We're Buying an Apartment!

It has been a busy weekend for us. On Friday we drove to Lucca, stayed in Partigliano overnight and started the process of buying an apartment.

It is located in the town of Capannori 7 km east of Lucca. The town is a mix of old and new with a large, modern square that is ringed by the Comune of Capannori government offices, a supermarket, and a number of apartment buildings some of which have commercial establishments on the ground floor. Our apartment is on the 6th floor (5th Italian-style and, yes, it does have an elevator). It overlooks the square and has wonderful views south to the Pisan hills and north to the hills of Lucca and the mountains.

In addition to being closer to Lucca than Partigliano, Capannori is a great spot for cycling and walking. We are minutes from the autostrada. There is frequent bus service into Lucca and there is a Capannori train station on the line between Lucca and Florence. There are a bar and a newsstand on the ground floor of our building, a gelateria less than a block away, several restaurants, a pasticceria, banks, and other shops all on the square or a short walk away in the older part of Capannori. All of this means it will be much more guest friendly.  Capannori is pronounced cah-PAHN-or-ee, something it took us years to figure out.

The apartment itself was all redone not many years ago and the current style is very modern. It has a large living/dining area, a small but well laid out kitchen with a pantry, three bedrooms, 1 ½ baths and a large storage room. There is also a large terrace with double doors accessing it and space for the washing machine out there.

The process of buying a house in Italy is multi-step. On Friday evening we signed an offer and made a small deposit. It was immediately accepted and the next step is to do a compromesso, a contract that spells out what the buyer and seller both have to do before the purchase is completed. It will be done in early November before we leave. At that time we will pay 30% of the total purchase price. In January we will return and complete the final contract and pay the rest of the purchase price. In the meantime, the seller has a number of things to take care of including painting the interior. We are fortunate that we negotiated the purchase of the kitchen, which is beautiful, as part of the deal. It is not uncommon here for sellers to take the kitchen with them. In January we will also move have our furniture, etc. moved from storage into the apartment.

Here are lots of pictures in sort of an odd order.  It seems to be difficult to get the pictures to load into the blog as I think they should.

One of the large bedrooms, probably will be the guest room

Full bath with tub/shower (and a view!)

Large bedroom, probably will be our bedroom

Half bath

Small bedroom

Our building from down in the piazza

Closer look--our unit is the top floor 2nd/3rd windows from the left

Closer look at our terrace

Entry to our staircase--the building has three entries

Entry is door to left and green door is elevator

Kitchen

Door to kitchen pantry

Cooktop, oven and fridge behing large door to right

Sink and dishwasher--yes, counters and backsplash are marble!

Kitchen even has a window!

View (through screen) from bedrooms

Terrace--larger than it looks

View from terrace

Sink and space under for washing machine on terrace--very common set-up in Italy

Living/Dining area from kitchen--we are keeping the mural!

House Hunters International II

Yesterday our third day of house hunting proved rather more productive than the first two. We saw two places we liked and one of those we REALLY liked. If negotiations proceed as we hope we will provide more information.

After we finished viewing houses we went to an evening of cooking and eating at the International Academy of Italian Cuisine in Lucca. This is the same place I did a day at last October and it was just as much fun. The group was arranged by Mary Caselli and included a number of old friends and new acquaintances. This time the head of the school was our instructor and Gianluca was great.

The meal consisted of a salad of fresh porcini mushrooms followed by freshly made spaghetti with a porcini mushroom sauce. The main course was a guinea fowl stuffed with a sausage mixture and a sformato of cardoons. Dessert was a sweet grape filled focaccia called schiacciata.

The most interesting part was the boning of the guinea fowl which was about the size of a roasting chicken. When Gianluca asked for volunteers I was eager to help not realizing that it involved boning the chicken whole. It was a real challenge but I managed to end up with a fowl that looked like an empty suit of clothes. After I stuffed it with the sausage mixture, wrapped it in parchment paper and tied it with string it looked the same as the one Gianluca did (from the outside ).

By the time we sat down to eat, Dom and I were both pretty tired but it was a fun meal. I really harbor dreams of doing a month long course at the school. Perhaps someday.

Tomorrow we are off to Rome tomorrow for our four week sojourn there. Now the real vacation starts.

Always Something to Do

I always tell people that being in Italy is not really a vacation for us. Without our mini-farm we are hoping it will become more restful but thus far that is not the case.


On Monday we went out all day and saw six more houses. A couple of them we quite liked but after further consideration (and further viewing from the outside) we decided none of them really suit us. We have two more appointments on Thursday so we will see what happens.

That evening we had dinner with our friend Anna who also kept track of our house when we were gone. She has been collecting our mail from the new owners so she had a number of things to give us that created another to-do list.

On Tuesday we tackled some of those items and visited Mercatino del Usato (a used stuff store—mostly furniture) to see if any of the items we left there in the spring had sold. Almost €50 was due us so that was a worthwhile visit. We also meandered around and passed by some of the houses we had seen the day before. One house we really loved we vetoed because it faced north and the only outside space would rarely get any sun. Another had a good garden area but the surrounding neighborhood seemed questionable.

Today we set off for a day in Florence. I needed a new purse and Dom just needed to be there. The weather was really nice—warm but not hot—so we parked near the American Consulate and walked along the Arno and then cut over to the San Lorenzo market.

I visited most of the stalls looking for a suitable purse for Rome. The ones I have with me are either not large enough or won’t go over my head and across my body. The latter is something I really feel safer with when cruising around Rome. Eventually I found one in a size, color and style that I liked. Dom patiently trailed after me while I checked out all the options.

Purchase completed we meandered past Piazza del Duomo. It is nice that they no longer allow cars in the area but today it was thronged by tourists. We strolled along some of the smaller streets and eventually came to a small piazza where a bar had some outside tables. We sat down and ordered a panino (sandwich) for Dom and a salad for me. The tables around us filled up fast and it was fun to watch the other tourists and the Florentine residents coming and going. There was a tower on the square that looked almost medieval and while we were eating a small garbage truck came by. Most of the service vehicles in the center of Florence are now electric. The emptying of the garbage bins was louder by far than the motor of the little truck.

After lunch we purchased a few necessities (pajamas) and then strolled back to the car. Our trip home preceded Florentine rush hour so we were back in Partigliano in short order (about 75 minutes). It was really the most vacation-like day we have had so far.