½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

 most of us living around abruzzo,marrche and lazio now have this site firmly in our bookmarks so didnt bother posting it...however if you are interested in the event above...heres the link to it thats the one last night.. according to the site there were 20 or so following that but all less ... can imagine the worry...   anyway if you go to that link   and want to save the site for future reference if you cut the part from data onwards you get to their home page... 

 i came at all this from a different angle...  having had a fairly wide european life for many years had picked up basics in most alnguages ... of the places  i used to spend time ... but nothing formal... married an ½ûÂþÌìÌà and had to start spending time with ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs and my understnding grew .. a lot..speech little...  wactching ½ûÂþÌìÌà TV in Engalnd was the biggest help i believe..  ant sat box aimed at the right satelite and you get the theree RAI progs for nothing... is one of the best ideas  given..and radio is even simpler...  my ½ûÂþÌìÌà is still atrocious.. am sure most of you that have done grammar courses will speak better than me... and thats seven years down the line... however i pretty well understand it all now.. speed  a nightmare to start now feels almost in comparison like they are talking in slow motion...  and really its not a far stretch to realise that ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs get completely lost in english if they are with a crowd of english speakers nattering away.... instead of just one on one... italian speed is the same as english speed its just we dont realise how we cut off word ends and roll them together to make it unintelligeble  for the average non english speaker... my posatings are an excellent examople ... almost coded if you are not english... but most english speakers can work out my mis spellings and lack of punctuation..and get the sense...imagine if you were ½ûÂþÌìÌà trying to read what i attempt to write...  so i agree with most of the above advice... it will come with time... doing the basic ground work is something i skipped... because im lazy and also have an italian/english speaking wife and son...  so always had a safety net... but being immersed in the sound.. and this changes from area to area with the sort of knowledge you have will lead to within a few weeks of being easily able to get basics and even start replying like Becky... my main problem now is that at a party with a lot of englsih people i could not understand a word they said...  well actually not a desperate problem not soemthing that occurs very often... but it sort of makes your head swim...  am happier now in mixed circles...have a few friends with anglo italian type partnerships with friends that are italian and speak some english and the conversation really flows well as everthing gets mixed up... all very strange i  know...  but i think you that tak the time to learn the basics properly will find little trouble once you get the cahnce to spend decent amounts of time here... am impressed

 to get the less sugary ones its often the case that more expensive leads to less sugar... and really the only place to buy the best limoncella is to head to the amalfi coast and find a local making it... their lemons are the ones that are needed...size of footballs.. failing that follow the recipe above...  am sure its good.. but for me i reckon a buying trip plus sampling makes more sense..

 if you put it in the freezer and frost it up nicely... it tastes even cooler.. 

 well in the pescara valley area where the tragedy of Bussi occured the wwf and the legaambiente ran their own tests to try and stop the water company poisoning their clients... despite legal cases being taken against them publishing the facts the truth eventually came out ... the water companies here are often small...very behind the times and part of the system where the people that control...ie the health authorities... are very much hand in hand with each other... and basically no one is prepared to upset apple carts .. the water company operating in that peacar valley area are well ehind times in any case... people in chieti and pecara and  southern teramo served by this comapny often have no water during the summer...apartments without water above the second floor because no presure...  and they refused depite the knowledge that one well they were pumping from was unfit to use and a couple of others ...due to more toxic dumps of less toxicity were also dangerous...  i presume that they sneaked these wells back on line during the summer to allow water flow through the tap... as Becky says most probably due to in attention to this problem because of L'Aquila...these problems are throughout Italy...not reserved to either south or central Italy... i have written before about problems in other places that one would least expect ... people often forget that Italy once had a nuclear generting capacity.... these plants when closed were then supposed to be de commisioned and the waste placed safely ... their are many hot spots in Italy... one notably close to Rome ... where this waste despite funding has never been made secure... and is and continues to leak into the air and the ground...   all these things do get published in weekly journals here in Italy but quickly get passed over for the next tragedy... basically because the comune, provincial and regional governments are all involved in taking cuts ... these are then aligned with the magistrature.. my conclusion is that you have two massicve problems in Italy... Communism and the Mafia...  in a sense the same form of control exercised by both... extremism and inefficiency.. forget Berlusconi... one can laugh at him and his excesses... its the underlying mentatility of the minor players here in terms of public life and crimality which affects all of us... and with a magistratura closely aligned via intellectual left to communist traditions that have even died out in the eastern block but maintained here because it protects their positions and their wealth ... which in turn is aligned with the mainly far left  or mafia controlled local goverment  nothing but nothing ever comes out and no one ever gets held to account...they are all related and in each others pockets... my advice is to be aware...get to know locals that know all thats behind everything...if they are buying botteld water ...especailley say the local doctor or your vet... all with access to ASL investigations which are never published .. join the WWF in Italy or at least get on their website...and the lega-ambiente...  they know more stuff than anyone else what is going on behind closed doors...  

 pat sorry no photos ... i suppose could get one sorted... basically our house is into the side of a hill so rear ground floor of house below ground ...with a second wall behind providing an air gap between soil and house walls...this second non strucural wall continues for another 15-20 metres beyond the house and was an area used by the previous owners for animals and junk...well junk mainly ...the roof had collapsed and stopped about a metre from the house ... a sort of lean too .. although larger than most i guess aboutt 70 m sq... i replaced all the wooden beams that were rotten put in extra beams as supports and then re roofed...  restored the old kitchen that was out there also... so from the back door of the main house there is basically a 50 m sq covered area open to the south which leads then into a second kitchen...   so its an ideal place to sit and eat or whatever... and when it rains a good place to shrug out of damp clothes... the dogs like lying there too...they can keep an eye on things without getting wet.. used wood panles for the roof on the beams ... and then felted... eventually will add on roof tiles... but at the moment am too busy...the other way i guess we are lucky is that our roof runs out for at least a meter beyond the walls... so its pretty well always dry around them... but i would like to put a porch on the front door... again time is the problem... my thought is to build a low wall  a meter or so in front of this door and then with wood columns put a piched roof above the door...  the front door is east facing and the back door west... both of them suffered from debris blowing in...leaves and such... back area is solved by placing the low wall in front of the other door i would hope that most stuff will get blown away from the front door...  

 i think i also mentioned your membranes...under concrete and that they should continue through walls and onto the outside... in general on new builds that how it works i belive your plastic sheet gets welded to the damp course... and the whole piece mebrane and course are one...  plastic membranes below concrete floors  with buildings with no damp course...ie most ½ûÂþÌìÌà buildings lead to accumulation of water within the walls and rising damp problemsas regards your concrete slab i also said supports would or could be built onto this... (sorry if that wasnt clear)ie if those supports go the way you describe it would mean that your concrete base is not doing its job... as regards the concrete base and a membrane below that  its obvious to me at least that if you choose to lay a membrane beneath you are relying then on it to be held in place by its own weight...if you are saying your soil is unstable and there is no solid base i would have thought your geometra that is doing the tech specs for your base...ie the gauge of steel and the concrete mix quality and depth would have called in a geologist and they would be talking drilling our holes to add in concrete piles...  of course this works out quite costly...the drilling rig and the steel and concrete needed to build the piles ...but if you are saying your ground in so unstable it will at least provide you with peace of mind...then if you read carefully my suggetsion is to mount the building on steel plates bolted into the concrete i see very little reason that this will not work unless your wooden building has no structural work below...if thats the case i would have beams stretched between plates and build it on top...  but really its your building and your choices..  and am sure it will all be fine the way you are doing it

 when Abruzzo was in the news for its major dump at Bussi it was all locals that were involved ... from the regional people that were taking money to turn eyes... to the local lorry drivers taking the waste and dumping it virtually in their childrens drinking water...  now the whole area wehn you drive through is all greened over and many foreigners still buy there ... the facts that took so long to be brought out ...now buried... the Pescara valley once more back to normal ...the only sign is that Pescara cannot get a blue flag cause the river pollutes the water into the sea so much...  but am sure the water company that supplies all those areas is pumping again from sources that were closed when the stories were in the papers... and these are very dangerous levels ...not like gela...as it has a huge cocktail of problems... it never ceases to amaze me how easily local populations get involved in killing themeselves and their children and childrens children...  from it being organised by various mafias... but they are not digging holes or driving lorries.. to local mayors that send their children to schools that they know will fall down one day on someones child... sometimes i think blaming Rome for all the woes of the world... this is a story that is common both north and south is an easy way of locals being able to salve their consiences when they were the ones helping to build or bury these problems...   

 if soemthing has occured better say the whole story...before that... if someone viewed your house via an agency who did or did not have a contract and is buying it...and they viewed with that non contracted agent first then you owe them their fee.. not all because no contract...but whatever is stipulated in your provinces regs regarding max/mn fees for estate agents...  however if two agents have given you the same client better to let them fight it out... a written signed contract is not necessary for an agent to be able to claim a fee... we have agencies here that tell everyone which houses are for sale as they drive by... and then if they find out the house was bought by this client they claim to have shown it to them first...technically true.. from their car ...at 100 kmph...  and they have been known to get away with these semi-fraudulent claims....  not your case i know but in reallity unless you have faith in the agency you are dealing with skip having them either in your car or you in theirs... do not talk to them about any house you might see for sale that is not with them or any abandoned palce you think might be...  talking can be costly...  if you have a pretty good idea of the relative honesty or helpfulness of your agent then fine... bu in abruzzo am not sure about elsewhere various agents thought they had the exclusive on foreign buyers and resent any of their clients escaping them... have even had a case where they are followed because they obviously gave away something that they might be interested in something else...  even had stories from some that the hotels they are booked into keep an eye on them to see who they meet of if they go out...   especialley ones on those sort of organised packages offered by some agencies... sorry off your subject... but its a strange game...... 

 only sign non exclusive agreements...this means that either you can sell it yourself or either / any of the agents... if you do no fee obviously...and then the first agent that sells gets the fee... if there are any problems between agents it should not effect you ...ie someone sees it with agent no 1 and then with agent no 2 and agent no 2 makes the sale then there could be difficulty between them... visiting clienst generally sign a vistor form staing they were shown the property...however if there is a dispute it should be between them...whatever you do get a written legal invoice with IVA from whoever you pay... and also negotiate on fees...they will try to up the fee on non exclusive...  and make sure the amount is written in blood on the contarct you sign