Sponsors... and what info you need to know!

Just a quick note.. When moving to another county the military usually assigns a sponsor. This is someone to assist you with your move. The worst thing is getting a sponsor that doesn’t want to be a sponsor.  When we told our sponsor that we had 4 animals he quickly said there is no hotel that is going to allow you to have that many pets. I luckily had a contact on Facebook and asked her if she knew of any places that allow you to have pets and she told me that he knew the Hotel Agora allowed you to have pets. So, I contacted them and asked if they allowed pets and they said yes they did. Without checking around, we had our sponsor book this hotel. He had to get a letter from the Navy Lodge saying they were full and couldn’t accept us. (They only allow you to have two animals.) We arrived at the Hotel Agora and were very dissatisfied for many reasons. The room was very small, they told us we couldn’t leave our “do not disturb” sign up because we had animals, you cannot allow your animals to use the restroom anywhere on their property (you have to go across the street to a dirt lot that is full of trash and tons of dog feces that isn’t picked up), they charge you 5 euro a day for each pet and their customer service is terrible. After staying at the Agora for one month we searched on www.booking.com, and www.escapio.com and found a hotel in the area that was much cleaner, nicer, friendlier and free for pets. (A lot of hotels in Italy do not charge for pets).

I think the reason the military usually recommends the Hotel Agora is because they have a shuttle service that picks you up from the hotel and takes you to the Support Site and Capo base. If you have a good sponsor you can figure something out.  In the first few weeks here you will be going to Support Site every day for your Area Orientation (this is where you will get your Italian driver license and all the information you need for living in Italy).

As far as shipping cars goes I would not ship a nice car to Italy. Your car will not be nice for long. We have been in Italy for about a month and a half and been hit once already. If you have two cars then you should ship your older paid off car a while before you come to Italy so that you have it when you get here, then sell or store your other car.  Insurance is also very expensive so keep that in mind.