8787 Buona sera

Good evening to everyone. That awkward first posting :reallyembarrassed:

I hope to move to Italy this year -- for good. My house is up for sale, and my plan is to buy a house in Italy with the proceeds. I expect I'll be renting a place for a few months while I do the house hunting.

I have been studying the Italian property websites (as I expect many of you have!) and have homed in on Umbria. It looks as though there is a good range of properties within my budget, and it is [I]such[/I] a beautiful part of the country.

My last holiday in Italy was Summer 2006, based just outside Spoleto, in fact. (My holiday in 2007 was in the mud at the Glastonbury festival :veryconfused:). I'd be more than happy to live in that area, or near Todi or Orvieto, or somewhere around Trasimeno. Perugia is a wonderful city too, but I'd prefer a rural or small town location for a home. I won't mind at all if there are no other English-speakers around.

I have some Italian, but I suspect that the ability to get by while on holiday won't really prepare me for complaining to ENEL about my electricity connection being late, or explaining to a plumber that the toilet seems to work in reverse every alternate Thursday. But I'll work on it.

I can think of some questions and requests for advice already for forum members who have made the move, but I think this is quite enough for now as an introduction.

Ciao!

Category
Introduce Yourself - Piacere Conoscerti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 16:24

Benvenuti!
Welcome.
I would imagine that, like us, you will find this a most enlightening and helpful melting pot of ideas, info and wisdom.
Enjoy!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 16:27

Welcome Steve.

I do not live in the area you are interested in but I have made the move to live in Italy permanently and have not regretted it for a minute.

You seem to have a very sensible approach and even a smattering of Italian will be a great help, although dealing with ENEL is quite another matter and even born and bred Italians have difficulty.

Do bear in mind that not all the properties shown on web sites actually are for sale, some sites are very slow in removing a house once it is sold.

Good luck, I hope everything goes well for you.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 18:10

Hi - quick bit of advice ... if you are looking for good value for money within rural umbria, I'd look further south, down towards Lazio. The countryside is every bit as nice, the larger towns (orvieto, Terni, Spoleto etc.) are still within easy reach, but your euro will go a lot further and there are fewer ex-pat's than you'll find further north. Otricoli or its environs would be my top tip - nice little centro storico, all the shops you need, close to the A1 and plenty of nice property/landscapes in the surrounding countryside. Whether the property is for sale or not is a different matter (but that's mainly my wife trying to discourage anyone else from movng into the area!)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 02:56

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum. We have been living in Marche for two years now, and have not regreted the move, not always rosy, but then life in the UK wasnt all that wonderful either and here we find the quality of life so much better.And everyday there is still something new to discover, so wish you well and hope you love the Italians as much as we do.
Angie

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 03:03

Benvenuto Steve! I am sure that you will get plenty of help and sound advice in this Forum. We are not in your area but Umbria is a beautiful place. Good choice. Best wishes for your plans and keep us informed.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 16:05

Welcome Steve and all good wishes for house hunting, pieces of advice given so far are very sound because Umbria is a bit expensive these days. Even cheaper options are available further South even to S Lazio, giving you easy access to glorious Rome which you may or may not see as an advantage. Rental option while looking for property could be an idea. Buona fortuna!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 16:59

Thank you to everyone who has responded. I will be keeping an open mind about location.

I'm on my own now, so I'll be downsizing considerably, with a fair amount of budgetary flexibility. A two-bedroom village house will be fine, preferably with a little garden or terrace... Ah, the dream.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 02/16/2008 - 09:37

hi,

welcome I made the move 8 months ago and have never looked back, am renting the moment until we decide where we are settling.Kept the house in UK.
Everybody is so helpful on this forum, and they are a wealth of advise.

One thing i will say is the pound is so lousey at the moment i have decided to not sell my house in the UK yet . If you can afford it might be on option so you do have something to fall back on.

good luck keep in touch, the language just comes i did 1 year italian in England , i still make mistakes but every triumph over comes all the mistakes. I took on the post office the other day, now that was a triumph. I skipped out of there. :laughs:

Every moment is part of the adventure, good and bad

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 13:17

Welcome Steve, as said they're a friendly bunch here!

I rented before buying to give us time to find the right area and the right house. The first area we moved to, (within Abruzzo) just wasn't right for us. The neighbours were all very friendly, but not suitable to settle into long term. Still stuck with Abruzzo though.

Best of luck with the move

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 04:23

Hi Steve, good luck with your new life here in italy - and do consider marche before you make up your mind. Whilst Umbria is lovely, Marche boasts the whole of italy in one county. We are just half and hour from the coast, lake and mountains and it is truly stunning scenery. You will probably get more for you money here as well - there's links to loads of agents and private houses for sale on our web site, take a look.

We have now been here for 6 years, and loving every season, its a very social and welcoming place and every season brings something new. Send me an email if we can help with anything.

warm regards
Pam

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 06:53

Thanks Pam. My total experience of Le Marche so far consists of one day trip to Ascoli Piceno. In Winter!

I did love it though.
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.annaghvarn.plus.com/abruzzo2005/imgp0042_thumb.jpg[/IMG]
[/CENTER]

As I mentioned, I'll be flexible about my eventual destination! One thing I need to consider is flights back to see family and so on. There are direct flights connecting my local airports to Rome and Pisa, but for Ancona, say, it would need to be a two-leg flight via Stansted.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 07:13

Hi Steve
Loved the picture ,can see that already you are a real asset to the forum. Dont discount Marche, Rome is only 3.5hrs drive away, and friends use it along with Bologna when they are returning here. There does seem to be a strong Marche fan club on this forum, not that we are biased of course.
A

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 02/25/2008 - 16:13

Hi Steve,
We live in a small village a few K's from Castiglione del lago on the west side of Trasimeno and have lived here for about 18 months.
We love it.....
You idea of renting first is absolutely what I would recommend, it will give you a really good idea if the area is right for you, and give you the best view the local property market. If it is of use/help my young neighbour deals with rentals for a local immobiliare, she is great fun and speaks good English, PM me if you would like contact details.

If you have some Italian and WANT to learn the language you will, phone calls to the likes of Telecom Italia are for me like a free lesson, when we first arrived and the newly installed ADSL line didn't work I would call them regularly, sometimes (often) I would end the call with no idea at all of what they had told me , so would just call back (freefone) later. Within a few weeks of arriving here my broadband was working, and has worked more or less constantly since, no big deal in the UK but here... I know people who have lived here for years and speak only a few words, but for me I want to understand and be able to talk with my Italian neighbours.

Everyone has their own view on the "ex-pat" community, for us it is a real benefit. Sure if we wanted to live in an English community abroad complete with Pub and chip shop we would have moved to Spain, but we have met a lot of really good people, Life here is very different, and support and advice from those who have been here a while can be really useful, from a honest local plumber to which Cantina has a decent wine this year, to (if you need it) where to buy baked beans or cheddar cheese..

I would say we have received nothing but help and kindness from the Italian community.

Good luck with your plans...

Ciao John