Early Retirement Extreme Forums

We arrived and were greeted by the owner of the very nice hotel, a jovial middle aged criminal defense attorney in the nearby city of Foggia who is also the mayor of the village. He spoke fluent English but indulged Mrs. Ego her desire to practice her Duolingo Italian.

After a short stroll around the village we found the house where my great-grandmother was born. Sitting on a wall outside, an elderly woman asked what we were up to. We began to explain. Within moments women were drawn by the commotion and we were surrounded by a group, all trying to help us in different ways. An attractive woman in her forties said she recognized the surname and called a friend who said she would check with family.

The next morning the mayor/hotelier informed us that word had spread and our relative would be coming for breakfast. A fiftyish woman was sitting at the table when we came down and the mayor introduced us. I showed her some of the genealogical records I had collected over the years while she peppered her mother with questions by phone. She explained that her mother and sister spoke English and asked us to follow her home, so off we went. She led us to a beautiful, large, modern home at the top of the village and introduced us to her elderly parents.

Her mother had lived in the US for five years in the 1950s, knew many details about our family and had visited my great-grandmother who had lived in Orange, New Jersey. Her other daughter and the daughter's West African husband both work for the UN in Istanbul and were home for a short visit. We sat around their dining room table, drinking coffee while five simultaneous conversations overlapped one another in Italian, English, French and me throwing in Spanish words every so often. It felt very much like the salon Mrs. Ego's grandmother once presided over every Saturday afternoon in her Tijuana compound.

The realtor had never confirmed the appointment to see the home and we saw that it was occupied by an elderly woman, so we did not follow up. That said, about 30% of the properties were abondoned and had small for sale placards.on the doors. Despite that, the village was surprisingly alive and well maintained. Most of the residents are elderly, but there is a medical center, a nice restaurant/bar, a beautiful main street with churches at both ends and a regular produce vendor who set up in the main square.

The architecture of the heart of the village has largely remained unchanged for hundreds of years.

Those in the village who are thriving work elsewhere but come back for the tranquility and family.

All in all, an incredible experience. More to follow when I am not limited to typing on my phone.

That sounds like a great experience, to be back among "your" people, even though you don't know them, still there is a bond and perhaps a feeling of belonging.

I am wondering about the region in general, does it seem to have a high or low level of interpersonal conflict, bickering, or disagreement? Do people get along? Is it a place of polite people? I am just looking for a few comments on the character of the people in the region.

I ask because where I live there is a lot of political disagreement, and it would be nice to find a less polarized place to spend some time.

sky wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 14, 2023 9:07 am

I am wondering about the region in general, does it seem to have a high or low level of interpersonal conflict, bickering, or disagreement?

Well, this is Italy, a country where bickering and disagreement are Olympic sports. Truthfully, I have no idea. Maybe @seppia knows. I believe southern Italians are more emotional than northerners, but their passion for governmental affairs may be limited to their enthusiasm for tax evasion.

sky wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 14, 2023 9:07 am

I ask because where I live there is a lot of political disagreement, and it would be nice to find a less polarized place to spend some time.

One advantage to living somewhere where you don't speak much of the local language is you can easily tune out all that sort of thing and there's a lot less to worry about. Ignorance really can be bliss.

I suppose it is naive of me to think that there is some Shangri-La place out there where people are happy, friendly and kind to each other. If there is such a place, I imagine it to be like a small town in Italy.

The “small town dynamics” in Italy are very similar to the ones that happen here in the USA. People are generally less in a rush, friendlier on average, etc.

Some differences:

We definitely have less political polarization.
there are more parties, so unless you find two people on the very opposite extremes, there isn’t the “us” and “them” mentality that sometimes is present here in the USA.
If you’re sitting at a table with 8 people there is a real chance votes were cast for 4-5 different parties.
Harder to fall into entrenched factions when there are more points of view.

The food is unquestionably healthier and the ingredients are usually of way better quality (exclusions: beef, fish if the Italian town is not in the sea).

We drive much smaller cars

It's interesting to note that cuisine also tends towards healthier in parts of the U.S./world where climate tends towards being similar to Italy. Even the Native Americans in Northern Michigan were down to eating nothing but Parched Corn (Fritos) and Venison Preserved in Maple Syrup (Slim JIm Sausage Stick) by mid-January.

sky wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:31 am

I suppose it is naive of me to think that there is some Shangri-La place out there where people are happy, friendly and kind to each other. If there is such a place, I imagine it to be like a small town in Italy.

These places exist in the US as well. They are normally found at the end of the road.

Seppia wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:51 am

.
We definitely have less political polarization.
there are more parties, so unless you find two people on the very opposite extremes, there isn’t the “us” and “them” mentality that sometimes is present here in the USA.
If you’re sitting at a table with 8 people there is a real chance votes were cast for 4-5 different parties.
Harder to fall into entrenched factions when there are more points of view.

Interesting observation that never occurred to me.

Seppia wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:51 am

We drive much smaller cars

For good reason.. I just filled the van from 1/3rd to full for 125 euros, and another few euros for Adblue.

We averaged 7.6L/100K or 31 mpg. Not too bad for a campervan. We will do this again.

Ego wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2023 12:24 pm

We averaged 7.6L/100K or 31 mpg. Not too bad for a campervan. We will do this again.

Where you heading next Ego ? Baveria is great in the Autumn

A few days in Venice then home to SoCal.

Another surprise was how well we were able to continue to manage the property from afar.

A timelapse view from our Airbnb window this morning. We are staying in a residential neighborhood of Venice with a school just down the canal.
https://imgur.com/nypoQws

Ego wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 17, 2023 1:23 am

A timelapse view from our Airbnb window this morning. We are staying in a residential neighborhood of Venice with a school just down the canal.
https://imgur.com/nypoQws

Lovely

6am flight. Seemed silly to pay for a hotel for such a short night as we would have to leave absurdly early to arrived at the airport on time. So we put the luggage in storage using Bounce, enjoyed the day in Venice, then retrieved the luggage, took the inexpensive water bus to the airport at night and set up for a short night's sleep.



Just as we were bedding down I received a text from the airline saying our flight was cancelled with no explanation as to why. The airline's bot rebooked us to arrive home about 8 hours after our originally scheduled time. Apparently the EU has a rule that if this happens, the airline must reimbursed you €600 each as long as you complete the application process. If true, that makes our flights almost free. Has anyone ever applied for reimbursement through the EU website? Any tips? Thanks!

Yes, I and my dd have both claimed successfully a few times because of cancellations/delays.
We used an agency that works on a no cure no pay basis. If successful, they charge a fee, around 20-25% if I remember correctly.
Note that you only have right for compensation if the airline is responsible and can be blamed for the delay/cancellation (there are specific rules for this). It can take quite some time, i.e. months or longer.
If you need any help, feel free to reach out.

Ego wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 20, 2023 7:43 am

Apparently the EU has a rule that if this happens, the airline must reimbursed you €600 each as long as you complete the application process [...] Has anyone ever applied for reimbursement through the EU website? Any tips?

AirHelp. They take care of the submission and all the back-and-forth for a fee. Don't expect it to be a quick process!

I've recently got 600 euro back by directly going to the website. You should have gotten a flyer with information about your rights. You can of course use a third party, but all I had to do was fill out an online form on the airline's website and wait for a bit.

Quadalupe wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 21, 2023 10:59 am

I've recently got 600 euro back by directly going to the website. You should have gotten a flyer with information about your rights. You can of course use a third party, but all I had to do was fill out an online form on the airline's website and wait for a bit.

In my experience, it depends a a bit on the airline. Some are easy and will pay you without any discussion. Some might tell you the delay was because of XYZ and therefore you are not entitled to a compensation. A 3rd party knows how to deal with these excuses.

You can ofcourse first try yourself, it it doesn't work, try using a 3rd party.

Thanks folks. It was Air Dolomiti which is somehow related to Lufthansa. I will give it a try myself. If I fail, I will appeal using one of the services. It looks like AirHelp takes a 35% cut, which is rather steep.

600 Euros. NICE!

If they resist, it's likely the standard situation of you just needing to keep asking about it to show them that you aren't going to give up/forget/let it slide.