I'm sitting in my office in London's Mayfair - its overcast here, and cold and there is a tube strike. I'm taking vicarious pleasure in reading this post. My partner and I plan to move to Italy once I sell my place (sale currently going through) - though we are under no illusion that the move will be a challenge we cannot wait. Ernesto I saw your photos of Abruzzo - it looks divine - are there any areas/towns which you specifically recommend to live?


Warm wishes from London

Greetings from very hot Sardinia.

Good luck with your move to Italy, I am sure you will find this forum a great help.

Wouldn't dream of saying that any place in Abruzzo is the best or worst. I have not been to all the areas of Abruzzo, a fair few, but all have their charms. We love our area cos it's 40 mins to the sea and 40 mins to the mountains. We love the situation rolling hills and olive groves and not far from a decent village with banks, bars, restaurants and supermarkets, enough space between me & my neighbours to make us feel apart but not isolated. You must come and look.
Ernesto

Yes Ernesto, I can understand that choosing one place over another would be difficult but 40 mins to beach and mountains seems an excellent good balance.

Debra, thank you for your kind wishes. Whereabouts are you in Sardinia? We were there last October in the south and also in February this year we were in Oristano for the sartiglio which was a wonderful spectacle; we toured the north east a bit and viewed a few houses near Sassari for an initial fact finding mission. I actually love Sardinia and it would be my preference for a place to live from what I've seen of it, but my partner prefers the mainland. So we are keeping both possibilities open at the moment. Tell me, why did you choose to move to Sardinia?

I would love to say that we put a lot of thought to our move to Sardinia, but that is not true. My sister is married to a Sardinian so we came here on holiday a couple of times and then decided to buy a small apartment in Sorso (nr Sassari). Initially it was just for holidays but then work became too stressful, so resigned jumped on a plane and arrived here.... simple as that.
The only stress you have here is paying your bills at the local post office, always takes around 2 hours

Hi Debra, hello again from the south of the island!

It's probably a bit different because we're renting, but my landlady handed us our first electricity bill the other day and told us to pay it at the post office. However we looked a bit more carefully at the bill, and then discovered a whole section of our online banking for paying utility bills! No need for the post office trauma...

Hi Suzy

Hope you are enjoying life down south. Have tried loads of times to pay on line but it has never worked.... you will have to enlighten me how to do it

Was down your neck of the woods mid may, stayed at Poetto beach, really enjoyed it..........but took us 2 hours trying to get out of Cagliari... never want to drive there again

Hah I can believe it! Neither my partner nor I drive, so we use the buses, which are fine but can get stuck in traffic. Central Cagliari is a nightmare for driving and parking I believe.

Unfortunately I imagine that all internet banks are different. We're with Monte dei Paschi di Siena, and there is a 'bills' tab down the left hand side. Clicked through a load more things (with the aid of google translate!) and there was a section for utility bills. It even brought up a picture of the section of the paper bill you need, and where all the numbers are to input!

Enjoying it down here so far - the heat this week's been a bit of a shock though, trying to hide inside until I become acclimatised! North treating you well?