Learning Curve

A dear friend of mine recently moved to Germany, and since we’re in the same time zone, we had the chance to chat for awhile the other morning! One of the things we discussed was the learning curve when you move to a foreign country. She said that several of the ladies she’s met have made comments that she just needs to learn German – as if that’s easy and as if language is the only difficulty you face when moving to a new country. Admittedly, before coming here, I probably would have had the same kinds of thoughts. However…my perspective has shifted a bit! We discussed some of the following things that play into the learning curve when moving to a foreign country…and then I added a few more unique to Italia!

1. The language…you’d think that actually living in a foreign country would be helpful in this, and it is. However, you can’t just plop down on the park bench next to a couple of folks having a private conversation so you can get some listening practice! In a place where the people are private – like Ferrara, it’s tricky to have a real conversation about anything besides fruit, gelato or pastries!

2. Fahrenheit to Celsius…or vice versa. We walked out this morning, and the thermometer read 12 degrees. Well, that means nothing to me without a long complicated conversion process. Many other people were wearing winter parkas. Am I underdressed in my sweats and sweatshirt? And it’s not just the weather. The oven temps are all in Celsius, too. So until I get this figured out, I have to do a conversion in order to bake.

3. And speaking of baking…there are 2 ovens in our hotel room. One has just two settings, and only one of them makes the light come on. I assume that means it’s working! Unfortunately, it only has one very small temperature marking, and it says 180 degrees…converting again.

4. When we were in Willow House trying to figure out whether an American-sized washer will fit in the laundry closet we confronted it again. Our interpreter only deals in centimeters…so our measurement of 30 inches meant nothing to her. She knows her washer is 60 centimeters, but that means nothing to me. So she explains further that it holds 9 liters. At least I have a frame of reference for that…picturing the washer only holding 4 ½ bottles of soda, however, is not comforting! (We later learned that it’s kilograms…so I’m feeling a little better about my washer that will hold 35 t-shirts.)

5.  Driving…they do drive on the same side of the road in Italy that we do in America! Whew! However, I was given a 40-page document filled with road rules that are different and street signs to memorize. Some things are common sense, but since Europeans rely heavily on the symbol, I’m still trying to change my mindset. For example, anything in a red circle means prohibited. So a picture of a car on a round, white sign, edged in red means no cars can go here! In the U.S., it would mean cars CAN go here…you see what I mean!

6. Grocery store…food is food, right? I mean, how different can it be? The produce is really similar. Except that here, you have to wear a plastic glove when handling the produce, and you weigh and put a sticker on everything before arriving at the check stand. Also, all the brands are different and since I speak lousy Italian, I’m not exactly sure what I’m buying. Is the glass jar with red stuff in it and a picture of a tomato, tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce? To solve this one, I finally just looked at how long the list of ingredients was…figuring spaghetti sauce would have more! It also helps that many food words are similar – sal and carrote, for example! And what about the stuff you can’t find – cheddar cheese, sour cream, peanut butter?!

7. At the check stand you have to pay (now that’s familiar, at least!), and although the bills and coins we use are different, it’s not too complicated. Since the change to euro was probably traumatic for all involved, the money has the value stamped right on it. Whew! I just have to remember that the quarter-sized coin is actually 2 euro – a little high for a tooth fairy visit.

8. Banking is a whole other beast here, as well. We were warned not to open an Italian bank account. Apparently you may actually die before getting through the paperwork to open the account! And then there’s the whole issue of closing it. Because the bank has no way to guarantee that you won’t have another charge coming in sometime, they make the account nearly impossible to close. Most Americans who open one, just plan to have an Italian account with 2 euro in it for the duration of their lives. I don’t know – a foreign bank account sounds kind of intriguing…

9. Automatic payments are something else we’re learning about. We need to transfer money to our landlord’s account for the deposit, so I sent an e-mail to the bank this morning requesting that they transfer the money. I have since received an e-mail saying my request has been received. Tomorrow or the next day I should be able to see that the transfer occurred. (I hope!)

10. Ferrara is a small town and tradition is really important. Most of the stores and restaurants close for repaso from 1:30-4:30. Restaurants don’t re-open for business (even if the doors are open and workers are inside) until about 7:30, and even then, if you don’t have a reservation, you’re likely to be funneled to the outside tables. That’s right – even at 5 degrees Celsius the outside seating in the restaurants across from the hotel are packed! The other night the girls and I walked home from music lessons at about 10 p.m. and the outside seating was full of people wearing heavy coats and hats and drinking coffee! Brrrr!

I'm sure there are more I haven't remembered...and probably a few others I haven't yet encountered. However, just in the few weeks we've been here I've gained a huge respect for those who are/were gutsy enough to begin live anew in a foreign country. I came to the conclusion that A. conditions must have been pretty bad to do it in the first place, and B. if they'd had more money, they might've gotten right back on the boat anyway! Ciao! Ciao!

You paid how much for a tank of gas?!

   So I had to break down and buy gas for the car...luckily someone gave me 50 liters worth of gas in coupons that are like money.  I was thinking it was a lot but it's only 13.2 gallons.  You may be aware that gas in Europe is sold by the liter.  So I filled up the car last Monday thinking I'd have some gas coupons left over.  Much to my chagrin a full tank took 48.5 liters or 12.8 gallons leaving me NO gas coupons.  The left over was returned to me in change.  The cost in Euros was 86.13 if memory serves.  A quick euro to dollars conversion shows $111.37 for 12.8 gallons of gas or $8.70 per gallon.  Yikes!!  I guess I don't feel so bad for paying $3.85 per gallon in San Antonio.
 
   You might be wondering about the gas coupons...as a member of NATO, we're authorized to purchase a ration of gas coupons per month based on vehicle size.  We buy the coupons at a reduced price thus chopping the gas price roughly in half.  So I guess I'll smile as we pay $4.35 per gallon instead of $8 or $9.
 
   Quick van update: I mentioned in a previous post that the driver-side window was broken in transit.  Turns out it was not broken, the window motor (the part that makes it go up and down) died.  There was no evidence of force or damage by an external source.  Therefore, the carrier will not pay for damage considered "standard" wear and tear.  What is aggravating--we replaced the part less than 2 years ago in San Antonio, if we're lucky we only have to wait 10 days to get the part in, we're paying a daily storage fee for the van to sit at the mechanic's shop, and our monthly gas allotment is tied to getting the van registered which requires an inspection which it may or may not pass because of the window.  With out the coupons, we're paying through the nose for gas, capisce?  We can still make our weekly Sunday bus ride to church without the van.  Although today it was very cold and windy (probably in the 40s) after church.  Waiting 30 minutes for the bus in the cold was not fun.  We huddled at the bus stop like penguins in the Artic.  We penguins need cheaper gas.  

Pasta Fun Facts straight from Italy!

     Have you ever seen those cheesy commercials that talk about how Barilla pasta is grown and is a product of Italy? How many of you believe it? I didn't believe it until I saw this at the store! That's right a huge pile of Barilla pasta sitting in Ipercoop (pronounced eeper-cop)!!!! Who knew that those cheesy commercials that we've seen on television were actually true! Now, you have a new fun fact about Italy to tell your friends!!!

Dreadful Picture of Barilla Pasta in Ipercoop
 (pronounced eeper-cop) 

More Pasta that is in Ipercoop... do you recognize it?
(pronounced eeper-cop) 

     Does this pasta brand look familiar to you? That's what I thought when I saw it at the store! Then, it hit me! This pasta brand is sold at Costco! So next time you're at Costco, you'll know where this pasta comes from! It's crazy to think that all the things we think are from America sometimes really do come from foreign countries!!!

The Wall

I've mentioned before that Ferrara is surrounded by a 9-kilometer wall that is supposed to be one of the best-preserved Renaissance walls in Italy. Currently, the wall is used as a walking and biking trail. This morning, The Linguist, Pianogurl and I walked part of the wall. It was a foggy morning, but the view was beautiful!

After our walk, I was curious about the wall. Poking around for information about it took me to the family d'Este -- early rulers of Ferrara and to Ercole I d'Este, who gets credit for commissioning Biogio Rosetti to plan Ferrara and build the wall. If you're interested in more of the history, I wrote a little about that below the pictures...

The wall is what you can see to the right.

Apparently, the House of Este had two branches. The older branch, known as Welf-Este or just Welfe, produced England's Hanovarian monarchs. The House of Hanover is a German royal dynasty that ruled different parts of Germany, Ireland and Great Britain. Queen Victoria was actually the last British monarch from the House of Hanover. Interestingly, she carefully married off all of her children and grandchildren in such a way that Europe was tied together. Hence her title -- the Grandmother of Europe...

Anyway...it's the younger branch of the House of Este we are concerned with in Ferrara. According to Wikipedia, the beginning of the line was in 975 when a man by the surname of Azzo built a castle at Este and named himself after it. He had three sons and the oldest son is the ancestor of the Welf-Este family I mentioned above. The middle son died without heirs. The third son, Fulco, is the ancestor of the younger Este line. He was given Ferrara in an agreement reached with his brother in the 1100's.

A successor, Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara from 1471 to 1505, commissioned the building of the wall. Under him, Ferrara was heralded as one of the leading cities of Europe, doubling in size and boasting the first urban planning in the Renaissance. The wall was built to enclose this gem!

Apparently, the legitimate line d'Este ends with Ercole II d'Este in 1597. There's a bit of intrigue since the emperor recognized an illegitimate cousin as the next heir, and then the Pope annexed Ferrara as part of the Papal State a year later because of the heir's illegitimacy. I'm a little foggy on the details after this because Ferrara is still being ruled by an Ercol III d' Este in 1796, when he is deposed by Napoleon...but so goes the soap opera of European royalty, I suppose.

Have you ever seen the street races in Europe?  I got a small taste of what they're like on Thursday.  The Journalist posted earlier about the car purchasing "process" here in Italy.  As expected, it took two full days to finally buy a car.

On Thursday, I went up to Vicenza to check out the available cars.  There were six or seven options that ranged from fairly cheap to pricey (all used cars mind you). I whittled the options down to two after some deliberation.  One, a '99 Volvo station wagon, low mileage and very clean, was affordable.

The test drive was hair raising. The mechanic, driving first, "frankensteined" into a formula one driver.  We're driving a station wagon.  He said he was hard on cars as we exited his shop's lot area and accelerated over 100 feet at break-neck speed swerving to avoid potholes in the road.  We took a pretty hard right turn, accelerated again and then slowed to exit the parking area.  At this point, I'm sitting there going: "Wow...this guy is an aggressive driver."  He takes off and speeds down the road to take "the loop" (a common test drive route he has all his clients take).  He drove because he said he hadn't driven this car before.  He mentions that he's taken others on this same (blood-pressure increasing) route.  We burn around a corner swerving as we go.  He says he likes to drive to see how well vehicles perform.  As we slow down near a downward driveway, he says this is the best part of the drive.  We're going about 25 mph as we enter an underground garage chock full of cement pillars marking parking spots and rows.  As we slalom through, dodging pillars, our speed remains steady.  Mentally, I'm holding on while praying we don't die!  Then we shoot forward going straight for some 30 feet before we swerve to the left and out of the gauntlet.

From there we press forward through a residential area at a respectably moderate pace.  After the stop sign, he guns it.  After a quarter mile or so, he jams on the brakes.  My seat belt was definitely working!  We press on and he hits the brakes again not as hard as before.  Then...reason enters.  He simply says: "I drive the cars hard so they break with me not with you."  He slows to a stop and steps on the brakes numerous times.  He gets out and looks at the passenger side front wheel.  The brake line is leaking like crazy.  Then he says it's my turn to drive.  The vehicle limps back to the shop and we take out the next vehicle, an Alfa Romeo 147.  It is superior to the other in all aspects except price.  I did all the driving because he's driven that car a lot...his wife has one.  I'm fairly sold on the Alfa Romeo.

My mid-life crisis car (I'm peaking early : )

So after lunch, I pay a down payment, go get registration paperwork, call the insurance company and drive home in a small rental car.  You can't drive a vehicle without insurance and registration and you can't get registration without insurance (the chicken or the egg?).  The next day, we go get a money order to pay the rest, we get paperwork at the shop, go get the insurance cards, turn in the car paperwork at the registration office where they give us recycled license plates, eat lunch, go back to put them on the car, pick it up, take it to the base for a final inspection and then essentially it's done.  That was a long sentence (almost as long as Friday felt).  To boot, we didn't get signed up for gas coupons at the registration office because we didn't have the inspection sheet from the base.  It was 4 pm on a Friday by the time we got done, I had a headache and we needed groceries.  It was a nice ride home.  On Tuesday, we'll go back up to Vicenza to start the process to get our van (its driver side window is broken, by the way).                

Our Second Welcome to Ferrara

Last night was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, although I’m not sure I can find the right words to paint the picture so you can see it…

There’s a beautiful park near the hotel, where we’ve been spending a lot of our evenings. About a week ago, the Linguist struck up a conversation with a woman from Colombia after she overheard him speaking Spanish to the kids. A few days later, she was at the park again and invited our family over for dinner. I was more than surprised when The Linguist told me about the invitation (I had been other places both times he spoke with her) – I mean, we have 5 children. That’s a lot of short people to take on in a dinner invitation, especially when it’s extended to someone you hardly know!

We picked up gelato across the street and then walked through the city to her house. I’m kind of mourning the loss of this convenience with our upcoming move to the country. The night was beautiful and clear, and we could see the moon and the stars. We arrived at a little wire gate, diagonally placed at the end of a block and rang the bell. Again, it’s the magic of what’s behind all of the walls and gates that intrigues me about the city! Patricia (Pu tree’ see uh) and her husband came down the stairs to meet us and ushered us into their home with many smiles, handshakes and expressions of welcome. Her husband is Italian, and speaks both Italian and Spanish, as does Patricia. They were both very nicely dressed and had obviously spent a lot of time preparing for our evening together. There was soft music playing and a formal table was all ready.

We gathered in their small living room and she brought drinks in delicate wine glasses. The Linguist had explained to her that we don’t drink alcohol, coffee, tea, etc., and so she had thoughtfully prepared fruit smoothies that were some of the best I’ve ever tasted! Strawberry, lemon, sugar and milk, she told me. Next came several trays of appetizers – a long, twisted breadstick with ham wrapped around one end and baked ham and cheese squares that were served in little cupcake wrappers on a glass stand. Very elegant. The boys were totally enamored with the giant goldfish swimming in the fish tank in the corner, while Rosa immediately took up with their young son. All of this is happening amidst a lot of animated conversation that was all in Spanish! After understanding so little of everything being said around me since arriving here, it was a beautiful thing to be able to follow the conversation, and since she doesn’t speak English, we were forced to at least attempt Spanish. (My brain is all mushy today, though…I’m thinking in Spanish with certain Italian words creeping in, and I’m having a hard time spelling in English. Weird.)

They took us out into their back yard and the kids played on the toys, and she told us how her husband had wanted to convert their patio area into a garage. Her husband’s work is something to do with organic fruits and veggies and chemical pollutants. I couldn’t follow any more specifically than that. After a lot of screaming over a bug net (Rosa and their 2-year-old son, Manual), we decided to take the kids in for dinner, and after getting them settled, ate another appetizer – sliced parmesan drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. Simple, but so delicious!

We were waiting for the arrival of another couple -- Mari is from the Dominican Republic and her husband is Italian. They live in the countryside of Ferrara, further out than our house will be. Turns out Mari knows all of the Americans in town because she teaches Physical Education at the International School. She also speaks several languages (including English, Spanish and Italian) and is an extreme runner (50 miles up hills and mountains, etc.) After everyone had more drinks – I think at this point Patricia’s 15-year-old son had presented us all with some kind of pomegranate soda, we sat down for the first course.

This was by far the best food we’ve eaten in Italy! I can’t wait to try and recreate it! The first dish was pasta that had been cooked with thin-sliced zucchini and onions. Before serving it, she fried it in a little oil in a skillet. Fresh Parmesan was sprinkled on top. We ate and talked and talked…some in English, mostly in Spanish. My brain was starting to get overload from thinking so hard to follow the conversation and respond appropriately.

When everyone was finished, Mari and Patricia cleared all of the dishes and disappeared in the kitchen for a while. They came out with a salad, a platter of meat, and a bowl of the creamiest mashed potatoes I’ve ever eaten. The meat was incredible! I quizzed Mari carefully on how she made it – since I could ask in English and get details! It was cooked with celery, garlic, carrots and onion and then cooled completely and sliced. The vegetables were at some point chopped finely (not sure if this was before or after initial cooking). The meat then goes in a baking dish and the chopped vegetables go on top. The next ingredient was surprising to me – skim milk. She said you pour the milk until it covers the meat halfway and add a chicken bouillon cube and return it to the oven. The end result is what looks like a bread crumb topping over the meat, but tastes better than any bread crumbs I’ve ever eaten, and the gravy was to die for!

Arrosto al latte

Songbird and The Net (and the rest of us) gobbled up the delectable meat 

After the meat and potatoes, came the salad. It was regular lettuce, cubed feta and sweet grape tomatoes sliced in half. I asked about the dressing, and was told it was oil, a bit of balsamic vinaigrette and salt. The contrast between the sour of the goat cheese, the salt of the dressing and the sweet of the tomatoes was wonderful.

After that course had been cleared away, she brought out dessert – something akin to lemon squares and a homemade cheesecake. Both were wonderful! Now to hear this described, one might picture Patricia as a very formal person. She is wonderfully warm and down to earth. At one point, she confessed she had turned all of the ham and cheese appetizers upside down because she felt they were too ugly to serve after baking. When she brought out the cheesecake, Mari jokingly asked her if it was upside down, too? The whole evening was punctuated with laughter and joking and interesting conversation –most of which I understood. At one point there was some debate as to exactly what a certain picture on the wall was supposed to be. Some said glacier, others said eyeball. When Patricia’s husband took it off the wall, you could see the mark it left on the wall behind it, and she rolled her eyes and made a funny comment about housekeeping.

They were so gracious to the kids, as well, asking them questions about their interests and goals. At some point, Mari asked Pianogurl what she liked to do, and she explained that she like to play the piano. So after dessert, they insisted that she play. I know she was dying to, since she hasn’t had a piano for several weeks, but I know she was a little reluctant to play with an audience. She sat down and played what she could from memory of a piece she wrote, Moonlight Sonata, Phantom of the Opera and a couple of others to clapping and cheers of “Bravo!” Then they asked Songbird if she would sing for them. She immediately wrapped herself in the curtain by the window. We coaxed her out and said we’d sing with her, so the Linguist, Pianogurl, Songbird and I sang the first verse of “Dearest Children in harmony.” It sounded pretty good – even if I do say so myself! We were proclaimed quite a musical family and given a round of applause. I suppose that was our first public performance!

It took another half hour so to say our goodbyes -- handshaking and besos (the near kisses on either cheek) and many compliments on beautiful families, etc. Patricia explained that when she came to Ferrara 18 years ago, it was hard because the Ferrarese (fur are ay zay) are such a closed people. She vowed that she would take people of other cultures in whenever she had the opportunity because she knew what it was like not to understand the language and to feel isolated and alone, and she didn’t want anyone else to experience that.

I confess I am just in awe. How often do we turn away from people we can’t understand, with the excuse that we can’t communicate with them anyway? Telling ourselves there’s nothing we can do? And here’s a woman we met at the park, who has invited us into her home and her circle of friends, simply because she knows we are far from home. I find it overwhelming...and beautiful.

House Update - You Can't Just MOVE a bidet!

We think we have a house!

The Linguist and I spent yesterday pouring over House #3 and House #7. We started in House #3 (a.k.a. The Mansion). I liked it even more than the first time we looked at time. We found out that all the furniture stays. There are some really cool pieces in there and all the books in the library stay, too...We also found that the heating runs on a combo of gas and oil. Oil heating here is quite a bit more expensive and not as reliable as gas. The house has been empty for 3 years and was rented previously, so the owner has no idea how much utilities might be. We also noticed that there is tons of broken glass and broken tile all around the 2 garage buildings. I don't know if that's supposed to discourage intruders or what. And all the plants in the pots are oleanders -- beautiful... and poisonous...and right at toddler level.

Next we went to House #7 (Willow House). Since we move so often (and The Linguist really hates moving furniture), I have a computer file with all of our furniture drawn to scale. It allows me to rearrange to my heart's content and saves the Linguist's back! I had guessed at room sizes in Willow House and tentatively arranged things to see if we could make it work space wise. But after falling in love again with Mansion House I wasn't sure whether I wanted it to be big enough or way too small.

We measured and measured...every space, every empty wall, the length of radiators, inside closets. I'm sure the interpreter and the realtor both thought we were nuts! The end result is that everything was slightly larger than what I'd estimated would be enough. But one of the critical parts of my plan was moving the washer and dryer. The narrow closet designed for laundry is so narrow that once a washer and dryer are installed, you'd have to vault the dryer to reach the washer -- without hitting your head on the low ceiling! Yvonne first told me just to line dry everything. I'm okay with that during the summer, but I can't picture myself line drying clothing for 7 in the middle of winter! Her next suggestion was to put the dryer in the bathroom or the kitchen. Either way, it becomes pretty painful to do laundry that way, and we do a LOT of laundry!

So my brilliant plan was to ask the owner to add connections in the upstairs closet that borders the bathroom. Then, figuring it'd be less work (and preserve the closet space), I decided instead to ask if they could remove the bidet in the upstairs bathroom and put the washer and dyer in there. It's not like the bidet is something we'll be using! Our interpreter was seriously scandalized at my bidet suggestion. "You can't just MOVE a bidet!" she exclaimed. I told her I was no expert, but since it looked like it drained out the back through the wall and it had both hot and cold water, I didn't think it was a big deal. It looks like it's caulked in just like a toilet...

After suggesting it, we just continued with our measuring, and a few minutes later, she came back and suggested that we plumb the upstairs closet for washer and dryer! I told her that was brilliant! Mission accomplished! We'll lose a little storage space, but she had a great suggestion for dividing the bedroom that will make up the difference. She also said she thought we could get air conditioning, water and garbage included at our allowance, in addition to the wall that will divide one of the large bedrooms -- making it a 4-bedroom home.

So we're going with Willow House. It will be cozy and it has great light and great living spaces. It's within walking distance of Fossonova San Marcos, which will be our village. There are several little cafes there and a place where they sell produce. There's also an old church that looks interesting, and we're not horribly far from the big grocery store, the Autostrada and some things like that.

I feel good about it, although a part of me is mourning the loss of Mansion House -- especially because it sounded as if we could've talked them down some on the rent. However, Willow House will undoubtedly be less expensive, which means more money for traveling. We certainly didn't come to Italy to sit inside the house -- even if it is a mansion! Right? I'm still trying to talk convince my materialistic side that we're doing the right thing....poisonous plants in pots on the porch, million dollar heating bills, sweating to death in the summer with no AC, tons and tons of rooms -- but no money to buy beds for the guests to sleep in...

This reminds me a little of Tear Water Tea. (If you haven't read it, it's part of a children's book called Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel. Owl thinks about all of the sad things he can -- like mashed potatoes left on a plate that nobody wants to eat, pencils that are too short to use, and spoons that fall behind the stove -- all the while crying into his tea kettle!) Just so you know, I'm not crying.

Now our interpreter and realtor will contact the owner, and we'll see where we are...

We also learned that there are 2 kinds of buses in Ferrara -- blue buses service outside the city and orange buses service inside the city. Apparently, that was our problem Sunday -- although the bus we were on was silver. So maybe there are 3 lines with #11 buses?

The Best Laid Plans...

WARNING: This is kind of long...if you're just after the news, skip down to the last few paragraphs. If you want to see the irony/humor of the situation, read on!

In preparing to move to Italy, we had to prepare for several different shipments of our stuff. First came the slow-boat-to-China (or in this case -- Italy) shipment. It was forecast to take a minimum of 2 months to reach its destination. Next came the fast shipment that would arrive in about a month. We also had a storage shipment of things that would stay in San Antonio. Finally, we had the stuff that would travel with us or get packed in our luggage. 

The slow boat shipment went first, so I dutifully made many lists and sorted out a minimum number of cooking supplies, clothes, toys for the kids and school supplies that would stay with us. All of this stuff deemed most critical (and our luggage) got shoved in the master closet so it didn't accidentally get mixed in with the stuff to be packed and shipped. Two gals came and were able to pack our stuff in just one short day. They were thrilled that we were so organized. I was thrilled that a lot of questionable items the company representative wasn't sure they would take (like brown sugar?) had been packed. We had an interesting moment when I realized they had packed all of my cooking oil! Yikes! No shipper (even within the U.S.) has ever done that. I had it separated out, thinking they would just leave it (and the candles), but all of it got packed. So we're gambling. Gambling that no one will stick a box knife into the box filled with oil! And praying that our years in Italy won't be remembered as the years that slid by (thanks to an excess of cooking oil on the surface of every item we own!)

Anyway, the next two days we watched (and made lunch) for two guys who we hope carefully stacked all of our stuff into 9 large wooden crates on the back of a trailer. Kind of like a gigantic game of tetris. Whew! Shipment #1 done. 

We lived minimally for the next 2 weeks...but we had all of the things we use a lot in the kitchen, all of our bedding, pillows, clothes, etc. In anticipation of living in Italy until December without our original shipment, I saved all of the bedding for the fast shipment. My thought was that if we had to sleep on the floor, we could make pallets out of the blankets and be a little more comfortable. 

The storage shipment was pretty standard. They came. They packed. We fed them lunch and bought them drinks. The day they loaded our stuff (again in huge wooden crates), we were informed (as I was finishing the last load of laundry) that the washer shouldn't have been used for at least 2 days prior to storing in order to ensure it wouldn't leak. I'd like to know why these kinds of details aren't addressed before it's too late? The guy was a little put out, since if there was damage, it would be a claim filed against their company. My feeling is that if it were that big of a deal, the rep from their company should've said something when we showed him the washer during the walk through...The put-out guy was an interesting character anyway. There were only 2 of them, and he seemed to spend a lot of time assessing the pile in the crate and telling the other guy (who looked near senior age) what to move here or there. At one point I heard him say something to the other guy (who had asked for helping moving the gigantic couch out to the garage) about the fact that he (put-out guy) wasn't burly enough to be expected to move furniture. Did he really think the old guy was going to haul the piano solo?

Anyway, the fast shipment went next and wasn't quite as smooth as the others. The company chose not to do a physical walk though, so just called and asked for info over the phone to find out what we'd be taking. Whoever did the call underestimated the boxes, weight, etc. and only planned a 2-hour window for packing...then they called and gave us an afternoon start time (which was weird...packers always come in the morning). The next day we received a call from the packers asking why we weren't at home (by this point we were living in a military hotel 20 minutes from our house). They claim they were told to start at 8 a.m. The dispatcher told us 1-3 p.m. My question was if they were supposed to start at 8 a.m., why didn't they call us until noon?! Then we had a scare when they declared our stuff was likely to be over the allowed weight limit...I was sweating for a few days wondering how much overage fees on a fast shipment to Italy were going to cost!

In the midst of this, I had several e-mails from a family who had just arrived in Italy telling me of their nightmare shipments -- half of the fast boxes were lost, the long shipment was taking even longer. She advised me to mail anything I wanted to see before Christmas to our APO address...but as I started making a huge pile and contemplating getting it to the Post Office, I just ran out of energy to deal with it. One of our friends offered an old suitcase, and The Linguist packed it with as much of the pile as he could fit, and we checked it on the plane.

After arriving here we found out that if we find a house before our stuff comes, we can borrow beds from a military warehouse in Vicenza and just return them once our slow shipment arrives! If I had known that, I wouldn't have saved all the blankets for the fast shipment...and worried about whether it was over the weight limit. I guess I'll know what questions to ask next time.

And during this time we've received no information at all on the slow shipment, and we've been wondering exactly how slow it'll be. Well, now we know! Today we got e-mail notification that our slow boat shipment is in Vicenza, and they'd like to deliver it tomorrow! So as soon as we can get things squared away with a house we'll have all of our stuff. Well, most of our stuff. We'll have beds and a piano and toys...just no kitchen supplies, and the killer -- NO BEDDING! It's all in the fast shipment -- that's already had the delivery date pushed back once.

I'm sure we'll survive...it's just funny to me how a person can spend so much time and energy sorting, packing, planning, etc. in order to be prepared and still end up in Italy with a pot, a skillet, 7 sets of Ikea kids plastic dishes, a pillow, 2 twin-sized blankets, 3 dishrags and 5 children! Next time I guess I'll sort all of the fast pack stuff into two piles and ship 1 pile with the slow shipment and then...So much for the best laid plans...

Buying a Used Car in Italy

One of the first things you learn in Italy is that everything takes time. If you only find happiness in the end result...then you're going to be miserable here. We're learning to enjoy the process.

The Linguist is trying to buy a used car. I thought you might enjoy a peek at what this entails.

After looking at the 2 cars currently for sale by Americans leaving the country, he contacted this Italian guy who's a mechanic and buys used cars, fixes them and sells them to desperate Americans. To get the car he'll go to Vicenza on Thursday because that is the day that someone from Ferrara will drive up there to pick up the mail). Someone will pick him up at our hotel (since we still don't have our van), and they'll drive to the first base that's about 20 minutes away and switch to a government vehicle. Then they'll drive to the Army post in Vicenza another hour and a half away. 

He'll get dropped off somewhere there, pick a car and have to go to the bank and use our ATM card to withdraw 400 euro for a down payment. It seems that the ATM on the base is the only place we can withdraw money without paying a foreign transaction fee. As a side note, we found out the hard way that the base, although American as far as our bank is concerned, is considered foreign by our credit card and so each purchase is charged an extra 3% to cover the 1% foreign transaction fee. Seems like fuzzy math to me. In addition, the dollar isn't particularly healthy here and for every $100 we take out, we get about 75 euro. Yikes!  

Anyway, back to the car place, where they'll give him a loaner to drive back down here. The next day he'll  go wait in line to get a yellow insurance card. Hopefully he'll either be able to communicate his point or there will be someone who speaks English there. Unlike the bigger cities in Italy, folks here really don't speak English. Good thing the Linguist is who he is and can take care of that because in Italy you can't drive a car, even for 10 seconds, without that yellow insurance card. We pay some sort of fee that then allows the yellow insurance card people to communicate with our insurance company in the U.S. so that we can be billed with our regular insurance payment. Wouldn't want to miss the bill, now would we?

After that, he'll drive back to Vicenza on the Autostrada (highway where people drive really fast...not bad except for the getting on...and when large trucks try to move over into your lane while you're in it in the same space!) and get a bank draft for the remaining cost of the car. But to get a bank draft you have to have a bank in Italy. Fortunately, we actually opened an account on the base the first week we were here, but it only has 20 euro in it. (I have just a vague recollection of that day...we were pretty jet lagged...I can see the face of the girl who helped us and hear the "uh" on the end of every word she said, Seriously...that's all I remember though. I hope she gave us a packet of instructions somewhere.)

Anyway, today I initiated the bank request that will enable us to transfer money to the Italian account. That will take at least 2 days. Then we can transfer money by sending an e-mail and waiting another 2 days for it to actually happen. Then we wait in line and pay $7 to speak to the teller and we can get a money order. In an effort to speed the process I asked USAA to increase our ATM withdrawal limit by 800% so that we can just take the cash out at the ATM. I guess we'll see what happens...

The funny thing is that we took the easy way out by using the American bank on the base! We hear that things would really have been complicated if we'd opened a real Italian bank account. Apparently they never let you close it because there's always a chance that another bill might come...Huzzah for "easy"!

Riding in Ferrara

I took my first bike ride in downtown Ferrara today. In order for you to appreciate the magnitude of this statement, you need a little background information. First, I have ridden a bike once in the last 20 years. Second, my mother taught us to fear 3 things:

1. fire

2. deep water

3. riding our bikes in the road

As a result of this, my riding on the road experience is almost nill and definitely never in a city! I was totally relieved to be called to a mission where sisters did not ride bikes. I do recall being really brave and going to Casey’s store to buy 25 cent candy bars a time or two. (Chocolate is a great motivator!) I also have memories of a couple of rides up the other way. But other than that, I don’t think we rode our bikes in the road. There were plenty of non-road places to ride, so it isn’t like we suffered.

Anyway, when I arrived at Astrid’s house this morning she wasn’t waiting in the parking lot like usual. Instead, she was by her front door. I assumed we were walking (Yikes! I was wearing new shoes…and I hate shoes…let alone new ones). Then she said she thought it might be better to bike since the parking is so difficult downtown. She took one look at my face and said it was okay, we could drive instead. I’m such a pleaser…I just hate to put anyone out or inconvenience them, so I put on my brave face and said, “Sure. We can ride. It’ll be fun.” Smile. Don’t panic…I’m not sure you can fully appreciate my feelings unless you’ve seen how they drive and ride here. Picture a free-for-all in the middle of the road – cars, pedestrians, bikes all going lots of directions at the same time!

So we set off. I had a true Ferrara bike, complete with a cool, woven basket and everything. We began in true Ferrara style, as well…by riding the wrong way up a one-way street. I did actually manage to get on the bike and get it moving forward when Astrid suddenly screeched to a halt and I attempted to do the same. It’s probably good she did because I discovered the pedal-backwards break thing didn’t work on that bike. Hand breaks are good! It was probably better that I didn’t learn that at an intersection! Anyway, we stopped because she thought she saw a policeman (they wear orange vests so you can see them coming, she tells me) and they’ll ticket you for riding the wrong way on the one way (bikes are technically cars in Italy!). Because it’s near the end of the fiscal year, they’re really cracking down on little things like that in order to fill the coffers!

So…I managed to stop and then we walked our bikes to the end of the road and across the street. Rode a little farther and then turned onto a SIDEWALK with people on it! Every time I would get near someone I would get nervous that I was going to hit them and start to wobble. One man was just watching me with big eyes! He probably said a prayer of gratitude after I went by, leaving him unscathed! And I’m sure my face was telling the whole story. I could feel my eyes getting big and that panicked look starting to surface. The last leg of our journey was over the cobblestone road. There was a smooth surface on the right, where Astrid rode, but I could not seem to stay on it! It wasn’t really that narrow, but just the thought of getting up there and falling off the ledge in front of a car made me wobble all over the place!

Then I could hear a car approaching. The cars here weave in and out of the bikes, and I just knew I was going to hit a car if one passed, so I pulled off until they all went by and then continued on my ride. If I’d realized the one right behind me was an American friend, I probably would’ve just ridden down the middle of the road and let her wait!

I told Astrid she’d missed the best part of the ride by riding in front of me. I’m sure it was hilarious to watch the crazy American clutching the handlebars for dear life, eyes wide, wobbling around on a bike in Ferrara (the city of bikes...where 2-year-olds cut their teeth on bikes) when she obviously needed training wheels! At those moments, I always picture Grandma and Dad enjoying my antics…someone should!

The “coffee” I attended was great…lots of pastries, lots of chatting…really nice gals. The woman who hosted it has an amazing house! I love how the houses all look pretty much the same from the outside…little windows with flowers boxes, kind of run down…and then when you open them, they’re full of courtyards with fountains and beautiful gardens. Her home has 3 levels with lots of living space…think the space of House #2 or House #3 with the charm of #1, #3 or #7. I kind of wish Yvonne would show us something like that…although I’m not sure we’d want to be city people anyway. It’s just a different life…

And seriously…can you picture mama duck cruising around Ferrara with 5 ducks behind her? I’d probably have a panic attack! Ciao!

Our first chocolate chip cookies in Italy!

We thought this was noteworthy because of the unusual location for mixing the cookies...and because we figured out the oven. One of the ovens in our hotel (we have 2 rooms) has very clear temperature markings, but about 7 different settings that seem to turn the oven on. After fiddling with it we couldn't tell the difference between them, but none of them seemed to actually produce enough heat. The second oven has nearly unreadable temps, but only one off/on switch. We opted to try that one and produced cookies that we all pronounced good! Hooray for cookies! Although I may have to get a different cookie sheet. A small one barely fits vertically in the oven...leaving a lot of unused space around the edges. I saw some that were more square...

I'm using my first European appliance -- a hand mixer that runs on 220 voltage! It's surprisingly powerful for such a little thing. The reason for my strange location is that that was the only unused plug in the kitchen. Crazy things...like stoves...plug into regular wall sockets here, so there was no outlet for my mixer!

We're still figuring out the whole electric conversion for things. Our hair dryer, curling irons and flat iron are all able to run on American or European wattage, as are the computers and cell phones. These things just require an adapter or 2. An adapter is a little round plastic device that you plug the appliance into and then it fits into the wall. If you have something with three prongs (like the computers) you have to plug into a German adapter first and then plug the German adapter into the Italian adapter. For simpler things (like the curling iron), I can just plug it straight into the Italian adapter and then into the wall. All of our kitchen appliances (except my handy dandy mixer) will probably have to be plugged into a transformer. I haven't seen one yet, but I hear they are large...

We Made it to Church and Home Again Today!

Normally this wouldn’t be a statement that deserves an exclamation point, but today it may even deserve two. We left our hotel this morning at 8 a.m. and walked a little more than ½ mile to a bus stop. The Linguist and Pianogurl checked out the route yesterday, so we were traveling with some confidence. Upon arrival, however, there was a yellow sheet of paper that had changes to the bus route because of the October Festival. Using our broken Italian, we determined that the changes probably didn’t affect us. The only other person at the bus stop was a cute, little old gentleman who couldn’t talk, so he wasn’t very helpful. (He had a hole in his throat because of cancer.) We opted to wait, realizing that even if the bus was on time, we’d be a little late to church. Well, the bus didn’t come. And it didn’t come. Finally we saw a bus with our number turning onto the road from a different direction (and far ahead of where we were standing). We started rushing that way and then realized that another bus with the same number was approaching our stop from behind. So we ran back the other way and got on.

Here we are minutes before getting on the bus...

We arrived at church about 15 minutes late and were greeted warmly. The Linguist went to Priesthood Meeting, and the kids and I stayed in Relief Society. One of the Elders came and interpreted for me. I was pleased to realize I understood much of the conversation. It helps that the gospel is the same everywhere! Many of the same comments and discussion on the Word of Wisdom I’ve grown up hearing were discussed today in Ferrara. Sunday School was a little bit harder. My brain had had enough about halfway through, and I just sat and listened to the Elder…and tried to rastle Rosa into being quiet. Next week I’ll take more activities for the kids to do quietly during RS and Sunday School so that it’s more pleasant for them. The ladies were quite taken with all of the kids and there was much patting of heads and soft pinching of cheeks and lots of “familiga bella” (which means beautiful family). Sacrament Meeting was wonderful. We enjoyed singing the hymns especially. There’s no piano since we are currently meeting in a hotel and our meetings some weeks will be shortened because of other people who have booked the rooms ahead of us!

After church, the Elders pointed out that our family nearly doubled the branch…it grew from 8 to 15 members in one day! It was the best listening experience we’ve had since coming to Italy since the members were all chatting around us and didn’t mind that we were listening and trying to understand. Many of them spoke to us and we were able to communicate and understand most of the time. Rosa even invited one of the ladies back to the hotel with us! I asked the Elder to explain to her that we are living in a hotel currently, but that we’d love to invite her to our home when we have one again. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. The Spirit is the same and the ward members are so warm and kind that not being able to speak or understand everything really didn’t matter.

We’re still trying to figure things out, but we may attend here on Sundays and drive the hour and a half to Vicenza during the week so that the kids can attend Scouts and Young Women. There’s an English-speaking branch there that is nearly ward size. But until we have a vehicle of some sort, we can’t check it out.

Which brings me to the return home…we walked back to the bus stop – this time on the opposite side of the road and waited for 20 minutes or so for the bus. We climbed aboard. We are a spectacle on the bus because it’s a total novelty. The kids stand up and then sit down and giggle when it goes faster or slower and holler about cool things they see from the window (like laundry hanging or people painting on buildings). I’m sure people think we’re nuts. Some glare. Some try not to look. I have a feeling I’m going to become immune to all of the stares/glares pretty quickly.

Bus-side view near the train station.  Notice all the bikes.
If you don't use a lock, your bike may end up here...for sale. 

So we rode the bus and rode the bus. It looped around by the train station and we passed a road that we actually recognized. Then we crossed the river and went right out of town! I could tell the Linguist was getting uneasy. Then we passed a sign that said we were leaving Ferrara. We figured it’d just be a longer ride. It was. We entered a smaller town called Occhiobello and admired the church and everything else.

The Net poses in Occhiobello

Then the driver stopped the bus and turned it off! I wasn’t too concerned because I figured worst-case scenario, we’d call one of the Americans and ask them to come and rescue us! We talked to the driver and from what we can tell, we should have gotten on the bus that was on the other side of the road? Apparently there are 4 buses that are marked #11. Yesterday The Linguist and Pianogurl had no trouble at all. I figured in light of our adventure, we were probably lucky to make it to church!

Stranded in Occhiobello...?

Anyway, after a 5-minute smoke break, he tried to start the bus again and it sputtered. I looked at Pianogurl, who was holding her breath, and I saw her let out a deep sigh as he tried again and we heard the engine come to life. Whew! Slowly, we made our way back into Ferrara and back around the train station -- but this time we ended up back at our stop….where we hoofed it the ½ mile back to the hotel. We arrived cold, hungry and with a better understanding of what members in other places have to sacrifice to get to church!

Bus test run

So Pianogurl and Linguist (me) took the bus to find where church was this morning.  It took us a while to find the right stop but we eventually did.  Tickets were one Euro plus 20 cents.  We chatted with a few ladies on the bus who were very nice.  It will take about 45 minutes to get to church.  More on that tomorrow.

The Housing Recap

So that's about it. Unless we're willing to shove ourselves into something much smaller (and we aren't!), these are our options. I think this is more for my benefit than yours...but here's where things stand currently:

House #1 It's huge. It'll also take forever to get into. And we found out today that it's WAY out of our price range...well over 2000 euro/month....probably because it's in one of the most expensive areas of Ferrara.

House #2 No one liked this one but the realtor.

House #3 We're all in love with this house, but it is about $500 over our housing allowance. Our pay dropped about $500 coming here because The Linguist won't get paid for Spanish anymore. So we're looking at squeezing $1000 from somewhere if we take this house. We'd also like to have money to travel and see things. And the utilities could potentially be horrendous. No AC...but it's older and has thick walls...The major pro is all of the space. We'd probably have to just shut rooms unless we had folks visiting to fill them up. I go back and forth between feeling that we should save our money so we can travel and feeling like our travel is going to be limited by the Linguist's vacation time and we should just go for quality of the life we live most of the time...which means living in a huge Italian mansion!

House #4 It's even more expensive than House #3 and we didn't love it. I'm learning that I want something old, not something newer.


House #5 Same as #4 and it's really small, to boot.


House #6 This is where the city vs. country debate comes in. It's got plenty of space and it's close to everything we'll need in the city...totally within walking distance...but as as result, it's city living...traffic, stores...not the cool stuff that's downtown, but the more ordinary I-live-between-lowe's-and-walmart kind. And the syringe. That totally makes me cringe. (sorry for the rhyming!) It was just recently vacated by the commander here, and I don't think they had any trouble, but will I feel comfortable letting the kids run around? Not likely. Although the kids have a much better chance of getting to participate in lots of activities with Italian kids here since we could just walk to the gym. Under budget...which means we can save a bit on utilities. And the little man next door (landlord, I think?) was very nice.

House #7...perfect except for the bedroom/bathroom/washer/dryer situation...but those are kind of major things. It's in our budget and they said they'll add AC for us for just a wee bit more. Not sure I'll be as willing to drive the kids to activities when they're 20 minutes away in lots of traffic...it felt a lot like House #3 but on a smaller scale. I think the 2 were built in similar time periods, maybe? Pianogurl says it reminds her a lot of our house in LA...that one was difficult due to lack of bedrooms...it had 3, too.

Houses #6 and #7

The plot thickens! We saw 2 more houses this morning...

House #6

This is from the master balcony looking out...the field across there is a sort of park and the gate (that's open) is big enough I could pull the van in. There is a garage, but our van won't fit, so it becomes storage...which is great!

This the front room...the part on the right you can't see is the front door. It'd have to be a combo living/dining room, but it's small enough that the living part would be really small. On this floor there's also a kitchen that looks fairly nice, a laundry room that will hold just the washer and maybe some pantry items, and a bathroom. 

Kitchen has a reasonably-sized refrigerator and a dishwasher?!

This is pretty much what all 3 of the bedrooms look like. Fairly standard, but there are 3 wardrobes, which is a nice bonus since there aren't closets and there are 2 bathrooms. I like the balcony off of the "master" bedroom. You saw the first view from it. The second is below...

Not very scenic...which kind of describes the difficulty with this one. The convenience of things is really nice, but it sure doesn't look pretty. I'm not sure whether I'd be comfortable just letting the boys run and play in the field across from the house or not...there's the syringe to consider, after all. The Net found one in the front yard. Eek...and the neighborhood doesn't look terrific.

View off of the attic...little balcony thing that overlooks the hardware store and the road. I think there's something similar off of the kitchen.

The rest of the attic...it's a huge open room with 2 skylights and another bathroom. We'd probably use this for a large bedroom...Rosa, Deep Thinker and The Net and then have the older girls take the 2 other bedrooms on the next floor down. It would be really easy to set up cots for the girls here when we have company.

This is just 1 corner of an extra room in the basement that the previous family used for their dryer. Italians don't vent their dryers, so the Americans have to be creative. It's large enough it could hold a dryer and a twin-sized bed if The Net really doesn't want to share.

There's also a nice big living space down here which would probably be our main living room. I don't think the room upstairs will hold much after we put a dining table in there. In addition, there's another space about half as large that could be used for a bedroom or toy room or storage or some combination of the three?

A view of the little backyard...more space than house #2, but still pretty small.

Overall, I'd say we left this house feeling kind of deflated and trying to convince ourselves that the mansion house is too expensive and too big. This one has great space, but the neighborhood isn't my favorite...even though the fact that it's close to things is a major advantage, as well. This one is under our price range and already has AC and things like light fixtures and a kitchen (Italians take these things out and move them, so they all have to be negotiated if they aren't there). As a result, we can negotiate to have them pay for our water and our garbage tax as part of the rent.


Then we pulled up to House #7...

From the house looking down the driveway

From the driveway looking up at the house.

My heart is starting to pound as we look at the outside.

Standing at the front door. There's quite a large entryway. The doorway you can see leads into a little hallway that goes into the dining/living space on the right or the kitchen on the left.

Standing in the living room, looking toward the dining area or what we'd use for dining and school. Love the windows and the French doors...(do you suppose they're still called French doors on an Italian house?) It has a very cottagey feeling. I can totally see our dining table (that we don't have yet) back here, our bookcases on the walls...all of the light flooding the room.

Looking back the other way. You can see the front door/entrway on the right. Cool fireplace that is functional. You can't tell how pretty the curtains are, but all the windows have white antiquey-looking curtains that provide privacy, but don't block the light. It made it seem very quaint.

Laundry "hall" and problem #1 with this property. It goes straight back and then turns to the left. There might be room for an American washer, but once you got the washer in, there's certainly be no room for a dryer. Italians rarely use them, so it's not a big deal for them, they just hang the laundry out...which is great in the spring, summer and fall, but in the winter... They were appalled at the idea that a U.S. homeowners association would limit the use of clothes lines for aesthetic reasons, when so much electricity could be saved by line drying!

The kitchen is lovely...marbly-looking countertops, a dishwasher and a lot of space for storage for an Italian kitchen. Below is the other side of the kitchen with doors leading outside. We're thinking a dryer could maybe go in that corner? It's not convenient, but certainly no worse than carrying wet laundry down the stairs to dry it like in house #6.

Our bedroom...2 windows and the cool floors that I still can't remember the name of. They're some kind of baked tile.

There are 2 other large bedrooms and the owners are willing to divide either/both of them with a sheetrock wall to create more. This introduces problem #2 with this house. There are only 3 bedrooms. We can easily fit the kids into 2 bedrooms...put Pianogurl and Songbird in one and The Net and Deep Thinker in the other...but what do you do when people come to visit? There is one other storage space that would be just big enough for a twin-sized bed, but then I lose all the indoor storage...and no one but Rosa wants that space for her room! Although the boys might...

Potential issue #3 is lack of bathrooms. There are 2. One upstairs and one downstairs. They're both very large, though, and this one has the best bathtub I've seen in Italy...bathtubs are important to me! And fewer bathrooms means less cleaning, right?

The bathroom from the other direction...you can just see the edge of the shower.

Total bonus is the cool building, pictured below. It's full of old stuff and we can use it as we'd like. this is an original brick oven, still fully functional! And it has a BBQ to the left that you can't see. There's even a cool pizza spatula (the giant flat thing they remove pizzas with in the movies!)

The taller part is the owner's and houses a tractor! We'd also have to care for the grounds...she does have a riding lawnmower...flashbacks to last summer! The yard is huge.

The well is fully functional...very cool...and covered. The trees include various fruit and olive trees. There's even a willow for Songbird and an herb garden for me that's already full of herbs! The front has little flower boxes like most of the apartments in the city!

The boys were so thrilled with the yard that they never even went into the house and don't care who they have to share with in order to live here. All the fields behind the house belong to the owner and the kids are welcome to wander at will.

 So we love this house...except for the 3 issues...bathrooms, not enough bedrooms and the potential laundry issue. Those seem like kind of big issues...there's also a gentlemen's "club" 1/2 a mile or so down the road. And the landlady mentioned the alarm system twice...that's the first mention of alarm systems we've heard in Italy. Does it NEED an alarm system?