Firstly, apologies to anyone who has already seen this post elsewhere but the more information we can get, the better....
We have spent the last 7 year's summers in the Ionian Islands and are now starting to plan our next move.
On the way here, in May of this year, we spent a month driving around parts of Italy (Tuscany and south) that might be of interest. I knew Tuscany a little so we spent some time near Bagni di Lucca before moving on to Magliano in Toscana, near Grosetto, Roma, Calabria (San Nicola and Longobardi), Puglia (near Lecche), the Gargano, Abruzzo (Calascio) and Umbria (near Fabro).
In all the places we visited, we met some lovely and helpful people, stayed in fantastic, and sometimes quirky, accommodation courtesy of AirBnB, but felt immediately at home in Umbria and particularly spending time shopping in Fabro Scalo and the wine bar in Monte Giove.
We would love to be in Italy next year, taking maybe a six month minimum rental near Fabro somewhere, but first we have to sell our boat here (which is our Greek home).
Anyway, there is so much research to do and so much else to consider. As I said, we've been in Greece for a while so we expect 'challenges' similar to those here and are looking forward to the culture, not just the art, food and wine, but also the general way of life. We don't expect to be on an extended holiday, we do want to live in Italy and would maybe consider a permanent move at some stage.
We're shortly going to begin looking for a 4 week rental in that area starting around mid-October (2014) so we can do more exploration, make sure that this really is the place for us and find out more of the detail of rental and living in Italy.
We won't be looking for much, a one or two bedroom apartment with some decent living space maybe, but country location might be nice. I love cooking but am coming to terms with Italian kitchens in rental properties, so a good kitchen would be nice but I have low expectations. I think heating, which was missing in most places in May and was needed on some occasions, would be a necessity also. As I will be working, the ability to connect to the internet, not necessarily a provided connection, but network coverage for one of the Italian providers, would be good although we know this is sometimes difficult in out of the way places.
If anyone knows of such a place, let me know ....
....and if anyone has details of the expat community around that area (Città della Pieve, possibly) and could let me know how to get it touch, that would be good also. We met some people who told us this existed, I think there is a newspaper, but we took no details and haven't been able to find any information on the Internet.
We have a much longer wish list for our longer term rental, of which we know we won't get everything. But more of that when we are closer to moving...
Thanks for listening...
Grazie Mille
Ciao
We have spent the last 7 year's summers in the Ionian Islands and are now starting to plan our next move.
On the way here, in May of this year, we spent a month driving around parts of Italy (Tuscany and south) that might be of interest. I knew Tuscany a little so we spent some time near Bagni di Lucca before moving on to Magliano in Toscana, near Grosetto, Roma, Calabria (San Nicola and Longobardi), Puglia (near Lecche), the Gargano, Abruzzo (Calascio) and Umbria (near Fabro).
In all the places we visited, we met some lovely and helpful people, stayed in fantastic, and sometimes quirky, accommodation courtesy of AirBnB, but felt immediately at home in Umbria and particularly spending time shopping in Fabro Scalo and the wine bar in Monte Giove.
We would love to be in Italy next year, taking maybe a six month minimum rental near Fabro somewhere, but first we have to sell our boat here (which is our Greek home).
Anyway, there is so much research to do and so much else to consider. As I said, we've been in Greece for a while so we expect 'challenges' similar to those here and are looking forward to the culture, not just the art, food and wine, but also the general way of life. We don't expect to be on an extended holiday, we do want to live in Italy and would maybe consider a permanent move at some stage.
We're shortly going to begin looking for a 4 week rental in that area starting around mid-October (2014) so we can do more exploration, make sure that this really is the place for us and find out more of the detail of rental and living in Italy.
We won't be looking for much, a one or two bedroom apartment with some decent living space maybe, but country location might be nice. I love cooking but am coming to terms with Italian kitchens in rental properties, so a good kitchen would be nice but I have low expectations. I think heating, which was missing in most places in May and was needed on some occasions, would be a necessity also. As I will be working, the ability to connect to the internet, not necessarily a provided connection, but network coverage for one of the Italian providers, would be good although we know this is sometimes difficult in out of the way places.
If anyone knows of such a place, let me know ....
....and if anyone has details of the expat community around that area (Città della Pieve, possibly) and could let me know how to get it touch, that would be good also. We met some people who told us this existed, I think there is a newspaper, but we took no details and haven't been able to find any information on the Internet.
We have a much longer wish list for our longer term rental, of which we know we won't get everything. But more of that when we are closer to moving...
Thanks for listening...
Grazie Mille
Ciao
