Trouble in paradise

We love our apartment, but I wonder if it loves us back. Our televisore (television set) was broken before we even moved in; the colors were all mixed up. And, the other day, our lavatrice (washing machine) died on us.

I thought that maybe we needed to do something special to our lavatrice because it was working fine all these weeks. We had an issue with our asciugatrice (dryer) when it stopped working after only using it twice. We found out that there was a container that filled up with water that we were supposed to empty each time.

Now Dave has to go to the lavanderia (laundromat) to wash our clothes. Luckily we have the asciugatrice that works fine.

The tecnico (technician) came to look at the lavatrice on Wednesday. I was told that he'd be here entro le 11 (before 11AM). Of course, the night before, I wondered what time he could arrive before 11. I woke up, of course, at 8AM worried that he'd show up while we were still asleep and then we'd have to jump out of bed. The tecnico ended up arriving around 9:30, so it was perfect.

I took him to the lavatrice and tried to explain to him that I thought it might be the centrifuga (spin cycle) because it made odd noises. "Non è quella." (That's not it.), he said. He turned it on and it ran for less than 20 seconds and he said, "È il motore." (It's the motor.)

He told me that he'd be back on January 9th to pick it up and take it away. He looked at the armadio (closet) that it's in and said, "Spero che possiamo toglierla senza rompere le porte." (I hope we can take it out without breaking the doors.) I became a little worried, so when he left, I called the proprietaria (owner) to ask her if we need to do anything special. She said that it went in after the doors were put on, so there shouldn't be a problem.

Today, the other tecnico for the televisore came this evening. We turn on the televisore every night to see if we can get it to work. And, last night it finally worked properly. We were quite surprised, so we left it on for a few hours. Both Dave and I tried again today and it worked both times. I tried to call the tecnico to tell him, but he arrived as I was leaving a message.

He looked at the televisore and told me that the problem will be even more complicated now. He ci ha dato delle botte (gave it a few hits) and it went back to how it was before for a few seconds and then returned to normal. We were hoping that he'd just leave the televisore for us, but instead he wrapped it up in cellophane and took it away.

"La chiamo la settimana prossima, ma non penso di potervi renderla prima del 9." (I'll call you next week, but I don't think I can return it to you before the 9th.) I was a little unhappy, but I guess it's for the best.

So, hopefully next month the lavatrice and the televisore will be working. At least everything else in the house is fine. Tocca ferro! (Touch wood!)

Share your comments for this blog post on the Living in Florence's Facebook page. Grazie!

Back to Top