Hello

Hi Romilly and welcome to the forum. You may be interested in joining us in the Liguria group on this site.

Hello, Romilly and welcome. Liguria is a beautiful place. We had a look at properties around your area when we were searching for a house, but there was nothing suitable at the time, so we ended up in Northern Tuscany, however, we always spend time there as well. Best wishes regarding your future plans.

Hello Romilly, yes we know the area you live in.  We started our house-hunting in the Sestri Levante area but quickly realised the prices there were out of our budget. Earlier this year we were in Tavarone looking for some flats with a wonderful view that we had seen on the internet.  We found them, and Taverone.  The snow was just beginning to melt, and we had to be careful on the slopes.  The views were fantastic.The reason we are so interested in the Sestri Levante area is that Allan's great-grandfather came from there, and we spent several years successfully tracking down the family branch left in the area.  This invovled making appointments with local priests to go through their registers with them.  (No mean feat when Allan's Italian language skills were in their infancy at that time!).  One priest took us down into his church's private "museum" where he had stored all kinds of ancient religious paraphernalia.  We have a great interest in family history and have set up a website containing a database of original historical legal documents relating to people in England and Wales who entered into any kind of legal agreement http://www.familychest.co.uk/  If anyone is researching their family history, our website might be helpful, as it contains lots of personal information on the people involved in the transactions.In the end we bought an apartment with garden in the North Tuscan area of Lunigiana.  It's not too far from Sestri, and very close to the wonderful coastline of the Cinque Terre.  We are much newer to home owning in Italy than you, as we are about to visit the apartment for only the second time next week.It seems that family history has not taken off in Italy, I suppose it is because families are inclined to stay together in the same area, and everyone knows all there is to know about their own family.  Or at least they think they do.  Allan's family are not quite convinced about the English side, despite hard evidence!      

Welcome to Liguria.  We've been down the valley from you for 5 years and are very happy.  Susan has been teaching English in Brugnato, not far from you.  It's always best to use locals to do work for you.  It helps the local economy and your own standing amongst your neighbours.

Hi Romilly,Best wishes for the big move and looking forward to hear more about your experience of Italy in the future!