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I tend to go along (a bit) with Esme on this one. You are thinking "in theory" stuff here. You seem to want the earth for no pennies. If you found a delicious site it is likely to cost north of 80.000E - in other words you discount the value of the ruin; - it is a universal truth that most sites worth building on have already been built on, and it's problematic that you are coming into the market about 400 years too late! Now, I understand what Ugo is saying - the foreign owners have this "it stands me at" mentality, but there are plenty desperate to get shot of what looked like a great investment (we all know real estate never loses value!!) but they need to wake up and smell the coffee before they die. If you have dollars, you (were) getting richer by the day, maybe now you are thinking wow, that euro is less cheap than it was yesterday.Ìý I'm not sure you really want to find anything. Ask yourself - is someone else pushing you, and you are resisting what you think is a too risky move?Ìý

Here are a couple of sites for companies which manufacture the sort of fire which you want, and which are widely available in Italy. There are many others.

I'm disappointed that you feel that way about the ordinary people of Napoli. The city has an interesting newish mayor, de Magistris, a former prosecutor and member of the respected IdV political party. The people of Naples might also follow the populus of Palermo, in making a start against the small minority of thugs who are organised crime.

You may know that Saviano is protected by a number of dedicated policemen whenever he steps out of his fortress - but your earlier post will have been read by some who are not aware of this, and they would have concluded that the article was some sort of tabloid nonsense. What conceivable favourable publicity could his writings have brought to the Camorra? Because that's the implication in your statement that he knew exactly what he was getting into.Ìý

Clearly you are very concerned about the final amount of money you will have had to fork out to achieve something nice in the way of a house. Although I agree with sebastiano and Penny that a straightforward new-build is likely to result in a successful liveable custom designed house, I don't think that you can expect any certainty on the 'bottom line' going that route, and getting 140m² inside 400,000 won't be easy. I'd urge you to look at two categories of building. Firstly, well restored rusticos, preferably completed within the last five years, ideally owned by Germans, Dutch, or Brits. The likliehood is that these houses will have been rebuit/restored with little attention to expense, and at the same time the owners may be more in tune with the dire property market, or even be desperate to sell at an acceptable price. The second category is a speculatively constructed finished new-build on sale by a (desperate for money) respected ½ûÂþÌìÌà contractor. I emphasise finished: beware of in-grezzo - the prices for finishing one of these can be unexpected. Those are my thoughts - good luck with your search!

I think you should know, Esme, that far from sipping a coffee in Napoli, Saviano resides secretly somewhere under police protection for writing articles such as this, and Gomorra. Some respect is due to a journalist who dares.

This reduction in the number of provinces has been approved, but now what is anticipated is that the regions will mess about with their provincial boundaries in an attempt to keep as many provinces as possible! It's all good fun in Umbria - where the province of Terni could be eliminated, leaving Umbria with only one province (Perugia). Terni wants to link up with Spoleto (which is prov PG) and Orvieto (TR) and nip off into Lazio, because they hate Perugia. Perugia fears that if Umbria ends up with one single province then they'll scrap that anyway, because it duplicates the regional offices. Basilicata is in the same position, since it too will end up with one single province. I think that the suggestion (which wasn't approved when it was proposed a couple of years ago) that provinces should be killed off entirely has a lot of merit - but unsurprisingly the politicians who get paid for sitting on provincial councils don't agree with me, so it'll never happen. My guess is that the best case scenario (for people who share my opinion) is that throughout Italy we will lose about ten provinces. The provinces deal with transport and some of the road infrastructure (that which isn't under the national umbrella of ANAS) and that's about it: most of their other responsibilities have already been moved to comuni.

sebastiano is describing a self supporting reinforced concrete slab, which wouldn't care whether the beams were there or not. sagraisolar is describing the more usually enountered (in a restoration) Ìýreinforced concrete screed, which would expect the beams below to be loadbearing to a significant extent. If you want to use a self supporting slab, so that the beams below are purely decorative, for sure you'll need an engineer to calculate this for you, and there will be a lot of expensive steel involved - how expensive will depend on the spans involved - anything over 5m gets seriously pricey. It's impossible to even give a ball park figure for costs without a dimensioned plan. It is possible to insert a new slab, while leaving the old beams in place, but the practicality of doing this isn't entirely straightforward - and would usually be considered only for some seriously historic beams. Do you want to see bricks/timber boarding on the ceiling below the new slab, and do you want to keep the small beams as well as the principal beams?

Hope it suits you - anyway it is a nice drive out! It was your mention of Monte Amiata which prompted me to remember furniture emporia in that zone.

Ìý Franchsing Mercatino Usato Via Dei Filosofi, 76/N 06100 Perugia (PG) Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Franchising Mercatino Usato Via Dei Filosofi, 76/N 06126 Perugia (PG) Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Via Settevalli, 110 06129 Perugia (PG) Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Mercatino Dell'usato Via S. Bartolomeo, 63 06135 Ponte San Giovanni - Perugia (PG) Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Via L.maccheroni, 2 06100 Perugia (PG) Ìý Ìý Are some suggestions - Mercausato is good, and the Porta Portese (when it was in a different location) was also useful. You could also check outÌýÌýfor places in Terni and Foligno. For new stuff, Citta di Castello has a lot of furniture makers.