Free at last free at last, thank Buddha i am free at last!

well the apartment is officially ours! had my first battle in Italy yesterday...with the immobliare (who for now shall remain nameless) trying to arrange the contract on my new apartment.

amazing the mafioso mentality and the tricks they tried to pull because my flatmate and i are foreigners. i think sometimes that everyone in Italy automatically assumes that all american expats are rich and stupid (and i am neither).

in the end, we came to a middle solution, with Guido threatening to take me to court for breach of contract and i in turn threatening to walk out and go directly to the Guardia di Finanza for offering me tax evasion as an alternative solution.

i am a small woman, but come on! enough was just enough!

anyway, i feel victorious and have a new apartment as of June 1st just across from a hip jazz school. have no idea how i am going to furnish it or get my things moved out of Pooh's old place, but it is ours for the next 4+4 years and i truly adore it.

ps. for those of you venturing into the waters of Italian real estate rental.....the scale of stress/difficulty for this milestone event rated higher than the break-up with my ex.