alan h's activity

Questions Asked

After my success answering Annec's question, its my turn. However, I’m not clever enough for an ‘Italian’ question – so I’ll go for one with a ‘Greek’ connection insteadI’m a ‘sad’ man who likes numbers.

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 05:08

Comments posted

Wed, 07/01/2009 - 10:16

- Unless we are to get umpteen different 'healthcare' groups - surely it is best to have a single Group that people can search through

Wed, 07/01/2009 - 07:27

Valentina - wouldn't it be better to call the Group 'Healthcare' and drop the 'Marche' bit The subject is valid for all of Italy - not only Marche area

Tue, 06/30/2009 - 04:54

http://www.merlinsgrove.com.au/Background.htm but as its Australian - remember that 'North' means 'South'.

Mon, 06/29/2009 - 12:37

My favourite - on the front row at La Scala [ for Bernstein's Candide] - cost a bomb [but a friend paid]

Sat, 06/27/2009 - 13:35

The limit Gala mentions only applies if you carry cash into or out of the EU - not between EU countries. There is no limit on the amount of cash you can carry into or out of the UK - see;-  http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_PROD1_026096&propertyType=document However, you need to check if Italy  has any 'local' restrictions

Fri, 06/26/2009 - 04:23

Would it be possible to  change the title of this thread to   "Pickpockets - A Warning"? - as it is of more general interest than just to the Cinque Terre

Thu, 06/25/2009 - 05:01

"Iinstructions suggest that Aliquota abitazione principale (and no Detrazione abitazione principale) should be used if the property is your only one in Italy.  Is this true or is it only if it is your offiicial residence?"..  I think that's the right calculation - the check will be if it agrees with last years figure [assuming the rate hasn't changed] An Italian friend just managed to pay my ICI, which was due by the middle of June [16th I think] - the fine for being a week late was 6 Euros

Mon, 06/22/2009 - 09:44

.  Every time I read this - I see something different   

The Chaos

Charivarius (G. Nolst Trenité)

Dearest creature in creation,Study English pronunciation.I will teach you in my verseSounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.I will keep you, Suzy, busy,Make your head with heat grow dizzy.Tear in eye, your dress will tear.So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.Just compare heart, beard, and heard,Dies and diet, lord and word,Sword and sward, retain and Britain.(Mind the latter, how it's written.)Now I surely will not plague youWith such words as plaque and ague.But be careful how you speak:Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;Cloven, oven, how and low,Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.Hear me say, devoid of trickery,Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,Exiles, similes, and reviles;Scholar, vicar, and cigar,Solar, mica, war and far;One, anemone, Balmoral,Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;Gertrude, German, wind and mind,Scene, Melpomene, mankind.Billet does not rhyme with ballet,Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.Blood and flood are not like food,Nor is mould like should and would.Viscous, viscount, load and broad,Toward, to forward, to reward.And your pronunciation's OKWhen you correctly say croquet,Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,Friend and fiend, alive and live.Ivy, privy, famous; clamourAnd enamour rhyme with hammer.River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,Doll and roll and some and home.Stranger does not rhyme with anger,Neither does devour with clangour.Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,And then singer, ginger, linger,Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.Query does not rhyme with very,Nor does fury sound like bury.Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.Though the differences seem little,We say actual but victual.Refer does not rhyme with deafer.Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.Mint, pint, senate and sedate;Dull, bull, and George ate late.Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,Science, conscience, scientific.Liberty, library, heave and heaven,Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.We say hallowed, but allowed,People, leopard, towed, but vowed.Mark the differences, moreover,Between mover, cover, clover;Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,Chalice, but police and lice;Camel, constable, unstable,Principle, disciple, label.Petal, panel, and canal,Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,Senator, spectator, mayor.Tour, but our and succour, four.Gas, alas, and Arkansas.Sea, idea, Korea, area,Psalm, Maria, but malaria.Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.Doctrine, turpentine, marine.Compare alien with Italian,Dandelion and battalion.Sally with ally, yea, ye,Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.Say aver, but ever, fever,Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.Heron, granary, canary.Crevice and device and aerie.Face, but preface, not efface.Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.Large, but target, gin, give, verging,Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.Ear, but earn and wear and tearDo not rhyme with here but ere.Seven is right, but so is even,Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!Is a paling stout and spikey?Won't it make you lose your wits,Writing groats and saying grits?It's a dark abyss or tunnel:Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,Islington and Isle of Wight,Housewife, verdict and indict.Finally, which rhymes with enough --Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?Hiccough has the sound of cup.My advice is to give up!!!