Buongiorno a tutti! I have arrived safe and sound in the beautiful city of Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliette and my new home for the next year while I study at Verona University. I have only been here for two days and I have already met so many other Erasmus students, seen so many lovely sights and tasted so much great Italian food: so far so good.
I have even found myself a great flatmate but one slight issue is that I have yet to find a flat. At the moment I am staying in a cute little B&B just off Verona’s main piazza, Piazza Brá. For my first On Location blog post I thought it would be appropriate to tell you all about my experiences as I attempt to find my feet and actually get a place to live. Back in Scotland I have lived in the same house with my parents all my life so even just going flat viewing and having conversations about rent and such things as electricity bills is new to me. However, in Italy I have had to get to grasps with the vocabulary quickly to keep up with the estate agents.
Since I don’t want to have to travel to the nearest Ikea to purchase beds, wardrobes, cupboards etc, I soon learned to scan through the flat advertisements for the word arredato – “furnished”. I also learned about spese condominiale. These are fees that are additional to your ordinary bills that everyone living in the building must pay, ie. they refer to the costs of the common areas such as the stairs or the elevator.Considering I am no expert on renting property I have not found the experience to be too daunting. This is mainly thanks to all the vivacious, friendly Italians I have so far come across who are more than happy to point me in the right direction whilst I scour the streets of Verona for a suitable flat. I hope you have enjoyed my blog for this week and I will be back soon with more On Location Italian. A presto!
