Imagine.....imagine you move into a new (to you) home. You make improvements, not only to your home, in and of itself, but to the "common" area.
There is no legal, binding agreement...it is not a "condominium"...but there is a shared courtyard, just outside your door on the ground floor. The walls have cracks and stains. The ceramic floor is dirty. The courtyard is empty, except for lights that go on, if necessary, when a button is pushed by the front door.
So imagine that you find out that YOU pay for the lights everytime someone uses them. Not just you, but everyone else in the building. The building has four apartments. You pay every time someone turns on those lights. Even though there is a window at the top of the stairwell, and plenty of light shines in on sunny days, certain people turn the lights on needlessly nevertheless. On your dime. Why? Who knows? It was set up that way and who knows why....??
Imagine that you decide to rehab the cortile, on your own dime, as a choice. Get the walls replastered and cleaned up. Add a couple of benches not only for seating but for packages left by delivery people. And you decide to add some additional lighting of your own, but only you can turn them on.
Imagine you get the courtyard cleaned up. When was it ever cleaned last? Impossible to say...but you hire someone to really clean it, with actual soap and water and get the tiles clean and shiny and beautiful again.
You are approached by a workman to refurbish your historical, ancient wooden door, which you do without hesitation.
You add live plants outside and fake ones inside (the courtyard is enclosed...not enough light or heat for plants to survive)...besides the benches and a couple of pictures of the local countryside. You have had other people tell you how nice the courtyard is now. You have had neighbors join you in the courtyard for a holiday drink.
BUT...there are part-time occupants of ONE apartment. One quarter of the occupants of the building. These people complain about EVERYTHING. Everything...everything, anything, everything.
There was a box of white decorative stones under one of the benches at one point. The stones were for the plants, obviously...decorative stones. The box was "a problem," Seriously??? It's UNDER the bench, in no one's way...unobtrusive. Non va bene. Fine. We took the box away, although we were not done with it.
You are feeding cats in the courtyard, you should feed them outside. Really? You think so? The MAYOR of the town, via my veterinarian, said to feed them inside. Cleaner, safer and no one..no one, can tell you not to, because it is YOUR courtyard, not a public space. "Oh.....va bene."
There are ants outside. Do you have ants outside? We have ants outside in the warm months. There are ants everywhere outside, in the piazzetta, in the bricks, on the freaking balcony that is seven stories high...there are ants because ....there are ants. It's nature. We do not have any ants in the house or in the courtyard. "These ants are a problem" Really? What do you want me to do about it? There are ants everywhere. For pity's sake.
Aaaaannnnd now....we have a runner in the courtyard. A carpet runner. We had three in the winter months not only to catch water and dirt but for traction (ceramic gets slippery when wet). Well, golly gee, this runner is yet another damned problem. It's "dirty." It's dirty? Yeah...the old lady on the first floor often brings out her leaky garbage and leaves stains. The street has bird poop and sand and dirt and cigarettes and food debris and you know what? That leaves stains too!!! Yeah! And what's more is...those stains and wet spots are NOT on the ceramic, but in this little runner. It is keeping the courtyard, as a whole, cleaner. It is keeping the crazy old lady from falling and cracking her head open on the ceramic tile. You don't like it? Oh, golly, that's so, so, too fucking bad.
We are the "foreigners." These people, who do not live here full time, but only visit occasionally from Milan...I assume because of family ties.....feel that they are superior to us. They do nothing to improve the property. IF they know that we pay for the lights, they keep that to themselves and use them with abandon..even on bright, sunny days. They complain about absolutely every little stinking thing and then they go back to Milan. WHY are they not going back to Milan???
I want to write up a bill for them...for three years worth of using the lights, the drain pipe we had repaired, the walls we had repaired, the door we had restored and the major leak we just had fixed. Write them up a bill and tell them to pay up or SHUT UP!!!
Italy has a 25% unemployment rate, this town is suffering and they do not like "gli stranieri"....well, these stranieri are contributing to the life of the town, to the preservation of the property and care enough, at our advanced age, to learn a whole new language. But, nevermind....there are ants outside!
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