Property for sale and real estate in Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany

The fifth annual Ferrari rally took place at Marsciano today.  I was especially excited because the route took the cars right past our house!  There were 36 of them altogether including a rare and very expensive Ferrari Enzo (see left), a wickedly fast F40, and a beautiful silver 275GTB.

After a long holiday in New Zealand for Christmas this is the year of the short holiday.  We have taken several two or three days away and this is one of them.  Our Italian friends Attilio, Lanfranco and their wives, identical twin sisters Anna Maria and Anna Rita, took us to Puglia for three days and we drove down in Lanfranco's Fiat Multipla, boys in the front, girls in the back.  One afternoon we had a small beach all to ourselves following a short thunderstorm.  The sea was warm and the sun shone (for most of the time), we ate great seafood and stayed in a comfortable hotel.  One big advantage of taking a holiday in Italy is that we speak the language.  There are also so many places to visit and we can always send our postcards when we get home!

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Everyone loves the sound of running water and we are no exception, so I built a water feature in our top garden that even Charlie Dimmock would be proud of.  There is a tank in the back with a ball valve which is fed by mains water to a ball valve so it will never run dry and we can collect water from the tap to water the plant pots.  Water is cycled through the tap, into the bowl and back to the tank in which there is a pond pump taking it back up to the tap.  We plan to get some better pots within the next week or so.  It's all made from bricks, stones and tiles that were lying around the garden and I bought the terracotta pieces from a shop near our village.  Next job is to fit a timer so that it only runs at times when we are in the garden.

With our growing number of ducks we now need a second duck house.  This one is made from plywood that Roddy Gee used to send over the stained glass windows mentioned below and you can just see the writing on the inside.  I like to recycle things in this way, if possible.  The hunting season starts in a couple of weeks so they will need all the shelter they can get!

I was delighted when Mike Carroll (left) invited me to join him and his two children, Tom and Michaela, on his yacht for a couple of days.  He and his wife Julie bought a house through us recently and they have become good friends of ours.  We sailed down the coast from the mouth of the Tiber to the small port of Nettuna in his 35 foot steel yacht 'Lisarne'.  We had great weather on the way down but had to skirt round a thunderstorm on the way back.  Double click the centre button to see my interview with Mike.

Wolf!  Yes, my wife was confronted by a wolf in the garden recently.  A friend had seen it the day before but was afraid to report it in case he wasn't believed!  It tried to rip open our chicken run, unsuccessfully, although the gate was bent outwards at quite an angle.  Then it turned on Lin when she went to see what the commotion was.  She held it off with a rake while retreating up the external spiral staircase, locked herself in the house and called said friend.  He called the carabinieri and they found it, caught it, muzzled it and carted it off.  This is very rare, especially in populated areas such as ours, but I wanted to warn you that there can be such animals around.  Grannies be especially aware and find yourselves a red cape with a hood for added protection.  NB. The picture is not of the wolf she saw as she was too scared to go and get the camera!

We were invited by Moira MacFarlane, the British Consul (centre), to an evening to celebrate the Queen's birthday at a huge villa in Perugia.  A lot of important people were there including the Chief of the Carabinieri and the British Ambassador.  It was great to see some of our friends there too (old and new).  After the speeches there was a wonderful selection of nibbles and a pianoforte concert.

Arriving home from a short visit to England we pulled into the car park to find that our mother duck, which had been sitting on the nest in the duck house, had hatched no less than eleven baby ducklings.  Mum is very protective, but with so many darting around the pond and surrounding banks it is quite a task.  Dad just struts his stuff, looking very proud!  You can watch our ducks live on the webcam.

Finally our spiral staircase is delivered!  This may not seem like breaking news to you but we have waited twelve months for this!  It was supposed to be delivered in June 2005.  The company that made it also made a grill for the front doors of the office and delivered that on time but we haven't even received a bill for it yet!  All we need now is for the builder to come and open a gap in the wall so that we can use it..................

My friend Steve found a baby duckling walking in the road.  Knowing we had a duck pond he brought it to us.  I keep it in my chicken house at the moment because my regular ducks are expecting to be parents shortly and I don't want to rock the boat.

There is a lovely little old lady called Gina who lives in Camerata and holds the keys for a couple of properties there.  She is absolutely adorable and one of these days I'm going to kidnap her and take her home.  She makes the most marvellous Limoncello Cremo, which is a like Bailey's but made with lemon liqueur.  It has magical properties - every man who drinks it falls in love with Gina.  This photo was taken by Damon Oriente, a client of ours.  We are standing on the steps of her house.  Note that Gina is standing one step higher than me!  Small, but perfectly formed!  If my wife ever leaves me...

As a surprise Chistmas gift, our friends, Attilio and Anna Maria, whisked us off to Venice for a weekend, shopping, sight-seeing, and a visit to a casino.  People always seemed surprised when they found out we had never been there in the five years we have lived in Italy.  I can now understand their surprised reactions.  It is FANTASTIC.  Everyone should visit Venice at least once in their lives.  It now tops my list of favourite cities in the world, pushing Siena down to number two.

Well, once again our grapes are ready for picking and turning into that famous amber nectar, Grechetto Villa Rosa, well famous round here anyway.  This year we picked a modest 500 kgs of grapes and pressed 300 litres of juice.  Half the normal quantity.  Why?  Well it was a very long dry summer and the fruit didn't fill out to the normal size and looked pretty pathetic.

Well, after a lot of research I finally made the decision to buy a Panasonic NV-GS75EG/EK in a shop here in Italy.  I went to Mediaworld in the huge shopping centre just outside Perugia and waited 20 minutes just to be told it was out of stock, even though there was one on display.  I shrugged and went next door to the Coop, where there was the same model at the same price in a glass display cabinet.  I went to the counter and told the girl that I wanted to buy a video camera and I had already made my choice, it just needed fetching from the store room.  After waiting 40 minutes at the counter even I, with the patience of a saint, was beginning to lose my cool.  I had regularly asked how much longer it would take to get assistance so it wasn't a case of being forgotten.  Then I thought 'What can I do to speed this up?  I want this camera'.  Then I noticed a pile of Olivetti printers in large, bright orange boxes opposite and put one on the counter.  I waited 2 minutes and then put another one on the counter.  Another 2 minutes and I put a third one there.  I was beginning to get some attention but still nothing was happening, so I put a fourth one there.  It was now nearly impossible for the girls to work as they couldn't actually see the customers!  And I was running out of space, and patience.  Finally it worked.  They collared someone to help me.  I said 'Just don't tell me it's out of stock!'  He went off to fetch it.  Then I went through the buying procedure.  I wanted to pay by cheque.  They needed my identity card, my driving licence, my credit card, IVA (VAT) number, and I also volunteered to tell them the colour of my cat...which raised a patronising smile.  Well, I got my camera.  I took it home and found the instructions were in Italian, German, Dutch and French.  No English, even though all the buttons are English.  I went online and downloaded an English manual from the Panasonic website.  Then I found that I needed an SD card and a video cassette before I could use it!  They might have told me that in the shop and got a second sale, but there it is.  Maybe I should have bought online after all.  See also our page entitled Buying a camcorder for advice and information.

I admit, I didn't give our wine the attention it deserved over the last twelve months and it has been sitting in the tank unloved until now, when I need it again for this year's crop.  I assumed that it was rubbish and started to throw it away, all 600 litres of it.  However, as I did so I realised it actually smelt quite good so I drew a cup off and tasted it.  Our best yet!  So I had to spend a whole day bottling it up.

Our ducks had been escaping from the duck pond so a guest, and duck expert, Peter Scott (no, not the real one!), gave me a hand to catch them and trim the flight feathers from one wing.  This makes them fly in a circle, apparently!  The next day one flew away, but the others are still friends with me.

Roddy Gee, a client of ours, produced this amazing leaded window for us as a thank you for help in buying his house.  He brought it over from England and even fitted it for us. Isn't it wonderful?

With the warmer weather now pretty stable I went to Carboni's, the place that rears chickens, ducks, geese, etc. and bought four baby Mallards for my duck pond.  They are a couple weeks old and really cute.  I don't know what sex they are as the supplier says they are too young to tell yet.  It will be interesting to find out.  You go to the office, tell them what you want, pay, get a ticket, find a lady on a bike who you follow at walking pace to a big shed and take your ducklings home in a box.

One day it's winter and the next it seems like summer and we have been having lunch on the terrace every day for the past week.

One of the most beautiful signs of springtime is the first to come into flower.  The famous Mimosa is a cascade of yellow fluffy blooms and we planted one last autumn.  The plant is significant for another reason.  It is also the symbol for 'Women's Day' and traditionally a bouquet is given to women in Italy on this day.  Often a member of staff will be handing out small sprigs outside a supermarket, free of charge, as you leave.

With the worst winter in 50 years here in Italy we had our first real snow in four years.  For some reason our side of the Tiber Valley gets only a light dusting while everywhere else gets 15cm!  However, with my 4x4 I haven't been stuck and even got up into the mountains one day to show people a house.

What a surprise!  I was going out to the car when I spotted a huge white duck swimming in our new duck pond.  I was planning to get some ducklings in the spring when the weather warms up a little but he's beaten me to it.  I had to spend the weekend finishing the fencing to keep him in.  The pond is about 3m x 4m within an enclosure of about 7m x 10m so they will have plenty of space.  When it rains all the water that comes down the road is channelled into a drain which is then piped to the pond to refresh the water.  We planted two trees, a weeping willow and a silver birch, to provide some shade and will be collecting an old wooden shed shortly as the duck house.  An old walnut tree acts as a bridge for them to perch on.

First thing this morning the digger arrived to make the hole for the gas tank.  Within an hour is was finished and he hoisted the tank into it.  Valentino, our builder then filled the space around it with soil.  He was anxious that we fill the tank immediately with liquid gas as otherwise it might float if the hole became waterlogged!  So we called the gas company.  Within an hour the tanker arrived and filled it up.  He said it had to be checked and an engineer would be arriving to do that.  Within half an hour he was here too!  'Hey, slow down chaps you're setting a bad example the rest of the Italian construction industry.'  Now we have to wait for our plumber to arrive and connect it up.  I am sure he will address the balance, plumbers always do.

This was the day that our gas tank was arriving, between 9:00am and 9:30am.  Typically it arrived in the middle of the afternoon so we had to stay in all day to meet it.  It is 1,750 litres and will be sunk underground, with just a green plastic 'dustbin lid' on the ground surface.  It is bolted to a rectangular concrete base and next we need the hole dug.  So now we have to wait for the digger...

Six eggs!  We have four hens a-laying and they broke the record for mass production this morning.  We also have 15 chickens destined for the table in the next pen which we got free as one-day-old chicks several months ago.  Then there are three rabbits, a male and two females.  Next we plan to get some ducks.  We built a duck pond a couple of weeks ago and I have to fence it off first.  Today we decided to start picking the grapes.  I thought "How do I get out of this?", so I cut the top of my finger off with the secateurs!  Good idea, eh?  Not.  Then I had to shoot off to visit some new houses to put on the website, all in Monte Castello di Vibio so keep an eye on the Property List.

There’s a hammering at the bedroom door.  Giemi (pron. Jamie), our huge, neutered, male cat, wants to come into the bedroom.  We don’t argue!  The sun is pouring in the window, having suddenly burst over the mountains across the valley, and Giemi thinks it’s time he had his breakfast. Pazi (pron. Patsy), our smaller, neutered, female cat, taps lightly on the door beside him.  She thinks so too.  I stagger downstairs to make a cup of tea and feed two ravenous animals.  There are more to come.  My wife Lin enjoys a cup of tea, PG Tips sent over from England, in bed first thing in the morning so I take one back up for her and we spend a few minutes chatting over the planned day ahead.  Giemi has pinched my place! Ten minutes later there is another hammering at the door.  The front door this time.  ‘Roberto! Roberto!’, our builder calls.  He needs a decision on where to dump the next load of sand as the last one blocked my tractor in.  Fiorenzo is the sort of guy that is instantly likeable, intensely proud of his work, and needing a pat on the back every day.  He calls me Roberto (Robert is my second name) as Italians find it difficult to pronounce Graham.  His team start another day tapping away at the walls to remove the ancient, crumbling plaster between the stones and bricks ready to repoint.  The cockerels are crowing, a nearby peacock is shrieking, a couple of dogs start barking, and Angelo pulls into his vineyard opposite the house with his tractor to start rotavating.  Whoever said it was quiet in the country? Our house is undergoing further restoration in readiness for our visitors; family, friends and guests.  Easter was the deadline and they have worked hard to get the roof restored, beams replaced and floors rebuilt but there is still work to do. I must feed the rabbits and chickens!  We have several rabbit cages, one divided for the two mothers, one for the father and one for the latest litter.  They need their water bottles topped up and a scoop of food in each feeder.  The task of preparing them for the table is one of my least desirable jobs.  We were so concerned about the problems with BSE, foot and mouth and salmonella back in England that we want to eat our own fresh and healthy meat.  The chickens hear me in the rabbit house and start their little chorus.  We have four hens and they lay all through the winter, unlike other local hens.  So the neighbours want to know our secret.  ‘Talk to them and stroke them’  I tell them.  "Pah!  Com’è" (how can that be?) they retort and carry on their own sweet way.  "Pazi inglese!" (crazy English) they mutter.