The narrow road wound up the deep, verdant gorge at the head of the Garfagnana valley. Here was the stunning backdrop to the wonderful villas I had seen on the Internet. I imagined that, once I had bought my Tuscan dreamhouse in the mountains north of Lucca, I would drive this road at the start of my future vacations, thrilling with anticipation as I headed into the tranquility. Then: "Where are all these big trucks coming from?" My friend Tom, who was also in the market for a Tuscan pied-à-terre wondered: "Are these paper mills?" They were. It was above these steaming smokestacks and decaying industrial plants that we met the first in a series of Italian realtors. He showed us around a set of creaking farmhouses that ranged from damp to derelict.
This dream was one I shared with thousands of Americans and other foreigners who have been snapping up vacation homes in northern Italy. Driven by the dynamic dollar and the purple prose of Frances Mayes' bestselling travelogue "Under the Tuscan Sun", the lure of a cheap place in the sun is powerful. The pitch: Italians are growing older as birthrates drop, and young people are moving out of family villages; that leaves a lot of quaint old places going for a song. But, as I found, the dream is an illusion unless you're prepared to spend a lot more than pocket change. If you expect to pick up a habitable farmhouse in northern Italy for less than $100,000, think again. And even then you're looking at double the purchase price to renovate.
Realtors in Italy are just the same as back home. They'll show you a ruin that's within your budget. Then they'll take you to a place that's way over what you can afford but looks beautiful, hoping you'll love it and agree to splurge. This was one realtor's cunning plan. South of Lake Trasimeno, we climbed toward what turned out to be a fabulous apartment in a converted Umbrian castle. Trouble was, it was 60% more costly than the limit we'd given the realtor. On the way, he tried to convince me that the power plant in the middle of our view was soon to be dismantled. At another property, he boasted of the village's future transport links: "They're going to put a superhighway through here. You'll drive to Arezzo in just 15 minutes." A superhighway, through the view? He saw his mistake. "Ah, yes, but, um, perhaps they won't build it, after all."
Worse still was an agent in the Chianti hilltown of Monte San Savino. He swore the four-bedroom, restored townhouse with a roof terrace was $120,000. We were on the fourth-floor of the entirely dilapidated house, watching the ceiling beams sag to head-height, before we could get him to admit that once renovations were performed, the price would be closer to $300,000. And as for a roof terrace, it would cost a fortune, he said, if you could even get a building permit. Yes, they're the same everywhere, realtors, and they're not so stupid that they aren't pushing the prices higher with every foreign buyer who steps into their loggia.
The Tuscan craze — which has got everyone from Sting to Tony Blair in on the action — has spilled over to Umbria, taking higher prices with it. But it hasn't yet crossed the Apennines to Le Marche. There, bargains are still to be had in the south of the region (not up near Urbino, where prices are Manhattanesque). But, even in the south of Le Marche, renovations are about $1,000 per square meter and you'll still be a three-hour drive from Rome. So I'll continue to fork out $1,000 a week to rent a place in Tuscany. It's pricey, but there are no headaches. And no realtors.
|
|
|
|
New Heights
From virtual life in a Geneva lab via a bird's eye view of the Alps to a pavement perspective of old and new in Greece and Rome
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Insect Power
Software that imitates the behaviour of ants could make highway and telecom traffic more efficient
Firm Foundation
Scarred by war and restoration, the Parthenon gets a facelift
Next Revolution
The Palais de Tokyo, site of Paris' first modern art museeum, will re-open to showcase young artists
Italy's Future
Will center-right media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi regain the title in the spring? He's up against Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli in the center-left corner
Speaking in Tongues
Films in local Italian dialects are a surprise box-office hit
Sky's the Limit
A sneak preview of Airbus' three-decker superjumbo with its casinos, shops and piano bars
Fascinated by Fire
Public spectacle designer Yves Pepin on the need for fireworks, fountains and mass celebrations
A Greek Sojourn
TIME's Paris bureau chief Thomas Sancton discovers the old and new Greece
Songs of the South
TIME explores the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland
City of the Future
Toulouse could well be a model of multi-culturalism
The City That Always Sleeps
A visit to Geneva's wild side
The Mouse That Roared
TIME travels to Andorra, one of Europe's smallest countries
The Eternal City
>A trip through the glory that is Rome
Pasta Bella
A visit to Barilla, pasta purveyors to the world
Top Gear
TIME test drives a Ferrari | Photos
A Second Life
TIME meets Hollywood star turned restaurateur Leslie Caron
My Dinner with Claude
TIME dines Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival
Thinking Outside the Sandbox
Innovative teachers in northern Italy are integrating technology into classroom life
Mind Trails
Forget Al Gore: TIME Speaks with the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee
A Brief History of the Higgs Hunt
Scientists in Switzerland may have solved one of the great mysteries of particle physics. Why should we care?
People To Watch: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann | Amélie Nothomb | Mirko Nesurini | Michel Meyer | Neil Barrett
|
