I agree with all the above - it's a great system. The 'trading' (possibly the wrong word!) between people is also useful. Last year during the mushroom season we met an old lady while we were working on the olive trees and, being the local expert (unknown to us at the time) we asked her about the different types we had growing on the property and gave her a free hand to come up and pick them. She duly did so and went off very happy with a large basket full. A couple of days later we came home to find a huge bag of cachi fruit on the doorstep! A week or so later through another chance meeting we ended up at her house for a coffee. An hour or so later we went home with two bottles of homemade wine, grapes, various leaves to make tisanes, more fruit, instructions on what to do with our olives to 'cure' them and an insight into how local people swap goods. Wonderful. Also some veg are very easy to grow over here, so an orto can save euros too. One thing I miss is the second-hand shops, but did eventually find one that sells everything imaginable. We picked up a few items of furniture and several rugs at reasonable prices, though perhaps not as cheaply as one could have done in UK. We often see the older people out picking wild greenery and I would love to know what this is all about. I'm sure that there is a lot of wild veg and herbs amongst it - all free! There are also excellent 'special offers' in one of the big supermarkets near Imperia where I have bought most of the bedding and some clothing at ridiculous prices. The major expenses are electricity, gas and telephone. For the electricity we are on a two band rate to get 10% off, we are swapping the gas central heating and water for a wood burning system (which we anticipate covering the cost of in the first year!) and finally have switched to the flat rate of 15euros per month for all international telephone calls thus cutting the cost of that bill considerably. All in all we are finding Italian ways of economising. It's all good fun and a lovely way of getting to know the people and culture!
|