The last couple of days have been a mix of enjoying the pleasure of being here and getting frustrated by some of the maintenance issues we have to deal with from time to time. The company we use as a sort of agent for any maintenance jobs sent a plumber out on Monday to look at the issue with the water heater. He didn’t turn up here and had, apparently, gone to a wrong address! He did turn up on Tuesday, flukily as we were just coming back into our building. He huffed and puffed for about three hours, draining the tank and refilling it several times as he seemed unable to fix the leak. There appeared to be lots of calcified gunk around the element which he cleaned, but then couldn’t get a good seal. After using up several of his spare parts he managed to get a fix he was happy with and left it. Hot water ensued and everyone was happy. Until 11pm when we heard the tell tale drip drip drip and found it to be leaking again. Quickly we filled a bin with water for loo flushing, filled the kettle and turned the water off.

Chris had already been a bit unsure about whether the boiler should have been repaired or replaced so we now opted for a replacement. The young plumber wasn’t surprised that his fix hadn’t worked and we weren’t impressed he hadn’t told us it might be a bit iffy. Good job we hadn’t gone out for a late night! He and another plumber duly turned up in the afternoon to install the new boiler. It’s far more efficient, but is slightly bigger which means the cupboard we had next to the boiler and which housed all the washing liquids etc won’t go back. Far more troubling is the fact that although it has four mounting brackets they’ve only used two with one of those being a bit dodgy. So, 150 kilos of boiler and water is fixed to the wall by one and a half mounts. Hmmm…….. They say that’s adequate, we don’t think it is. English plumber coming to take a look on Monday and give his view. Hopefully no earth tremors over the weekend! 😱

Despite all that aggro, we continue to enjoy our time here. Who could get bored of views like this…..

……….and food like this… La Piadina is immediately outside the door to our building and run by Gabriele and Antonella. They are lovely people and the food is great. I might have indulged with a tiramisu for dessert too……☺️