A Personal story

Steve and Yvonne Bannister bought their house, Quinta Luna, in 2003 - this is their story.

Quinta Luna

“We own a little piece of paradise set on a hill overlooking the Val D’Orcia. I write this at a table on the terrace of our house, sipping my first glass of wine of the evening with the sun setting over Monte Amiata. The wine is made from grapes grown in our own vineyard and we also have our own olive oil. It is simply wonderful – and the wine doesn’t taste too bad either.
We bought our house three years ago, using the services of Philippa and Tuscia Retreats, (now known as Italian Heartland). We had a long held ambition to own a home in Italy, but had no clue as to how to achieve it or what the pitfalls were. Moreover, we had heard the usual plethora of horror stories of mafia, corruption etc. When we decided to look, I searched the internet and various magazines to find an agency that would not only be able to help with the language difficulties, but that would also understand both the English and Italian temperaments!
It begins with:
“What are you looking for?”
“Don’t know – it needs to have 4 bedrooms and I want a vineyard and an olive grove.”
“Yes but how many metres?”
“What?????”
We decided to look at a wide range of properties to help us make our minds up. Over the course of a week, Philippa set up around twenty or so properties for us to look at, ranging from tumbledown, wrecked farmhouses to Gin palaces overlooking the lake. I was particularly taken with a potentially wonderful 12 bedroomed, half-built, farmhouse set in its own grounds, but Yvonne baulked at the word ‘potential’, envisaging years and years of precious holiday time spent ‘doing up the property,’ and we both loved the Umbrian farmhouse just outside Orvieto; which had its own Orvieto DOC vineyard, but which was 5 miles up a single track road and a bit beyond our budget. Neither of us liked the Gin-palaces.
On the last day, we agreed to visit a house which had been included in the original pictures sent to us by Tuscia Retreats, but which we had rejected because the photograph just did not sell the house to us and the place seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. We were starting to feel despondent, as none of the properties had so far met our requirements. However, as we pulled up the drive we knew we were home.
The house is not a traditional Tuscan style, but its situation is breathtaking. It is a substantial family farm house, sitting in 9 acres of its own grounds, with spectacular views and yet is only 5 minutes walk from the town centre. More importantly for Yvonne, it did not need a thing doing to it!
The gulp factor of paying the Compromesso means you are committed. We arrived very late one Thursday night in August, stayed overnight in the Hotel Holiday, Bolsena and at 10.00am sharp sat in the estate agent’s office ready to sign. Our vendor arrived with his nephew and the deal was duly consummated. A long lunch with the estate agent followed by an afternoon in his “cantina” apparently meant that we had all struck a good deal! We sat in the Hotel Holiday that evening with a bottle of duty-free whisky and two stupid grins and returned to England the next day, still not quite believing what we had done.
Nothing to do now until the completion – set for October so that the vendor could harvest the grapes.

Vendemmia time at Quinta Luna

At the end of October, we set off with a car and a white van full of furniture; 2 days later pitched up at Il Carretto, Tuscania to stay the night prior to completing the deal the next day.
Philippa had opened up a bank account for us, made an appointment with the Notary and done everything necessary to make the whole procedure very easy. Gianfranco, the estate agent took us to Orvieto and registered us for tax. Apart from my appalling Italian, the whole procedure was painless and hassle free.
The Notary’s office was something else. I drew an unfeasibly large amount of cash from the bank (apparently necessary to complete the deal in true Italian style) and we drove into Montefiascone. Armed with a pile of deeds almost half a metre high, we began the completion. Two days later, we emerged, the proud owners of 9 acres of Italy – the only gliches being the absence of a passport, a missing deed regarding one of the plots we were buying, some consternation that no permission had been granted for one of the outhouses to be built, and a notary who went for lunch at 1.00pm regardless of where we were in the procedure. We headed for the nearest bar and a bottle of “Ferrari” with Philippa and Gianfranco to celebrate. Having toasted our new status, we became Italian in spirit and headed for a “lungo Pranzo”.
There are cultural differences between buying a house in England and one in Italy but so long as you have someone who knows the ropes then it is possible to ‘go with the flow’ and know that you aren’t breaching any of the unwritten customs and rules. Three years on and we are still in love with the place and the country. Our neighbours and the townspeople we meet are all so friendly if somewhat intrigued to have an English family living here, and we feel part of the community. Signor Lupi looks after our farm and as I sit here, the band are warming up for the festa in the town. We will wander over in a while to join in the festivities.
I think there are four rules to buying a house in Italy.
1. Find someone who knows how to do it and let them sort out the hard bits. It proved considerably easier to buy our house in Italy than it did our English house.
2. Never believe the press. Italian estate agents have no idea how to market a property. Always look at the property if only from the outside otherwise you might miss your dream home.
3. Learn something of the language (essential if you are looking for missing documents in the deeds)
4. Go with the flow – This is Italy not England, people tend to be more laid back – and simply enjoy the experience.”

Kindly written by Steve Bannister , Acquapendente, Lazio