The living room has two windows offering splendid view of the main street of Bussana Vecchia. If you're not touring the village it is a great place (together with the view from our terrace) to spot the many tourist visitors.
It offers a pleasant atmosphere for dining and relaxation in the evening with a dining table that easily seats six persons, a high-efficiency Franklin stove, a comfortable Laura Ashley couch, with a choice of ambient lighting including various antique and kitsch chandeliers and ceramic lion lamps made by local artist Krisztina.
The niches in the room contain a mini hifi media player cable of handling regular audio and mp3 CDs as well as DVDs and has video output into a flatscreen or projector (not supplied). On the other side of the room, the niche contains maps of the region and multiple books about the region and touristical trips. The niches and bookshelves in the kids room also offer a small series of art, architecture, and general fiction in English, Dutch and Italian.
Being adventurous and having lived here for many years we will also be pleased to offer you insights in the best places to see and visit. In addition to its beautiful beaches, the region of Liguria and nearby region of Piemonte offer many weeks' worth of sightseeing and sportive (hiking, biking) excitement. Check the Things to do pages.
Practical info
Heating: The temperature in Bussana usually stays well above freezing point. Winters with snow are rare. As soon as the sun comes out the outside temperature is pleasant, even in winter. Between the months of April and November, heating is typically not required with daytime temperature over 18 degrees C (65F). In the months of November and March, heating during the evening is usually necessary. In the colder and often more rainy months of December, January and February one needs to heat the house during daytime and evening. You will find statistics of the Sanremo weather at the Climatemps site. There is general agreement that the hillside location of Bussana results in a microclimate that is slightly better than Sanremo.
The fireplace is small but should keep the living room and adjacent kids room and kitchen comfortably warm, provided the fire is properly lighted and maintained. Some guidance to light the fireplace is provided in the Heating page.
The fireplace is of the convector type with 7kW capacity. As with any wood stove, the process from lighting the fire to a warm room will take 30 minutes to one hour. On cold days we therefore also light the Zibro paraffine burner to give some quick initial heating. Instructions for this heater can be found also in the link above.The Studio bedroom on the terrace does not have heating. A sunny day in winter will be sufficient to create an acceptable sleeping temperature (according to our view) and the bedding is warm. In case you want to spend a winter evening in this room you can use the Zibro paraffin heater.
There are also two electric heaters that can be used, with a limitation set by the 4 kW power provided by the local electricity company ENEL. Upgrading appears to be very complex and expensive, so given the fact that this extra heating is only required in the winter months I haven't pursued it. In rare case of overload, the main power switch (grey ENEL cabinet next to Ivana's door) will reset and has to be set again by hand.
I am considering placing solar panels on the pergola to overcome the electricty limitaltions, but it is important they do not obstruct the medieval town perspective. New solr panels in terracotta color have only recently become available.
Internet: There is wifi in the house. Ask Ivana for the lengthy password. Except for some bulk transmissions we use mobile internet because it is inexpensive and works everywhere else in Italy as well. See the Internet page for details.
History
