FINALLY HERE!

Moving out of Malawi was really stressful. No, as a matter of fact, let me be brutally honest: it was hell. I wonder what went wrong. After all, I started to read books about "How to organise your life" already way back last year! Plenty of advise there, it just did not work in practise. To empty a house you have lived for years, was testing to say the least. I almost burst into tears when I opened cupboard after cupboard and there was still more STUFF. Grr... This will never happen again. No to clutter, I say. But in the end, the container was packed and hopefully it is currently sailing somewhere between Africa and Italy. In the meanwhile, we are trying to get everything organised in our rented apartment in Genoa Nervi.

A view from the balcony towards the main road.

Nervi is only approximately 25 minutes by bus from the city centre of Genoa. There is also a train, which goes to one of the main railway stations. The public transport really works wonderfully, there are frequent connections, so no problem there. More about traffic in general later!

Our first task was to get some furniture, as the apartment was rented unfurnished. We managed to find the free bus to IKEA and furthermore, with a pocket English-Italian dictionary, were able to explain to the customer service that we need it delivered. And all of it arrived. In boxes and with instructions how to put it together. John has turned out to be very good in getting it done. He has already built couple of tables and a fabulous display cabinet. The bed with draws is quite complicated, but John is quietly optimistic it will be ready by tomorrow. I have been assisting when asked to hold something and well, you get the picture.

In Italy "unfurnished apartment" means that it is also necessary to get comforts such as fridges and washing machines as nothing is included unless otherwise agreed. We bought a gas cooker from the landlord, however, a new fridge/freezer and the washing machine arrived today. Another interesting detail is that the power supply can be quite temperamental. Because electricity is expensive in Italy (one of the highest tariffs in Europe), people typically have a low voltage,  only 3 KW, as this is cheaper. The problem is that it will not be enough to run a kettle, a cooker and a washing machine at the same time. It is possible to get it changed to 6KW but that attracts a higher tariff compared to the 3KW. We might get it changed, but right now there are other priorities.

The last 7 days have been baking hot, +30 C every single day. Not very different from Malawi, say in end of October, just before the rains. Little by little, this will become our new home.