As I’ve mentioned before, I’m moving out of my current place in a few weeks and I’m leaving an unfurnished place that I furnished myself to rent a furnished room in somebody else’s house. I have mixed emotions about it all, because on the one hand I can’t walk around naked all the time anymore (I mean, I assume), but on the other hand my housemate is really nice and she can keep my dog company during my work day and me company during my nights off. Also, it’s much cheaper.
I’ve been checking things off my list to prepare for the move in a unprecedented timely fashion. I’ve had the landlord come over to look at a huge leak in my wall, which they did over the course of three different visits and finally simply painted over it and called it a day. I’m still not sure whether I love or hate this about Italy, frankly. I’m leaning to hate.
I’ve also been trying to empty out the house as best as I can. I already brought some stuff back to my parent’s home in the Netherlands, and I’ve started to sell whatever is unused in my storage space. Me and my ex packed and unpacked that stuff for a total of four moves, but I just can’t do it anymore. What would be left is my furniture, which is all less than a year old, so I’m currently selling the chairs out from under me. I’m sitting on a saloon table as I’m typing this.
In the Netherlands we have a website called Marktplaats, which translates to Marketplace, to sell stuff like that. In Italy, people use Facebook Marketplace, which, nonsensically, the Dutch consider a total scam and not to be trusted. There can only be one Marketplace, you know.
Facebook Marketplace did seem to be the easiest option, so I put up some ads in which I primarily communicated that I don’t speak Italian well. I’ve got some basic vocabulary, sure, but if people are going to ask me about the specs of a sound system in Italian I’d rather just donate it. Or scream in their faces and simply leave them with an item they’re not sure they want.
My recent injury is eating at my capacity to exist in a foreign land okay, sue me. But even as I was suffering from an infection and a bandaged wound and could hardly stand straight, my FB Marketplace experiences so far were surprisingly wholesome. I say surprisingly, because my Dutch heritage ingrains in me the notion that all scammers buyers would just grab the item from my hands and bolt.
Instead, I met a Turkish guy who inquired “it works, right?” in Italian and seemed happy with my simple “sì” because I couldn’t muster anything more. He was confused I hadn’t brought a bag for him to bring the item home in, but handed me the money regardless and scooted off to the subway within ten minutes of arriving. Two hours later I received a thumbs up emoji over chat and I never heard from him again. 9/10 experience (no 10 because of the bag assumption).
Next was the Italian guy who, of all people, spoke English very well. At this point I was truly suffering from my injury, but he was extremely chatty and just kept on going. He wasn’t bothered by the fact I was awfully sweaty, much sweatier than an innocent non-scamming person would be, but it was because I was boiling standing out in the sun in 100 degree-weather, hiding my wounded arm in a sweater. We were talking about nothing and I couldn’t wait to leave. I guess he was nice but I was absolutely dying inside so who knows for sure. I never heard from him again. 8/10 (because of my personal discomfort).
Next, a guy from Sri Lanka who bought speakers off of me but couldn’t get them to work on his Wifi. We opted to exchange them for another model that I was also selling, and again I was sure he was going to scam me somehow1, but he too was nice. He needed to break a fifty so we got a coffee at a pasticceria nearby. For a second I thought he was trying to hit on me, but instead he inquired on life in the Netherlands. He showed me his daughters, which I generally think is awkward, but they were absolutely gorgeous and I would’ve done the same. He said he wanted to move to the Netherlands, or Germany maybe, because he wanted his daughters to have a different life from his. He didn’t say as much, but he wanted them to amount to more than he had been able to in Italy. It wasn’t because he hadn’t wanted more for himself, but racism is a thing in Italy as much as anywhere else, and he was hoping for something better for his daughters. I told him I’m too white and too Dutch to properly inform him but that I’d happily answer any question he might have about life in the Netherlands. I did so for a while until my arm started to feel like it was rotting away again. I told him to text me, about the speaker or about the Netherlands, whichever. I never heard from him again. Still, 10/10.
Last, two college students that came to pick up the balcony set. I immediately loved them, because they were from Macedonia and spoke excellent English and because they were equally worried about being scammed. Somehow two worried parties amount to one big happy party, and we chatted away about life in Italy and the neighborhood and all that. I pointed out a good place to get draft beers and secretly hoped they would give it a try and we’d meet again by chance. I never heard from them again. Another 10/10.
I think I might have found a new hobby in FB Marketplace. People are generally happy to have a chat, whether it’s because they’re immigrants too or because they are simply Italian and talkative. Neither applied when I’ve sold stuff in the Netherlands, but I enjoyed peeking into random people’s lives in this fleeting way.
I still have a few more things to sell. I’m being haunted by some guy called Raymond who disappointingly doesn’t speak a lick of English, so that’s at least one more. Honestly, if someone would run off with a random video projector I bought eight years ago without handing me the money first, it’d be worth it at this point. But I’d definitely hope never to hear from them again either.
like swapping my ‘non-functioning’ one for an actual non-functioning one he randomly had lying around. Apparently it’s a common scam on FB Marketplace.
I am curious how did you decide to live with somebody from living solo? I am on verge of doing the opposite. But nonetheless , I hope you enjoy living at your new place.
hahaha 'they were great, we still never talk sometimes' is such a Ron Swanson approach to marketplace! I love it !