alan h's activity

I read it as the story of a family that decided to get out of the rat race, made a successful life in Italy, but still missed the 'buzz' of London.  I certainly didn't see it as "we hate the place, but we happily make money from it" Indeed the last paragraph of the article;-"During our two years in Loro Piceno, we sang in choirs, played in local football teams, became fitter and stronger than ever in our lives, lugging 20kg crates of olives up our vertiginous slopes. We have gorgeous Italian friends who will last a lifetime and never be seen in the same clothes twice. But we have never been happier to be living in London " Hardly says that they hated it - rather that they found they preferred London 

" is there an Italian equivalent of Ley lines?" It depends on how gullible Italians are[even the 'spell checker' doesn't recognise them!]

"Under Italian law, is this likely to be complicated to sort this out?" Under italian law - everythiong is complicated!

Obviously Saga do insurance for the chronologically challenged

How many spuds are you looking to store?- if its just a bag from the shop, I'd bung them in the fridge, as some people recommend a storage temp of about 40F [5C] which a fridge givesIf its a lot - You need somewhere cool and reasonably well ventilated - ideally a cellar, or perhaps a garage [if its reasonably cool]

From where?   -  to where?

There aren't any!                   [Including Twining's] Try to get someone to mail you some from the UK

There are several direct trains that go each day from Rome to Venice - depending on what time you want to leave.The direct train takes about 4hrs 16mins I suggest you use   http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?newrequest=yes&protocol=http: to plan the trip  

Charlie, It might help if you told us which commune you want to deal with - there may be someone local on the forum

http://www.greenspec.co.uk/html/refurb/concrete_flat_roof.html  for general info