½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

  Maybe a proxy server would assist! I'm not kidding - getting an ebay account with an ½ûÂþÌìÌà ISP is a complete nightmare, and though I have both IT and UK credit cards - shyshe! Don't go that route. A solid reliable spam free proxy server (costs you £5 per month) is at this gives you a UK address, (allows you to view bbc iplayer and 4od) but also gives you so much more....like using your UK cards, or placing a bet with Ladbrokes, or registering on ebay.uk  (The e-bay thing is a once off, so just buy into iportal for a month at £5)  (I have no association with iportal.me - I am sure there are other proxy servers, even free ones, but I have found iportal delivers download speeds around the 5MB region, which is pretty fantastic, so it gets my vote.) My only criticism of iportal (getting an account) is that you ideally have a Paypal account before you start - lacking that, you are going to be obliged to have a Paypal account before you finish.

  It is simply a renewal or extension which you require.  There will be fees payable to the comune (not large), and to the geometra (again, should not be a big cost).  I hope you have not fallen out with your geometra, because it will cost you much more to put the renewal through a different geometra! 

  As Penny says, you are talking about 'stamp duty' here, and not IVA. However, your wife, as an ½ûÂþÌìÌà citizen (assuming she is inscribed on AIRE), is entitled to buy a 'prima casa' paying 4% 'stamp duty', even if she retains a primary residence outside Italy. The ½ûÂþÌìÌà consulate should be able to explain this, or go to the agenzia delle entrate site and read their pretty clear FAQ on 'casa'. It is nothing to interest the EC about discrimination: an ½ûÂþÌìÌà buying a 'seconda casa' will pay 10% just the same as a UK buyer. A UK buyer moving completely into Italy will pay 4% as 'prima casa', just as an ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. The situation of an ½ûÂþÌìÌà citizen inscribed on AIRE is a bit special - a concession to ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs working abroad. That's all.

WhatWhat iWhy hould I con Why do I feel obliged to comment? I really should not. But, Valentina posed a real question; there were some considered replies, then it segued into twittering.

  Oh, Come On Gala! You are a nice person (now, and from ages ago) and I cannot believe that you really want to welcome beeryspice. Read beeryspice's posts: what is his agenda? Troublemaker? Yep. Avoid. Ignore.

  Well, Goodness My Colonel. That was rather a lovely Forum Post to read on Valentine's Day, and the reference to time being short must indeed be true if you can still don your original issue putees. (It would truly depress me if I thought you had obtained them from e-bay.) I have a notion that our less than star-crossed paths may have intersected in a previous life. Maybe in Trafalmadore? Perhaps we should recapture past idylls.... (I did not appreciate your reference to a long held commitment  to a 'certain' lady. I remain irretrievably uncertain.)

  Now you managed the tricky spellings - tedious, commitment - but failed dismally on glass half full!

 It is an interesting (and valid) point which you make Capo Boi. A couple of observations - you discuss the calculation of 'appreciation in house prices in Sterling terms' with the 'Sterling cost of living in Italy'. This  is a bit like comparing national debt (as a proportion of GDP) with the current account deficit - something national politicians never do! You (IMO reasonably) take it for granted that Greece will not revert to the Drachma, and it is even more fanciful (IMO) to think that Italy would revert to the Lira. Only people who need analysis entertain the idea that the Eurozone would admit the UK at current exchange rate levels. I have a notion that you are in some way involved in the estate agency sector - I intend no offence, that is my field as well.  In 'the old days' clients looking for an ½ûÂþÌìÌà property (whether as a main residence or as a holiday home) were using 'spare money'. It was no more than six years ago that I was scared to death when I realised a UK client was using borrowed money to enter a market which he absolutely did not understand. I'm a little concerned that you (appear to me) to be using relatively sophisticated financial arguments to encourage people to 'invest in' real estate in Italy. Anybody who buys into your scenario has a good chance of being disappointed: better to seek clients who do not use Excel - they will enjoy even their mistakes, and won't try to sue you!

I'm convinced by the Belgium Lux Gotthard route, but there may be some merit to avoiding Switzerland in a van. Switzerland is not a member of the EU, and you must try to discover (maybe the AA or RAC might help?) what documentation you need to transit Switz carrying 'goods'. I think you will be obliged to 'go through Swiss customs', (probably also ½ûÂþÌìÌà customs), and it would be prudent to allow for a few hours delay which you wouldn't face in a car. (If you were unfortunate enough to be caught up in a convoy of lorries arriving from a snowed in enforced stop it could be days!) My experiences of vans (even worse trailers) and Switzerland have been fairly fraught - but the most recent was at least twelve years ago so things may be simpler now.

  The orginal query asked where the plant actinidia deliciosa was commercially grown on a widespread basis in Italy. Like many fruit, the Po valley, with its fertile soil and abundant irrigation, is home to a subtantial proportion of the ½ûÂþÌìÌà output of this comestible of little merit. Ipomea batatis is grown in Italy, and as Gala Placidia has suggested it is propogated by means of slips, because in non tropical environments it fails to produce seed. I have been unable to establish by personal experience whether this crop has any culinary virtues, though undoubtedly it is most difficult to peel. Said the sweet potato to the Irish potato: "You're no potato! I yam. "