Reds go Italy

We finally had a day off from dealing with bureaucracy and real estate agents, so we decided to get out there and explore the area.  Puglia is located in the south of Italy, in the heel of its boot.  The area is very touristic.  During the month of June we didn't notice all that many tourists, but now that school holidays have started in most European countries, the place seems to be packed with tourists.  The population of the town of Ostuni swells from 30,000 to 100,000 during summer months.  As far as parking is concerned in these busy summer months, do like the Italians do.  Anyways, for our day off we decided to explore the beautiful town of Lecce - known for it's baroque monuments and even do some shopping.  After all, we have been in Italy for over two weeks now and we haven't gone shopping once and as the saying goes: don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Below are some images of the city center of Lecce Thes...

Jan doesn't start work until July 1st, so we have two weeks to get settled in, take care of the necessary paperwork and try and find a more permanent house to live in.   The lawyer who set up our rental agreement has filed it for registration yesterday, which means we are now officially renting a property in Ostuni, Italy.  There was a slight delay in the registration of the rental contract thanks to UPS.  It cost me $130 to get the signed contract sent from Alabama to Italy and instead of arriving within 5 days as it was supposed to, it was on the road for 3 weeks and when it finally arrived, it was drenched in ...  Olive oil - of course ! It's Italy !!  It's surprising they didn't include the mozzarella in the delivery.  Anyways, with this contract and proof of registration in hand we will try and file for residency.  We have heard horror stories about the Italian bureaucracy and fear it might not be an easy task. Our relocation agent...

We made it.  We arrived in Brindisi, Italy on June 14th at 3 pm local time.  We left Mobile Alabama 24 hours ago. We managed to get the suitcases and backpacks in the Italian rental car and took off for the holiday rental that we have booked until September 30.  It's a small place, but given the fact that we arrive in peak season, we didn't have a huge amount of places to choose from. My Alabama friends and colleagues know what lengths I went through to find a place, so it may not be perfect, but it will have to do for now. When we arrived at the "villa"  - yes, all houses are called villa's here and no, it's definitely not a villa by European or American standards - the property manager Costanza was waiting for us the keys and explain how everything worked.  We soon found out that we don't have the luxury of putting our trash outside. We have to recycle everything separately and take it to the recycle park ourselves - the isla ecologica . ...