I've been to Naples in December, March, and April and found it to be quite nice! In fact, on Christmas Day, I was wearing a light sweater and no jacket. New Years' Day, I think I had on a light jacket.

The first week of Jan, when I took my nice little dip in the Bay of Naples, I had on wool slacks and a light sweater.

Oh yes, I suppose you will want the story about the dip in the Bay. (I know Twippy will!) I was descending the ladder on the USS Nimitz to board the Mike boat back to shore. The timing has to be perfect to step onto the loading platform. Everyone could see that my timing was going to be off except me. You descend the ladder backwards. As I step off the third to last rung of the ladder, the wave hit and I was up to my knees in water.

Of course, everyone had a good laugh at my expense. The guy above me grabbed me by my armpits and hauled me back up. The guy below me was shoving me back up and it was so noisy I couldn't hear anyone screaming at me to go back up!

I was soaked. I had that nasty water inside my boots (up to my knee boots!) and my best wool pants were ruined! My husband was already on the boat and was laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall overboard...

Anyway, I was taken back on board the aircraft carrier, dried off, and we caught the next Mike Boat back to Naples. The water was warm, by the way, but I did NOT enjoy the bath! Icky water...very icky!

I did like Naples. Very nice city. Lots to do and see and very friendly. Food...ah, good food! And good wine! Lots of good wine!

Greta, you and Jim and going to love it there. And you betcha I am going to come visit! Maybe I will drag CG with me! She likes to eat! Hey Shelley, wanna come too!

It sounds like you've got good movers.....but just a word of warning. Check your inventories. With stuff going in different directions (storage and residence) things tend to get confusing.

I didn't work directly with claims but had to listen to my fair share of complaints from people who had things go missing.

Since moving internationally requires so many steps and so many people "touching" your things it's a good idea to check and double check once the destination agent schedules your delivery. You should keep a copy of your inventories to cross-check with the copy that the D.A. has when they make delivery. Same thing with your storage shipment. Once you take delivery of that it's a good idea to have a copy of the inventories to cross-check with the copy the driver is using.

Don't let them rush you at delivery. You have the right to check each item as it comes off the truck against your copy of the inventory.

I know you probably already know all this stuff but I saw too many people get denied their claims simply because they signed off on delivery before making sure everything was there and in good condition. Too bad if the driver doesn't want you to take the time to check your items off.....that's their job and it's your right.

OK.....off my soapbox

Sandy - They dropped your car!!! They made us drop it off with less than 1/4 tank, so hopefully there will be no joyriding!

Flygirl - I'm going to call you fish food from now on. That's all I can think of, you dangling from the ladder like fresh bait! You must have been mortified!

Kelly-
They've changed the rules I think - we get 60 days or so to check everything over, report damage, note things that are missing etc. I normally unpack most of it myself so I can do it box by box rather than have them spread every item on the floor.

I'm feeling somewhat ok about it because once they're packed in the crates, that's it. No repacking at the moving facility. I checked everything off that went on the truck. I also did an awful lot of revising to their inventory. They note tons of damage just to cover themselves. Even on stuff we had just purchased or had never used. I think they don't really even look - just write a lot of codes. So I crossed them out where appropriate and initialed them and noted the change below. A really new thing they've changed is that they now are required to provide full replacement value. It used to be that they would downgrade it and only give you a fraction if they damaged something that was a couple of years old. Now they have to pay for full replacement or repair. That's a big difference.

I guess my only concern would be boxes that are missing - I have no idea what's really in them. If box #203 noted as "garage items" goes missing I'm screwed because we moved tons of stuff into the garage. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. The only really bad move was the move from S Cal to Central Cal. They managed to destroy a lot of stuff then. Other than that, the damage has been pretty minimal.

Geez, Gret, I feel like a heel... a whole foot even. I thought and forgot to mention that this is one of those times when a digital camera could prove invaluable. Maybe just for the car!

You're exactly right. The really savvy movers create inventories of everything they own with photo documentation. The lady who gave us our moving class couldn't emphasize that enough. It just takes sooo much time to do everything, that I never even started (like I should have) with just doing the most valuable stuff. I think that I should make that a project for this tour, to finally create that inventory list. Besides moving it would be wonderful to have in the event stuff was stolen or destroyed from our house.

I worked for United and we gave 9 months from the date of delivery to file a claim. That was on interstate and International moves. They had changed the valuation right before I left so I really didn't get to get my feet wet using that.

I forgot to mention the "condition" of things. You're right - they do inflate the damage just to cover themselves. You were smart to change it. Lots of people get very offended at this - and rightfully so. Looks like all your things are junk....and they aren't.

Are you storing here in the states or overseas?

I hope things go smoothly for you. It'll all be just a distant memory soon!

Regarding the inventory/photos: why not use the unpacking as the perfect time to do this?

Unpack a box and while your stuff is spread all across your bed/the counter (or floor) and just take a photo. You can then write some quick notes (like date bought, value) of big items in the photo on the back of it. Slap all of them in a file or album and voila "Instant Inventory". Just update with new purchases as you need to.

Gee Greta, I'm just getting caught up here a bit. Guess I forgot you were moving to Naples!! Wow, now that's quite a move to make! Sure sounds like too much work to me. I hope everything moves along smoothly for you and you don't get too stressed out from it!

Carolyn

Thinking of you Greta.

Greta

Are you living on the floor yet?