The Condo, cont’d.
The Living Room
The living room has 2 leather couches and 2 divans that fold out into beds — so you can have sleep-over guests if you want. Signora Farina also bought a new TV for the place; however, it only delivers local channels. Surprisingly, and as E has already noted, Spongebob Squarepants and Simpsons (neither of which do we ever watch in the US) are acceptable when in the Italian… while you don’t understand a whole lot of Italian. I have no idea if they’re still okay once you can instantly translate in your head.
The walls are painted a nice sunny yellow and there are a few pieces of artwork (framed prints).
The Dining Room
I really should just call it the dining area since it’s still part of the living room really. There’s a dining table with 4 chairs, similar in make to ours (and your) dining table back in Ohio. It extends, but we haven’t been able to find the inset leaves in the garage. We bought a vinyl tablecloth to protect the wood and I’ve covered up the seats with cut up 1 Euro pillowcases so the kids don’t accidentally stain them if they happen to spill something.
There’s also a huge sideboard with a marble top and glass shelves (with doors) — this is what we use right now to hold our homeschooling books and supplies.
Oh, and there is also a bureau in the foyer which you could use to store homeschooling supplies, though we’ve only used it as a catchall for keys, mail, etc.
The Kitchen
The eat-in kitchen is small but adequate. The fridge is about half the size of our (very American) fridge in the US; however I find that to be an advantage since I see everything that we still have more easily than I used to with our humongous fridge… which means less waste and that can only be a good thing. The cooktop (gas) and oven (electric) are both new (Electrolux) though you may have to adjust cooking habits a bit as they are considerably smaller than their American counterparts. Signora Farina bought new pots and pans, but they are all the flimsy Teflon-coated ones, so I bought a couple of stainless steel pieces that we plan to leave, at least until our last trip here. She also gifted us (or rather, the apartment) with a new pasta pot — obviously, extremely useful here in Italy 🙂 . She also bought new flatware and kitchen utensils (the basics — pancake turner, long-handled spoon, pasta server, several ladles — all stainless steel). There’s a space-efficient Miele dishwasher which we will dearly miss when we go back home. The house comes equipped with lots of lightweight plates and bowls (Arcopal’s Veronica pattern), plus small coffee cups with matching saucers, and Bormioli tumblers (plus a few Nutella ones). There is also a large (hee) 3-cup capacity Mokapot + a solo Mokapot. No kettle so we use our skillet to heat up water for tea, and no microwave (microonde). Which is just as well since we’re trying to get away from that. Also in the cupboards you’ll find plastic dinnerware — which (whoops) the children have appropriated (some of them anyway) for beach play — yikes. S.ra Farina also provided bakeware (probably for lasagne) but I don’t know if you plan to do any baking — they’re Teflon coated, like the pots and pans. I got a package of those coated Italian bakepans instead.
I brought my Wusthof chef’s and paring knives (“have knives, will travel” is my motto) and bought a cutting board here. Three more items rounded out my batterie de cuisine: a peeler (so the kids can help me with peeling potatoes and apples), a whisk (the easier to beat eggs for tiramisu with, my dear), and a corkscrew — can you believe it, a house in Italy with NO corkscrew!? Oh, wait, one more. A salad spinner. The first couple of weeks I was rinsing out and drying the lettuce leaves by hand, it was crazy.
Next time, the laundry room, bathroom, bedrooms and balcony.
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