One at a time please

This morning we yet again spent quality time with Mario; at this rate he’ll be coming for Christmas. On this occasion, though, it was to get things rolling with the sale of the property.

We started off at the house, where Stephen and Mario walked around the edge of the land deciding where the boundary line would go, with Mario marking the agreed area with old metal rods. Did we want an extra metre or two that would take us to the edge of his barley field? Well, no, because what could we do with a ditch, other than drive a car into it? Did we want to include his barn? Again no, not at an extra €20,000, besides his hay bales and old farm machinery add a quirky touch as you drive into the property. I tried to feign interest but failed miserably, being more concerned with deciding where the sun would fall at various times of the day and that the terrazzo would make a fine place to work in the morning as it was fully shaded by the house.

After this we went, in Mario’s car, to the branch of his bank in the town. This was most exciting for me, being my first time not only in an Italian bank but in an air lock too. To explain: we had to go to see his bank manager so we could obtain his IBAN number to pay a deposit on the house. To get into the bank you have to put any bag, umbrella or other item that could be concealing a weapon or explosive in a locker before standing in what is more or less an airlock, only without decompression. When Stephen stood on the round metal plate and the curved door slid into place behind him, he had not left his bag outside and therefore lights flashed and an automated voice advised him what to do. This being Italy, though, the woman at the counter inside just overrode the control, opened the corresponding curved door and waved him through. This meant that I didn’t even get any flashing lights on my passage through time and space, which was a bit of a disappointment.

Once the IBAN number had been obtained, we got back in the car and drove round to the other side of MSP and went through a door in a wall. Actually, it was a door next to a large frosted glass window, and it went into the offices of the notary or solicitor or lawyer. I’m not sure which as no one actually bothered to explain to me what was going on – but I was fully expecting to see a white rabbit at any moment. Inside, a very nice man called Giordano, listened and made notes amidst much jollity and laughter, augmented by the arrival of a freshly spruced Luigi, whom we had last seen shooting up the hill on his scooter after a quick visit to the house see how the discussions had been going earlier. I was pleased to see that he had put on long trousers and a shirt to mark the occasion. Luigi’s main concern was for his tomatoes, which he has planted in the allotment (or lotto) on what will soon be our land. Seemingly he is trying out a new variety that doesn’t need much water (which does make me wonder how they flesh out – are they a special pea sized variety?). Stephen, the wag that he is, took great delight in claiming them as ours. Oh, they did laugh, while I stared at the hills outside Giordano’s window, an inscrutable smile playing on my lips.

We were then joined by a sixth person, who I am led to believe is something to do with drawing up the new document showing what land will actually be ours. I’m sure that there was a lot of profitable discussion going on, but there was also much waving of hands and people talking over each other: business Italian style. At one point, nice Mr Giordano looked at me, smiled and shook his head. Exactly, I thought.

The upshot of all this is that we have to go back on Monday, after we have transferred the deposit, and both parties will sign a sale/purchase agreement which will stipulate that the process has to be completed by 10th July. In spite of all the histrionics, that seems pretty fast and efficient to me.

Elsewhere, I had my usual lesson with Alessandro in the afternoon, which meant I was not able to go with Stephen to return the car and face the interrogation as to how its chassis came to be a virtual wreck. However, Stephen was able to answer with impunity that no, it hadn’t been involved in any incidents with any other vehicles, and when the mechanic came in to say that he had looked at the car and it was all fine, it proved yet again what someone somewhere has been smiling down on us this week.