Italian apartment hunting

Today Ben and I went apartment hunting for the first time. We will have a million more appointments this week (each day this week, in fact) but it was a fun and educational experience!

We went on our Intercultural field trip last Friday (more to come on that) and absolutely fell in love with a town called Vomero! The town is lined with cobblestone streets and apartments that look like they are right out of an Italian history book. Ornate sculptures on the outside, plantation shutters with potted plants on the balconies, the works. It's also walking distance to the metro- a metro station that actually does not feel seedy at that- and stores like Versace and Gucci on the street. You can now understand why I fell in love with it! I'm only kidding, I think Ben would have a cow if I spent too much time in there.

We absolutely love this area so we decided to target finding an apartment in Vomero. After going to housing and looking at available apartments online, we heard that it's very limited and were told by realtor after realtor that this area is extremely expensive, the places are very small, blah, blah, blah. I made sure to tell them that anything would be larger than where we came from when you take into account the shoebox that we lived in! Let's face it, the best part of living in a 602 square foot apartment is that it can only get better from there!

We had to list other areas on our apartment request list, simply because it is required by housing so we also included other areas in downtown Naples as well as an area called Pozzuoli. Today, when the housing representative came to pick us up he informed us that we would only be seeing two places and neither of them are in Vomero. Ben and I were definitely disappointed but knew that we really have to get a lay of the land and be open minded about it before we make any final decisions.

On the way there Roberto, our housing rep (when I say housing rep, I am referring to representatives appointed in the housing office of the Navy to show off base living accomodations to military members) told us about Naples, where he lives, places to go, etc. It was interesting because he shared fun facts with us like Naples was the first Italian city, named Naples because it means "New town," that it was originally dominated by the Greeks and then the Spaniards, many details that we had never heard before.

We stopped at the first apartment, in Posillippo, which is an area close to, if not considered part of, downtown Naples. Roberto was your usual Italian driver and parked his car ON the curb with the passenger side elevated and the driver side on the concrete. It amuses us but does not shock us anymore. :)

We went into an apartment that was on the corner of a fairly busy street with low expectations. We were pleased to see that the front door to the building required a key- so Joe Schmo off the street cannot simply walk in- and walked through a somewhat unimpressive, maybe even a bit dirty, lobby to get upstairs to the 2nd level. As soon as we walked through the front door and then another metal (and I'm talking steel, it almost feels like a vault) door we emerged into a lovely apartment. The place was spread out into a series of rooms and the ceilings were extremely tall, to give the effect of an even larger space. What took our breath away was when we walked to the living room area and out onto the Juliet balcony, to see full views of the water, sailboats, and downtown Naples. It was unbelievable! Thinking that we may quite possibly be spending time in a room with such an amazing viewswas wonderful. In fact, I even like the traffic noise because it makes us feel like we are in the midst of the hustle and bustle and back in San Diego. The picture above is not the exact view from the apartment, but meant to give you an idea of what the waterfront views look like. This picture below is the front of the building, it's the building on the left.

We walked through the rest of the apartment and loved the white, pristine walls, the fact that there was a/c and heating even more (hey those things are not easy to come by here!), the fact that it was maybe three times the size of our apartment in San Diego and therefore a mansion, and the detail that there is a pizzeria below us. Which could be a good or a not so good thing:) The landlord was a full-on Italian mama. And I mean, gray haired, bifocals, orthopedic shoes, the works. Of course, she does not speak a lick of English (at this point, who does anymore) and proceeded to give me a hug and kiss me on both cheeks when she greeted me. Now where are you going to get a greeting from a potential landlord like that in the States? I wanted to tak a picture with her but she'd proably have thought that I was a weirdo so I didn't ask. She was so warm and friendly and kept talking to me in rapid Italian so I just gave up and smiled and nodded like I knew exactly what she was saying.

The only downside to the apartment is the size of the kitchen which is big enough for one person only. Which is not a problem considering I'm the one who mainly spends time in there. With the exception of Ben's dishwashing skills, of course:) But, get this, the apartment even has a dishwasher (siiiiiigh) so we no longer have to hand wash our dishes. For those of you who who do not have dishwashers you are crazy. Ben is happy to hand his duty off to the machine.

After spending forever oohing and ahhing in the apartment and asking question after question we realized we should probably go to the next one. Thank God for our friends Cyndi and Dave as they put a list of questions together for us based on what we need to be asking. We'd be in big trouble as we don't know anything about the Italian standard of living! We love you Cyndi and Dave!!!

On to the next apartment. We drove through downtown Posillippo and made our way to Pozzuoli. We know that Pozzuoli is very popular as it is more "beachyish" but it's out in the boondocks. After meeting us and understanding what our standards where Robertoo turned around a blatantly stated "You won't like this apartment and area, it's not for you." Boy was he right! We drove through the boonies of Pozzuoli to see a home, gated complex which was nice, and walked into the apt on the first floor. The first thing you see is a tablefor twelve. Twelve! Like they feed twelve for each meal daily. And apparently the table comes with the house. No thanks! It was very gloomy and cavernous so we were in and out in ten minutes.

With that said, Ben had been complaining that I don't let him cook in my kitchen. I am embarassed to say that I've never made pancakes before. Mr. Macho takes over and makes our banana pancakes in fragments. Though they were not the perfect result he gets a big hug and kiss for trying! Then tonight I decided to make sweet and sour chicken- I told you I would end up learning to cook more Asian food than Italian food-and he demanded on making the brownies. These were our brownies:

I told him to try again next time and he gets an A for effort!!

With that, we are going to bed!