Living in Italy: the Real Deal - Hilarious Expat Adventures

The author has written a very humorous account of he and his partner's purchase of a property in Italy, and the development of it into a bed and breakfast. I laughed out loud several times while reading it, and marveled at the patience they had dealing with the Italian bureaucracy, neighbors, and especially their crazy contractor.
This is not your typical "dreamer/lost soul/jilted lover buys a rundown house in the Italian/French/etc countryside" and it's usual accompanying finding romance/true purpose in life story. It's much better. Instead, Smulder's describes in detail the steps and pitfalls in the process. And makes it interesting. Especially the aforementioned crazy contractor, holy smokes!
I have to admit, I had a vested interest show more in this book. My wife and I, thanks to being "adopted" by our Italian exchange student and her family, have strongly considered buying our own home in Italy. While we are still strongly considering it, this book has shown us some of what we might expect. It will not be as easy and painless as we thought, or as simple as buying a vacation home here in the U.S. Maybe just an extended vacation there this year, and maybe we can sneak down to the author's B & B on a side visit.
One more vested interest. The author is from the Netherlands. Our next exchange student, arriving this August, is also from the Netherlands. The author's writing from a Dutch perspective gave me a look into the Dutch mindset/culture. Several times in the book, he described things (mechanical, etc) using descriptors that did not register with my American mind. I had to research a bit to find out what he was talking about. While it was somewhat confusing, it has helped prepare me better for seeing things from my new student's perspective.
All in all, this is a very enjoyable book. I can highly recommend it to anyone with a travel bug, or anyone who wishes to experience a different culture written by someone from another different culture. It was fun!
I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. show less

What a delight this book was to read! It's the story of 2 Dutchmen, Stef and his husband Nico and their dog emigrating to Italy to open their B & B, Villa Due Padroni in the Pavia area. It's down to earth with the realistic stories of their trials with the bureaucracy that are resolved in true Italian fashion.
The characters are all people you can identify with, Torti the dictator, is the one that I found to be the most amusing, but can't leave out mention of the shady real estate agent, the crazy neighbors, the owners and staff of the wineries, all charming in their own ways. I loved the ravioli story in particular. Makes me want lessons from Lena.
We come to know Stef quite well, but I wish more of Nico's personality came out in the show more book.
I really enjoyed Stef's writing style, it was as though I read short stories from his individual style, but he brings it all together so well that it also seems like a book.
At the end a link is provided for the B & B, make sure to look it up and see what a beautiful villa it is and like myself, be tempted to book a trip to Italy and enjoy the beautiful B & B and area that they are living in. Thank you for the goodreads giveaway book Stef. I will think back on it often. show less

Was this book terrible? No. Was it good? Also no. I think maybe I was disillusioned by the title and summary, since I was expecting more cute adventures around Italy, or maybe some more personal anecdotes that weren't just: house reno is stressful and Italians are stressful.

I don't know where the comedy of this book is. Instead it just reads as incredibly petty 'I hate Olita', 'I hate the antennae guy', 'I hate Torti but for 1/2 of the book'. It was also condescendingly nationalistic? Everything was "Us [positive adverb] Dutch" (sober Dutch, rational Dutch, thrifty Dutch etc.) versus the "Silly Italians". Like a kid watching an ant colony or something. I wasn't a fan.

Oh and just the attitude towards Romanian and Albanian 'unskilled' show more workers being paid under the table and how since they're not part of the EU so it's ok?? Somehow? I'm not European but the concept isn't lost on me.

The ending was nice, wish more of the book was about positive encounters like that.

TL;DR petty thoughts during a stressful time made into a book and probably only funny to fellow Dutchmen. Has a decent turnaround, but would not recommend. show less

I was sent this book by the author after he read a review of another book that I had written. He did not ask for a review. He guessed right about my tastes. I really enjoyed it. It fits neatly into the "people emigrate to a new country to set up a new business and what befalls them" category. This time it is two Dutchmen moving to Italy to create a b & b. What befalls them is a stream of bureaucracy and form filling and. most critically, a builder called Tordi. I was amazed at their patience with him. The book is essentially episodic but he paints great pictures of even minor characters and it is very easy to read. They succeeded in their ambition eventually and I looked up their website. It looks a great place for a holiday!

Ever since Under the Tuscan Sun, I have thought that is my other life, my intended life. But after reading this book, I don't think I want to purchase an old house in Italy that needs work. This book made me realize that Italy is what I always thought it was, a relaxed, easy going culture where everything is no problem but can take 10 times longer to get done. Well written. If I'm ever back in Italy, I might have to find this B&B and stay a few nights.

I received this book from Stef Smulders for my honest review.

Entertaining and informative story about living in another country. Chapters made me laugh out loud while others made me sad for the author. Wow, what abundant patience the author had to cope with the all the red tape. A must read before embarking on the idea of living abroad.
Thank you to librarything.com and the author for a copy of this book.

It is really difficult to write a bad review for any book....the amount of time and energy it takes to actually complete a book is intense, and I respect that dedication. And I will also say that this book was not written by someone whose first language is English, which may account for the incredibly odd word choices and grammar issues. The book is full of run on sentences, fragments, misspellings and incorrectly used words. I believe the book was self-published and the lack of an editor is obvious.

But those are my obsessive-compulsive issues, and many people might not be bothered by this sort of thing. If you're interested in the content of the book, it's interesting...at times. Much of the book is complaining (with good reason) show more about the contractors working on the renovation of their property but I found that these stories eventually became repetitive. I was hoping for more specifics on their move to Italy, and while there are some, at the end of the day this seems mostly to be a book about home renovations. show less