22 February 2016: Italian Customs, Italian Car Dealers and the "Brexit"

First thing Monday morning I awake to an email from Valeria Locatelli in Rome. It reads as follows:

Dear Tracey and Craig,

 

Please be advised that Italian customs selected your container for a customs check.

At the moment this procedure involves import documentation only.

Once we hear from customs we will let you have updated on the container release.

 

Best regards

Valeria

 

Of course they did. Why not? As one of my friends suggested, perhaps they are testing us to see how much we really want to live in Italy. Sigh. I'm not really sure what this means,  so I'm going to pretend it's not a big deal until I need to believe otherwise.

 

Then I receive a message from the man who will be insuring my new little Fiat.  His name is Marcello.  He reviewed my purchase contract and told me that I should never have agreed to pay that much for the car.  That the dealer should have discounted the cost by 10-15% because I am not trading in another car. Apparently this is a standard practice in Italy. Another thing I was suppose to know but did not??  Hmmmm...  So we contact Franco again. He will contact the dealer for us. And the next message I get is an amended contract from Gianni (the car dealer).  With a discount of €1500 and a big "scusate".  I adore Franco!

And let's add another new wrinkle.  I am reading this morning about the pesky issue of Britain's referendum on EU membership....or as it's now being called, the "Brexit".  If the UK is no longer part of the EU does that jeopardize Craig's residence status in Italy?  And therefore my situation in Italy? C'mon citizens of the UK, stay with us!! 

The good news of the day? Craig's offer on Villa di Capo has been accepted.  The transaction is planned to close on the 16th of March. And my official new role as property manager will begin. I can't wait!  (Big shout out to the realtors helping with this transaction, Elite Puglia.  A Scottish ex-pat mother and daughter team.  They are superstars and a dream to work with!) 

Oh...and I have found and fallen in love with another property represented by Elite Puglia called Trullo Filippo.  I would like Craig to invest with me on this one.  So we can officially own a trullo property, which is the iconic and historically significant style in Puglia. Here are a few photos. What do you think?

Trullo Filippo