Pecora’s Folly or how to buy a house in Italy

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Pecora Nera • Posted in home • Tagged an englishman in italy, bathroom, Buying a house in Italy, expat, Fräulein, fun expats, Greytek property management, home, humour, life, Pecora Nera, Renovating a house in italy, travel • 7 Comments

To say I am gutted is an understatement. Today I was supposed to sign to purchase our new house. The champagne was chilling in the fridge. I had taken time off from work so that I could spend time with our builder and Fräulein to look at the house and put the plans together to bring it back to life. Yesterday the estate agent copied me in an email saying the signing has to be postponed because one of the old dears who is selling the house is in hospital and they are waiting for her to be discharged (or to say goodbye to this world). I don’t normally swear in my blog but. oh bugger!

I shouldn’t really be surprised after all this is Italy.

January I fell in love with an old house in the countryside, the house is a 35 minute drive from our little house in our cute village. I persuaded Fräulein to come and have a look at it, even though we haven’t finished decorating this house. There are a couple of things that need to be said about this new house, first, it is beautiful, second, it is huge and third, parts of the house date from the 1800s.

Fräulein and I made a life change about three years ago when we started to look after houses for Americans and stopped teaching English to sticky horrible Italian children. This progressed after we organised for a roof to be repaired at one house, then a kitchen fitted in another house and now we project manage complete house restructuring. We even have a website Greytek

While searching for a home for a client, I dropped upon this house, it didn’t suit their requirements, for example they actually wanted a kitchen and a bathroom and this house only has one cold water tap and a sink.. But I love it and it has great potential.

The house might not have a bathroom (there is a toilet in the garden) but is has a huge garden, I have managed to persuade Fräulein that I need a red tractor to mow the acre and a half of garden. Next we will argue over who gets to drive it.

Anyway, the price they wanted for the house and land was more than we wanted to pay so we haggled and managed to drop the price by 35%.

I thought it might be interesting over the coming months to add a few blogs of the purchase process of buying this house, and no doubt the tears and swearing that will happen as we restructure the house and finally instal a toilet and kitchen in the house.

The new date for signing the house purchase deeds is next Wednesday so don’t hold your breath.

Fräulein is going to buy some nice soft loo roll for the toilet and a place to put some newspapers and magazines..

Oh! I need some help thinking of a name for this house. Pecora’s Folly might not be appropriate, so start thinking and bounce me some ideas over.

Vignale Monferrato / A Brick Fetish

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Pecora Nera • Posted in home • Tagged englishman in italy, humour, travel, Vignale Monferrato • 13 Comments

Vignale is famous for its dance festival, the crazy Englishman who lives there and it’s obsession with bricks.

Everywhere you look there are bricks, let me give you a quick example. This beautiful red bench was carfully positioned, in such a way that two bricks could be incorporated.

Some of you will be thinking that I have photoshopped the picture or I put the bricks there, let me assure you, this time I am not guilty.

So have a look at this next picture, you can clearly see the road repairers had to tarmac around the bench. They obviously couldn’t obtain permission to move the bench and disturb the bricks.

By now you will begin to see this is no little obsession, but a full blown brick fetish.

I don’t know when the fetish for bricks started, it is not as though Vignale makes bricks and has an excess of them, However a stroll down the main road and you can find strategically placed bricks under benches, just waiting for someone to put them to good use.

In a week or so, when enough bricks have been left under the bench, the brick fairy will stick them under one or more of the legs of the bench.

Did I mention the village it build on a steep hill…… ok it is. In fact if you spend any time stood sideways, for example looking into a shop window, one of your legs will start to ache. The clever residences have solved the problem

It is called A PorterBrick. With this ingenious little device it is possible to stand sideways on the hill without your legs hurting.

I think the local council give every new resident a brick when they move to the village and I think visitors can hire a brick, but it is important not to lose it.

Here is a brick that has been worn down by excessive use and has been left next to the rubbish bin waiting to be recycled.

So next time you are passing through Monferrato come and have a look at the village with the brick fetish and who knows, you might see me sat in the bar working hard on my computer.

Helppppp!!!

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Pecora Nera • Posted in Work • Tagged an englishman in italy, englishman, expat, help, italian, italy, language, languages, panic, serbia, translation, translator, travel • 2 Comments

Quick post

I am going to Serbia for 5 days to act as a translator for one of our Italian engineers,

All week I have tried to point out the full extent of my Italian. ie

Grappa,
Si,
No,
Destra a sinistra,
Scusi, io sono inglese,
Dov’è il bagno? / dove è mia moglie?
Mi piace / non mi piace,
Tsk, no, ho capito niente (with a shake of the head)

and various swear words that I have picked up along the way.

I thought the office was winding me up, but no today I have just received the flight and hotel booking.

It has reinforced my opinion that Italians are Pazzo. Oh need to add Pazzo to the above list.