Lorna at Vicenza

If the comune school bus had cheaper prices then more parents/kids would use it.

There is a fight in the car park outside the school everyday and loads of cars lining both sides of the street outside school.

In days when we are getting recycling, carbon footprints and global warming shoved down our necks, the price of 195 euro for the village school bus is madness !

indiebird

It is the same here too Lorna. Tis year I have to drive dd to her nursery in the next tiny village as there was not any spaces here last year for her. They don't take the small kids on the bus. However I am planning to walk the both of them the 20mins to school next year, but this has been met by shock-horror from most mums. This is too far apparetly for the poor little urchins to manage.... especially in winter!! However I hate the fact that even if we arrive at 4pm the nonne have beaten you to any spaces for the 4.25 chuck out... we are not allowed to park along the sides of the road anymore but have to use an adjacent carpark that belongs to the sports centre.... except noone bar me likes to use it as it is too far to walk.... I dread rainy days.... molto pericoloso!!!

37100

The bands are low but you have to add things on, take things off. Like number of children, renting or owners -home, not children- etc. But it's the ISEE that drive's me mad. Why should I have to show them my bank account? Not that there is every much in it but every Tom, Dick and Harry gets to see it and before you know, half the town knows your affairs.

Lorna at Vicenza

I was offered a "proper" full time job when Chloe was about 2 and I was seriously interested to get back into a grown up position of responsability and work ethics and INPS and pension contributions and maybe a bit of grown up banter with colleagues (doubtful all the female ones though as most are awful). The company even offered me a kind of reduced full time if I did 6 hours a day or the option of doing 'orario continuato' from 8am til 3pm.

Anyway .... I looked into the private nurseries and the comune one and worked out that after paying them I would be earning a pittance to have someone else look after my child with no English input.

In the end I weighed up the pros and cons, taking into consideration the hours, the money, kids getting sick, school holidays, time off etc etc and I turned it down. It really wasn't worth it. It would never have turned into a big a career move, it would have just got me out of the house and back into full time employment.

Fortunately I had already got all the details from the town hall about price brackets and income etc. without ever showing them anything of mine, because I then changed my mind.

I know for a fact that loads of people in this village think my OH brings home around 3.000 to 5.000 a month because he travels - works away and I don't work.

They are soooo wrong. He gets shite compared to others he's met on his travels but we are not spendthrifts and maybe that helps too.

TestaRossa

I don't have a car and there isn't a school bus to Antonia's school, so we have to do the full mile walking or sometimes getting the local bus half way as it doesn't go all the way to school! It is a real pain in winter, but I know I am fitter for doing it, but on days like today when it was ballet after school which is 10 mins from my house in the opposite direction and you miss the bus, it is a real pain!!

indiebird

I was told that i must be rich in the supermarket the other day as I had a gold credit card!! It is of course a UK credit card and costs nothing each month and trying to explain that everyone in the UK has one didn't seem to work!! Sometimes I just want to scream. My dh doesn't earn loads and loads but there is absolutely no way that I will be handing over my financial stuff to just anybody to read through. We don't live austentaciously (sp??!!) as we are more than aware what some people think but I wouldn't want to attempt claiming anything either tbh!!

Lorna at Vicenza

But then in Italy of course there are rich people and people who pretend.

when I first found out that some folks have spent 10.000 quid on a new kitchen but never use it ..... they cook downstairs in their taverna little kitchen - I was gobsmacked.

same folks who have a gorgeous bathroom and then always piss in the garage toilet or the utility room !

What's the point ? To show off once every six months when you finally let a few friends into your house?

Then you eventually discover that the fancy taps on the fancy bath in the guest only bathroom have rusted to a complete non stop because they never got used.

Bollocks to that !

indiebird

i am not so good at picking out the richer people here. In the UK you just know but here there is so much bling to cut through isn't there??!! I am with you Lorna. The stuff we have we agonise over and we use!! but we don't have much.... not ones for bling really!!

Lorna at Vicenza

The very proud ones are the ones that say

"oh - it's the first time you've been here isn't it? Come on - I'll show you the house." Then they give you a guided tour.

Other ones might exclaim "please don't mind the mess" and you roam around and think 'What mess - it's perfect'

When I say "ignore the mess" or the washing piled up waiting to be ironed or just brought inside or the toys on the floor ..... I mean it !

indiebird

Very true!! I have never seen around so many houses before than since I have lived here. For me, I keep the bedroom doors shut as this is where all the clutter that hasn't spilled out is!!

TestaRossa

I don't know - knowing some of the really wealthy in the UK - I don't count myself, some might, but I don't because whatever I get goes on school fees, or it feels like it!! - you can't always tell. There is a lot of debt to keep up with the Jones. Okay, so if the back garden houses a garage for the planes and a stable, that might be a bit of a give away, but it is still tricky! I tend to find the same holds true in both countries - the less ostentatious someone dresses but the bigger the house, then that is normally money! Tiny house, big car, designer clothes, no money!! All show! Might be wrong and obvious exceptions are footballers and actors!

37100

Here in Verona, you're a good wife if you wear the latest styles from top designers, wear perfect make-up and never have a hair out of place because you show everyone that your husband has money and you know how to spend it. In Cuneo (piemonte) your a good wife if you buy your clothes at the market, use minimal make-up and do your own hair because everyone knows your husband has money but you know how to scrimp. This was told to me in piemontese by an australian living here in Verona and married to an Italian from Cuneo who happens to be a friend of a my oh's friend who lives in Pescara. And it is soo true!

indiebird

I wonder if it is just the language thing here then that makes me think I have problems with 'reading' people??!! In the UK I know it is normally the dowdiest woman with a clapped out old banger who has the most money and the house (i.e size) is normally more of a giveaway. Here I cannot see past the 'bling'. Honestly, even at my language school there are a lot of Eastern europeans that come in in full 'party wear' to my mind, full make-up, high heels, nice mobile phone etc. but I know must be struggling to survive here. I also do not know how so many italians manage with the cost of living here either. Many must not be paying all their taxes, surely??!!

TestaRossa

It is difficult - the real toffs in Florence wear British country wear! Barbours and those husky jackets? Or alice bands and "slacks", very NYC wasp! The ones in bling do have money but rarely spend it on their homes - disposable for small luxuries, none for big or just lots of credit! You also find that the ones that can do both "know" someone who has a shop, works for a designer etc. and get's everything at sample price! That's Florence anyway!

indiebird

I must admit you do see some right sights in Torino too, women who do look pure class with a louis vitton bag or whatever. I secretly love wandering down Via Roma and looking at all the people and wondering, even if i was a gazillionaire would I be able to justify designer clothes... the answer is no.... but it is fun to go forth into this little world!!