Auto schiacciata da un albero, acquisto casa rimandato e fuga di gas
- salli443
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 13 hours ago
Car crushed by a tree, delayed home purchase and a gas leak, it always comes in threes! Plus, we are now living in an apartment without paying rent or bills, though things have not gone entirely to plan. 🤷♀️
At least the new three bedroom and two bathroom apartment we moved into and are soon to complete the sale on is adequately swish and comfy! Plus, we have enjoyed living in it for one week now, and all the removal boxes are gone, with help from FB Marketplace interest. But the big shame is, that no sale exchange or completion went ahead as planned one week ago, largely due to technical plan issues and meticulously slow bank arrangements. Yet we are living here scot-free, waiting for the sale to finalise.
Must have done something right in our lives to be lucky enough to buy a tiny slice of a sixteenth century Tuscan Villa, or tower house/small castle as it's called here. It's just off one of the main eight roman roads ~ Viae Romanae, and not far from the autostrada. Ironically, our last house was also a sixteen hundreds era tower house, and equally fit for a scene of Rapunzel (Petrosinella in Italian), or Romeo & Juliet, with similar height and "roadside appeal". Only this time we have a ground floor apartment. Beware of bungalow legs.
I shall miss the gorgeous dog walking territory in Fiesole, as we traipse up and around Impruneta hills instead. There are so many photos of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore from a distance on my mobile from life there over the last year, that it could be classed as stalking a building. We won't miss the skinny and windy roads which made navigating them quite tricky. Our car has injuries to prove that, though now a tree branch falling has totally crushed it today, this subtle damage pales into insignificance.
As I wrote this blog, my husband literally narrowly escaped a serious (could have been fatal) injury. A huge tree branch fell on our car when parked in central Florence, just as he was getting out of it. The police are thankfully on their way.
So relieved that my fella is okay, though he is quite shaken up, understandably. This is also thousands of pounds worth of damage to the car, holy crap. Hope the police get there pretty darn soon. He lives to tell his story, and there is a lot to be said for maintaining rotting trees regularly.
Meanwhile, back to the removals... We used the British removals company 'Express Movers' when vacating our home in the UK last year (which we sold). Everything was put into local storage before arranging international delivery to Florence in Tuscany. https://www.expressmovers.co.uk/
This was our house this time of the year in the UK. The magnolia tree would bloom and only last a week or so before the snow or frost got it. Doubt we will have that problem here.
The cost for international removals of 56m3 of household goods was £8,000 in late 2025. The lorry finally left the UK last October, headed to Italy. We used 'Camero Removals' for this, and wrote the full itinerary ourselves on removals day, as no-one else seemed to be doing it, which was mildly concerning. https://www.cameroremovals.com/ Here is the lorry on its way to Italia, with our belongings.
Short on luck at the moment, as not only has the sale not gone through for our apartment purchase in Italy, but the Europcar van won't fit through the height restriction gate at the previous current rental property! All our things from there had to be manually carried down a sweeping driveway. It was definitely an 'arms day' that day.
Here is the challenging driveway, which we combatted and navigated well. It's now a case of accepting that removals days will always bring hiccups of some kind or another. Just like when buying a property, things are out of our control and with completion date looming, it's a tad stressy. We await advice from the solicitor on when this will be, whilst she tells us to remain calm... Don't think we have any other option?
We loaded up and headed to the storage unit 'Maurizio Miliani' in Florence, to move our UK furniture and goods to the new apartment. We have used this storage space since last year https://www.traslochifirenze.it/ and highly recommend Maurizio's friendly service. They were super accommodating when our UK delivery kept changing the arrival times and date. Nice guys, with immaculate units for hire and ample free parking nearby. Costs us €560 a month, and this is reduced to €305 now, since we took a lot out to go to the new apartment.
Meanwhile, here is Al, driving the van in front of me, with the first full load headed to the new property. It took six journeys in all. Five from the storage unit to the apartment and one from the current Fiesole rental, oof.
We were quoted €4,000 + iva at 22% = €4880 for pro removals from the Florence storage unit to our Impruneta apartment. But the Europcar rental from the Novoli branch only cost circa. €400 for 5 days hire. https://www.europcar.it/it-it/places/noleggio-auto-italy/firenze/florence-novoli We did the full move ourselves and have achey arms, necks and legs, as well as a ton of bruises to show for it. It was masochistic fun, whilst being utterly exhausting. Daisy was a cute van dog sitting high up in front.
Here is some of the load on removals day, plus a bored teenager, two cats, a tortoise, and a high-energy dog behind the scenes.
Here is a red carpet that we didn't mean to bring to Italy. Last used outside for a jubilee celebration in the UK. It was a 'work do' we had at our house, as we are no royalists ~ though I do like Prince William and Princess Catherine.
Mixed emotions when rummaging through everything, with many memories revisited. Such as photos of my late mum and of the children when they were younger, pre-teen (when life was easier), and random cards and gifts from friends when leaving the UK. Forgot too, that I did a naked calendar for the charity 'Trees for London' [me on the right]. Former married name: Salli Graham Lawrence. Not sure I'll hang this framed photo on the wall in our new apartment, but for sure it was the first and last time I ever read the Financial Times newspaper.
Back to work... We reduced our stored furniture load and now wish to sell what we don't have room for. Anyone in Florence looking for a good quality yellow sofa or two, or a fleur de lys chair or solid wood cabinets, dressers and chests of drawers - one is dated 1782... Or, a posh desk, antique coffee table or Victorian commode, no?
Left it all tidy at least.
At this point we deserve sainthood for our patience with the house sale we made our offer on months ago. Buying property in Italy can take 2–9 months, and we’re only six months in, so patience is key. Besides, we came here to slow down and enjoy life. The Italian pace is far more relaxed, and as a former conveyancer when working as a trainee Solicitor, I can’t help notice how much more personal and emotional the process feels compared to the UK’s efficient but less human approach. Though, when asking to see the revised technical plans, I was told to stay tranquilla (as everyone else is) instead of receiving the requested information, ha. Anyway, look at this old battered thing! There was a gas leak at the entrance of the new property, where the metres are. Given the cost of it these days, we weren't going to sit on that dilemma for when we do get billed. Thankfully, the engineer addressed it within an hour of call out. Good man. He sprayed liquid soap on the pipes and units to locate the leak, and then switched the entire thing out.
Gratitude is:
A fixed gas leak, a car towed to the repair shop, an eventual successful house purchase and sweet memories relived. Because if the last week has proven anything, it’s that life doesn’t slow down just because you move to Tuscany, it just becomes a bit more dramatic, a little more beautiful, and a lot more edgy. In fact, it has been a much needed (but brutal) lesson in patience.
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