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Like the previous replies, I too use Telecom Italia, and their Alice ADSL. It is good (for me, where I live) - but it isn't cheap! Every two months I get a bill for about €74 - that is €37 a month - which gives me unlimited connection (in my case at about 4Mbit) plus a landline telephone. Now, I don't use the landline telephone hardly at all - I would love to be able to do without paying for it (because this costs about €37 every two months simply as a standing charge) - however, unless I attach myself to another operator for the ADSL (or other wireless broadband) connection, I'm stuck with the 'canone' for Telecom Italia. Believe me, I have researched this stuff (for my area) on behalf of people who have second homes for their holidays. It is absurd for them to pay €37 a month for ADSL plus landline when all they want is internet connectivity. There are suppliers (in my area, Aria - accesible on ) who offer a broadband 'microwave' wifi service at about €22 per month - but quizzing their local representatives they promise "up to" 7Mbit, but depends...not only on how many people are on your 'cell', but also on atmospheric conditions. Maybe I just talked to a bad salesperson, but I know about five people on this service who are less than impressed. Or, you could do a Vodafone solution (maybe also other 'dongle' or 'casa' solutions) which offer alluringly cheap deals. I have friends who do this, and if they happen to pass by my Telecom Italia equipped house to print off their boarding passes it is like WOW, ½ûÂþÌìÌà internet CAN function! I hate to give you bad news, and it all depends on how dependent you feel you are on a good solid fast connection. If you just want to get up your home page once a day and check e-mails, a dongle is a good idea - even with a non ½ûÂþÌìÌà operator - but if you want to stream HD TV I don't think you have any option other than TI.

Cow shit (how delightful it is to be on a UK forum where 'shit' isn't captured by the naughty word filter!) used to just land on the pasture and feed the grass. These days, because it isn't 'economical' to graze cattle, their shit gets concentrated and becomes a 'disposal' problem - simply because they can't (economically) 'graze'. The world has gone mad, and Imhoff septic tanks (as interpreted by local authorities) are part of this madness. In themselves, a duo chamber septic tank discharging to a local dispersion (and face it, in Italy, you have to struggle to be located on a bit of flat land...) work absolutely fine and do not need to be emptied - I'd say ever. But 'regulations' insist on one of these (actually, in my experience it is worse in England, because they also have a minimum distance from the house which results in the septic tank being far too deep to ensure any un-pumped dispersion on flat clay land). And - because Italy doesn't do communal sewage treatment - as another poster mentioned you need your own personal septic tank to treat your sewage locally: even if you are in a centro storico where your septic tank is an ugly 1m concrete circle in some fantastic pavement. Oh, perlease. Now - getting a bit polemical here - instead of inventing a 'market in energy', why not just let out to the private sector the option of creating a truly efficient drainage system? That is NEEDED. (Rant over!) 

Ah, in those days when (for obvious reasons) using the train loo when it was standing in a station wasn't allowed, at least you never had to get into a carriage stinking of drains! I agree with alanh, we're all to fussy these days, I'm surprised there isn't a campaign to get foxes and badgers into nappies.

Now that you have added the internal shutters, the €20,000 quote doesn't sound at all out of the way. I like internal shutters, but I accept that they don't serve a very useful thermal function (at least not on new double glazed windows). They can be a pain - it depends - if you have a signorile old house with proper window openings with splayed sides, and thick walls, and no openings which are too close to side walls they work fine and look lovely. They also mean you don't need curtains, and I know many Brits spend what seems to me to be absurd amounts of money on these - shutters would be cheaper. However if the choice was external persiani OR internal shutters, for convenience of use I would choose the externals. They are much more versatile (you can leave windows open and get ventilation while the house remains secure) - and the only situation where I'd reject them (on aesthetic and traditional grounds) would be in a nice stonebuilt rural building. Following on from adriatica's point (that maybe it's a bit early to be considering decoration) perhaps you have just picked these two items out of a computo metrico because they strike you as very high?

I've just seen a current quote for very similar joinery (abete, painted, double glazed to better than current thermal standards):  the windows came in at less than €400 apiece, and french doors at €670. It actually doesn't make much difference what size your windows are (within reason) because there will be a 'minimum price' equivalent to between 1.5 and 2sq m. Pine, rather than abete, would add another €50 per window, but is usually only used when it's going to get clear or stained varnished. So 'my' quote would come in at around €12,000 for your requirements, in abete. Add another €1,400 for pine. External wood, painted persiani (shutters) would run to about €8,500. Are you sure they have not quoted you for these, too? Fitting windows into a newly refurbed opening is very simple - it's all done from the inside. Fitting persiani is more difficult, and best done from scaffolding (or a cherry picker). 'My' quote is from a very professional manufacturing joiner based in Umbertide, north of Perugia. They are called Fa.gi snc. They have a very nice brochure, but surprisingly I can't find a website for them. The 'painting' quote is maybe less over the top: it depends if you have show wooden beams with painted brick ceilings between - those take ages to paint, so cost a lot - but it isn't a difficult job so doing it yourself is a big money saver. I have no idea why other posters are telling you that emulsion paint is expensive here - you just buy white tempera and a bottle of tinter, I'm sure it's about a third the cost of Dulux!

You could contact this site, it's an Anglo-½ûÂþÌìÌà sort of RSPCA

It's funny - this thread has now got into a discussion of the demerits of restaurants in Le Marche! Isn't that SOOO ex-pat?

I am really sorry about your plight, and even more that your ½ûÂþÌìÌà avvocato has dumped you in the shit. However - I do think at this stage you need a red hot lawyer on your side - maybe your trusted architect could intoroduce you to somebody? Prelazione can be excercised on other bases than 'agraria' (which is the one you have been considering, all about coltivatore diretto ecc) - but the 'status' of the land you bought has an influence (I think - I'm not a legal eagle). Having said that I'm not a legal eagle I can also go on to say that I'm not at all convinced by Sablainico's position that it is the seller's problem. For sure, when I have been selling agricultural land, my notiao has advised me - as the seller - to make available written assurances from any entitled neighbours that they won't excersise their rights - but I remain with the impression that this was a voluntary act on my part. The written 'nulla osta' covered me, and was an assurance to the buyer - but IMO it simply covered me (the seller), and it in no way meant that the buyer didn't need to ask the question.  I think it would perhaps be useful to you to discuss this stuff with the notaio who registered your act. No doubt the notaio will say it 'isn't their problem' - who knows, maybe they are in cahoots with your evil avvocato - but it does appear on the basis of information posted - that you are about to be shafted, but I do hope it doesn't come to that. Best of luck, and I hope your Dolcevita comes true despite this setback.

These are quite accurate 1:50,000 (inch to the mile) maps, with many walking and cycling tracks marked on them. The ones which cover (not all of the Sibillini, but most of it) are numbers 664 and 663. That's a link to a good catalogue of all ½ûÂþÌìÌà maps, and is their link to the Kompass coverage of Italy (it's zoomable). Just in case you like to journey plan with a 'proper paper map'!

This piece of writing suggests a chap educated at Eton and Oxford, musing on a Big Society! Fascinating stuff about the hemp pullover - but it all reads to me that while all the contadini are interdependent, this has not a lot to do with the life of the author. Niente cambia.