In Search of an Italian Casa

We’ve had many people tell us, oh we looked at about 10 houses and ended up choosing the first house we saw.  That sounds easy.  We can totally do that!  Right.  Well they clearly weren’t moving to Italy at the end of PCS season (meaning all the good one’s had already been snagged) nor were they moving to Italy in the month of August.  What does August have to with anything?  I’m glad you asked.

In Italy, August is vacation, or as they call it, holiday, month in Italy.  Only, the Italians don’t spend a week at the beach or Euro-Disney.  No, no.  They “holiday” for an. entire. month.  It’s so serious that GAS STATIONS close for the month of August.  That one floored me.  Not all of them close.  The bigger ones stayed open, but many of the little stations were closed all month long.

Well, as you can imagine, gas station owners aren’t the only people on holiday.  Many landlords are too.  It was not uncommon for John or I to make a phone call to see a house and be met with, “I’m sorry.  I’m on holiday.  Would you like to see it on the 27th?”  Given that we started our search on the 10th, that was not going to work.  Thankfully, with much help from our sponsor and his wife, we were able to find a few houses to view.  And when I say a few, I mean 21.  Yes, it took 21 houses to find “the one.” 

Don’t panic, I’m not going to make you sit here and read through each and every house we saw.  But I’ve got some highlights.  Let’s get started, shall we?

The first place we saw was a cute town house in the town of San Quirino.  Just walking through the front gate, through the little garden to the front door, we were busting with excitement.  This is it.  We’re are actually looking at houses in Italy!  The photo below is one I stole from the online listing because I didn’t have my wits about me enough to take a picture of my own.

This townhouse was great.  The kitchen was very “American” in that it has an American size refrigerator, plenty of cabinet space, and a dishwasher.  Apparently, dishwashers are rare in these parts.  Look at that ceiling!  If you look closely, just behind the light fixture is a set of pull-down stairs that lead to a loft that overlooks the adjacent living room.  At little bizzare, but kind of cute.  Definitely not the weirdest thing we’d see by far.

One of the “selling points” the agent, Sergio, was eager to point out was the jetted tub.  Apparently, when trying to get Americans to rent your house, you install a jetted tub.  We actually saw quite a few of these.  Sadly, none of them had any bearing on our decision.

This townhouse was much larger than it looked from the street.  There were 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on the main level.  But what we didn’t know going into the showing was that this house also had a full basement with 2 more bedrooms and another bathroom.  On top of that it also had another FULL kitchen and den with it’s own fireplace.  Sorry, Moms, we didn’t end up getting this place even though it came complete with the mother of all mother-in-law suites.

We were so excited about this place.  Like, ready to sign the lease on the spot, excited.  And then Segio dropped a bomb.  No dogs.  What?!  He knew going into the showing we had dogs.  We had already designated a room for Randy.  Why on earth did this guy just show us this amazing house if he knew we couldn’t have our dogs?  Apparently, he had some problems with American tenants before leaving their dogs at home alone, rotting in their own filth, while they traveled Europe having a grand time.  And he had the photos to show us.  STUPID Americans ruin everything! 

There was a glimmer of hope though.  Sergio had a house available just down the road that was dog friendly.  Knowing we had nothing to lose and a little time before our next scheduled showing, we followed him out to it.  Let’s just say, his idea of “dog friendly” properties and my idea of “dog friendly” properties don’t exactly align. 

All of the light fixtures in the San Quirino townhouse were made of Murano glass.  All of the fixtures in the “dog friendly” house were, well you can see, not quite up to par.  As a matter of fact, nothing about that house was up to par, including the big as Biscuit spider lurking around in the basement.  So we parted ways with Sergio and continued our hunt.

Another house we checked out was this cute-from-outside farm house in Aviano.

And that’s where the fun ends.  For starters, here’s the kitchen:

Note the lack of a refrigerator.  We probably wasted a good 5 minutes trying to figure out where we’d put a refrigerator when we realized it was a moot point.  Partly because we had to duck to get through the doors to the bedrooms and then could barely stand up straight, and partly because we knew there was no way we were living in a house where the refrigerator was anywhere other than the kitchen.

I apologize for the super blurry picture, but at this point I was laughing too hard.  You can’t really tell it in the photo, but John’s head is less than an inch from the ceiling.   The ceiling in the upstairs bathroom and the guestroom was even lower.  And the bathroom downstairs?  Oh, it was outside.  Next please!

  We looked at a new construction near a town called Cordenons.  This place was gorgeous and the perfect size for us, and it was dogs friendly.  We were super careful about triple checking that before seeing the house after our San Quirino experience.  Look at all of that gorgeous wood!  Be still my heart.

Look at all of that gorgeous wood! Be still my heart.

Do you see that ceiling and the brick floors and walls?!  I loved, loved, loved this house.  It had the only en-suite master bath that we saw.  Pay no attention to the lonely bulb hanging from the ceiling.  The house wasn’t completely finished when we walked through.   Even though this house was great and we totally loved it, we totally hated the drive to the base.  It was much longer than what we wanted and we were willing to sacrifice some of the nicer amenities to keep the commute short.

If you’re wondering about the other couple in the picture, they are our wonderful sponsors.  They went to most of our showings with us to help us know what to look for in an Italian house.  They were able to point out the things that you take for granted in the States, but rarely see in Italian homes (like a dishwasher, or a dryer hookup).  We have been so thankful to have them here to help us through this process!

Here’s where we’re going to break for now.  I’ve still got a few more houses up my sleeves, but you’ll have to wait for another day! Don’t worry though; I’m not planning to blog about every house we visit.  But after seeing 21,  we have quite a few highlights!

Travel Days (Part 2)

Once we got over the shock of realizing that we were about to get United, we worked out game plan for what to do with the next few hours.  We still had to keep the dogs with us until 45 minutes before boarding. We were thankful to find out that there was a postage stamp size dog park attached to the airport. Those dogs were so happy to be out of their crates for a little while, but they had no idea what was coming!

We could see through the fence to where the planes were pulled up to the terminals, and John spotted our big fat United jet plane. 

Many sniffs and snorts later, the dogs were hot and tired and ready to go back into their crate and back into the air conditioned terminal.  While they napped, we wheeled our giabongous cart over to a near by sports bar and drank away the hours and our United sorrows.  I wish I had a picture, because that cart was so big, especially with Randy’s crate on it, that it blocked a good two-thirds of the door way.  The bartender was very gracious to let us keep it there.  She even took a few minutes to meet the doggies.  All over the airport, everyone was very interested to see what was inside that giant gray crate.  Poor Biscuit got lost somewhere beneath backpacks and carry-on luggage, and no one seemed to notice she was there. 

Dropping off the dogs before we boarded was a simple process.  Push them over to the big double doors that lead down to the cargo area, get them checked off a list, move them to the little roped off area, and say goodbye until we land in Germany.  Not going to lie, it was nice dropping them off after hauling them around, in their crates, on a giant cart all afternoon.

We made our way through security and waited for United to do their thing.  And do it they did.  First, there was a delay for unknown reasons.  Then there was a delay due to catering.  Catering?!?!  REALLY?!?! That airplane had been parked there for HOURS.  And then, the final blow.  Over the intercom we hear the fateful words, “Attention all AMC passengers.  Flight blah blah blah with service to Ramstein has been delayed indefinitely.”  Great.  Just what we were hoping for.  Another day toting the dogs around Baltimore-Washington International Airport.  But then, just as quickly as the announcement was over it was followed by, “Attention AMC passengers, flight blah blah blah, with service to Ramstein, will now begin boarding at gate who-remembers-that-info.”  Hallelujah!!

Cautious optimism slowly poured through us, and sure enough, within 30 minutes John and I found our seats on the aircraft.  Here’s the best part.  This chartered aircraft was still fitted with it’s first-class seating and guess which two weary travelers were assigned in that section?  Yep, these two!

Ok, that picture doesn’t even begin to do it justice.  Those seats laid out almost completely flat and had leg rests that came out pretty far too.  Oh yeah, that was a comfy flight.  I mean, I’ve heard first class is great and all, but FREE first class is the bombdotcom.   Sure, there was no champagne, but at this point it was after midnight and we were so worn out we just wanted to sleep.  Sure a mimosa in morning when they were bringing around breakfast would have been nice, but I’m definitely not complaining.  John was out cold before we even left the ground and remained that way until we landed. 

Our first stop was Ramstein, Germany, where we unloaded the majority of the plane.  They off loaded the dogs and we were able to take them outside the terminal to stretch their legs and feed and water them.  We were pleasantly surprised how well they did.  We had heard horror stories of how gross the dogs are on the other side, but ours were nice and clean.  Apparently, one dog was not so lucky, and last we heard was still running around the tarmac at BWI (and that was straight from the horses mouth and 6 DAYS later).  Not even exaggerating.  Talk about getting United.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing, sort of.  There was a little mix up with our room when we got here, but it was quickly and easily straightened out.  We had great help getting from the airport to our temporary housing which was WONDERFUL.  And so is the view!

Can you believe those mountains!  They are gorgeous and majestic and in our backyard!  Looking forward to spending some time there.

Travel Days (Part1)

It finally happened.  We picked up the rental car, packed up the dogs, drove to Baltimore, boarded a plane, and now we are officially residing in Italy.  Sounds simple, right?  Let’s back up a little…

The Sunday before we left, we met up with my family, John’s parents, and John’s sister Dianne for once last family lunch.  It was definitely a memorable lunch.  I think we had enough salad dressing on the table to last us all a solid month!  We had little cups everywhere!

Love this picture of John and his dad.  Unfortunately, we failed to get a picture of the whole group.  Bummer.

After lunch, my parents and sisters dropped us off at the airport where we picked up the rental car.  Earlier in the week we had reserved a “standard” size SUV to drive at Baltimore.  We needed something large enough to fit all of our luggage, the 2 dogs, and Randy’s giant crate.  When we got to the counter, the guy let us know that we had received a free upgrade!  Yay!  Or not.  Turns out our “upgrade” was to a nicer crossover vehicle, but was a downgrade in size.  We walked out to the parking lot, took one look inside, and made our way back to the rental counter.  There was no way Randy’s crate was going to fit, much less the rest of our stuff.  Thankfully, after we explained our situation, the lady at the counter found us a nice, grande, Toyota Sequoia.  We were in business!

We made our way back to Sumter, were we had been staying with John’s parents, and got to work packing up the car.  It’s a good thing that Sequoia was available because we packed. it. out. 

 

Once we were all packed up, we were on our way!  It was such a surreal moment.  We had been talking about and planning for this move for so long, it hardly seemed real that we were on our way to Baltimore to catch our flight to Italy.  The drive itself was pretty uneventful (thank goodness!).  The dogs did great and Randy, our car sickness prone pooch, was happy and comfortable the entire ride. 

I might have hit up a couple Chick-Fil-As along the way.  Had to get one last chicken sandwich and milkshake before we left, right?

John and I came up with a plan of attack at the hotel for how we would get the dogs in the airport and return the rental car, because of course the only way back to the terminal from the rental car drop off was by bus, and there was no way we were getting Randy and his crate on that bus.  We were able to go to the airport early in the morning and drop off all of our luggage at the USO.  What a HUGE blessing that was!  There was NO WAY we could have done it otherwise. 

Our flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until around 11pm, so to kill time before heading to the airport, we went this great park the hotel staff about.  It was right behind the airport at the end of one of the runways, so every few minutes there was a plane flying overhead making their final approach before landing.  It was a spectacular show.

 

This one was super excited to be at the park!

Later that afternoon, John dropped the dogs and I off at the terminal and helped me load them onto a luggage cart.  My determined self decided to push 150lbs of dogs and crates into the terminal myself.  As you can probably imagine, it didn’t go quite as smoothly as i would have liked.  I got into a fight with a curb, and nearly lost the load going through the door.  Of course, I had many spectators with no one offering to help me over the curb.  Finally one college aged girl, with a load of luggage herself, gave me a hand.  Bless her!

Let’s just say a luggage cart is not a stable way to move live cargo.  Randy managed to turn the cart over (with Biscuit on top) 3 times!  No worries, I managed to catch Biscuit before she toppled over each time.  Finally, someone in the terminal notice the trouble we were having and magically produced a much, much larger cart, and we were problem free after that. 

We got in line for check-in around 4:00, which turned out to be a great thing.  Check-in began at 5:30 and that line got really long, really fast.  It was kind of a fun wait, because we got to meet other families and couples who were moving as well.  We flew the Rotator which is a chartered military flight that leaves from Baltimore each week and makes a stop in Ramstein, Germany; Aviano, Italy; and then makes a stop at one of the bases down range.  It then comes back to Aviano, back to Ramstein, and then finally Baltimore.  The Rotator is a very efficient way for the military to get families and deployed (or deploying) service members overseas.

We chose the Rotator largely because we were traveling with the dogs.  Most commercial airlines impose a seasonal embargo against flying pets in the summer months because of the heat.  When flying the Rotator, they have a climate controlled holding area for pets, so they are not in danger of over-heating. 

While we were checking in, we over heard someone mention something about United recently aquiring the contract for the Rotator.  In that moment, everything came to a screeching halt.  “WHO has the charter?”  “Did that lady just say United.”  “Lord, save our dogs.”  One thing we were hugely resting in, was that we would not be flying United to Italy.  At the counter, we got the confirmation we were dreading.  Just 2 weeks before, United was granted the contract.  Well, here’s goes nothing…