In your first Florentine apartment you’ll probably feel at home quite quickly, but there are a few finicky and funny things to know about apartment living in Florence that will make your life here even easier. We’ve made mistakes so you don’t have to.
While apartment hunting
If you are a fan of heat and hot water but new to Italian real estate, take note. If there’s a tank in a closet or above the shower, that’s hot water in an electric boiler, which is guaranteed to run out when you are covered in soap. If there’s a tank under the sink in the kitchen, that is GPL (liquid gas), a tank that needs to be filled at great cost and inconvenient intervals. So, basically, tanks are to be avoided.
Try to rent a place with termosingolo, a heating unit for water and ambient heat that runs on command. Check the distance between the unit and the bathroom—if it’s far, you might not get hot showers in the winter. Look around for any mold next to windows or in corners, which is evidence of inefficient heating. Finally, see if heat is controlled by a programmable, preferably electronic timer.
Uncommon luxuries
As foreigners who are here by choice, we have to come to terms with the fact that screens, air-conditioners and dryers are un-Italian.
Is it the large, custom-shaped windows or just a masochistic desire to be bitten that make mosquito netting oh-so-rare here? Luckily, a cheap option is available at any hardware store, where you can buy Velcro tape and netting. If you’re staying longer, install the sturdier roll-up screens that can be had for 50 to 100 euro but require a saw, electric drill and an engineering degree to install. For any bloodsuckers that get past them, buy an electric mosquito-killing racket and practise your backhand.
Air-conditioning, as we all learn, is the source of backaches and other ailments in Italy, but should you be so inclined, you can buy a portable unit called a Pinguino that blows hot air out the window while making an incredible racket inside. Alternatively, opt for a combination of fans and indecent exposure all summer.
As for a dryer, don’t expect any rental to have one. If it rains all of January, you’ll just have to wait ‘til February to wash those sheets, so buy a couple of extra sets.
Lessons learned the hard way
We have all faced hardships in our Italian apartments, and many of these provide for good laughs after the fact. When Shelly first moved to Prato, she mistakenly used dish soap in the dishwasher, which bubbled right out of it, of course. Nothing about the product name liquido piatti might have tipped her off. Sapone liquido, on the other hand, is for the hands, while bagno schiuma is liquid body soap for the shower. Luckily, mixing up any of these three will not have very dire consequences other than extreme cleanliness.
When I first came to Florence, I turned the heat to ‘on’ and left it there the whole first month. This amounted to a whopping 400,000 lira bill, a sum that clearly dates me. Nowadays there’s an iPhone app that probably would have saved me a few lire—F&A Guide includes budget information and tips about apartment living including a meter reading and tracking function.
Helen’s lesson learned is perhaps the best of all: never lock the bathroom door if you’re alone in a rickety, old Italian apartment. When the lock seized, she found herself standing in a bidet (hence discovering its raison d’être), peeking out of a tiny, high window that looks on to a riverbank; she hailed a passing fisherman who called the firemen, whom she described as strapping lads who were not too unhappy to break down a few doors to rescue an English girl in a towel.
Clean like an Italian
Speaking of towels, if you’re looking for a mop but all you can find is a couple of rags and a hard broom, that’s the traditional way to mop the floor. There is no verb for ‘to mop’; the closest you get is passare il cencio, which literally means pushing around a rag. Mops and twist pails, can, however, be purchased at the supermarket.
Next, let’s deal with the washing machine. After deciphering the menu of programs, the shortest of which is around two hours, it’s time to create a potion out of laundry liquids. Regular sapone lavatrice is a good start, but many Italian mammas will add disinfectant and fabric softener. The latter is the only way to make towels not stand up on their own after being air-dried. Two hours later, when the machine finally comes to a rattling stop, note that no amount of yanking on the door will open it until you hear the quiet ‘click’ of the safety latch after its one-minute delay. Attempts to speed up this by unplugging the machine will cause inevitable failure.
Hanging out laundry is one of the most characteristic elements of Italian lifestyle. The above-mentioned aversion to dryers may actually be a ploy by various tourism promotion boards, which discovered that tourists enjoy the quaint image of laundry hanging outside medieval buildings. Strangely enough, some city administrators were not informed and have banned hanging laundry on street-side balconies and windows, so check with your landlord or apartment administration before you display your knickers outside. Be also aware of peripheral circumstances that may affect your newly laundered items: (1) the number of birds perched on the sill above you and (2) the downstairs neighbour’s return policy for lost laundry.
Think you might do all your cleaning up on one morning? If you have a vacuum cleaner (which is rare in a rental), don’t think of turning that baby on while running the washing machine or dishwasher! Learn where the circuit breaker is and keep a flashlight handy.
Enjoy the experience
Don’t worry, soon enough it will seem entirely logical to you that turning on a hairdryer or electric kettle while also using a major appliance is simply a no-no, that rainy months mean tall laundry piles, that locks are not to be trusted and temperatures inside should not differ strongly from those outside, even in the winter. We guarantee it.
With special thanks to the expat members of the Facebook group Italian Reflections, an unfailing source of wisdom and humour!
If you’re looking for a short- or long-term apartment in town, The Florentine offers hand-picked properties through a trusted partner at http://apartments.theflorentine.net
