8546 Hello from the US of A

As a fellow Buckeye I know you will enjoy Italy. The down side is that I had to get up at 2:00AM this morning to watch another BCS loss. Be sure to spend some time here not as tourists in the area you are interested in BEFORE you do any serious looking to buy. Living here and being on vacation are two different ways of seeing things.

Hi Bruno....yes another Buckeyes loss.
Actually we are looking at purchasing it as an investment property to rent out on a weekly basis. My wife and I will use 2-3 weeks per year when we come over for vacation. I think its a pretty good spot for exploring Tuscany..........the mountains are fairly close as well as the beaches.

Pls let me know your thoughts.
Thanks Bruno.......and theres always next year for the Buckeyes!!
[quote=Bruno;80166]As a fellow Buckeye I know you will enjoy Italy. The down side is that I had to get up at 2:00AM this morning to watch another BCS loss. Be sure to spend some time here not as tourists in the area you are interested in BEFORE you do any serious looking to buy. Living here and being on vacation are two different ways of seeing things.[/quote]

A warm welcome to the Forum and to lovely Bagni di Lucca.
Best wishes with all your plans.

Thank You Gala

Hi guys, welcome to the forum. Before you commit to property in tuscany, why not check out Le Marche, which has mountains, lake and coastline, very unspoilt and undiscovered and in my opinion far more beautiful than tuscany. There is much culture here as well as hilltop towns, wonderful food and wine and the inhabitants are the longest living in the whole of europe - not a bad thing to boast about!!

You should also be able to buy a very different type of property here as its not yet over run with tourists.

Good luck with whatever you do

warm regards

Pam

Hi Pam
can you send us some propert links for Le Marche?

Thanks
Charles

Welcome to the Forum and can you please tell me (sorry for the ignorance!) what is a Buckeye??? :eerr:

Also just to say if you do think of Le Marche I can personally recommend Pam's advice - we found a house there while staying with her at Villa Sibillini and the support we got from Pam and David was second to none (except of course for the badgering about the football team we support but that's another story!!).

Best wishes wherever you go - Italy is all lovely!

Hi Cath and Mike
A Buckeye is a nut that grows on a tree.....
Our state football (US Football) team is the Ohio State Buckeyes

Welcome to another American! Best of luck on your upcoming move. When do you plan to make the move to Italy, and will it be your permanent home, or part time? If you haven't yet been to Umbria we highly recommend it!

[quote=angustami;80164]I just wanted to introduce ourselves. Charles and Tami Robertson from Ohio.
My wife and I are thinking about purchasing a Villa at the Old Mill in Bagna De Lucca. We have actually reserved a 2 bedroom for now...........my wife was born in Palermo and we had the opportunity to spend 3 weeks in Tuscano last May. We both absolutely fell in love with Italy and are looking forward to pursuing a home there.
Pls chime in with any advice or suggestions.

And thank you in advance.
Charles[/quote]

Hello Charles -

I know what you mean. My husband and I have been looking, for about 5 years, for a place in Italy that we can call our own. I'll try to give you the "short" version of our adventure -

We originally started looking for a 3 bedroom/2 bath in the Tuscany region. We wanted to use it for a vacation and investment property. Other criteria, that we required, were that the property should be in an area where we wouldn't have to worry about vandalism, and the property had to be in relatively good condition because we didn't feel comfortable about fixing up such an expensive investment over 5000 miles away.

After an extensive search, in the Tuscany region, we basically found that 3 bedroom/2 bath properties were in the area of 750,000 Euros. And, they were fixer-uppers. Also, they usually were in ungated or rural areas.

One day, someone suggested we look in the Calabria region. Well, after contacting a local realtor in Scalea, we ended up purchasing (4) 3 bedroom/2 bath units at a cost far less than the 750,000 Euros we had been seeing in Tuscany. The property needs a little T.L.C., but the realtor has been extremely helpful in helping us contract people to do the work. The property is also in a gated community. The realtor also is our property manager, and we had rental income our first year.

Besides that, this region is a lot closer to Palermo than Tuscany. After visiting Sicily, last year, we found our "lost" relatives and have now made it an annual trip to visit them....since they're only 3 hours from our new home.

If you would like to discuss "our adventure" in greater detail, you can contact me at [email]sfcohen@msn.com[/email].

Good luck with your search!

JanetC

Thanks for the welcomw.
Actually it will be a villa that we would rent out for most of the year.....other than the 2-3 weeks that my wife and I will be over to enjoy it.

[quote=umbria lover;80214]Welcome to another American! Best of luck on your upcoming move. When do you plan to make the move to Italy, and will it be your permanent home, or part time? If you haven't yet been to Umbria we highly recommend it![/quote]

Hi Janet and Thank You for your response.
Funny.....my wifes family is from Sicily.

We actually began our property search in Scotland about 12 yrs ago. We made 16 visits and found many wonderful properties. Unfortunately the prices were crazy and tourism is down from when we began searching.

We travelled to Tuscany last May and fell in LOVE with it. We have found a nice gated referbished mill in Bagna De Lucca that we have actually reserved verbally. I am awaiting further details and pics from the sales agency.

If it falls thru...who knows.

Thanks again for your email

Charles

[quote=JanetC;80238]Hello Charles -

I know what you mean. My husband and I have been looking, for about 5 years, for a place in Italy that we can call our own. I'll try to give you the "short" version of our adventure -

We originally started looking for a 3 bedroom/2 bath in the Tuscany region. We wanted to use it for a vacation and investment property. Other criteria, that we required, were that the property should be in an area where we wouldn't have to worry about vandalism, and the property had to be in relatively good condition because we didn't feel comfortable about fixing up such an expensive investment over 5000 miles away.

After an extensive search, in the Tuscany region, we basically found that 3 bedroom/2 bath properties were in the area of 750,000 Euros. And, they were fixer-uppers. Also, they usually were in ungated or rural areas.

One day, someone suggested we look in the Calabria region. Well, after contacting a local realtor in Scalea, we ended up purchasing (4) 3 bedroom/2 bath units at a cost far less than the 750,000 Euros we had been seeing in Tuscany. The property needs a little T.L.C., but the realtor has been extremely helpful in helping us contract people to do the work. The property is also in a gated community. The realtor also is our property manager, and we had rental income our first year.

Besides that, this region is a lot closer to Palermo than Tuscany. After visiting Sicily, last year, we found our "lost" relatives and have now made it an annual trip to visit them....since they're only 3 hours from our new home.

If you would like to discuss "our adventure" in greater detail, you can contact me at [email]sfcohen@msn.com[/email].

Good luck with your search!

JanetC[/quote]

For anyone interested in what Bagni di Lucca and its surrounding area, Val di Lima, can offer, you can have a look at this useful site: [url=http://www.valdilima.com]Val di Lima - The guide to Bagni di Lucca and around - Start here![/url]
It is not very comprehensive, but it has some information.
I hope to write more about the area in a special thread. Bagni di Lucca is a beautiful town but the countryside is also magnificent. The Lima River runs through it, hence the name of the Valley.

Just another interesting and useful site, although this time in Italian: [url=http://www.prolocobagnidilucca.it]Benvenuti nel sito ufficiale della Pro-Loco di Bagni di Lucca[/url]
Enjoy!

Hi Janet, where did you buy in Calabria? We have bought in Scalea. Also had a very helpful agent. In fact he went beyond helpful organising bank account, codice fiscale. electricity etc.

Lynn

Have you thought about Sardinia?

Hi Lynn - We purchased a home in San Nicola (I Delfini). The area is beautiful and we really like being close to Scalea for the shopping and restaurants. We just spent the Christmas week in San Nicola and had a great time. There was plenty to do and many of the restaurants/stores were open. How often do you visit Scalea? We are returning in March for Easter and then for 6 weeks in the summer.

Janet