Smelly Rome

I seem to have bad luck with apartments in Rome. Our old place in San Paolo was not only abusivo but seemed to always have some problem or another - be it the leaking roof, lift not working, hot water not working... and my problems have followed me to San Giovanni.

The Romanian workers from upstairs banged a nice little hole in the corner of the roof in the spare bedroom which we use as an office. Thankfully we do not sleep in that room as lately we are getting strong whiffs of a rather unpleasent, toilet like odor. I think the room above is the bathroom and now with the hole in the roof the strench is coming down...which is odd as no one lives in the apartment so maybe it is just pipes from someone else's toilet? What ever it is, is smells.

Bel ragazzo spoke to the workers three times about fixing the hole and last week one of them came to have a look and said he would be back that afternoon to fix it. We waited, no one came... Bel ragazzo saw them leaving for the day and we didn't care as they'd be back the next day and fix it then.

Well... They were not back the next day and we have never heard from the since! Literally we have not heard from them as normally we were woken at 8am every morning by their banging and drilling and since that day there has been silence from above. It seems they finished the job and then left - for good - leaving our smelly hole in the roof.

Hmmm...nice. Thanks.

We have someones kitchen window opening onto our courtyard and they fry anything and everything day and night so we often have to shut the doors to keep their fatty food wafts out. But now we are in a dilema. Smelly food in, or smelly odor out.

Thank god we are leaving Rome soon.