UMBRIA BOUND - PART 2

After a good night's sleep we woke to a gloriously sunny Saturday morning with bright blue skies. Before breakfast the decision was made to have a quick stroll over the road to the shores of the lake to get our bearings and see a bit more of the area we had spent the night in. With a surface area of over 120 square kilometres Lake Trasimeno comes in fourth in terms of size after the great northern mountain lakes of Garda, Maggiore and Como. It's a relatively shallow lake, the water rarely exceeding 6 metres in depth. Lying in a gentle basin its entirely fed by run-off from the gentle hills surrounding it and has no natural drainage outlet. When rain is scarce it can evidently become swampy round the edges. With little in the way of heavy industry round in close proximity and only a relatively small population living round it - the waters are clean and a haven for wildlife and we look forward to returning one day to see the abundance of migratory and non-migratory bird life that inhabits the groves of reeds found round the edges of the lake. 

The geography of Lake Trasimeno

This morning the lake was almost mirror like in appearance and the cold night air lying above its surface had begun to turn to steam creating a shimmering almost ethereal atmosphere. I recollect the legend of Lake Trasimeno I'd read about at home which tells the story that the lake was named after an Etruscan Prince - Trasimeno who drowned in the waters of the lake looking for Agilla, a water nymph and the love of his life. The legend continues to recall how Agilla's lament, as she seeks her lost prince, can still sometimes be heard from the shores of the lake - we don't hear her this morning but its not difficult to imagine hearing her call.  

Over to our left, on a highish promontory which juts out in to the lake (originally, in pre historic times this higher ground was reputedly a separate island) we caught a glimpse of the wonderfully silhouetted outline of the medieval Fortezza of Rocca del Leone, built on the instructions of Emperor Frederick II in the middle of the 13th century. Definitely a place to explore on another occasion. 

Fortezza of Rocca del Leone
Castiglione del Lago - Lake Trasimeno

The hotel and the shoreline on which we were standing was situated in the modern, low lying part of Castiglione and I now know that the contrast between an area developed in the 20th century in close juxtaposition to a 'centro historico' is usually the case, even in well known towns like Cortona and Montepulciano. Before coming to this part of Italy it's interesting how we all tend to build up a perception of what an area will be like based on what we have read, been told or seen in books and on television. The cleverly selected image that appears on many Umbrian and Tuscan tourist leaflets usually shows a gentle rolling hill with a group of ancient looking stone buildings with red pan-tiled roofs on top - the track up to it marked by pointed dark green cypress trees contrasting with the golden and pale green patchwork landscape. This kind of image is powerful to the imagination, as is reading a book like Frances Mayes's 'Under the Tuscan Sun', which neatly avoids mentioning that in most Tuscan towns there will be modern supermarkets, mobile phone shops and petrol stations. I am reminded of this now as I turn my back to the lake to walk back to the hotel taking a route across the car park of the local Coop foodstore. Am I disappointed about this? - I don't think so - in many ways its a reality check making me realize that Umbria is not trapped in some sort of time warp and that treasures have to be looked for as well as imagined. 

Back in the hotel we ate our simple, continental breakfast and studied the map of the area we'd bought to help us to navigate our way to the village of Gioella where we were due to meet the estate agent at 11 O'clock. Karen, our contact in Cambridge, had told us her Italian counterpart was Swedish, in his 50's and that he spoke good English. We set off in good time and drove along the main road out of Castiglione del Lago which turned out to be the route to the railway station as well and the rather dull apartment blocks we passed through didn't make the heart soar! Not a great start! After we'd driven under the railway bridge however the landscape began to change and we began to ascend through low rolling hills covered in a patchwork of cultivated fields, silvery olive groves the whole area dotted with clumps of dark green cypress trees. Better! Turning off the main road at Pozzuolo we headed west along a gentle ridge punctuated now and then with small, attractive villages. We could see for miles on either side - vistas of Lake Trasimeno over to the left and over to our right glimpses of another stretch of blue water - Lake Chiusi. The rolling Umbrian countryside was charming and mellow and certainly now living up to expectations and it wasn't long before we were passing brown signs for wineries and agriturismo holiday accommodations. Soon we reached the small and charming village of Gioella. After parking our vehicle in the car park opposite the church we ambled across to the only bar. Inside a small group of elderly men were animatedly engaged in weekend talk and they gave us only a cursory glance when we went in. An order for two cappuccinos was duly taken by the pleasant lady in charge and we sat on bar stools to await our man from Stockholm. After about ten minutes in walked our agent dressed informally in black chinos and bomber jacket; he quickly and pleasantly introduced himself as Krister from Citta della Pieve - an Umbrian town we had never even heard of. Soon we were chatting over another coffee and he began to tell us a little about the area we were going to visit and our route for the day. 

I'm not a great fan of estate agents - many of the one's I've come across in Britain I've tended to group in the same category I'd place city bankers in, but first impressions of Krister were positive. It turned out he'd given up his own business in Stockholm as a theatre light designer in favour of making a new life in Italy; after a year in France he'd arrived in Umbria and he was now in business as an estate agent with his Italian girlfriend and business partner Laura. We found him, informative, pleasant and helpful without being overbearing and good company too, so it was a delight to set off and start viewing some potential holiday homes. 

We were starting with a visit to one of the properties I'd liked most on the internet searches I'd done back home. It was situated in a small rural 'borgo' (hamlet) off the Castiglione to Montepulciano road so we ended up retracing the route we'd started on earlier in the morning in Krister's car. The property was in the little hamlet of Nardelli set well back from the main road near Pozzuolo. It had about 15 houses in it, all of which looked neat, well-presented and mostly occupied too. They were largely clustered in a central location at the bottom of narrow unmade road and there was a circular access track round the entirety which in turn was surrounded by garden plots of various sizes. Krister hadn't seen this property before so it was new to him. The asking price was in the region of 95.000 euros and negotiable.

The little house at Nardelli

The two bedroomed house turned out to be a little cracker and in excellent condition - it had been fully restored with good quality workmanship and fittings in 1998 and well looked after from then until now. Under a pan tiled roof the exterior was rendered and painted cream and it came with an external staircase to the first floor, shuttered windows and a balcony outside French windows from a bedroom on the second level. Inside, on the main floor, there was an open plan living room with fireplace and kitchen area and upstairs two double bedrooms and a good shower room. Across the access track was a single garage and behind that a patio complete with pergola and alongside a small hedged garden - perfect for outside eating and sunbathing. Beyond an olive grove occupied the gently shelved ground which led down to the valley below. I could see this charming little house would be high up on our short, short list. I loved it and Jon liked it too. Did we need to see anything else?

Open plan living in the Nardelli house

View of the Olive Grove from the Nardelli cottage garden.
 

We looked at a couple of other properties after that one, but none matched up to the one I've just described - apart from a renovation project undertaken by a local builder - one who'd worked for our agent Krister. The property was situated down on the flat land near Lake Trasimeno. We met the builder and his family when we arrived at the house and it turned out he'd converted the propety in to two side by side apartments. He and his family were occupying the one nearest the access road. The quality of workmanship outside and in was excellent and the accommodation attractive and practical. Outside there was a large garden plot with room for a pool. On the face of it both apartments seemed reasonable at a little over 100.000 euros but some un-renovated outbuildings nearby made it difficult to appreciate how it would all look when the site was completed and it put us off. 

Builder's Renovation project near Castiglione del Lago

By this time it was time to think about lunch and Krister wanted to try a restaurant in the little hilltop town of Panicale, but when we got there it was closed so he suggested moving on to his home town of Citta della Pieve, where he knew another good restaurant and where he thought we might like to look at a couple of properties he had for sale there. The proposal sounded a good idea. 

I don't quite know what I was expecting to see when we arrived in Citta della Pieve, but I was taken aback when we arrived there to say the least. Krister had told us it was a delightful hill top town of about 7000 people and that the 'centro historico' had been carefully preserved and renovated in recent times. He'd chosen to move there himself after occupying a small house near Gioella for a year or so and had been drawn there by its sense of community and overall vibrancy. He'd told us it was becoming popular with Romans seeking a reasonably priced weekend retreat. 

After a long hill climb from the valley bottom near Chiusi, we suddenly arrived at the town and entered the historic core through a gateway in what was an obviously a several hundred year old town wall. Already I could see the town was mainly built of bricks, distinctively coloured a darkish red, this a contrast to what we'd seen in the other towns we'd seen so far. The long cobbled street in front of us, the Via Vanucci, was fascinating with red bricked terraced properties on either side of the narrow one way street - some of them grand and palazzo like, others like narrow fronted row houses. At some points the buildings appeared arcade like where the indiviudal arches had been filled in and glazed to make little shops and offices. The overall effect was very attractive and charming. 

Via Vanucci - Citta della Pieve

Our agent's office was in one of these units and after we'd parked the car we visited it. It consisted of a single long narrow room with a lovely vaulted and simply frescoed ceiling. It was at this point that we met Krister's tall, dark and attractive girlfriend and business parter Laura. After the introductions and some pleasant chat we went off to a nearby trattoria for lunch. I'll tell you about this wonderful restaurant in another posting. The meal was a pleasant and leisurely affair and during it Krister explained the stages involved in buying a house in Italy and some of the pitfalls too. An hour and a half or so later it was time to go and look at some more properties. He thought we would like the town apartment we were going to see next and that viewing will be the subject of my next posting. Ciao. 

THIS POSTING IS PART OF AN ON-GOING NARRATIVE SO PLEASE DO CONSIDER READING IT FROM THE BEGINNING WITH ITEM 1. MANY THANKS - IAN