getsett's activity

We bought a new Samsung from Euronics in Viterbo in March having looked also at prices in LeClerc, Ipercoop and the local independent TV shop.  I am not sure but think that some of the promotions in Euronics may be local - and our Samsung was a special promotion price - about £350 for a 32" LCD HD ready - but they had a lot of other ones, smaller and cheaper.   We are happy with the Samsung quality.  If your TV cannot be repaired economically then perhaps you can look at what the big supermarkets in your area are offering and compare them with your local Euronics store prices.   I have just looked on Euronics Italia site and you can get a good idea of the kind of thing available, and prices, in the Acquista Online section - though the store price might be a little different.  I hope you get it sorted out soon.

My son did a 2 week Italian language course in Florence about 6 years ago with the Dante Alighieri school - site below - and found it very good.  Sorry I do not have any more recent recommendation - perhaps other Community members may have.www.clidante.com 

Hi Alidandrea and welcome.  It all sounds very exciting and it will be good to hear how you are getting on with the realisation of your dream home.  I have always found community members a great source of information and hope you do too.

Thanks Milky Bar Kid.  We will widen our destination choices - only Rome till recently and lately also Pisa.  I have not found such good offers re Rome whenever I have looked - perhaps every 3 or 4 weeks or when I get an email from Ryanair re offers.  However, these offers do not seem to include Rome, probably because they don't need to.  It clearly pays to look further afield.  As I said a few posts ago on this thread we are going Easyjet Gatwick to Pisa for a week at £235 return all taxes fees included for 6 of us in a couple of days - I think that's a brilliant price.

As I said in an earlier post, Stanted is very near to us so we have no problems getting there but I feel for air passengers who have been faced either with long delays on the M11 or delays on the Stansted Express - something which seems to happen too frequently.  I seem not to find the cheap £25 Ryanair flights - a random search just done for flights which cost £0.00 for each leg still gives me a price of £34.27 to Rome and £26.33 back plus the credit or debit card fee.  Most flights though seem to cost at least £12.99 each way if not more.  My husband fully agrees with Milky Bar Kid about the hassle of waiting at the airport and the satisfaction of driving, though for a short visit it is not really feasible.

If you have trouble finding one open, there are some in a field just outside Viterbo, 80 km north of Rome at Bulicame.  They are free and open all the time.  Every time we go past there is a small crowd of people there.  If you were looking for something more private and luxurious there is also a spa hotel just outside Viterbo.  Below is a link to the Viterbo Tourist Information site where you can find out a little more.http://www.viterboonline.com/Good luck in your search. 

 Hi TerenceI am a near neighbour at Capodimonte.  It is all very confusing - there seem to be millions of Euros promised from the region/government and the EU for infrastructure improvements relating to the proposed airport enlargement but I have not seen any work going on either.  In the news it mentions upgrading the rail line so that it only takes 70 minutes to Rome, that the trains will run very frequently and that 10 new trains have been bought.  Also mentioned is improvement of the road links.  However the date mentioned is 2013.  I would think it very unlikely that Ciampino will close in 2010 as originally announced.  It all seems a bit of a mystery.  Perhaps someone else can contribute some definite info.

We have used Ryanair Stansted to Rome because we live near Stansted but increasingly we are using alternatives which provide better customer service and cheaper prices.  For example, 6 of us are flying Easyjet Gatwick (4 of the group live near Gatwick) to Pisa (an hour's longer drive to out Italian destination) for just over half the price of Ryanair Stansted to Pisa on the same days.  An Alitalia flight back to Rome from Heathrow at the beginning of September was about the same price as the Ryanair flight to Ciampino on the same morning but with much better customer service.  It is time-consuming doing all the research but I feel it is definitely worth it.  I suppose we are lucky having a range of options and I recognise that this may not be the case for some forum members.

I am sorry to hear of your problems with Hertz and hope that you get some redress.  Somehting similar happened to my daughter and her (female) friend in July at Fiumicino with Europcar.They had pre-booked and pre-paid for a car for a long weekend and had even paid a charge for late pick-up.  The BA flight from Gatwick was 2 hours late - but my daughter was still within the late pick-up time.  The Europcar desk had shut so and they had to sleep in the airport till 7am when the desk opened again.  The staff were very unhelpful and would not accept any responsibility saying that it was my daughter's fault.  Rather than eat even further into the weekend my daughter decided to take the car offered and left.  It had a quite a big dent in it - stated on the hire documents - and she thinks this was why the Carabinieri at Ciampino stopped her when she returned the hire car.  This is the only time I have heard of them stopping anyone there!  Europcar will not be getting her custom again.

 It is good that relative newcomers to Italian form filling etc like me can get advice from more established residents/community members.  Could we please accept that advice given is given and received in good faith.  Thanks everyone.