I moved, temporarily, into a "monolocale", a studio flat, in the Oltrarno, only to be greeted by a complete lack of cutlery or crockery. Or, to be completely honest, some plastic cups and a steak knife. And the boiler didn't work. Though I was irked about the boiler, I wasn't even entirely sure whether I had the right to expect the place to be furnished with stoviglie, but when I spoke to the agenzia, the lady was disappointed on my behalf and chased the landord up. He called me later, and arrived, apologising profusely, and bearing a metric bucketload of plates, cups, glasses, graters, cafetieres, and decent pots and pans (actually, he didn't bear them, citing a problem with his arm, I got to lug them up the stairs). Now, the flat is better supplied than I'd expected, except that then we realised that the gas wasn't on at all.
When we found that the gas meter was sealed off, it emerged that the flat had stood empty for a year, and it was just possible that he'd forgotten to pay the bill. (The next day, he called to say that he has proof that he's paid the bill, but that Fiorentinagas must have cut it off because there was no gas usage). Finally, it emerges that his account with them is definitively closed, so they won't start the service the next day, but because he has a friend of a friend who works there, it will get sorted out on Tuesday... As he's offered a reasonable amount of money off the rent, I've been sticking out till then hoping that it's resolved then. We also discussed my getting a camping gas stove which he'd refund, but gf suggested that a kettle would make sense instead as we'll need one anyway. The Italians don't really go for electric kettles all that much, but I manage to get one for EUR 9.50.
Only it has the wrong sort of plug. I'm vaguely aware of some of the different sorts of plugs. There is a basic type which is either 2 or 3 pin - a 2 pin plug will go in a 3 pin socket (but not vice versa of course). Then there is a variant of that design but in a round recess. Apparently you should only put round plugs in the recessed sockets, and the non-rounded ones in the other sort, as they're hard to get out (e.g. they're accidentally compatible but they're actually subtly different sizes!) The kettle has 2 round prongs, thicker than the others. Cunningly, there are no plugs of this sort in the flat, but, 2 days later (cos I didn't get it together to find an open ironmongers on Sunday) I have an adaptor and hot water at last.
