Blogging Dilemma: When Virtual Visitors Become Real

Is it a dilemma or is it not, when virtual visitors to your blog become real visitors to your life?

It depends. It depends on the intention of your blog and it depends on the visitor. It is not a dilemma when you want to sell something or rent something. And it is also not a dilemma when someone who became a "blogging friend" after a while of emailing back and forward agrees with you to meet in real life.

Yesterday, Angelo sent me an email saying an American couple stopped by and asked if they can see the house. They "knew" it via my blog. He showed them around and they said they will leave a comment on my blog about that visit.

So what would you say? How would you feel, while sitting thousands of miles away?

I can't blame Angelo, he is just proud of showing his work to someone who is interested. Not many visitors in Pizzo anyway at that time of the year. He is open minded and not chicken-hearted like me. And we have not yet had the situation that someone totally stranger would ask permission to have a sneak peak inside.

Then of course, this question suggests itself : "what is the point of blogging about all this ?"

The best thing of blogging about our renovation is, that we are getting some fantastic feedback and valuable input from readers who are interior designer, architects or interested, creative people with great taste and ideas like some family members and friends. Also family and friends are kept updated that way, as the renovation takes ages. Another very important aspect of keeping this blog alive is, that this blog helps us to document the whole work process and to get the best photos, manufacturers, inspirations etc. filed with tags.

My Italian family is very open about my blog. However, my German family does shake their heads about it: What if some crazy guy gets jealous and burns the house down? - While this is a bit exaggerated, a crazy guy might not look up the Internet for potential houses to burn down and travel far ... it might be a neighbour, however, looking for an opportunity to sue us for something.

That's why I am very wary and careful myself. And shy. I have only one blurred picture of myself, no pictures of my son, one picture of my husband from behind and very few from my Italian in-laws. Most personal pictures are from Angelo as he seems okay with seeing his picture and name in cyber space. Actually, I think, he even enjoys it. However, I am very discreet. Very selective with pictures. Very thoughtful with words, information, names and other details. (Did you realize, I did not mention from which US city these visitors came from?)

Of course, Angelo and CC cannot understand that I make all this thinking about this little incident (virtual visitors to my blog becoming real visitors).

So I asked Angelo to handle the next tourists who show up and request a tour of the house, to show them our semiinterrato, the beautiful basement and garden that will be available for rent one day. The upper parts, although not decorated yet, are private. I hope everyone understands and respects my protective reaction. Maybe just in time, before our house becomes a tourist attraction ...

"La Donna Napoletana"

our house with street festival deco

My neighbour brought me flowers to welcome us as new neighbours in the street.
How nice and thoughtful !
See the flower pots on the balcony above the entrance.

The funny side of the story is that when she brought the flowers and knocked on the door, we were not there. A worker let her in.

And I can imagine her face when she entered the house...

... and saw this welcoming entrance !

I am telling everybody and here on the blog that we started the renovation OUTSIDE.
And that we have NOT finished inside.

The house is not liveable yet.

Really !

I know, it looks so beautiful from the outside, that one cannot imagine that it is still a construction site inside ! Yes it is !!

So I have told my neighbour. But she must have been dazzeled by the beauty, and the fact, that in Calabria usually the houses are finished inside first - if at all. Some have no colour on their outside since 30, 40 years.

But she is not the only neighbour these days thinking we have moved in.
Signore R. wanted to take the balloons off our front door at the night of the street festival. He thought we need to go in and out.

When I answered, no need, we are done for today...
He asked: But are you not sleeping here ?

I laughed and opened the door wide for him to take a look.

"So, your house is like a donna Napoletana - bella di fuori e brutta di dentro ... - beautiful outside and ugly inside !


(Remark: I don't know this saying above about the donna Napoletana, the woman from Napels, maybe it means the city of Napels which is just pretty on the surface. If it means the women, from what I know, the housewifes of the South are cleaning their homes like crazy and leave their garbage on the beaches. So it would be the other way round: clean and pretty inside and dirty outside. - Any suggestions ?)

What you need to know when buying property in Italy

"Missing building licenses and faulty cadastral registers („registro immobiliare”) can change the dream of a holiday residence into a nightmare. German home loan banks (Bausparkassen) are warning of pitfalls especially in Southern Italy."

In this post I partly translated an article that I found online via Financial Time Deutschland, 2004. I deem it necessary for interested property buyers to know some Italian specialties:

"Real estate in the Southern Italian provinces of Apulia, Campania and Calabria is still offered at good prices. The problem in these provinces is that often houses have been built without building license.

Nowadays, the authorities are controlling more strictly the building licences. Is a license missing or falsified, the owner needs to pay penalty or - worst case - demolition is requested. In consequence some owners try to sell quick and at attractive prices.
Therefore German home loan banks are warning of buying Italian property that is located South of Rome, and they do not accept these properties as security for a loan.

Deficient Cadastral registers in South Italy

Even if a house was legally built, there could be problems for the buyer, because the cadastral registers in many South Italian communities are insufficiently managed. Often encumbrances or partition of a property are not recorded. A perfect flawless cadastral register is no guarantee, that the buyer is buying the whole property or that it is encumbrance free.

Licensing Requirements prohibit modification or extension

Other problems might occur when buying a rustico in Italy. In some communities exists licensing requirements that prohibit that old farm houses can be modified or extended. It is recommended to get a lawyer or architect who should check before acquiring a property, if a) the building is in line with any building license and b) if the planned modifications or extensions are allowed. The German consumer protection recommends: You should not alone rely on the statements made by the owner who wants to sell or the real estate agent."

Details about Italian land register systems

In Italy are existing two different systems of land registration or cadastral registration. This has an historical background. While in some Northern provinces the principle of the 'constituent publicity' is in place, in all other Italian provinces the French tradition of land registration is in place.

1. The first system, the principle of 'constituent publicity' from 1929 means that the registration of a property at the land registry is legally binding. If you are registered as owner you are the owner by law. This is comparable with the principles of land registration in Austria and Germany.

2. However in the rest of Italy the actual system is based on the duty of cadastral registration without 'constituent publicity'. The registration has no healing effect when the transfer of property has deficiencies. Only by 'adverse possession' the deficiency can be cured. The period for adverse possession is 20 years (Art. 1158 Codice Civile), in case of good faith 10 years (Art. 1159 Codice Civile).

Therefore the buyer's notary and lawyer should do an intensive research about ownership and possible encumbrances or partition of the property by going back 20 years !

sources:
Financial Time Deutschland, 2004
and
Italian land register law by Maître Giampettro Danieli & Rechtsanwalt Dr. Götz-Sebastian Hök

Precipitevolissimevolmente !

When you want to say 'as soon as possible' in Italian language it might be too late... because you will not be able to finish this word of 26 letters in time: "Precipitevolissimevolmente finish the facade and install the windows!"

Is this maybe the secret behind la dolce vita, that this word is just unpronounceable ?

Does 'as soon as possible' just does not exist in the Italian every day life?

Ah, it is not that romantic, of course different expressions are possible, egg prima possibile.

The history of precipitevolissimevolmente (hey, slowly I can remember it) and the longest Italian word can be found here (in Italian).

Italian Feelings

In the previous post I have introduced Angelo. He is my father-in-law and he is a big fan of my blog. Maybe the biggest. He tells everybody about this blog and to google 'Palazzo Pizzo'. He follows my blog regularly and he tells me when I wrote important Italian words wrong, like 'tartufo', the famous ice cream invented in Pizzo. Recently he even made me alter some post content for some serious reason. Read this:

When arriving here in Calabria about two weeks ago, I wrote about the new convenience of a direct flight from Germany to Calabria. In the original post I said that flying directly is so much better than flying with Alitalia and having to change planes with delays and loss of luggage. The next day, Angelo said to me: You cannot write that about Alitalia, this is not nice to say, also it is most of the time the fault of the airport staff when loosing luggage ...

Okay, I thought, I do not want to hurtt Italian feelings and mess with Italian national institutions, no problem to delete the name of the airline. Also I don't want to get sued by it (like the guy who created www.f#ckalitalia.com, the website I found last year when I was doing research for my lost suitcase for which I had to wait one week).

So I corrected my post. Deleted the name of the Italian Airline and also the one of the German Airline. To be fair. No product placement in my blog.

And you know what?
The same day at dinner, by the way, Angelo mentioned, that he had bought a remarkable amount of shares of - guess what Italian company?
---------------
(Alitalia).