We're movin' on up!

We have a sweet new apartment that is ready for visitors, so book your tickets now while the airlines are having ridiculous fare sales! Well, I should say that it is sort of ready for visitors...

Electrical problems (ahem, serious electrical problems, like the ones that could cause fires) prompted us to move out of our apartment on Via Marconi. We were innocently sitting in the kitchen one night eating dinner and watching Affari Tuoi when a spark (read: tiny fire) lit up the wall above the tv and then everything went black. It was fixed the next day, and by fixed I mean a new wire was attached and everything was wrapped in black electrical tape. I'm not an electrician, but exposed wires all over the place, most of which are jumbled up and taped together, seems like a catastrophe waiting to happen.

After this, our 3rd blackout, we were told that the apartment had to be completely re-wired and some other renovations had to be done also. We could leave the place and go back in a month when everything was done, or we could just leave. The choice was obvious.

The week before we moved into the new place was one fun filled day after the other. Our landlord began doing work on the facade of our house, waking us up at 7am everyday with incessant banging. We didn't have water for a day, which meant I couldn't do wash, and even after that when the water was back on I couldn't hang any clothes outside because of the mess. Our landlord and his workers were in and out of our apartment everyday, tracking dirt everywhere. One morning I stepped out of the shower and saw a shadow of a person walking by the bathroom, I was not pleased. And Scott was even less-pleased than me.

So, we welcomed our new apartment with open arms. I was so happy when we moved everything in, so happy to use the new kitchen, so happy to turn on the exhaust fan above the range, so happy to take a shower and have it be big enough that I could actually turn around. Life was sweet. At least until 5 days after we moved in....

I went home one night and was walking up the stairs and noticed some pieces of plaster on the step. I was puzzled by this, as I sweep the floor everyday (like a good casalinga). I quickly turned the corner and saw that the floor in the spare bedroom next to the kitchen was completely covered with plaster and glass. And, this is the best part, the ceiling was gone. The light fixture must have been too heavy and not anchored correctly, so it fell down, shattered and brought most of the ceiling with it. So much for a new house with no problems! What were we thinking? This is Sicily after all!

I ran to the office, told Scott and Fabrizio, and after a quick glimpse at the mess we jumped in Fabrizio's car and drove to our landlord's house. We explained the problem and drove back to the apartment to show him. He came back the next morning to fix it (which was Friday March 6) and said he would come back 3 days later to paint. It's still not painted.

Don't you think it's a little strange that this occurred in the ONLY room that we didn't have any stuff in? It was going to be a guest room so it only had a bed and a chair in it...neither of which were damaged. We got lucky, I suppose!

This is a picture from the terrazza.
And the visibility wasn't even that great,
so imagine what it looks like on a clear day.
This is why we fell in love with this place!