For anyone who might be thinking about restoring a villa in the Italian countryside, this is my one best piece of advice: be a locarenovator! Source your contractor, geometra and materials from the community in which you’re building.
Godzilla's contractor Angelo with baby and wife Stefania (who's part of the family who runs the local bar and restaurant)
We’ve made a lot of mistakes with our villa – mostly with regards to understanding how much stuff actually had to be done to make it livable, and how much money it would take. More about that tale of woe another time! The one thing we have done right is to hire people who live within a 20 minute drive, and to buy our materials from about the same radius. Why is this so important?
Geometra Nadia, who somehow always knows what I'm trying to say even when I complete massacre the grammar.
For one thing, everyone who’s got something to do with the outcome knows each other. They all run into each other (and sometimes us) at the bar, the bakery, or Saturday night’s festa. They went to school together. They know each others’ babies. Their interconnection is vital for getting things done.
And, more than that, I believe fervently that the project, however sporadic our activity, should benefit the community in which we seek to be welcome. It seems only right.
One last piece of advice: learn the language. You can’t participate if you don’t. You end up being a mere stranger demanding service, and it will never be as good. Italians are the most forgiving people on earth towards those who butcher their beautiful language, so there’s really no excuse. Go forth fearlessly and learn to be local.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. We have tried to buy local while we were furnishing this apartment, with the exception of the Ikea wardrobes we bought near Florence. We bought all of our electrical appliances in the village, which means we get great service if something goes wrong.
With the house we are building we have gone local and it’s great for all the reasons you mention.
I had a feeling you’d agree!
Excellent advice as we made the mistake of employing a geometra from a community an hour away – we then discovered he and the building company are one and the same and we are currently at a standstill while we try to break our contracts after realising we were being well and truly ripped off.
Our local community has come to the fore with support and we are receiving lots of advice and fair estimates to eventually complete the work once we have overcome this major hurdle.
Ouch. Unfortunate that you had to reach a crisis to make this discovery, but so great that your community is coming to your rescue. Our estate agent did recommend a geometra to us from a larger city, and we did meet with him at the start, but we didn’t get a good feeling from him. I think that was very lucky in the end, because it drove us to our lovely Nadia.
We have always done that, as it helps the local economy and it establishes a great relationship with the people who live and work in the area. The same applies to everiday’s shopping. This way we help the local economy.
Totally agree. Every trip through town to pick up groceries and whatnot is a chance to reaffirm social bonds, especially if your town is small. And it makes the outing so much more fun.
Great advice Shelagh. This is a beautiful approach and I’m sure your project will be so much more fantastic as a result. Plus you’ll have so many more new friends to enjoy it with later on. The point about language is really important too. I agree with everything you say!! Jx
My language skills are deteriorating now that I live away from Italy most of the time, but Italians have an amazing ability to understanding what you’re trying to say. I keep promising myself to spend a month with my grammar books before I visit.