½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

I completely agree with Ram's post above, but I'd like to take issue with other opinions that transacting a real estate deal in Italy is "much more expensive" - I presume the comparison is being made with the UK. It isn't common for either the buyer or the seller in Italy to engage a "solicitor", which is a saving (for the buyer) which well exceeds the notary's fees. Yes, there is the Estate Agent to pay, but even paying him 4% the total 'legal' costs involved in buying are unikely to exceed 6.5% of the purchase price. Then there is the 'stamp duty' - in Italy there is no 'stamp-duty' free threshhold (there is unfortunately, on land, a minimum duty threshhold - this should IMO be revised). But for existing houses the amount of duty payable can (following reforms in 2005 2006) be surprisingly low, based on a value akin to the rateable value. This was a measure designed to encourage the correct declaration of the selling price, and together with changes in inheritance and cgt taxes, recently reinforced by moneylaundering checks, it is not only very silly to underdeclare - it is rarely advantageous to anybody! So, it's going to cost 'about the same' to buy a second hand house in Italy as in the UK, and a lot less to sell one. There is very little wrong with the ½ûÂþÌìÌà system, it is just different. 

Well - I am very pleased that my initial post has generated so many good responses, and so much intelligent discussion/understanding/polemic about the issue of managing the heritage of Italy. Aside from the (undisputed) corruption in the awarding of contracts for maintenance, I do think there is something else going on. I recently visited a number of Unesco World Heritage sites in Japan - and about the first schematic one was confronted by (at any monument) included the proud statement  that this was a "World Heritage Site" That should mean something, but I'm so sorry that in Italy it simply is another tourist stamp like a 'blue flag' beach, and never appears on the 'front page'. And to answer the question whether Italy has anything akin to the 'National Trust' - sadly the answer is a more than half no. So many of the important monuments are in the 'care' of the 'State' (and thus political baubles); though there are a few privately owned (or owned by foundations) sites which are dependent on private (or maybe University type funding), and even fewer which have managed to organise themselves into a 'self funding' situation (generally some sort of agriturismo symbiosis). And as for 'English Heritage' -  Italy has a department for paying half dead architects excessive salaries for getting in everybody's way, it carries on its charade under the name of Sovrintedenza dei Belli Arti. Yeh - you have encountered them.

I bridled at Ram's comment that your property agent was 'economical with the truth'. I know where he is coming from (he is a very good property agent) and he would have alerted you to the necessity to set up a new contract - but Ram deals with foreigners and knows that he must answer questions which you wouldn't have thought of asking! (So that's why I'm unhappy about his comment). Enel will make a charge (I think about €80) for changing the contract: they will also want a 'deposit' which will be eliminated (or refunded) as soon as you set up a banker's direct debit. Now whether you are actually being charged for something the ex-owner didn't pay - I dunno - but holding up a job for a couple of hundred euros makes no sense at all. 

Now I have absolutely no wish to condone the sort of 'fraud' which these agents were (it seems to me from the publicity) clearly perpetrating, but the aspect which engaged me (in the ½ûÂþÌìÌà article) was the restricted amount of damages awarded to the English ripped off plaintiffs. So, reading between the lines (and I might be quite wrong here), the estate agents took money on the basis that the land was edificabile (it appears that the court decided that they had lied). Nothing actually got built (as far as I can understand) - so it isn't as if any of the purchasers have got landed with having paid for a building which they have been ordered to demolish. Okay: "so what" I hear you saying - the purchasers  were ripped off, that's enough. I agree, and I have respect for the English buyers who brought the case, and I'm pleased that the ½ûÂþÌìÌà court found in their favour. But, in the greater scheme of property frauds to which a foreign buyer might fall prey, this is peanuts.

Aside from the KW, certainly if the vehicle is classed as an autocarro the tax is different. However, apart from the insurance on an autocarro being more expensive, I do not think you can insure a 'commercial vehicle' unless you are VAT registered - I'm not even sure if you can register one in your name without a partita IVA. The E classification also has a bearing - this is a European emmissions standard, and the cleaner the car (E4 or E5) then the lower the road tax. Depending (I think this is still the case) on which province you live in, you can use the ACI site to enter your car reg number which will give you the precise cost of the car tax for your particular vehicle, and you can also pay the bollo on line.

I would check with your liquid gas supplier Sprostoni. There was some completely nonsensical hoop (a year or less back) which (dunno if communale, provinciale or what) some people had to jump through to get the 'discount'. It became the consumer's problem to prove they were outside the rete metanizzato, and they had to provide a map. Duh.  If you search google.it for rete metanizzato (?precise spelling, but google will help) you'll find lots of information. Best of luck (I speak as a very fortunate person with metano on tap!) I have some inkling that this is NOT the same discount as the one you get if you live in a mountainous (or otherwise absurdly chilly) place, which as sebastiano says is still in place and, as far as I know, unchanged.

Or maybe Cerco Trovo. These are (newspaper style) advertising sheets - probably regional, you pick them up in bars etc. at about €1. I'm not so sure that 'caravans' are a normal ½ûÂþÌìÌà thing - campers are more common - it's probably all down to the details of the codice della strada (anything which is trailed, like a caravan, has to have its own libretto etc etc) and it can get quite tricky. Depends whether you have a UK reg car to tow it with - then it gets easier - but still not simple.

The first revisione is needed when the car is four years old, and after that it is every two years.  is a site all about this, and if you enrol they'll send you an e-mail so you remember to get the test done on time!

Now (in my opinion) Switzerland is NOT an option.  Unless (though my info is not abosoutely current) you have full export credentials for your trailer .. not only are you going to have to face the double vignette scenario, you are going to face big delays at the border. Remember, Switz is not EU. I'd take my chances with France/Italy Schengen non difficult stuff: so you encounter a strike? Live with it - probaby less of a delay than the Swiss can create. Just my opinion. Good luck.

Now (in my opinion) Switzerland is NOT an option.  Unless (though my info is not abosoutely current) you have full export credentials for your trailer .. not only are you going to have to face the double vignette scenario, you are going to face big delays at the border.

Remember, Switz is not EU.

I'd take my chances with France/Italy Schengen non difficult stuff: so you encounter a strike? Live with it - probaby less of a delay than the Swiss can create. Just my opinion. Good luck.