Tuesday Seth and I finally got to meet our landlady, Nicla, a motherly single woman in her early 60s. She lives a few towns away and often comes to Florence to visit her step-mother, but has been stuck at home since August with an injured back. However, she came to town for a few days to see a doctor, so we got to meet her at the other end of town (Porta Romana), at her step-mom's apartment. I must say that it is a BIG relief to have a kind landlady! Being in an unfamiliar place with different customs can really put a person in a position to be taken advantage of, but we got lucky with Nicla.
Unfortunately, Nicla didn't have much advice for how to deal with Rita, the crazy woman who lives downstairs from us. Her problem is that she INSISTS that we pay her 20euro a month to clean the stairs. If she were the landlady, or if we had signed some contract, or if it were not so costly, it would be a different story. This would be something like $300 for the year! We could eat out once a month for that price! Apparently the previous occupants (also Americans) also fought with Rita. The wife of one was unemployed and tried cleaning the stairs herself, but Rita fought back and won. Myke, the I Tatti Fellow who was here last, also tried cleaning the stairs and splitting the cost with Rita, but once again he failed. Now with us, Seth (who is the most stubborn person in the world, especially when he thinks someone is trying to take advantage of him) insisted on cleaning the stairs himself and still paying her 10euro a month for doing nothing, but once again she fought back. She is totally crazy.
Nicla told us to just pay her the money to maintain 'good relations', so we agreed to pay half and Nicla pay half... we still don't think she should get paid anything... At least I feel like Rita can be the craziest person in the world, and I wouldn't care; I'm just happy to have a nice and caring landlady!
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