I travelled via Belgium last week and decided to stay overnight at Dinant, where I have stayed previously and found to be marginally less bad than most towns in Belgium.To anyone contemplating a similar stop - don't.The whole of the town is being
At La Dolce Vita exhibition at Olympia this year I bought a jar of garlic cloves preserved in a pizzaiola type oil and vinegar mixture.It is just amazing for snacking, the whole cloves are really crunchy with a fairly mild flavour of the garlic an
I need to buy a tyre for my car. I googled all the usual words but came up with nothing. Back in UK I would simply go to Kwikfit, or ATS etc and it would be done on the spot.
Does anybody have a contact for a sun blind maker?Think of a conventional, rather old-fashioned roller blind with the roller fixed at the top of the window and the blind hanging vertically down.
"Sir TK, we are 1,200,000,000 Catholics around the world within a figure of over 1,500,000,000 Christians. We can't be that wrong! ". Numbers are by no means all. Most claim a total of 2.5 billion christians which is a bit more than your 1.5bn, and the 1.2bn catholics is what the vatican claim, so not in the least trustworthy. Point I make is that catholicism is massive in the 3rd world where they don't know any better, or maybe just have not educated themselves out of it yet, but even so is losing support as we speak while Islam massively gains support. Personally I don't give a "solid-waste-product" which religion does what, unless world power is vested in religious groups, in which case I care dearly for my own safety. And what I see is that the 3rd world, supported by some old ladies with cats, are no match for the hue and cry of the Islamists. So I worry.
I keep seeing this thread bumped to the top so thought there may be something interesting in it. Wrong again! I wonder who really cares about this stuff - I only ever see very old ladies going to Mass in my village and surely all this out-of-date nonsense is why the various Christian sects are haemorrhaging support while watching Islam go from strength to strength.
Firstly, if you are considering residency to save the tax on purchase, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just sensible tax planning. But like any other tax planning, you need to consider the tax saving against the downsides of residency. Whether it's worth trying to save some money is not really just a matter of someone's opinion, it depends largely on how much you are likely to save. I know many people bought ruins for peanuts back in the day, so for them the saving may have been quite small, but that's not always the case. Just as a guide, and with no claims of any authority on the subject, I wouldn't bother if the saving was less than about €10k. Between 10 and 18 I would think about it, over 18k it's probably a definite. Everyone will have their own versions of these figures, and you must work out your own! On the health side, the form your comune wants is the one which cuts you out of the NHS altogether. If you're happy with that, fine. If not you will need to show them that you have a private health insurance. The popular companies do a slimline policy which satisfies the comune, but probaby does little else. TK
"If anyone has any doubts, simply google "Berlusconi embarrassing moments" and you will see quite a "collection".". Just to point out that among serious interests, Google is not seen as a prime source of information or knowledge. Search engines are a lazy way of acquiring a point of view without the need to waste time on research or positive thought. It's no wonder people are suckers for propaganda. And for those who don't believe the US attack on the euro, perhaps you can explain the actions of the ECB in ignoring the ratings agencies?
"Berlusconi ................ not to mention that he is an embarrassment". A bit of bandwaggoning going on here. Berlusconi took about 70% of the vote in his most recent successful election and only became an "embarrassment" because Wall St needed to attack the Euro in order to shore up the ailing dollar, hence targetted a propaganda campaign against him. Suddenly, everyone held an opinion which agreed with the propaganda - job done! Incidentally, I'm not necessarily FOR Berlusconi, but I refuse to be AGAINST him because of US propaganda. And I question anybody who refuses to take seriously one of Italy's most successful modern politicians whilst apparently taking Grillo seriously. Now that is surely the influence of populism.
I found our property through an English website. The information was easy to access, easy to search and it was easy to register my interest and move things on. The moving on bit was an introduction to our official Italian estate agent, who took over the whole operation from then on. They were excellent in all - well, nearly all - respects. We paid commission only to the estate agent, who no doubt sorted out the English website guy. That was in 2005/6 and I know I would never have found my property without the English website, as the Italian agent's websites covering my area are abysmal. When I visited, the Italian agent showed me maybe 6 properties - the one I really wanted plus 5 others which were totally unsuitable in nearly all respects. If I had relied on the visit-and-view method alone, I would still be looking. So if I were you, I would first ask them how their Italian operation works - are they legal, as Ram has pointed out, and to whom do you pay the official agent's commission. If it's not them, then you need to know if they are trying to impose a charge over and above the official commission. I'm guessing that their website doesn't contain the information Ram says is necessary because their main business is registered in England.
Many of the stairs sold in UK seem to come from Italy, so it should be easy to source them. If you can't find any locally, in UK they are supplied in kit form so it should be possible to have them delivered. I am currently about to re-stair my UK home so I looked at them, but not for long as they do look a bit strange. There are other stair kits which work on a similar modular principle but look a bit more normal (Genius 020 from Complete Stair Systems for example). After all my research, I keeled over and have gone for something really quite nice. I'll be having the arm and the leg removed shortly.............
Ah, if they could only read back through the thread and realise how tedious their display of double-figure IQ actually is. Maybe they think they're "winding us up"? No, it's just mind-numbingly tedious. Another otherwise decent forum besmirched by twats.
Comments posted
"Sir TK, we are 1,200,000,000 Catholics around the world within a figure of over 1,500,000,000 Christians. We can't be that wrong! ". Numbers are by no means all. Most claim a total of 2.5 billion christians which is a bit more than your 1.5bn, and the 1.2bn catholics is what the vatican claim, so not in the least trustworthy. Point I make is that catholicism is massive in the 3rd world where they don't know any better, or maybe just have not educated themselves out of it yet, but even so is losing support as we speak while Islam massively gains support. Personally I don't give a "solid-waste-product" which religion does what, unless world power is vested in religious groups, in which case I care dearly for my own safety. And what I see is that the 3rd world, supported by some old ladies with cats, are no match for the hue and cry of the Islamists. So I worry.
I keep seeing this thread bumped to the top so thought there may be something interesting in it. Wrong again! I wonder who really cares about this stuff - I only ever see very old ladies going to Mass in my village and surely all this out-of-date nonsense is why the various Christian sects are haemorrhaging support while watching Islam go from strength to strength.
Firstly, if you are considering residency to save the tax on purchase, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just sensible tax planning. But like any other tax planning, you need to consider the tax saving against the downsides of residency. Whether it's worth trying to save some money is not really just a matter of someone's opinion, it depends largely on how much you are likely to save. I know many people bought ruins for peanuts back in the day, so for them the saving may have been quite small, but that's not always the case. Just as a guide, and with no claims of any authority on the subject, I wouldn't bother if the saving was less than about €10k. Between 10 and 18 I would think about it, over 18k it's probably a definite. Everyone will have their own versions of these figures, and you must work out your own! On the health side, the form your comune wants is the one which cuts you out of the NHS altogether. If you're happy with that, fine. If not you will need to show them that you have a private health insurance. The popular companies do a slimline policy which satisfies the comune, but probaby does little else. TK
"If anyone has any doubts, simply google "Berlusconi embarrassing moments" and you will see quite a "collection".". Just to point out that among serious interests, Google is not seen as a prime source of information or knowledge. Search engines are a lazy way of acquiring a point of view without the need to waste time on research or positive thought. It's no wonder people are suckers for propaganda. And for those who don't believe the US attack on the euro, perhaps you can explain the actions of the ECB in ignoring the ratings agencies?
"Berlusconi ................ not to mention that he is an embarrassment". A bit of bandwaggoning going on here. Berlusconi took about 70% of the vote in his most recent successful election and only became an "embarrassment" because Wall St needed to attack the Euro in order to shore up the ailing dollar, hence targetted a propaganda campaign against him. Suddenly, everyone held an opinion which agreed with the propaganda - job done! Incidentally, I'm not necessarily FOR Berlusconi, but I refuse to be AGAINST him because of US propaganda. And I question anybody who refuses to take seriously one of Italy's most successful modern politicians whilst apparently taking Grillo seriously. Now that is surely the influence of populism.
Try this link to a thread from the old forum http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/furniture/8738-buying-furniture-calabri... I don't know your region but there's surely no better country in the world to shop for furniture! TK
I found our property through an English website. The information was easy to access, easy to search and it was easy to register my interest and move things on. The moving on bit was an introduction to our official Italian estate agent, who took over the whole operation from then on. They were excellent in all - well, nearly all - respects. We paid commission only to the estate agent, who no doubt sorted out the English website guy. That was in 2005/6 and I know I would never have found my property without the English website, as the Italian agent's websites covering my area are abysmal. When I visited, the Italian agent showed me maybe 6 properties - the one I really wanted plus 5 others which were totally unsuitable in nearly all respects. If I had relied on the visit-and-view method alone, I would still be looking. So if I were you, I would first ask them how their Italian operation works - are they legal, as Ram has pointed out, and to whom do you pay the official agent's commission. If it's not them, then you need to know if they are trying to impose a charge over and above the official commission. I'm guessing that their website doesn't contain the information Ram says is necessary because their main business is registered in England.
Very difficult for one-legged people. T
Many of the stairs sold in UK seem to come from Italy, so it should be easy to source them. If you can't find any locally, in UK they are supplied in kit form so it should be possible to have them delivered. I am currently about to re-stair my UK home so I looked at them, but not for long as they do look a bit strange. There are other stair kits which work on a similar modular principle but look a bit more normal (Genius 020 from Complete Stair Systems for example). After all my research, I keeled over and have gone for something really quite nice. I'll be having the arm and the leg removed shortly.............
Ah, if they could only read back through the thread and realise how tedious their display of double-figure IQ actually is. Maybe they think they're "winding us up"? No, it's just mind-numbingly tedious. Another otherwise decent forum besmirched by twats.