Author: Thomas

Last week, we had the pool drained, cleaned, and refilled, and the timing couldn’t have been better. Northern Italy has been hit by an extreme heat wave. Communication is still a challenge. I used a translation app to communicate with the pool-cleanup crew.

Having the pool ready has made a huge difference. What used to be a dirty basin is now clean, full, and refreshingly cool. It’s been a great way to cool off during these hot afternoons. During the heat wave, we work on house or garden projects early in the morning. If it gets too hot, we drive five minutes to a small beach in Ranco for a swim. In the afternoons, we jump in the pool whenever we need to cool down. The pool is now the easiest way to stay comfortable without air conditioning during this record-breaking heat.

The funny part of this is that Karina and I really didn’t want a pool and were thinking maybe about converting it to a green house. At the moment we love it because it allows us to stay cool.

After we registered, we asked about trash collection. A clerk told us to return the next day between 1:30 and 3:00 to pick up our trash bags and cans outside the town hall. We showed up right at 1:30, and the person handing them out spoke fluent German. He had spent over 20 years working in Nürmberg, Germany. That made the process really easy, and we collected our official trash cans (one for paper and cardboard, one for metal and glass, one for compostables) and a set of bags (for plastic and general trash). The general trash bags have a small RFID tag so the town can keep track of them.

This week we made it official: we walked into the anagrafe, the town registry office, and registered as residents of Ranco. I brought a stack of paperwork with me, including all the forms, proof that we can support ourselves, health insurance, our house purchase contract, and our German marriage certificate. I also added courtesy translations of our English and German documents. We spoke a mix of Italian and English as we handed everything in. A week later, I got confirmation that the town had started our residency process. So, we’re on track to become permanent residents in Ranco.

I felt proud that the preparation of all the documentation paid off. It was a lot of work to pull everything together, especially filling out the documents in Italian. I managed to do this with the help of AI but double-checked everything. 

It is interesting would you can cook just in the oven, Yesterday we had chicken drum sticks, spinach and potatoes without a stove. Today, I cooked Osso Bucco and rice and all in the oven. I was skeptical cooking rice just in the oven but it turned out well. The whole dish was delicious.

Later this afternoon, I discovered with my realtor that our house has a methane detector in the boiler room. Apparently, sometime last weekend it triggered a shutdown of the gas to the house. I didn’t realize that there is a small button, I have to pull out to restart the gas. Everything is no working fine and I can fully utilize the kitchen.

On Friday night I noticed that there is no hot water. I had to shower with cold water. I investigated that on Saturday and found that our boiler now has an error message. My research indicates that one of the pumps may have failed. This can wait until Monday since I discovered that our solar warm water system will provide us with hot water. Unfortunately for Karina, I discovered that after she had a cold shower.

Saturday night the next surprise happened. I was ready to prepare dinner, sword fish with garlic spinach and potatoes, and turned on the gas but there was nothing. Something must have gone wrong with the transfer from the new owner to a new provider and they shut our gas off remotely. I wasn’t aware that modern gas meters can do that. This also will wait until Monday. We went out to Delphino blu for a great dinner.

I’m working on setting things up, so everything is ready for the handover of the house on Friday and the move in on Tuesday. Karina is still in Germany getting the cats ready and helping my parents. One big open item is home insurance.

I picked up a coffee maker plus chargers built for Italian sockets, so everything plugs in on day one.

The big lift was banking which is necessary of utilities. Setting up a Revolut account for Italy took more effort than expected: without the standard documents a resident would have on hand, I had to work around the usual onboarding path. The systems here assume you’re already settled, and we’re not quite there yet.

I got an Italian cell number but my tests at the house showed that all providers have a very weak signal at the house.

I arrived early. The sellers had some issues with standard language in the contract and argued with my notary for about 15 minutes. The notary checked everything and requested additional information, such as the source of the funds, and the sellers wanted language about the sewer system included in the preliminary contract to be carried over to the final contract. Our realtor, John, prepared the translation of the document. The notary read the full contract to the sellers, and then John had to read the English translation to me. The notary was very nice and could speak English and some German. After everything was read, the signing began. Every page had to have 6 signatures: 2 from the sellers, my signature, John’s, and 2 witnesses. The whole process took about 2 hours, and by 1 p.m., it was done, and the notary handed me a document certifying that we had bought the house. Possession is on Friday, so I have to wait a few days to get the keys and bring the 7 bags into the house. It’s definitely very different from buying a house in the US. In the meantime, I’m planning to get a cellphone number, internet, and other things for the house. I’m celebrating by having a nice Italian lunch nearby.

I left early Sunday morning because I was a little concerned about holiday traffic. It’s Pentecost in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I stopped a few times for a quick bite and to charge the EV,  but arrived in good time at the apartment in Monate. It is on the second floor, but luckily, there is an elevator, and I used one of my suitcases to move the bags.

So far, everything has gone mostly smoothly. The cat paperwork was definitely too tight for comfort. I’m a little nervous about how the signing will go tomorrow. I hope I have everything.

Our cats are doing ok. Sheila, our void, is checking everything out and is very curious. Toffee, on the other hand, is more reserved and does not leave our room under the roof very often. He was definitely very interested in some feather decorations. 

The cats were doing ok during the first part of the flight. Sheila started to get quite restless and meowed quite a bit. She was quiet when we took her to the bathroom and let her out. 

Getting through customs took quite a while, but the cats were admitted to Germany without a problem. We were struggling to produce a document showing that we  “unregistered” in the US. We finally settled with the customs officer on sending them the contract of our home sale. The only things we had that were less than 6 months old were our iPhones, which we bought 5.5 months ago. We had to pay a hefty toll for those two.