Good news about access to cash via cash machines (ATMs) using British bank cards. We like many others have been having problems for a while accessing cash this way.
Yesterday we visited the Cinque Terre with some friends who are staying with us. We had a lovely day but is was nearly ruined at the end by an incident on the train back to La Spezia.
We to like to keep our gas useage to a minimum as we have access to reasonably priced logs. We are not resident in Italy but use the house about 8 weeks during the heating season (end of October - Easter) plus of course hot water in the other months. We are in the house about 4 months of the year. It is usually that 'warm the house up on arrival' period that eats the gas. After that the woodburner keeps us reasonably warm in 'normal' temperatures. We had our last fill up (1300 litres) in March 2007 and have just had 1000 litres to fill the tank. One of the reasons they gave us for having a larger discount was to at least have 1000 litres. We can do this as we have a 1750 litre tank.Good luck in your negotiations
I have had to order gas as well this autumn. I contacted Butangas asking for the current price and was told €1.10 +iva. I questioned this and asked what had happened to the discounts They had forgotten them! I was then offered a price of €0.93 minus discount plus iva. I said I would have to consider getting my own gas tank and then the price came down to €0.745 including discounts and iva - a really great saving
We used HIFX. They were fine and if the italian bank make charges for the transfer, they will refund it (no transfer charges guarenteed). You can buy in advance at an agreed rate but of course the rate may vary up or down so of course this is a gamble. However it's a good insurance as you do not suddenly find yourself paying more than you budgeted for.
On the contrary, you have to glean it from the schedule and they do not publish all schedules at the same time so it is difficult to know if they have not announced it yet or if it has been discontinued. I am guessing that they have dropped the East Midlands / Pisa flights this winter (currently 4 times a week) but there has been no announcement - just not there on the booking schedule. The map is no help either as of course the route is still there as they fly to Pisa until the change of schedule on 25th October!!
There has been a lot of interesting comments in this thread a lot of which cannot be argued with. We spend about one third of our time in our house in Italy and the rest of the time in the UK. We adapt out life styles to where we are. In Italy, we live when we can on good cheap local produce, make jams and preserves and fill up the freezer from 'free' or very cheap ingredients, and keep to a minimum our usage of the more expensive things - electricity, gas etc. When we are in Italy in the winter, we have a much lower temperature than we would endure in the UK but often the days are sunny so we make the most of this - being outside .... There are reasons for living in each country so you maximise on the reasons you are where you are and minimise the negatives whenever possible.We have the best of both countries so in that respect I suppose we are very lucky.
Can give you the latest on this route as we have just come back. We left Wasselonne (just west of Strasbourg) at six this morning and were at the eurotunnel terminal by 12.10. Diesel in Luxembourg €0.86! Yes there are roadworks near Lille but this morning we were not held up once. Compare this with yesterday Lunigiana to Wasselonne - 2 hour delay on the Milan Tangenziale due to an accident (plus lots of minor bumps because of the queueing) Then road works in both Italy and Switzwerland (due to finish 2011!!) plus a 3 km queue for the tunnel. Normal journey time 8 hours, Yesterday 11 hours 20 minutes!!I feel that the time of your journey can play such an important part of judging the time. Yes we would use this route again - but only at certain times because of the roadworks.
I think that you will find your furry friends are fat dormice - we have a family or two in our roof. They often play a pretty good game of football around 5am. As you say they are nocturnal and hibernate from October to April. You can often hear them in the tree canopy at night as they are very vocal for their size. You will get loads of information if you google including photos. You do well to see them as they are very timid
Never been weighed yet for East Midlands and Birmingham to Pisa (and return) but did see someone being sent back at security at Pisa as they were checking the sizes of bags in the little stand.
We are currently using 3 mobile but will stop at the end of the month due to their change in charges. We will revert to out previous provider who are wi-fi lunigiana - www.wifi-communication.com You do have to have a line of sight to one of their masts. There is one on the hill in Aulla. They will come out and do a survey. They charge €30 for 15 hours PAYG. Your commune may have it's own wi-fi system you can use. There was a thread on this on the old forum.
Comments posted
We to like to keep our gas useage to a minimum as we have access to reasonably priced logs. We are not resident in Italy but use the house about 8 weeks during the heating season (end of October - Easter) plus of course hot water in the other months. We are in the house about 4 months of the year. It is usually that 'warm the house up on arrival' period that eats the gas. After that the woodburner keeps us reasonably warm in 'normal' temperatures. We had our last fill up (1300 litres) in March 2007 and have just had 1000 litres to fill the tank. One of the reasons they gave us for having a larger discount was to at least have 1000 litres. We can do this as we have a 1750 litre tank.Good luck in your negotiations
I have had to order gas as well this autumn. I contacted Butangas asking for the current price and was told €1.10 +iva. I questioned this and asked what had happened to the discounts They had forgotten them! I was then offered a price of €0.93 minus discount plus iva. I said I would have to consider getting my own gas tank and then the price came down to €0.745 including discounts and iva - a really great saving
We used HIFX. They were fine and if the italian bank make charges for the transfer, they will refund it (no transfer charges guarenteed). You can buy in advance at an agreed rate but of course the rate may vary up or down so of course this is a gamble. However it's a good insurance as you do not suddenly find yourself paying more than you budgeted for.
On the contrary, you have to glean it from the schedule and they do not publish all schedules at the same time so it is difficult to know if they have not announced it yet or if it has been discontinued. I am guessing that they have dropped the East Midlands / Pisa flights this winter (currently 4 times a week) but there has been no announcement - just not there on the booking schedule. The map is no help either as of course the route is still there as they fly to Pisa until the change of schedule on 25th October!!
I too use Intasure and they also have the advantage that you can pay monthly at no extra cost.
There has been a lot of interesting comments in this thread a lot of which cannot be argued with. We spend about one third of our time in our house in Italy and the rest of the time in the UK. We adapt out life styles to where we are. In Italy, we live when we can on good cheap local produce, make jams and preserves and fill up the freezer from 'free' or very cheap ingredients, and keep to a minimum our usage of the more expensive things - electricity, gas etc. When we are in Italy in the winter, we have a much lower temperature than we would endure in the UK but often the days are sunny so we make the most of this - being outside .... There are reasons for living in each country so you maximise on the reasons you are where you are and minimise the negatives whenever possible.We have the best of both countries so in that respect I suppose we are very lucky.
Can give you the latest on this route as we have just come back. We left Wasselonne (just west of Strasbourg) at six this morning and were at the eurotunnel terminal by 12.10. Diesel in Luxembourg €0.86! Yes there are roadworks near Lille but this morning we were not held up once. Compare this with yesterday Lunigiana to Wasselonne - 2 hour delay on the Milan Tangenziale due to an accident (plus lots of minor bumps because of the queueing) Then road works in both Italy and Switzwerland (due to finish 2011!!) plus a 3 km queue for the tunnel. Normal journey time 8 hours, Yesterday 11 hours 20 minutes!!I feel that the time of your journey can play such an important part of judging the time. Yes we would use this route again - but only at certain times because of the roadworks.
I think that you will find your furry friends are fat dormice - we have a family or two in our roof. They often play a pretty good game of football around 5am. As you say they are nocturnal and hibernate from October to April. You can often hear them in the tree canopy at night as they are very vocal for their size. You will get loads of information if you google including photos. You do well to see them as they are very timid
Never been weighed yet for East Midlands and Birmingham to Pisa (and return) but did see someone being sent back at security at Pisa as they were checking the sizes of bags in the little stand.
We are currently using 3 mobile but will stop at the end of the month due to their change in charges. We will revert to out previous provider who are wi-fi lunigiana - www.wifi-communication.com You do have to have a line of sight to one of their masts. There is one on the hill in Aulla. They will come out and do a survey. They charge €30 for 15 hours PAYG. Your commune may have it's own wi-fi system you can use. There was a thread on this on the old forum.