pay using 'transferable' Bankers Drafts - well lets not even go there!]

Have you asked your neighbours? - they may well know of local people who could do it

" .........  a technical govt is the only way forward - at least it can make some unpopular decision (reimpose ICI, tax on foreign bank accounts and patrimonio) ........ " Oh that they would - but think about it .......... Clamp down on the 'Black Economy'? - I don't think so Cut Pensions [10% would be OK, but 25% would be better]? - I don't think so Sack thousands of Civil Servants? - I don't think so Reduce ALL wages by at least 10%? - I don't think so etc etc Blame the rest of Europe? = probably Not pass any changes that would harm their chances of re-election - probably .....Outlook?  ........Poor

"today, the ½ûÂþÌìÌà treasury hes effectively put its money where its mouth is, and 'pulled' a bond auction. .................. What is 'says' is that Italy is truly solvent, and the 'attacks' ............. are opportunistic." I hope I'm wrong, but I find it difficult to understand [looking from the outside] how anyone thinks Italy is 'truly solvent', and I would expect that the 'attacks will increase until a rigorous programme of austerity measures etc is introduced in Italy.  I'm not holding my breath in anticipation of such changes happening soon

"The only silver lining in the grey economic cloud hanging over Italy at the moment is that Berlusconi may finally be forced out of office. Who wants an ostrich with head firmly buried in sand for a prime minister?" The thing that worries me is ......"Who will take over?" Mr B may be pretty useless - but who is the credible alternative?

Rosie - the button works for me. HOWEVER - if you want to go to page 2, type   '?page=1'   after the   '/'   in the adress at the top of the page.  So it reads           for page 3,          type     '?page=2'   and so on   Hope this helps

This really is something that you need to talk to your architect or Geometra about - they will know what your Comune will approve, and do the relevant drawings that will need to be submitted for approval. Things to look out for [in no particular order]:-

• You should have a strong membrane bedded on sand or similar on which you cast the slab
• slab should have some reinforcement in it to prevent cracking
• solid insulation panels [say 100mm thick] on the membrane before concreting will improve insulation
• if digging down - don't undermine the existing walls - on older properties, the foundations may not be very deep [if at all]
• bring the membrane up the wall to above about 100mm above ground level - stops water ingress
• Check if you need any drainage under the membrane to cope with groundwater

As I said earlier - get professional advice - you'll need it Alan

Try the Community Search facility [on right hand side of page] for past postings on this I did a quick search on 'olive trees' and found these  -  Try other word options as well Good luck Alan

"...... seasonpass is not a VPN running on Boxee. It's actually the jailbreak recoding for an Apple TV media box (ATV2).  Before laying out a wad on a new media player I'm going to try to hack my ATV2 with ATV-Flash after the jail break... then install Boxee as a route to a VPN and endless BBC. ..........." And I thought italian was hard enough to learn!!!!!!!!!!

"So it is possible to run on 3.3kw..."  My holiday place runs fine on 3.3kw - we have washing machine, dishwasher, electric oven microwave and toaster, all on electric.  Gas hob and non-electric kettle As long as you are sensible on what you switch on - its fine. I often think that all new places in UK should be only supplied with 3kW - in the long term it might help solve the energy crisis