Cunning money making schemes, schools & sailboats…

Ciao!

Well it’s been a quiet few days really with little to report on the Italian Front.  I have been thinking of cunning money making schemes and doing a bit more research on language schools.

Air BnB – Now, as far as I can see, there’s not too many of these in Italy so perhaps it’s not a go-er (or perhaps that means it is as there’s hardly any competition!). Anyway, the gist of this is that people can rent out a room through the website. It seems to be very flexible around what the landlord is willing to offer – e.g. just the room, or use of the kitchen/living room etc. too. Assuming I have a spare room, I’d only need to rent it out a few days a month really to give me a bit of extra pocket money and if I bought a place near one of the language schools, that might work quite well. A couple of my friends rent their rooms through the website and seem to be fairly happy with it.

Painting a day – there’s an amazing artist called Edward B Gordon who lives in Berlin. I came across his work whilst staying with some friends last weekend over in Berlin. As the title of this paragraph suggests, he does a painting a day: an “oil painting”, 15cm by 15cm. They’re mostly of everyday life in Berlin and he makes the mundane really quite beautiful. He auctions off the paintings every day for 150 Euros +. A fabulous idea! It’s got me thinking about whether I could start an Italian version…In fact, I think I might be inspired enough to enroll myself on an oil painting course.  

Scuola Lingua – There are 4 language schools in Le Marche but I think Centro Cultur @ le Conero looks like the best.  It’s 560 Euros for 4 weeks which rates as about second best in terms of rates. There are quite a few testimonials on the website too, lots of pictures of happy looking students having fun in the sun and they’ve even got quite a good little video on the site about the school and location. They’ll help you find accommodation either in the town or close by (either apartments, agriturismo’s and with families) and they’ll pick you up from the airport.  They seem to have afternoon activities but I’m a little concerned that there will be nothing to do in the evening. I think I’ll email them and ask them about the cost of accommodation and evening entertainment. Ancona’s close by and will have bars/cinema, but I wasn’t really intending to get a car and you never know how reliable public transport out in the sticks. It’s got some useful links about Le Marche and the area on the website too. So, who’s interested in coming with me?!?!?!?!

Barca vela –I’ve been looking for sailing clubs. It’s a test of my language skills as it’s not the kind of thing that people feel the need to translate into English. I think I’ve found a link to some sailing clubs. The plan is still to join a club, get some experience over a year or so and then buy a boat and sail around the Med for a year. There’s a Club that would be quite close to the language school above, Circolo Nautico S. Massacessi in Numana but the translation would have me believe that I er, need to be “presented” (ta da!!!) by two members of the Club.

I think that about sums up everything on the Italian Job to date… Sogni d’oro for now!

xxx