Newcomer to this website?
Welcome!
Please take a few moments to read this column to fully understand how we operate.
Click here to meet us in a short video introduction to La Porta Verde and Villa Rosa.
We work in close association with many estate agents and property developers throughout Central Italy (Umbria, Western Le Marché, Northern Lazio and Southern Tuscany) to bring you wide selection of properties to choose from. This costs you no more than if you deal with them directly as we share the commission they normally charge. We personally visit virtually all of the properties so that we have first-hand knowledge of not just the house but also the environment, access, views, and local services. We publish far more photos and information than any other site and have recently added video too. Our property search and notification facility is second to none.
We also work with many holiday rental agencies and property owners to bring you a wide selection of properties to rent for a holiday, while house-hunting, or while restoring. We can even help in advertising the letting of your holiday home, and if you buy through us we do this for free!
We provide you with masses of helpful information about visiting, buying and living in Central Italy. There are pages about growing olives, bringing pets, getting insurance, the weather, places to visit, exporting your car, and even building a duck pond! Above all we try to make our website interesting and fun - not dull and boring!
We have a team to help with maintenance, renovation or restoration. Our first-hand experience of renovating properties and living in Italy is available to guide you through the sometimes difficult process. We have a team of architects, surveyors, builders, plumbers, electricians and even geological engineers to manage anything from fitting a post box to a complete restoration and installing a pool.
We even have an After Sales Services team to help you with things like registering with a doctor, getting your children into a local school, buying a car, getting residency permits, setting up your computer, etc.
This website receives over 3,000 page views per day with an average visitor stay of over 5 minutes* and is fast becoming the website for people interested in Central Italy. There are links to many, many other sites to provide the answer to almost any question. You can pick all or any of our services so, if you already have a house here, we can help you market your holiday home or even sell it. And of course, if you just want to have a holiday in Central Italy, that's fine too. We hope you find our website helpful, interesting, and even entertaining.
Please take a moment to register for our innovative newsletter so that we can keep you informed of new developments. We would appreciate your comments too on any way in which you think we can improve our website and services.
Now click our MAIN MENU or the logo on the left to access all parts of the website.
Happy browsing!
*Naturally, these figures are subject to fluctuation.
Regular visitor to this website?
Welcome back!
Already halfway through January and the winter remains one of the driest on record here in Umbria. The sun pops up in shades of crimson over the Sibillini mountains every morning, we have glorious crisp, cold but sunny days and then shades of aquamarine pull the blue skies into darkness. Vineyards and olive groves are humming to the sound of the pruners and the new year is already in full swing. Despite various financial warnings the mood is cautiously optimistic that this year will not be so desperately bad. Some prices have risen, but many have not. The restaurants are still busy and the general mood is one of ‘getting on with it’. Italians have always saved their money, though not necessarily in the banks, and have never been ones to waste, whether it be food, hence the invention of pizza, or furniture, hence the lack of charity shops! The housing market is still moving and the strengthening pound and dollar has seen renewed interest from the US and UK, but there are continued cautious enquiries from other parts of the world too, where things Italian are always a draw and I suspect always will be. Whether it be to buy a small holiday home, a larger country property, or book a rental for a week or two, the team at La Porta Verde are always here behind the green door and looking forward to you contacting us!
Special Promotion
A dream come true for ex-pats who love reading! The Kindle by Amazon enables books to be downloaded and read within seconds and at much lower cost than the printed version. It has a built-in dictionary and stores up to 3,500 books! You can even subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Great Christmas present too!
Click the link below to find out more.
Property of the week:
A Modern House near Giove [PA0564it]
An independent detached modern house in its own olive grove of 3.1ha near Giove, 1 hour from Rome.
Price: €410.000
Click to see more photos and details
These are our special properties for one reason or another.
A Very Special Event
We were shocked to learn that for every £289 spent on cancer research only £11 is spent on Alzheimer's research, yet the same number of people die annually from each. We were equally shocked to learn that there is a foundation supporting Fragile X syndrome yet few people know what this is despite it being very common.
So, La Porta Verde organises an unusual event to raise money for both - the Mini Mille Miglia - a slot car version of the current Mille Miglia. Sir Stirling Moss OBE kindly agreed to be patron of the event and Scalextric are one of the main sponsors making it a qualifying round of the Scalextric World Championship. Over the last two years we have raised around 6,000 euros for Alzheimer's research. This year's event, the third and last, takes place on the 14th and 15th May to coincide with the full-size version. Profits will be split this year equally between the Alzheimer's Research Trust and the Fragile X Foundation. Click the magazine below to see a larger version.
Driving tip or comment of the week:
When crossing the road in Italy, look left, look right, and look straight ahead. They can come at you from any direction!
Click here for more tips and comments.
Quote of the week:
Men! Wear aftershave, you never know when your luck is going to change.
Click here for more
Recent Customer Comment:
'We’ve recently begun to browse Italy property websites in preparation for a trip in October, I just wanted to commend you on your site, it is an absolute pleasure to use and to navigate around, not only that, but there is a wealth of useful information and links too.
It must to some extent be a labour of love for you, I just wanted to say “thank you” and let you know it is really appreciated.'
Steve Loveday
'We are thrilled to have found your website! We have spent many hours already browsing through it and choosing properties which look the most appealing to us. What a fantastic website you have!'
Steve and Sara Olofson, who subsequently bought through LPV recently
Click here to see more
Latest Airport News:
Perugia Airport
Perugia Province project to celebrate 150 years of the Italian State, in 2011, is to expand Perugia airport into a fully-fledged international airport. Someone read this and asked me what the difference between an 'international airport' and a 'fully-fledged international airport' is. Easy...one is fully-fledged and the other isn't.
Ryanair has anounced flights from Perugia to Girona/Barcelona, three times a week (Mon/Wed/Fri) from 02 July 2009. Many thanks to Jim Powrie of Green Umbria for the information. You can take advantage of this by booking on www.ryanair.com.
Alitalia announce that their flights from Milan to Perugia will cease shortly. There is speculation that a flight from Rome to Perugia may replace it. Certainly Perugia airport will be looking for more flights to replace the loss of this internal flight.
Viterbo Airport
We heard recently that within the next two years Viterbo airport is to change from a military airport to an international with all the 'low-cost' airlines being transferred from Ciampino Rome, which is to become a national airport. This is excellent news for Umbria as Viterbo is only just outside the south-west border, in Lazio.
Looking for a property? We especially recommend you visit these pages:
Try our search criteria and automatic notification service to find a property that meets your requirements and receive instant notification if a new one is published.
There is also a feature enabling you to go straight to a property by entering its reference number in the search box. Useful if a particular property is recommended to you or you see one in an LPV advert.