Biergartens and Castles in Bonn

After two years we finally made it to Bonn, Germany to visit our friends Gaby and Gerhard and their family.  They are incredible hosts and it was a fabulous week.  Although we were in Bonn a few years ago, there were many things to do and see. In the interests of exploring other cultures we of course had to drink the local beer, Kolsch.  Tom explored this aspect of German culture very thoroughly.

Tom has always been interested in gardening

There was one day of pouring rain and thunderstorms, unfortunately it was the day Gerhard's band, Taste of Woodstock, played at a local park (with a biergarten of course).  It was a great concert nonetheless.

Enjoying a Kolsch with Jens and Ingo at the concert

Gerhard in front with guitar as Taste of Woodstock rocks it out

It was a week of delicious eating and drinking, at home and in various restaurants and cafes.

Tom and Gerhard make pizza for dinner

Outdoor cafes are as popular here as they are in Italy

Gerhard was kind enough to take us on several outings, including two trips to visit castles and go castle spotting, a ride on a little ferry across the Rhine for (of course) cake and coffee, and a visit to Gaby's father. His son Ingo, meanwhile, devoted himself to teaching me to say polliwog in German (don't ask) and took us on a tour of the nearby village, whose symbol is a donkey.

View of the Mosul river

Burg Eltz, a real fairy tale castle

Schloss Drachenberg (on the way to Dragon Rock)

Schloss Drachenberg

Apfel kuchen opportunity at the top of dragon rock

View of the Rhine

This is how we roll(s)

Tram to top of Dragon's rock, full of attractive tourists

castle spotting on the Rhine

We also visited several villages along the Rhine, including Bacharach, saw the modern art museum in Bonn, and explored the little village by Gerhard's house, with Ingo, who kindly took a photo of Tom for posterity.

Always a good sport, Tom poses with his friend

Three generations, Gerhard, Gunter, and Ingo

Modern art or electrical wiring gone horribly wrong, you decide.

After a fabulous week, and a welcome break from the heat wave in Italy, we are back in Arezzo.  We knew we were headed to Italy when we saw a fellow passenger wearing a scarf in 38 degree weather (almost 100 degrees)!  Bella Italia e viva Germania!

Happy Birthday on Isola d' Elba

View of ferry and Portoferraio from our hotel on Elba

Hard to believe I just had  my second birthday since relocating to Italy already. Last year we celebrated at  the Tuscan coast, known as the Costa degli Etruschi, at a town called Castiglione della Pescaia.  This year we opted for a week on Elba Island, famed for having been briefly ruled by Napoleon and for having been his prison for about a year.  The heat wave continues, with temperatures of 95+, so a beach vacation seemed like a great idea (although calling it a vacation may be a misnomer since essentially every day is a vacation for us).

First problem, the car rental place was very slow in getting us our car, which is not surprising. However, I thought I had factored in enough time for that, but I seriously underestimated the exte nt of the delay (an hour) and of the summer traffic and the long lines at the toll stations.    It became clear we were not going to make our 1:30 ferry to the island.  I had visions of not being able to get on a ferry for the whole week-end and being stuck in Piombino without a hotel.  The coast is very, very busy during a heat wave in July.  I called Blu Navy to see if we could change to the next ferry, not really thinking it would be possible, and eccola!  No problem, they changed it immediately, no extra charge, texted the new ticket, and we were in business.  There are 3 or 4 ferry lines servicing Elba, but they were all packed,   and we were lucky to get a last minute reservation on the 4 pm ferry.   The ferry attendants were all young, tanned, good looking Italian boys.  I was tempted to take photos but it seemed a little too creepy.

Our Elba hotel, Paradiso del Grotte, turned out to be connected with a German yachtschule, or sailing school. Pretty much everyone else at the hotel was german, it was odd to hear more german than italian, and the staff kept talking to us in German!  We had half board, meaning breakfast and dinner at the hotel. Breakfast was sad. Each morning, by the time we got there, almost everything was gone, the ravaging horde of sailors hit the tables at 7:30.  Dinner was better except on buffet-karaoke nights, with loud and bad karaoke blasting until after midnight.

However, Elba is beautiful, with many beaches, cliffs, viewpoints, and gelatto stands, all the requisites for a good vacation.  There is even a thriving Elba wine industry, and we sampled several different Elba wines, all in the interest of research of course.  Elba prosecco has an interesting aroma, smoky and caramel, but it was good.  We enjoyed swimming from the hotel beach, where we had free sunloungers and umbrellas.

We brought our Seattle tans to the hotel beach

Following are more pictures from Elba, hope you like them.

One of the sailing school students in front of the hotel

Beautiful cliff side beaches everywhere

Napoleon's house

View  of Tower and Fortress from Napoleon's house

Funiculare to top of Mt. Cappane

On the top of Mt. Cappane

piazza in Porto Azzurro

The beginning of sunset as seen from our cabin

Napoleon's bed--not the bed in our cabin

All in all, hard to see why Napoleon was so eager to escape from Elba. We were very sorry to  leave .

A prossima,

Nancy & Tom

The taxman always rings twice--when you are a U.S. expat in Italy

FINALMENTE!!!  Pop the prosecco, we have finally finished both of our tax filings.  Imagine how chagrined I, a lawyer, was when I first learned we that I didn't know beforehand we had to file income tax in Italy even though we don't earn any income here.  It is simply something I never thought about before we arrived.  And there is a lot of misinformation and confusion among the expat online community.  Part of the problem is that the U.S. is one of a very, very few countries that taxes their citizen's worldwide income even if they don't reside in the U.S., hence the double filing.  Another problem is the obscurity of the Italian  tax code, which most Italians don't understand.  They all told me we would have to have a commercialista because "non e possibile" to do your own taxes. General astonishment when I told them most Americans do their own taxes online!

A third problem--finding a commercialista willing to deal with Americans.  Most of the international commercialiste deal with Brits (there are a lot of them here) and find American requirements too confusing to bother with.  After trying about 30 different offices, Niccolo Billi in Florence was willing to undertake the task. We gave him the documents and got back the tax bill--about 6 times more than what we would have paid in the U.S.!  Part of the cost of living in Paradise. Then we had to find a bank that would open a bank account for U.S. citizens, again, something they don't want to bother with because of U.S. banking regulations.  FATCA purports to impose huge penalties on foreign banks that don't comply with reporting requirements, and Italian bankers generally prefer to avoid the problem by avoiding Americans.  Niccolo found a small bank that opens accounts for Americans, met us there to get the paperwork taken care of, and only 47 signatures later, we had an account, paid our taxes online, and even had an Italian debit card!  Donatella, "our" banker, even gave us her personal cell so we can call her if we have any problems or banking questions. That is not service I ever got from a U.S. bank!  Donatella's bank doesn't mind the U.S. regulations because they are not affiliated with a U.S. bank and thus don't have assets in the U.S., so they don't have to worry about the specter of 30% of their assets being seized for non-compliance with FATCA.  (A side note--Democrats Abroad is trying to get a change in the banking laws so expat bank accounts are not included, which I support.  Our account is not a 'foreign account' in the sense intended by FATCA, it is our local bank account where we live.  Expat accounts are not part of the terrorist problem Congress thinks it is addressing by these laws).

There is a tax treaty, so we don't have to pay twice, we can take a deduction for the amount we paid and, since it is so large, we don't owe U.S. tax, we just have to file a return.  Turbo tax software includes the foreign tax forms which was convenient, they were missing or not working on another site I looked at.    It was a bit confusing to figure out, but basically you can take a credit or a deduction for taxes paid on income earned in Italy.  For income earned in the U.S. you can only take a deduction for taxes paid.  IRS publication 514 actually does a pretty good job of explaining this in a mere 29 pages.  There is a very helpful book online for anyone trying to get an overview of what expats do and don't have to pay, called Larry's Tax Guide.  It is updated annually, and I recommend it to any american dealing with expat tax issues.  Wish I had found it earlier.

The banker and the commercialista were amazed at how happy we were to be paying our taxes, but after 6 months of figuring out IF we had to pay, WHAT we had to pay, and HOW we could make the  payment, it was a huge relief to  have it over with.  And having just pushed send on the US filing (yes, we had an extension) I can forget about taxes for the next six months.  Hence, the prosecco.

Update on the last six months part I: Morocco and Touring Tuscany with Friends From the U.S.

our guide in the Sahara camp rocking Kelly's sungasses

Morocco and Spain

Long time no blog.  Since the last entry in February we have spent three weeks in Morocco with our daughter, followed by a week in Madrid and Toledo, and hosted two different visitors from home, touring around Tuscany and enjoying spring in Chianti country.  We then went to Warsaw and Krackow for two weeks, and celebrated my birthday week on Elba island.   It was great to be back in Arezzo just in time for the Giostra di Saraceno which we heard from our apartment but did not attend this year.  However, our contrada won the golden lance, leading to a big party in the street only a block away.

First, Morocco.  My first time in Africa, and Morocco is probably the easiest introduction to the continent.  We flew into Marrakesh and from Tangier to Madrid, then Madrid to Pisa--averaging $24 a ticket.  Thanks RyanAir.  People from the UK shudder when we mention RyanAir but we have had no trouble with it.  Yes, they charge for every single extra (check a bag, print a boarding pass, a bottle of water on the plane, a seat reservation), but if you  have a carry on  bag and print your pass at home, you get great flight deals.

We stayed at riads (former private homes turned into hotels, built around a courtyard) and they were all great as well as relatively inexpensive.  Since the riads were in the medinas, the old part of town--think the souk in Aladdin-- which are very confusing to navigate, hotel staff met us at the entry gate and guided us in.  Throughout all of our stays, the hotel people were friendly and helpful.  When Kelly joined us in Casablanca we went back to Marrakesh, then on a four day trip through the Atlas mountains to a Sahara desert camp, complete with camel rides and sandboarding.  A great trip and, for the masochistic among you who want to see some of Tom's 989 pictures, send me an email and I will send you a link to the slideshow.

Spice souk in Marrakesh

Water seller left,, wool market above

cooking class in Marrakesh left, Yves St. Laurent
garden near Marrakesh above

probably the only halo Kelly will ever have!

Casablanca--great mosque above

a drive through the mountains to the Sahara

Sandboarding in the Sahara

We were sad to see Kelly go but managed to enjoy another week in Morocco then a week in Madrid, our first visit to Spain.   We appreciated being back in Europe--although we don't speak spanish, we can understand it fairly well because of its similarities to Italian--and it is in the Eurozone, making money transactions easier (although Morocco is much less expensive).  It was Easter week so we saw some interesting parades, and also visited the great museums, along with a day trip to Toledo, a beautiful town. We plan to return to Barcelona and adjacent areas in the spring.

midnight parade on holy Thursday in Madrid

Royal Palace, Madrid

best ever living statue in Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Cathedral in Toledo

View of Toledo from hill above city

II.  Touring Tuscany with friends from the U.S.

When you tell your friends you are moving to Italy for a few years, the universal response is some variation of "do you have a guest room?" or "I'll be there next week!"  In reality, however, we did not have any friends coming to stay with us for the first year, although we did meet up with friends who were staying in a castle nearby.  This spring, however, two different friends came to see us, and Italy, in April and May.  We enjoyed showing them 'our town' of Arezzo, and visiting some of the local sights in Tuscany.  While one friend had been to Italy many times, it  was a first time visit for the other, so we got the fun of introducing her to our favorite italian things and customs, such as fabulous food with espresso after dinner, walled cities (think Lucca) the cathedral in Sienna,  and the joys of a long and leisurely wine tasting with lunch in Chianti country.  Of course we had to stay in a castle, and also took the opportunity to re-visit a favorite agriturismo, Borgo Rapale, as well as finding a new favorite near the etruscan town, Volterra.  Tuscany in spring is incredible and the weather cooperated.  I even (finally) bought a leather purse in Firenze!

Garden at Palazzo Pfanner, Lucca

Cinque Terre

This one is for Kelly:  strong women, proud women, all women, Mills' women!

Road to the agriturismo

Famous couple in Volterra museum (left)
A view of the castle B&B (right)

Sienna of course

and Florence

Saw a parade in Florence from our hotel window

We also had a great time exploring the Chianti region and sampling the fine wines at two different wineries, as well as tasting the 12 year old  balsamic vinegar which was incredible!  We all had to buy some and we dole it out in teaspoons as a special treat, it is far to expensive for something as pedestrian as a mere salad!  It is a good thing we did our month of travelling around Tuscany in April/May because it has been troppo caldo in July/August, with the temperature hovering around 100 every day.  Been thinking about a trip to Tuscany?  It should cool off in the fall, come and see us!