Mike “Honey I’ll be back, I’m going down to the water hole”. Me “the what” … Mike “the water hole, you know where we fill up the water” 💦 . Ok, you go do that honey. The fresh water fountains are the best!
The update as of today Tuesday 3/16/2021. We were scheduled to stay until March 31st. When we heard Italy, specifically our region of Lazio was going back into a Red Zone as of yesterday… we thought hard about what to do. Not knowing the Italian laws or how strict it actually is, we figured why risk anything. We don’t have time to be arrested. According to what we read only necessities such as dr. Visits or grocery shopping is allowed. However due to electricity issues, today we went out to our local “Casa & Company” store and it was open & seemed to have the normal hustle going on. So who actually knows, we know nothing. We actually know less than nothing …we’re a hot mess.
We couldn’t call out, all the travel numbers we had were not allowing us to dial out. So luckily my best friend Kim (back in Boston) WhatsApp me and called from another phone, pretending to be Kerri Smart to the Chase travel agent. Here’s my plug for chase:) Prior to coming to Italy we had 2 flights canceled from Aerlingus & Delta. Chase handled everything! We got our Chase Freedom to use for points and traveling. Just using the card for all monthly bills etc., at home gave us enough points that this trip was zero out of pocket! All redeemed from points that we would be spending monthly anyway. We use it for everything except paying our car payment & mortgage. If you don’t have a travel credit card and you plan on purchasing a vacation home, I highly recommend the chase freedom. We did sign up for Bank of America as well, I feel Chase is best for our needs & very user friendly. Back to changing our flight..This trip was a cost of $1900.00 roughly (2 Round trip tickets from Orlando to Rome). When we switched to an earlier return now on Sunday, 3/21/21we received a $626.00 credit per passenger ☺️. We were shocked, things NEVER work out in our favor, EVER. Thanks Chase for all your assistance- and thanks Kim for being the best Kerri Smart ever! So we already have our next flight probably almost paid in full! That’s a win win. Go home a little early with a flight already paid to return.
We are going to return the car rental Saturday afternoon and then will check into the hotel in the Rome Fiumicino Airport. We have an early flight Sunday am. We will need to get our covid test we believe 48 hrs prior. I’ll keep you posted on how the departure goes. The arrival wasn’t not bad at all. Praying it’s a smooth departure.
On Sunday we did our final crash shopping knowing the lockdown started Monday. We hit Bricoman and discovered everyone in Rome was thinking the same thing. They were allowing about 20 in when a group would come out. We waited about 20 minutes to get in, not too bad. We grabbed everything we could think we’d need, knowing we’d probably forgotten everything we will need once home. I hate rush shopping.
Mike has gone to school for electricity and we have never hired an electrician…We got some new light fixtures at IKEA and he’s been gradually switching the old, some broken flush mounts. Easy peasy! Nope. Last night after switching one in the living room ALL the power went out except for our bathroom. Here we go! A WhatsApp message to our neighbor, who contacted a local electrician for us. Unfortunately, he couldn’t come until 6pm today. It was about 8 pm yesterday and we hadn’t eaten supper yet and now we have no power. Mike somehow rigged this and that and bypassed something to something else.
I don’t ask questions because I trust him. But, electricity scares the crap out of me! We were able to make dinner, keep a space heater on and get to bed. Let’s see what tomorrow brings I thought.
Today, we ran out for the supplies to fix the electric. Like I said Mike is quite smart at home in the US, he’s actually Jack of All Trades, Master of All. He is a licensed home inspector in Florida. But, dealing with old track lighting/ wiring is a bit different. As I type this the main power is off and he’s installing new wiring. He had to eliminate the shorted wires. For anyone understanding this good for you LOL. Say a prayer he fixes it and the Italian electrician coming a 6:00 tonight can be called off. Another expense we didn’t plan for! The plumbing situation set us back $200.00 euros. Not bad, but that’s because Mike himself did the 6 hours of labor exposing the corroded pipe and breaking up the tiles and concrete.
While we were out we stopped at another small appliance place and purchased a new washer machine. The one here is definitely from the 70’s. There is not a functioning spin cycle so clothes take 3-4 days to dry. It’s been chilly and damp outside. Using the existing clothes line took a “how to hang laundry on the line 101”. Yes,the first day the line broke, yes the clothes fell out from the bedroom window… yes I thought how the hell do all the old nonna’s do this?!
Come on Kerri you can do this! I assure you, it’s not as easy as you think.
* This flipping thing will not allow edits. I can’t wait for WiFi. Speaking of WiFI, I called Vodafone & told them we’re leaving early to cancel the contract and we will hopefully get the modem next trip. You can say not having WiFi isn’t that bad, it isn’t. Until you need to get in touch with a professional or contact the electric company to upgrade, and nothing sends or downloads documents. It’s not all about social media, just trying to get through your average day requires WiFi.
The sunsets here are incredible. Even after the most stressful – pull my hair out and have a temper tantrum kinda day… the sunset brings me back to reality. We bought a (we honestly don’t know the age of the house) home. It’s going to have issues and problems and require upgrades…but to look out our window to the amazing mountains and know we’re in Italy. We did this! We’re doing this! It’s coming along… maybe not today- but it’s coming along.
We expect our new washer machine delivered today after 3:00 pm And removal of the old one.. we think. We pray that’s what we communicated LOL. I’ll keep you posted on that too!! Flipping google translate needs an upgrade! Update…. Mike successfully fixed the electricity issue! Thank you Jesus!
