½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

There is a frighteningly conservative (small c) side to Itaian opinion, and it seems to me that Berlusconi (more as a personality than a party leader) has entrapped even fiercely solid PD adherents into a mindset that anything else 'will be a disaster'. IMO the foreign press absolutely fails to distinguish between Berlusconi (the clown) and the (admittedly few) members of his administration who do manage to command a bit of international respect. Above all there is Tremonti (the finance minister, who so far has not been implicated in any serious misdemeanours). I distinguish between the foreign press, and the ½ûÂþÌìÌà press, because the latter is massively influenced by Berlusconi, but (inevitably) that part of ½ûÂþÌìÌà media which isn't under his thumb plays up the perceived ghastliness of Silvio - but on a Red Top basis rather than on his real evils. For me it would be very sad if he 'fell' to Rubygate rather than falling to his much more important failures. I really don't care if my PM screws around, even with teenagers, but I do care if he is lining his pockets (allegedly) alongside Putin, Mubarak, and Ghadaffi.

Adriatica has given a comprehensive explanation of how electrics are installed in Italy. You can see that there is a lot of chasing out for the forasiti (tubes) through which the wires run. When you ask an electrician for an estimate do make sure that he has included all the 'builders' work' involved. If your walls are stone it is unlikely that the electrician will be willing to do his own chasing.

The ½ûÂþÌìÌà word for 'banker's draft' is assegno circolare. Poste ½ûÂþÌìÌÃe do issue these - though I'm not sure they do them on private client accounts (they certainly do them on business accounts). There is also another sort of draft called 'un assegno postale vidimato' which is again a 'guaranteed' cheque, and to get one of those you don't even need a Poste account. (I'm not clear on the use or acceptance of such an assegno.) It would probably be a useful move for you to enquire of the person you wish to pay with a 'banker's draft' exactly what would be acceptable to them. As to the cost - I've only ever bought assegni circolare from another bank (not Poste) - but if it cost anything it was in the region of €2 (for each assegno - they have a limit of something like €50,000 per cheque as I recall).

You should also get a personal code number when you have completed your paperwork and visits. This will allow you to access the Polizia dello Stato site which has an area (sportello per immigrazione) where you can find out if your permesso is ready for collection. (Again, this only applies to non EU citizens)

This 'disabled entitlement' stuff is very difficult - which is crazy because a "disabled permit" is certainly pan-European -  and it should be respected by the enforcement authorities.  Unfortunatley, most of the enforcement techniques rely on photographing the number plate, and in the case of a hire car (or an ½ûÂþÌìÌà car registered to a foreigner who has a disabled sticker not issued in Italy)  then you get 'snapped' and a fine arrives. (If you have got your disabled sticker from the ½ûÂþÌìÌà health authority, your number plate gets on an exempt database, which isn't much help if you give a disabled person a lift, even for ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs!.) Clearly in your case you did everything by the book, and I would write a letter (in English) to whoever has issued the notice of the fine, explaining the circumstances. I doubt that you'll get the money back from Hertz though. You have been very unfortunate in getting a parking fine despite showing a disabled permit, more frequently the fine is for driving in a ZTL (when the photographic enforcement is more understandable).

I know what myabbruzzohome is on about - it is indeed quite exciting to find a yam on a market stall in London, or a choice of fifteen varieties of cumin seeds in the Scunthorpe Asda, but I'd prefer to be able to let my four year old travel to school alone on the public underground system. It seems to me, from observation, that the more 'multicultural' a society becomes (and the political argument at the moment is about this having been a deliberate decision by the state, rather than having been forced on developed states by the non native cultures) - the less safe it becomes to live in that society. Now whether this unsafeness happens because different 'moral standards' are 'imported' (this is the assumption underlying the 'Asian groomers' discussion in the UK) or whether it is because the original inhabitants become unpleasant because they don't like immigrants is an interesting question. Perhaps it also has something to do with making the whole legal system 'sensitive' (or oversensitive) to hurting the feelings of foreigners, whick irks the locals who don't get the preferential treatment. The various attempts at 'zero tolerance' policing have had different outcomes in New York, and in Singapore. The most monocultural place I've ever been to is Japan - and there, I promise you, four year olds do use the Tokyo metro unaccompanied. It isn't arid, (and you can still buy a yam). Maybe I live in Italy because it's a happy medium, but if I'm in conversation with a Moroccan, a Moldavian, an ½ûÂþÌìÌà and a Russian we all speak ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. With various degress of expertise, admittedly, but when you do this on a regular basis you realise that speaking the language perfectly really isn't an issue.

"....property fell by 2.5% in 2010 (compared to 6.8% in 2009), a reminder to some that thought Italy was immune to price drops..." This is a completely idiotic and useless piece of non data. I'm not blaming you for having posted it - this is the sort of headline (nay, even the sort of rubbish private analysts flog to their clients!) which does not refer to any base. So - property 'fell' by 6.8% in 2009, but only by 2.5% in 2010! Wowee, that's great news? Innit? The Halifax would bill it as a house price increase of 6.8 - 2.5 = 4.3%! Observe your local market, if you cannot sell then either (and quite possibly) the market is against you; otherwise your house is unrealistically priced. End of story.

Pleased to have been of assistance - it would have pained me greatly if you'd paid twice!

The difference is simply to pay a small extra administrative charge. Pay using bolettino 1 (which should be for a smaller amount) if the fine arrived at your house (you would have had to sign for it), or if you picked it up at the post office (having found their note of having tried to deliver it). If you didn't pick up the first delivery of the notice of the fine (and have had a letter saying you didn't do this) then you should use bolettino 2, and effectively pay them the extra for their postage etc costs. I have assumed your fine arrived at an ½ûÂþÌìÌà adddress, if it arrived at a UK address I'd follow alanh's advice and demand an 'authorised translation'!

This is a quite interesting thread - though I feel a bit handicapped in not really understanding what 'multiculturalism' is all about. It seems to be confused with 'ghettoism' - which is an entirely understandable historic phenomenon: some immigrants arrive in a foreign land and gravitate towards an area where their fellow countrymen live. In Italy northern europeans tended towards Tuscany because they'd heard of it - that's all. It really is that simple. When they (Brits in particular) heard of Le Marche and Abruzzo they thought maybe that was worth a shot, and of course, being Brits, they wanted the Estate Agents to speak English, so a modern ghetto was formed. There is nothing at all wrong with that.  I think the political angst today (coming out of predominantly Germany, plus Cameron), is that unlike previous immigrants - Jews fleeing persecution, early Chinese arrivals fleeing Mao, aristo garden designers punting for Liguria or Tuscany - the more recent immigrants are neither wealthy nor ambitious. They have been encouraged by many governments of 'developed' nations to fill a gap in a labour market, and the recent thinking had been to keep them happy by letting them (shorthand) build a mosque or whatever. In Germany, prior to the onset of some short lived political correctness, (which, in my limited understanding, maybe could be termed multiculturalism) the many Turkish workmen were referred to as 'guest workers'. In other words, they were welcomed but they were not Germans. I hope you are getting uncomfortable here - not because I have used words like Jews and mosques - but because I hope you have appreciated the utter obscenity of the first post which arrogantly asserted that a desire for Marmite has anything at all in common with realpolitik. Rant over, and aljazeera.net might be worth a few moments of your precious time.