Twisty puzzle room

 Twisty Puzzle Room

Another long week

Well, it's more like 2 weeks, but the time flies so fast when there is a lot to do.  

We had another appointment to get an appointment but that is just the way things work here. I'm getting used to it now.  

It has been a time of deliveries. We are starting to settle in.  The previous owners of the castle removed everything.  All the lights, the appliances.  Everything.  We've been slowly buying pieces of furniture that appeal to us but that also fit with the puzzles and the castle theme.  We can't have modern glass and steel furniture in a 14th century building.  We had originally ordered 2 sofas from Ikea that were to be delivered before Brian and Leigh arrived.  Sadly, they didn't show up on time.  They came in after they left.  Typical.  We put them together and set them up in the salon so we would have a place to entertain.  Now, I didn't like the feel of the covers.  They were comfortable, but rough.  

A week or so back we went to a local place and ordered sofa sleepers. 8 of them in fact. I wanted 12 but we are only allowed to order 4 each.  Apparently there is a black market in sofas.  Anyway, they arrived this week. We swapped out the Ikea sofas to an upstairs bedroom, and brought two of these into the main room.  The rest are populating the upper floors of the hotel waiting for our furniture from Boca to come in and fill out the remaining rooms.  

We also ordered a kitchen table that is very similar to the puzzle table we purchased for the museum in Boca.  In addition we ordered a dozen small end tables of the same design. These too have been distributed between the castle and the hotel. Sadly the kitchen table is too big for the kitchen so it has been banished to the apartment downstairs.  This is not a terrible disaster, if we have longer staying guests, they will have a place to eat.  Now to finish that apartment. 

The best purchase was a small one.  It is simply for our comfort.  I ordered a memory foam mattress topper for the bed. What a difference that makes. We sleep well and wake without pain. It's the little things that are making this a home for us.

I showed a sneak peak of the mirror room last week, and I've continued to fill it with mirrors.  Recently I purchased a very ornate gold framed piece from the late 1700's.  It will be delivered this week.  But more importantly, we have light! 

I've been on a used market kick and have had great fun looking for unique pieces for our new home.  This week I found a chandelier for the mirror room. It has 10 lamps which in itself is rather unusual.  The light is crystal of course and has a beautiful shine to it.  Our Antonio fixed it right up when he saw it and now we shine brightly.  

We purchased a nice marble table for the library as well as a biblioteca.  This is a fancy Italian word for library book shelves.  The piece is from the early 1900's and cost over 1 million Lire when it was originally purchased.  This is worth about US$2.50 today.  In hindsight,I think I over paid.  It's beautiful. I don't care about the cost.  But boy does it need cleaning! I'm sure once it is dewormed, cleaned and polished it will look amazing.  There was also a coat hanger, 7 chairs, a small cupboard and a library table all included in the deal.  I'm still in need of chairs for the tables, but those will happen in the future.  

I managed to find some bolster pillows that I could use on the mirror room daybed.  I'm beginning to think the only way I'll find a new mattress is to make one myself.  Does anyone have any spare horsehair they could loan me?

I hung a few Berrocals and George has removed the ugly light strip from the salon.  The room looks so much better without that ugly thing hanging there.  

And!  We now have Optic Fiber!  The internet is so much better here than it was in Boca.  I can't believe that we can get good service through 13 foot thick walls without the need for boosters. In Boca we had 4 in the big house and 2 in the museum.  Amazing!

There is a house 3 doors down (um....2 football fields) that is in terrible disrepair.  We looked at it to purchase, but with the $ being low, and their asking price, it would cost more to remove the pigeon poop than the building.  You see, they put up plastic curtains in the windows that broke, and the pigeons saw through that cheap trick and have moved in.  The upper floor is covered in shit.  It's a real health hazard. Anyway, we don't like the birds for obvious reasons, and they drive me mad as they sit on the window sills.  Some of the windows have bird stakes, but most do not.  One day on a silly whim I hung a monkey in the window and discovered that it keeps the birds away!  Now all of the windows have hanging monkeys. I can only imagine what the neighbors think. 

We have had some amazing weather here lately as well.  There was a wonderful hail storm.  It looked as though  it were snowing.  I can only imagine how beautiful winter will be if hail is like that.  The rains have been coming in fast and furious and we've now got a long list of leaking windows.  It is everyone of them.  When we first noticed it, I though the monkeys were wetting the floors but since there are stuffed toys, I knew that was not possible.  As it turns out, the previous owner of the castle did not believe in maintenance and we have been going full tilt restoring and repairing everything he let go to pot.  Buildings this old, while they have lasted the test of time, do not self heal.  They need a lot of work.  

The beams have all been dewormed, the roof has been waterproofed, new gutters have been put in, the old broken plastic windows have been replaced with heavy duty flexible plastic while we wait for a bit more work to be finished on the upper floor.  The giant crack in the tower has been repaired, and another will be tackled when we next go on a long trip.  We've engaged an engineer to repair the ceiling that is slowly caving in above the door of the dead cat room, to open the connections between the two buildings, to open up the wall between the master bedroom and to be made master bath, and to instal an elevator in the museum. There are many electrical issues that need fixing and a few minor repairs in the castle, but those can all wait.  I'm getting used to seeing cracks and no longer panic when I spot one I hadn't seen before.  This building has many stories to tell, and I'm very sure those cracks hold some great ones.

We finally changed the utilities to our name.  I'm very curious to see the cost of them.  I'm afraid to get the first bill.  I've just received a bill for the elevator maintenance that was from last May.  It turns out that the previous owner not only didn't repair the castle, he didn't pay his bills.  It's bad enough they took EVERYTHING out of here, but it is really very nasty of them to leave debt to us as well.  I hope we can find some recourse with this.  Only time will tell.

Oh, and in other important news, we now own the dead cat room. this was only 124 signatures and 3 hours time.  The translator this time gave me a reduced cost because I paid in cash.  I'm beginning to see how Italy works.  

Last weekend we went to an antiques market in Arezzo.

It is supposed to be the largest in Europe.  It is big. I think it took up 3 city plazas and the roads in between. George and I went up and stayed for the weekend. I thought it would take 3 days to go through the market. It didn't.  But that is because I knew what I wanted to look for and how much I was willing to pay.  The prices there were just crazy.  As an example, I did purchase a mirror.  The man wanted €1000 for it, but I managed to talk him down to 550 plus delivery after quite a bit of talking.  

My Italian is coming along nicely.  No one there spoke any English so I was thrown into the deep end and came out swimming.  The weekend prior we went south to a different antiques fair that had closed down.  On the way home we stopped in Orvieto for a wander around. It's a beautiful city.  

We also purchased a five new armadios and 2 more tables for the castle.  I'm really enjoying "thrifting" here. I hated it in the states, but everything I saw there was rubbish.  Here the antique furniture can be bought for a song.  It's amazing really. 

George has completed my exchange puzzle and works diligently on his.  I believe he is getting into a rhythm with it now and will be finished soon.  Thank heavens!  The laser cutter doesn't belong in the salon. Once he has finished, it will be moved over to his workshop in the hotel. He has power there, and ventilation.   I know he's going to love that room. 

Our Antonio has cracked his ribs so most of the work has stopped until he is feeling better.  He continues with simple things that don't cause him pain, but I've put him on 1/2 days until he has healed.  The man never stops but I don't want a completely broken man on my hands.  All work would cone to a grinding halt.  

Fino alla prossima settimana, arrivaderci e continua rompicapo.

More of life in Italy-and a few puzzles too.

This has been a week much like the last one.  We have been going back and forth making appointments to make appointments to finally make an appointment to get an appointment.  I've come to realize that you must know someone here to get anything done.  Our Elena is a wiz at working the system.  She knows people in all of the right places.  Last post was about getting our Permesso di Soggiorno.  Well, we didn't. What we got after all of that run around was a small hope that we can get in early.  Elena knows some one who knows someone and she made some calls and they made some calls, and now our paperwork is going to head to the local questers office where she knows someone who will try to push our paperwork to the head of the queue.  To say thank you, we had to take them to dinner.  That in itself was a comedy of errors.  We tried 4 different places, all closed.  So we ended up in Citta di Pieva (30km from here) and had a great pizza!

We did have some good things happen though.  We bought a car.  Well, we didn't.  Our friend did and he's letting us 'borrow' it until we get our permesso and can buy our own. Then I had to get insurance on it.  Now I have the insurance but don't own the car.  So strange.  This in turn allowed us to return the rental car 2 days early which gave us a €72 refund, but because I didn't fill the tank back up to 100%, I have to pay for the gas, but because I prepaid for the gas, I didn't have to fill the tank, but €72 isn't that much money so the man said he would just keep it.  (My eyes are rolling.)

Our car is a 2001 Ford Mondeo diesel.  Wow.  Oh, and a stick shift.  And a station wagon no less.  It will be ideal for going to puzzle parties and picking up packages that we have waiting for us somewhere in Europe.  Lots of room for boxes.  

George got a new table saw so he has no excuses to not get his exchange puzzle finished.  

We bought some furniture for the castle. A rather large table and chairs/benches set that reminds me of something that belongs in a German brewery.  I got some great chairs for the library and a few others to sprinkle around the castle.  I also found an amazing bar that I just couldn't pass up. This one is from the early 1700's.  I'm still in need of a few more pieces, but for the most part I'm done.  

The kitchen in the castle is as complete as it's going to be.  I'm just waiting on a credenza and a new table.  We ordered 8 sofas and 4 lamps.  4 of the sofas have come in and the lamps?  Who knows where they are. The company couldn't give them to us on the spot, but they also couldn't deliver them.  I guess I'm out another €480.  I'm really not sure why companies think they can just keep the money here.  I also bought 4 bed sheet sets.  I was send duvet covers instead.  Now the seller said I could return them, but he's not sure if he will refund me.  What a racket this is. 

Amazon in the states is great.  Here, not so much. first, a fifty cent pencil case is €19.99 here.  No way.  I guess I'll pass or start to use aliexpress more.  There is no such thing as overnight delivery.  We have to wait for everything.  The fastest I can get something is 2 days.  One really has to plan ahead or learn patience.  Our most ferquently heard phrase is piano piano.  It means slowly.  Everything here is piano piano. I just ordered some lip balm for my poor chapped lips. It will arrive between the 7th and the 14th of July!  My poor lips.  No relief in sight anytime soon.  

We were able to lean out the window of the castle and watch the ascension processional.  It's fun living here, you never know what you will see. 

Oskar sent us a fantastic gift. George had a good time solving it.   I've not laughed so hard in a long time. When I first got it I asked José if it was a pink dildo.  

Oh, and even more good news!  We have had another collection come in.  We purchased Jean Carle's collection and it arrived just fine this past week. The hotel is slowly filling with puzzles.  If only I had shelves to put them on.

We even put a piece on the wall in the living room.  I've had a few Berrocals come in and they are on the mantle until the hotel is finished. 

I have kept a wallet full of currency from all of the countries I've visited over the years.  Usually I return and spend it.  This time I got caught.  I didn't get back to Italy soon enough to spend the Lire we had left so now it makes great bathroom art.  The value is still dropping.

Ah!  And now, a sneak peak at the crystal puzzle room.  It will be filled with antique mirrors.  I've been running around the area to all the used markets and flea markets buying them up. The floor is ugly so I'll need to purchase some nice carpets for there.  The tape represents shelves that will eventually be glued on to them. 

We were invited to a neighbors for a drink and George and Laus ended up assembling a swing for an upcoming 80th birthday party. 

When I was in the Loggia looking at the view, I discovered a second fresco that is on the outside of the building. I can't help wonder how many more are under the paint that has been put up.  I wish there were a way to find out and uncover them.  

We had a lovely little picnic after returning the car.  The aqueducts in the south are amazing.  It's a truly beautiful place we have chosen to live in. It's been a great week.  

Fino alla prossima settimana, arrivaderci e continua a rompicapo. Il lavoro continua.  Piano Piano.

On becoming Italian

If you want to move to Italy, I have one piece of advice for you. Don't do it!  Unless of course you are either very fool hardy or determined.  I wish this post were about installing puzzles and moving forward with the World Puzzle Center, but instead I will give you our experiences to date.  Warning, this is a long read.

We arrived on the 24th and at 7 am we decided to be off the ship with the first wave of departures.  We sent our luggage down the night before and were up at dawn prepared to head out quickly to pick up our rental car.  Or so we thought. We managed to get off by around 8. Why?  The immigration officials were still having coffee. In hindsight this was an omen.

Once we cleared customs (peace of cake for a change), we went out to find a taxi.  Now when I told them where I wanted to go, not a cab driver would take us.  They all told me to get a bus to the gate and walk.  Not an easy task with 4 suitcases and a 3D printer.  A gent finally came by and told me they were all stupid.  He took us for an exorbitant 20 Euros the 10 blocks we needed to traverse. I know this sounds small, but I would have never found the rental agency.  

We arrived about 15 minutes early, and the man inside would not see me until my appointed pick up time.  Well, as I kept walking in, he gave me the car.  Only later did I realize I was over 2 hours away from my pick up time.  What difference does that make?  Oh well.  We had the keys in hand and off we went. 

Now here is where the fun starts. We arrived on the morning before a public holiday.  Our caretakers gave us the "Kit" to fill out and the grand tour of work done to date.  They left us for dinner and the next day, we filled out the "Kit" to take to the post office.  Only we couldn't.  It was the Anniversario della Liberazione (a public holiday).  Which means the Post office while open in the morning was only open for 2 hours. No problem, we have 8 days.  

The "Kit" is the official word for all the paperwork that need completion for the issuance of the permesso di soggiorno (residency permit).  This form is all in Italian with no translation attached.  If it is not filled in correctly, the post office will return it only for you to try again until it is done correctly.  Without this kit and all its parts, one stands as good a chance as Lo farò quando sarà finito il ponte per Messina (I'll do it when a bridge is built to Messina-the Italian equivilent to when hell freezes over.) Without this, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can be done in Italy. This will become perfectly clear as you read on. 

We set about doing other "work" while waiting for our caretakers to have the time to take us up to the post office.  Friday came and we headed to Perugia.  All we were told was turn it in at the post office there.  Why? Panicale can not accept the "Kit" and Tavernelle didn't have the required stamps.  So we drive to Perugia-45 minutes away on windy Italian roads with a man behind the wheel who-I kid you not-used to be a race car driver.  When we get to Perugia and get our ticket to see someone at the post office, we are told that we have a ticket B.  We need a ticket A or P.  Back to the machine to draw one again.  These tickets are the things we get at delis back home.  

Our number comes up again, this time with the right ticket letter and we are told we need a €16,50 marca da bollo (stamp) 

from the tabaccheria (tobacco and sundries shop).  And no, they don't sell them at the post office. OK.  We grab yet another ticket from the machine in the hopes that our number will come up again quickly when we return with this new stamp.   

We then run to the tabaccheria 2 blocks down, buy 2 stamps and run the 2 blocks back only to see that the number for our turn hasn't changed since we left.  Ok. Now we wait another 1/2 hour or so an finally get to the counter only to be told we need 2 tickets, not just one and wait, you haven't paid this fee so we can't take your paperwork anyway. 

UGH!  Back to Tavernelle where Elena is waiting outside the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori (CISL-free advice institution for families) for us to fill out the paperwork.

Now this office is open until 13:00 and it is only noon because our race car driver took those roads at 90+ to get us back before the offices closed.  I guess they wanted to do lunch early.  Great, we go back on Monday.  Which puts us on day 9 and we are at risk of expulsion from the country.  Elena gets on the phone and calls a friend who calls a friend who calls a friend and we get an 8 am appointment for Tuesday!  2 days over the limit!  I'm panicking now as is my usual nature but what can we do. The offices are all closed in the afternoon and we have missed not only our deadline, but Wil's King's Day Party.  This is just adding insult to injury. 

We sit in a local pasticceria (pastry shop) and have a cup of coffee and a cornetto (croissant).  Elena is still on the phone and returns with some good news.  Finally, we need it! Monday is a public holiday and the government won't count those or weekends against us so really, we have until Wednesday to turn in the paperwork. The sigh of relief could be heard all the way to Perugia.

So, it's a holiday weekend and you guessed it, nothing is going to get done.  I did a small grocery shop, drove to an outlet center an hour north only to find they didn't have what I want, and just relaxed a little bit because on Tuesday it starts all over again.

Tuesday morning we were up and running at 7.  We had to be back in Perugia for that 8 am appointment.  Thank god for Antonio and Elena.  The place we had to go was close to the post office, but without parking so we had to park about 5 blocks away and walk. the GPS on the maps sent us to the correct address, but the offices moved and Google hadn't caught up.  George however saw the queue and got us to the CISL.   We had to go to a second door and wait another 1/2 hour for them to open.  And you guessed it, it's now past 8 am.  

We walked in and found our someone quickly.  This process then took about an hour to type our forms again. For some reason unknown to us, they can't be hand written although that is what we were given by the post office.  There was a bit of comic relief while we removed the marca da bollo that we had purchased and put on the forms on Friday.  We handed over copies of insurance and a reams worth of paper that is our statement of income.  This was deemed to be too much and they took a summary of the past 4 years and our last tax return.  Finally, the forms are filled out and we have been given a price to pay.  

I even found a poster for the 730 income tax return that might be of interest to some. 

Now it is time to run back to the post office yet again and get 2 tickets with either A or P printed on them.  I'm starting to understand this bizarre system. We patiently wait for our numbers to come up and head to the counters when they do. This time we have all of our t's crossed and our i's dotted and we are given the permesso di soggiorno.  Or so we thought.  No.  What we were given was a paper that gives us an appointment to get the permesso di soggiorno.  Again, we wait.  Everyone we talked to and read online said this process would take about 2-3 months to process.  Ok.  We can wait. Not so for us. The day we turned in the paperwork was 2 May, our appointment date? 24 January 2024!  We now have to wait almost a year!  No problem though, the man at the post office told us that is all we need to stay here and to register with the comune (commune in English).  

The next morning we go over to the comune at 9 to register as residents and to get our avvio della procedura di registrazione (initiation of the registration procedure).  This paper then gets turned into our identity cards. Now this is important for two reasons.  We need it to purchase a car, and to get our household goods that are currently being held hostage at the tune of $300 per day in Rotterdam.  The man at the post office told us that the papers we had in hand are enough to do this.  Not so says the lady at the comune. We have to wait until January when they give us yet another paper telling us we can go back yet again for fingerprints before she will give us this card.  So yet again we wait.

We have Antonio on the job hoping to get someone at the local Questra's office to speed up the process for us.  Fingers crossed.  In the meantime, the car rental is €2500 a month and our goods still stay in storage.  This move is costing a bomb now.  The car problem will be solved in the typical expat fashion next week.  As for the household goods, we are all working on a solution to that.  Pray for us one and all.  

Moving to Italy reminds me of being in the Army.  Hurry up then wait.  Only here, we wait a very, very long time.  The good news though is that our shelves are in, we are living in the castle, and as we live here we see the work that needs to be done and are moving on that.  We have decided to extend the elevator through to the ground floor (who puts an elevator on two floors only?) I meet with the contractor on Tuesday.  On Thursday I meet with the engineer to fix the problem with the dead cat room (the ceiling and door is cracking so severely that the whole tower could fall if not fixed)

and we meet with the painters to get that work done next Monday.  

George and I have walked through the buildings and have changed the rooms where certain puzzles will be stored.  We have set up the temperature measurement devices and are doing a 7 month study of the temperature and humidity levels in the rooms to determine where to place each type of puzzle and the equipment we will need to purchase to keep the collection at a constant state.  This will be a feat in itself given the building we are now in.  

Per force, I have been given an extension of a year before I have to get my drivers license.  That will give me more time to study and actually learn the language.  Speaking of, everyday I improve.  I have to.  Our community really doesn't have many people who speak English.  

We ordered the kitchen estimate.  It is going to be amazing when finished.  The designer didn't like my ideas, but when I told him it was my kitchen and my money he quickly changed his mind and is doing things my way.  One example of this is I want separate Subzero's for the refrigerator and freezer.  Not a Smeg side-by-side.  He didn't see how 2 people needed so much space. I didn't ask for that. I asked for a design.  But after he realized my Spanish is better than my Italian, he switched languages and we were able to communicate much better.  This is not ideal, but it worked. While he wants the master bathroom project, he declined saying it will need an engineer to put in a new door and he's not one. He's engaged a few for estimates and that will all happen next week.

George and I purchased 8 sofa sleepers for the rooms because apparently here you are only allowed to purchase 4 per person. Is there a black market for sofa sleepers I don't know about?  We also ordered new lights for those that were ripped out of the ceiling in the staircases and a few sconces for one of the bedrooms on the second floor.  Once these are placed, we will decide upon the rest of the lighting.  Along the way, we had to go through heavy traffic. 

We went to a second hand shop yesterday to pick up a few mirrors-yes, we will have a Versailles room. Wait until you see what is in my head. For once even George can do it.  

We were measuring the bathrooms in the hotel for small closet space and decided to change up the room usage a bit.  The upper kitchen (behind the delivery room) was to be converted into a dining area but it just didn't sit right with me.  That room has so much power, all of which was going to be covered by a shelf, so we decided to change it to George's 3D printer room.  It even has built in exhaust so he can also put his laser cutter in there.  This is a real win for him.  

We decided to give Antonio the dead cat room for his workshop so I can have the room he is currently using back for puzzles.  It's just too good a space to waste.  He can design his workshop anyway he wants.  I just want my space back.  

Now, worry not my dear readers. Just because we don't  have our puzzles doesn't mean they aren't safe. They are all in a humidity controlled warehouse.  And we are still purchasing more puzzles as we are here. So far we have added 3 more collections to the World Puzzle Center and will continue to do so.  I have received Cubic Dissection, Pelican, Mine, LogicaGiochi and countless other puzzles in the short time we have been here. My puzzle budget is still non-existant and I continue to fill the shelves that will soon begin being installed.  We won't be fully opened by Christmas, but we will have a puzzle or two on the shelves.  As always, our doors are opened. Right now though, the puzzles to be played with are just in boxes.  This will change as soon as those shelves go up.

George has moved many of the shelves to the hotel in preparation for installation and I have begun to populate the library.  The work goes on. 

Fino alla prossima settimana, arrivaderci e continua a rompicapo.