Our second summer in Italy has been quite busy, but somehow in between all of it we also had to squeeze in time to move houses, again. Yup, unfortunately we had some issues with our last home and we needed to get out.

When looking at homes on the economy you are typically shown a small plot of land, enclosed by a gate, that comes with an astronomically high rental price for foreigners. On our little piece of rental property, the landlord’s maintenance shed was located inside our gate. Not a problem, since we had agreed at signing he would come once a week to do lawn maintenance. It turned out to be something like a mini home- which we later found out he called it his “man cave-” and he actually hung out there. There was a kitchen, landline phone, fridge, a door inside with a stained glass window, a fireplace, etc. He was there all day every day and never told us when he would be in our yard (which was every day and at random times). I felt like we could never be outside and I felt like we always had to have our shutters drawn. The walkway to his shed was two feet from our living room window and side doorway. This meant that we could see him and other people going back to the shed and they could see us. This “shed” was located in the back right corner.

Then the biggest problem. In the front left corner was a guest house. We were told when we moved in that it was not included in our rent but we didn’t mind. We were told it was empty and was used, rarely, as an office. We could deal with that. Turns out, the landlord’s daughter and her husband actually live there! They didn’t make themselves known until about two months after we moved into the main house. Their kitchen window opened up into our small driveway, we could see them and they could see us. There was no barrier or wall of any type. They could have easily come into our yard if they wanted. I could also touch their front porch with my toe if I stood at the entrance of our garage/laundry room. I heard all of their conversations, tv shows, and I could even hear people on the other end of phone and Skype calls!

This whole family was extremely nice and took really good care of us. But we wanted our own space and we deserved better. The living situation was not acceptable. Period. We couldn’t go outside without the couple seeing us, or the landlord seeing us and telling us what to do. We were so mad that none of this was disclosed at our signing. We pay three times the amount Italians do and, at the very least, should’ve been told that other people occupy the same property!! The thing that sucked the most- this new move came out of pocket.

Well, in the end we made it out and one month to the day today, we have enjoyed our new home. We didn’t move far, just across the highway, and it doesn’t have as much charm as the last house; but there’s more space, it’s more peaceful, and we have a beautiful olive tree! Most importantly, no one but us lives inside our fence line 🙂

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