926 Maybe The Lakes.

My family and I are hoping to relocate next year to Italy.We are interested in the Lombardia region,and are thinking of renting first before buying.Lake Como or Maggiore of particular interest.Does anyone know any good rental sites for these areas or if anyone has done this already,how are you getting on?

Category
Property Sales/Rental Advice

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 07/28/2005 - 05:58

Best of luck, I'm familiar with Como, my ex-boss has a place there, next to the Versace villa. I hope that you have deep pockets so that you will feel at home with the other billionaires who own the waterfront property.

I don't know much abou the rental market, but if I were you I would think very carefully about both locations, particularly with regard to position for anything around Lake Como. The mountains around the lake mean that the day is actually rather short (the time from the sun appearing over one mountain then ducking behind another) and that there are good and bad sides to the lake - some locations are in permanent shadow and those locations tend to be cheaper, if somewhat dismal.

Maggiore is more open, a good friend has a villa there and seems to like it, she also not short of a bob or two so if you fit into this category you should be able to find somewhere decent. Watch out for location still, I work at Ispra from time to time and in winter it's possible to find lakefront villas are half submerged in water.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 07/28/2005 - 06:36

Why not Piemonte?
Lago d'orta is beautiful and a bit cheaper.
The best way would surely be to rent a house for a year or something and take it from there...
Would you like to be on the lake or inland? The Lago d'orta is surrounded by hills, that is quite convenient as you can have a house away from the crwod but be just 5 min away...

Paola

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 07/28/2005 - 08:10

I bought a small place a couple of years ago, near to Lake Orta, on the slopes of Mottarone. I agree with latoca - its a great area, and easy to get to from the UK.

I'd suggest you get to know the area first. We visited the area a few times then set up a week of house hunting in the Orta/Maggiore area. We arranged [in advance] to see about 14 houses through about 5 Estate Agents.

We had e-mailed them our requirements for the property [which most followed], and requested details in advance [some sent them]. We also had a longer check list of what we wanted , which we used to rate each house.

So - give the house search with the attention it deserves, don't settle for second best, and be sure you all agree on the house you buy.
Also - if you find you aren't enjoying the house hunting - give up and try another time.

Don't be afraid to say that you haven't seen the right house yet.

-----------------------------------------------

By the way - after all the above, my wife decided that she liked the house with the 'pretty cows with bells on' in the field opposite [not on any check list] - so we bought it.

Absolutely the right choice for us.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/29/2005 - 12:47

I wish I were in the millionaires bracket,but am not so will have to rethink maybe.Although living near George Clooney in Laglio somewhat appeals!We live in Devon by the sea,so living by the water is important as a family.Has anyone moved to Italy with teenagers (2 boys,15 &17).How was it?

Thanks jane

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/29/2005 - 13:19

Italy is about 90 to 120 minute driving time wide over most of the length of the country, there's nowhere that's far from the sea. No surf to speak of though, the mediterranean is not the Atlantic.

But don't drop your dream before you've found out the costs involved. Yes lakefront properties are very expensive, but do you need to actually live on the water, instead of near it? And there are may lakes around Italy so you shouldn't be confined to just two areas.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/29/2005 - 15:56

Hi Jane
We moved back to Italy 2 yrs ago and have 3 children (at the time 17,12 &5)
The eldest decided to stay and finish A levels. The other 2 - well the youngest one is now bilingual and has no problems. The middle one (12 )had the most problems. Things are getting better though. We asked for him to be 'put back' a year, that gave him time to learn italian. He's about to start 'Superiore' (high school) and we think he's done really well considering.
We didn't put them in International schools, partly because of the costs, but also, if you want them to integrate and make friends, then local school is best. (thats just my opinion).
The only setback about renting I think is that, once the children are settled in a school - then you really dont want to move them again. We had this predicament. We moved out here, rented and then when we wanted to buy, had to think of the children. They'd made friends and had gone through such a lot that it didn't seem fair to go through all that upheaval again. So we bought a place that meant they could stay in the same schools. I know children are really adaptable,(they really are!) but I think there must be a limit on how many times you can move about.
Hope this is of some help - everyones story is different though, so please just read this with an open mind !
Ciao
Karen
ps: we lived in an Island before and I really miss the sea - but the lakes are never far away and theres always the hope of spotting George Clooney :p