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| October morning |
The morning of Wednesday 13th October dawned bright & sunny
- warm enough to sit outside with our post-breakfast cuppa.
Today was one of excitement mixed with the knowledge that
it would be a LONG day; today, Il Sogno would finally
become ours (although she was known as 'Our Little House' at the time).
We had an appointment with the Notary in Salerno at 5 pm & had
been warned to expect the formalities to take at least 4 hours, so
we'd already decided we would have lunch at Lido Santa Maria
by way of an advance celebration.
Lunchtime arrived & the skies were still blue as we took our
seats at the Lido. 5 minutes later the skies out beyond San Marco
were an ominous shade of grey, but hubby dismissed the
likelihood of a storm - how wrong was he!
The thunder began to rumble, the skies grew even darker,
the lightning began & the heavens opened....
A deluge of biblical proportions ensued - a river was literally
running alongside the Lido and 3 hours later there was no let up in sight.
We were supposed to be meeting Flavio from the Agency
at 4 pm for him to drive us to Salerno; it was becoming
obvious that we were still going to be stranded at the
Lido at the appointed hour. At 4.15 Flavio phoned,
"Your car is in the car park, where are you?"
"Stranded down at the Lido"
"OK, I'll drive down & pick you up" said Flavio - hero of the hour!
We set off for Salerno, the car windscreen wipers battling
against the torrential rain & all the traffic trundling
along at snail's pace. The drains couldn't cope with the deluge -
never before have I seen water spouts 2 or 3 feet high
gushing at the roadside.
Flavio fretted for the whole journey that we were going to
arrive late - I've never known an Italian turn up on time for anything.
However, the rain had eased somewhat by the time we reached
our destination. Loredana, one of the partners from the Agency
was waiting for us, & when we got to the Notary's we
found Alfredo 'vecchio' & his son (also Alfredo), the vendors, plus
Tiziana, the official translator who was costing us €400, had
all arrived before us.
The Notary & a couple of assistants kept entering & leaving the
office, introductions were finally made and, after a wait
of about 30 minutes, the proceedings began.
Notaio Capobianco inspected our passports & our carte di codice
fiscale (an essential requirement to be able to buy property in Italy
- no codice, no contract), and typed the details into
his computer before asking for 'young' Alfredo's details.
We had to state exactly how we'd paid for the property - €30k
deposit by International transfer back in May, the balance
on the day of completion. Then the details of everyone
present were entered - I think if the cleaning lady'd popped
her head round the door, she'd have been included in the
contract too!
Then followed the details of what commission had been
paid to the Agency by both parties, and even Tiziana's
€400 payment for her translation services formed
part of the contract - hubby had to write her cheque
in front of the Notary to satisfy him that we had indeed
made the payment.
Next the contract was translated into English by Tiziana before
being printed off in both English & Italian. Then
the interminable reading through of it began.
Firstly it was read out by Tiziana in English so that
we understood perfectly the contents and knew
what we were eventually going to be signing.
After the Notary read it out in Italian we finally came
to the signing - and that took another half an hour.
Each alternate page has to be signed by both parties,
and the witnesses. Tiziana signed it to confirm
she'd translated it into English for us & then
Notaio Capobianco signed it with a great flourish
(and we had to do this for both the English & the Italian
contracts). After which, he was first to congratulate us
on becoming the proud owners of our little bit of
heaven on a mountain in the Cilento.
 |
| 'Our Little House' aka Il Sogno back in April 2010 |
been warned to expect the formalities to take at least 4 hours, so
we'd already decided we would have lunch at Lido Santa Maria
by way of an advance celebration.
Lunchtime arrived & the skies were still blue as we took our
seats at the Lido. 5 minutes later the skies out beyond San Marco
were an ominous shade of grey, but hubby dismissed the
likelihood of a storm - how wrong was he!
The thunder began to rumble, the skies grew even darker,
the lightning began & the heavens opened....
 |
| Not an October storm, but a storm nevertheless |
running alongside the Lido and 3 hours later there was no let up in sight.
We were supposed to be meeting Flavio from the Agency
at 4 pm for him to drive us to Salerno; it was becoming
obvious that we were still going to be stranded at the
Lido at the appointed hour. At 4.15 Flavio phoned,
"Your car is in the car park, where are you?"
"Stranded down at the Lido"
"OK, I'll drive down & pick you up" said Flavio - hero of the hour!
We set off for Salerno, the car windscreen wipers battling
against the torrential rain & all the traffic trundling
along at snail's pace. The drains couldn't cope with the deluge -
never before have I seen water spouts 2 or 3 feet high
gushing at the roadside.
Flavio fretted for the whole journey that we were going to
arrive late - I've never known an Italian turn up on time for anything.
However, the rain had eased somewhat by the time we reached
our destination. Loredana, one of the partners from the Agency
was waiting for us, & when we got to the Notary's we
found Alfredo 'vecchio' & his son (also Alfredo), the vendors, plus
Tiziana, the official translator who was costing us €400, had
all arrived before us.
The Notary & a couple of assistants kept entering & leaving the
office, introductions were finally made and, after a wait
of about 30 minutes, the proceedings began.
Notaio Capobianco inspected our passports & our carte di codice
fiscale (an essential requirement to be able to buy property in Italy
- no codice, no contract), and typed the details into
his computer before asking for 'young' Alfredo's details.
We had to state exactly how we'd paid for the property - €30k
deposit by International transfer back in May, the balance
on the day of completion. Then the details of everyone
present were entered - I think if the cleaning lady'd popped
her head round the door, she'd have been included in the
contract too!
Then followed the details of what commission had been
paid to the Agency by both parties, and even Tiziana's
€400 payment for her translation services formed
part of the contract - hubby had to write her cheque
in front of the Notary to satisfy him that we had indeed
made the payment.
Next the contract was translated into English by Tiziana before
being printed off in both English & Italian. Then
the interminable reading through of it began.
Firstly it was read out by Tiziana in English so that
we understood perfectly the contents and knew
what we were eventually going to be signing.
After the Notary read it out in Italian we finally came
to the signing - and that took another half an hour.
Each alternate page has to be signed by both parties,
and the witnesses. Tiziana signed it to confirm
she'd translated it into English for us & then
Notaio Capobianco signed it with a great flourish
(and we had to do this for both the English & the Italian
contracts). After which, he was first to congratulate us
on becoming the proud owners of our little bit of
heaven on a mountain in the Cilento.
 |
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