737 any areas suitable for horses in italy

Have you had a look at the east coast Marche, Abruzzo, Molise.
Plenty of national parks around Abruzzo, maybe suitable for horses, certainly suitable for walking.

Why don't you contact Sally from [url]www.holidayinmarche.com[/url] - she is very knowledgeable and will soon have her own horses.

[QUOTE=cromwell]we are hoping to purchase a property and retire to italy. we have a couple of horses that we are planning to take with us. we have travelled to emilia-romagna (too mountainous), tuscany (too expensive), puglia (too many shops selling horse meat!) and piemonte (mosquitos and vineyards). none of these places seem suitable for horses. does anyone have any ideas where we can look? we don't want to be too far south.[/QUOTE]
There are hardly any regions left in the centre north...the entire plain of the po valley has mosquitoes as do most low lying areas,a lot of the country is in fact mountainous,wherever the soil conditions/climate ecc is favourable you will find vinyards,despite that a lot of people keep horses in most regions of the country...otherwise there's always France...

Hi Cromwell,
Come to Le Marche with your horses!! It's green - there is enough rain to keep it that way most of the year - I guess a bit of a dry spell in July/August. But 2 crops of hay a year if you have enough land. We haven't bought our horses yet, we are still doing fencing and building stables, but we have 2 sardinian donkeys who don't seem to be troubled by ticks. The flies are bad in summer ...but you get that in the UK too. The riding is excellent, lots of farm tracks and hill work, there are no trespass laws here so you can ride anywhere as long as you don't go on someones crops obviously!! No fences or gates or blocked bridleways - They need plenty of shelter, we do get mad storms, wind, and hot sun, but the going is good most of the year, -(I remember the English mud hangs around all winter) we get fabulous crisp sunny winter days perfect for riding.... spring and autumn perfect for riding....and early mornings in summer are beautiful too...can't wait, can't wait!! For better conditions for horses maybe go slightly nearer the coast than we are, (near the Sibillini Mountains, province of Macerata) the ground will be flatter and the winters not quite so cold. Its quite hard to find land in this hilly area flat enough to do schooling on. The National Park looks perfect in summer for horses but the climate isn't so good to live all year round up there, and there are vipers in the mountains. Hope this helps. Keep in touch.

Piemonte is not that bad ... no mosquitos if you go up hill... and not so expensive either.

Paola