½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Maria,
If you look for threads started by Francis M., you will find a few short stories describing some of the reasons why we love Italia and its people. Now, I will have to admit that a three weeks stay, moving from town to town, represents a small statistical sample, however, it is very odd, nevertheless, that in these weeks only good was experienced by us.

Sometimes you don't see what you've got till it's gone. Italy is a beautiful place with, in the main, very nice, pleasant, friendly,open people who smile a lot. The food here is good, the weather generally good, the pace of life, in the countryside at least, gentle, and as a friend said recently, the ½ûÂþÌìÌà people have a strong sense of humanity. You really are lovely people. :)

When I go to watch the football I love the passion of the crowds

When I go to visit the countryside - i love the pace of life

When I go a big city I love the architecture - I am always surprised that even in the big cities people have the time of day for you

there are many things in Italy that I do not like - but they are far outweighed by those that I do - whilst England for me is stotally the opposite

When I go to the football - it is passionless morgue

When I go to visit the countryside - it is as much a rush as the city

When I go to the big cities - the buildings and architeture are there but no one has the time of day for you and I feel anything other than safe

There are many things I love about the UK {after all I am English} - but what I hate about the the country far far out weighs those that I love

Maria, I love being in Italy for much the same reasons as you. I feel comfortable, I feel at home and its as simple as that. Some things are more difficult and some thing ar just much more simple.

I presume you are also interested in those who haven't necessarily made the full commitment to move to Italy, but still have a house there and visit regularly.

I reckon the poor old UK gets a raw deal on this Forum. I don't read the Daily Mail, and my teenage children and their friends don't strike me as yobs, but rather responsible young citizens of a dynamic, diverse culture.

I am a keen European, and that is one of the reasons for my toehold in Italy. It could have been France, Greece or elsewhere but I happen to know Italy a lot better than those countries and I speak the language enough to get by. I want my kids to have a European outlook, one of the aims of which is to accept that one country is not intrinsically better than another - but that there are differences which one should respect and learn from.

Straight comparisons seem pointless - so I'll just say that I enjoy Italy and the UK for different reasons and together they make for a very interesting mix.

Many thanks for your responses, I must admit that the original question was rather inspired by a lovely bottle of Barbaresco!!

I'll have to say, Italy, is probably as much of a curiosity to me as it is to any other English person. I just never had to actually find it. I'm now curious to see what other countries have such a passionate fan base. I'm sure Ireland does, and probably Greece. I just can't imagine people feeling so drawn to (say) Switzerland, as beautiful as it is...

(Must write myself a clever ½ûÂþÌìÌà catchphrase)

Cheers

Maria Lucia

Well I always feel like a complete imposter, or may a heretic, when I read the rapturous posts from others about Italy. For us, the reason we bought a place in Italy was only after a process of elimination. We had just gone through a longish period (maybe 3 years or so) of indifferent summers and grey winters and I was desparately wanting some sun. I absolutely adore London but I do feel the need to get away from time to time into the countryside and escaping to the country in the UK is so damned difficult because you have to jockey for road space with a million other drivers, or pay through the nose for a train ticket, or plan your life away trying to take advantage of APEX train prices. And then in the end where are you? Somewhere undoubtedly quite beautiful but bound by the same weather pattern you had at home and a lot lighter in the pocket.

So...the pound was strong, we had paid off our mortgage and were beginning to build up a bit of reserve cash, Ryanair and EasyJet had started cheap flights to Europe and we began thinking. We had a fabulous holiday in Gozo and, partly because we knew someone who had a farmhouse there, we started to idly look at the real estate prices and were pleasantly surprised that they were within our reach. So we started thinking... In the end Gozo seemed impractical because of the time it took to get there. Likewise Cyprus which we also liked very much. I began to think more strategically. What were the things that we like about going on holiday: food, drink, sun, sea, sand, art, architecture, theatre, culture generally, affordability. I put these as column headings and then down the left hand side of the page listed the countries that interested us within a couple of hours or so by air. In effect this meant France, Portugal, Spain, or Italy and basically Italy scored the highest overall.

In a way, this choice was a shame because I'd studied French for years and with very little more effort could have become fluent pretty quickly. But first of all I didn't think we would be able to afford what we wanted in Franch, and secondly, I'm not sure I really like French culture very much. The French seem to be so family oriented I wondered if we would ever meet anyone. The ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs and the Spanish by contrast, although equally family oriented, seemed to look outward more - and of the two, I prefer ½ûÂþÌìÌà food.

So in the end the choice was easy and I guess the exercise did show me that I love Italy, but maybe in a kind of laid back sort of way. Since we've bought our house we've had nothing but good relations with our ½ûÂþÌìÌà neighbours (and the Brits too of course) and I am trying to acquaint myself more generally with ½ûÂþÌìÌà "culture" but we have absolutely no inclination to move there full time - that is at least until they improve their radio stations. They're dreadful! :-)

Food - passion - mopeds - art - history - wine - weather - landscape - spirituality - friendship - enmity - mountains - lakes - cities - crowds - solitude - skies - seas - flowers - colour - tradition - monuments - graveyards - festivals... etc.

Can I add -Piaggio Ape- to equilibrio's list, I aspire to own one one day... :cool:

I have only just logged in to the site and i am not 100% sure how this works, but i am looking to buy a second home in Italy and i'm not sure where to start! I am looking for an area that is relatively accessible from airports that fly to the UK, somewhere that is quite traditional (i.e not over developed) and somewhere that is not massively expensive!!!

If anyone has any advice i would really appreciate - however little!!
Thanks!

Not exactly the right thread but - Abruzzo or Emilea Romagna would soudn to be the two areas you need to be looking

Before Adriatica chimes in with his obviously very biased remarks, I second Forza Brescia's rx to look into the Abruzzo region. Inexpensive flights from England to Pescara are a big pull.
Casale-Villa with No Bidet
[url]http://www.angelfire.com/film/casale[/url]

[QUOTE=LauraG]I have only just logged in to the site and i am not 100% sure how this works, but i am looking to buy a second home in Italy and i'm not sure where to start! I am looking for an area that is relatively accessible from airports that fly to the UK, somewhere that is quite traditional (i.e not over developed) and somewhere that is not massively expensive!!!

If anyone has any advice i would really appreciate - however little!!
Thanks![/QUOTE]

We think Puglia is wonderful, Bari and Brindisi airports, Adriatic or Ionian sea, remains traditional and not massiveley expensive but a long way if you want to Ski.

[QUOTE=LauraG]I have only just logged in to the site and i am not 100% sure how this works, but i am looking to buy a second home in Italy and i'm not sure where to start! I am looking for an area that is relatively accessible from airports that fly to the UK, somewhere that is quite traditional (i.e not over developed) and somewhere that is not massively expensive!!!

If anyone has any advice i would really appreciate - however little!!
Thanks![/QUOTE]

May I suggest that you consider the area to the north of Milanand Turin. The area around the lakes is beautiful, and if you choose the right area you can get a 'Brit free' zone.

The advantages of the are include;-
Great scenery around the lakes
Great weather in Summer/swimming in the lakes
Skiing in winter
Plenty of great walks
Very friendly people
Reasonable house prices
Cheap flights to Turin and Milan Bergamo with Ryanair/Easyjet- and only about £95 to Milan with BA and Alitalia, if you book ahead
You can get there by train pretty easily from UK
No Brits......[did I mention that before?]
etc, etc

... cannot resist... abruzzo is obviously your one and only choice.... not only pescara available from stanstead but we also live here just 90 mins from ciampino in rome.... so to get here or have your friends vist you dont have to live next door to stanstead....

if you avoid the overpricing companies and the overpriced areas.... ie that area surronding pescara and chieti... and points south you will find that there is one area called teramo....which i think will fulfill all your needs

in truth italy as a country would not have been my frst choice... but i think you will find abruzzo a bit more slow... a bit more peaceful and in terms of life just that much easier if you are looking for something in europe that feels much as life did many years ago

the last area to join in the republic of italy it has always been a little different....

as regards the other areas mentioned they all have their beauty... but if i could give a few example from recent news...

they consider the northern area of italy will soon be a desrt after the last heat wave....electricity failures due to system overloads...too many air conditioning units running and not enough electricity.... water shortages...crops dying in the ground... another national disaster

points south... puglia ... much cheaper... but there is always a reason for things being much cheaper... and i think i have said enough before on problems of southern italy and really dont want to argue that point again... but one choice of airport.... water rationing because coastal farmers take most of it to water their eu grant aided crops.... the second most polluted area of italy... due to extensive illegal dumpings and a site the world health organistaion is worried about

need i say more .... luckily abruzzo has none of the above mentioned problems and with the largest percentage of land allocated to national parks in italy.... maybe even in europe it provides a tranquil.. beautiful and reasonably priced area to live..... so pay it a visit... and call in for a drink or two here and i can tell you a lot more...

that is if you dont mind not having a bidet if you happen to rent stefanos house while you look around... i think its about a 15 minute drive from us

Some of the replies do cheer me up as I sit at my desk on a wet industrial estate in Exeter, Devon :D

Maybe I'm biased but have you noticed that the latest prices from Ryanair list Pescara as £0.19.