Life and its unexpectations recorded: Home sweet home in Italia

The problem with many Italian houses which I have observed is the minimal lighting. Not sure if electricity is generally high, but how do you live with one little light bulb each to illuminate your room, kitchen, toilet and hallway?

Beware the shadow!

It reminds me of my ol' dad's home where the toilet was also only lit with a teeny yellow lightbulb. Bad enough it had to be small. It had to be yellow making the surroundings look extra dim and your own elongated shadow bouncing on the wall like mr. slender.

So when I had to search for a new place, I had the option to choose between living with a bunch of Italian girls, or a bunch of International students under the same scholarship as me. I chose the International students. Lighting of the house played a part in my selection.

Not all my housemates

From the picture above, you can tell that there was only one source of lighting. But al least it was bright and white.

But lighting was only one deciding factor. I was tempted to pick the Italian girls after observing some friends who also lived with Italians and had major improvements in their Italian fluency.

"And who would say no to Italian girls?"

Though picking the language was important, more important was network(all other factors aside). And I couldn't give that up.

Choosing International students did not disappoint. Upon moving in, my 2 housemates, German Pierre(left) and Italian Ruben(right) cooked up a small feast and had some party.

These men love to cook

In Italian dishes, you always have bread. And cheese and salami.

And almost always assorted pickles and olives.

And yes, tomato always.

Say no to prostate cancer

Yay to more biscuit and bread!

I'll have to say I haven't eaten unleaven bread aside from partaking it on Sundays.

And wash it all down with wine!

Or otherwise, you can do it with water. Right from the tap.

I find it extremely convenient to just drink from here. No cup required. And no expensive water filters or gas to boil it first.

And these are my jolly housemates. 2 dudes, and 2 Lithuanian dudettes.

I get authentic Italian pasta a lot thanks to our Italian housemate.

And now we shall have a look at the Italian home.

When directing people to my place, there is one good landmark to observe. As you go along this street of shops, you will see

An arch.

And you can't miss the beautiful-colourful graffiti wall.

Up a little slope

One left turn

A little walk, and there you have it. The building I live in.

Of course, nice looking apartments need nice looking walkways. And though it is autumn, in Italy everything is still green.

And Italian apartments always has a buzzer where you buzz/talk to the person living up there, and they'll unlock the door for you. Like some condos in KL too.

One floor, 2 units

And once you're inside, you can choose to use the stairs

Or the small elevator that varies with apartments

Second floor is where my flat is, and you'll see this extravagant door that every unit has.

Open that door, and there is another door!

Door-ception

I love my current room. Its so big I have no idea what to fill it with. And there's so many cupboards that I can choose to hide in if playing hide-and-seek.

I always have things on my bed

Then there's the balcony.

Yea. Thats a sofa!

And my balcony overlooks an ancient ruin that used to be a villa around the time of Jesus. Which is approximately 2000 years old. Crazy thing is you need to pay 2 euros to see the ruins when you can get a birds eye view from my balcony. I should start pulling visiting tourists up to my balcony and charge a small fee.