THERE’S A PLACE CALLED HOME

Posted by: Paolo Last updated: May 2, 2007

... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
“The Road Not Taken” - Robert Frost
After visiting Italy a number of times, I began to develop a desire to be there more and more. I don’t know what this urge is called but there must be a name for it. I can’t even recall why we ever decided to visit Italy in the first place. Yes, I was a second generation American Italian yet I had an equal amount of French blood in me. There was no urge, however, to visit my Normandy traditions. Had I become an ‘Italophile’ through some insidious process? Was it a yearning to return to my roots brought on by more virulent Italian genes?
As a child, I’d say the French influence was more dominant in our house. After all, my grandmother lived with us and though she had years and years to learn English, she chose to speak only French. She was a proud woman.
My father on the other hand really didn’t know much Italian or vigorously promote his Italian heritage. Yes, there were the occasional Italian words thrown about, and yes my mom learned to cook Italian food well, mostly to keep dad happy, but overall my greatest exposure to things Italian was when I’d deliver the newspaper every day to the “Raucci and Vasile” Italian market in my hometown! The smells, the sawdust strewn across the floor, the open barrels of olives, the mysterious cans with flamboyant labels and the sheets of baccala piled high, was my true initiation. Imagine a place with meats and cheeses hanging from the ceiling! I guess I just loved the food and later the wines. The gradual conversion was underway and the metamorphosis continued through a lifetime of reading, movies, the ever-growing positive reputation of Italy and eventually my own travels in Italy. I was in love with my wife, my family and now Italy!
Now, following many memorable and delightful experiences in Italy, we were at a fork on the road of life. Should we buy our own tiny piece of Italy and immerse ourselves in the culture, the language and its people or should we continue to wonder the country continually visiting new places - there would always be new venues to explore. One road read ‘come this way’ the other, equally appealing, beckoned that we proceed down that avenue. Our quandary - which way to go? As I’d said in an earlier posting, we were on and off, hot and cold for some time on the decision to choose the ‘purchase path’ but as you know, that is the course we chose.
We began this new phase in our lives and a new phase in our Italian adventure in June‘06 when we first visited Calitri, in the southern Italian province of Campania. We were looking into the possibility of buying a place there, which we could eventually call home. Our intent was never to pick-up and move outright to Italy. Instead our idea of an Italian home was a small, affordable place we could use in retirement for a few months at a time, and even before that, as often as we could get there. It would also be attractive if it could be rented during the majority of the time we were away. Cost was also heavily weighted. For this reason had gradually eliminated properties further north and moved steadily southward. A final criterion was location. We wanted to be situated in a town and not in some isolated spot out in the countryside. After all that’s where the culture and people were located. Additionally, it supplemented the physical security of our investment.
Located about midway between the coasts of the Italian peninsula, Calitri is approximately two hours from the Amalfi coast and Pompei to the west and Magna Graecia and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Calitri sits on a plateau overlooking verdant rolling countryside just about on the border line dividing Campania and Basilicata. Its wine cellars, meandering medieval passageways, chiseled entranceways, marble engravings, sun-kissed courtyards and rooftops are a snapshot of a bygone era.
Rolling hills and valleys mark the ancient trails along which Hannibal and his legions marched during the 2nd Punic War when setting off to attack ancient Rome 2,000 years ago. By the way, you can download “Google Earth” software from the Google site (www.google.com) and with its recently enhanced imagery, zoom in on Calitri, even fly over the terrain or explore the area in 3D (I include some Google photos in a related album). Talk about technology!
The Calitri town council, working with some leading citizens and an Italy/UK based development firm (www.tricali.co.uk) had formed a relationship to redevelop this historic community, while protecting the town's environment and its cultural and artistic heritage. Calitri was heavily damaged by an earthquake in 1980 and had yet to fully recover. The borgo area of town, a labyrinth of narrow streets and ancient dwellings hooked together in what I likened to a ‘medieval condo’, to this day needed major repairs. By attracting property investors like ourselves, the vision anticipated an influx of capital sufficient to reinvigorate the borgo hamlet by stimulating economic development, spanning the gamut from building repairs, jobs for local craftsmen, and new customers for everything from furniture and vino to increased cappuccino sales! The blueprint, now well underway, anticipated reconstructing/revitalizing up to 200 borgo homes over a number of phases.
Well, on 12 June ‘06 we became the 34th property investor in the project (one of a handful of Americans thus far) and began the purchase process. By the 16th of October with our new ‘codice fiscale’ documents (think Italian SSAN numbers!), we successfully closed on the property using a power of attorney and an agent as our stand-in. Within days, renovations (included in the purchase price) began. This activity finished just days ago (actually, we still need a ceiling fan – back ordered).
Related references for further information about the Antico Borgo Calitri:
1. http://www.casatuscany.com/buy/details.php?id=736
For project information, project details and pictures.
2. http://www.realpointitaly.com/italian-properties-calitri-available.asp
For a list of property still for sale in Calitri.
3. Italy Dream Vacation
To experience a Calitri vacation for yourself and stay in a borgo home.
All in all, it surprisingly was not too difficult an undertaking from beginning to end. We had heard horror stories of the disasters previous ‘immobiliare’ neophytes had endured buying and restoring property in Italy. On our side, we had modern tools like the Internet for instant communications and the Tricali team at the other end handling everything for us as part of the purchase price. I guess you’d call it a turn key operation. This included, for example, everything from coordinating with the seller, closing the sale at the notary’s office in Calitri, overseeing the renovations/improvements and contractors, connecting utilities, providing basic furnishing, even setting up a postal account to pay recurring electric and water bills. Yes, in Italy the post offices are mini-banks of sorts and can pay some bills for you as you monitor things from back here via Internet (see http://www.poste.it/en). It was like being on autopilot. We finally ‘landed’ just last week when we received photos of the finished product, ‘Casa della Foritoia’.
Honestly, without the Internet, doing this remotely, as we have done, would be impossible. The local council’s vision, their cooperation and the great development team assembled were unique and a godsend. If we’d attempted this on our own, we would have to have been in Italy watching every step of the operation, that is, if we could have ever gotten things going to begin with! Who did we know well enough to take care of things for us? It would have meant putting it off until we were retired and had the time. If we’d tried ourselves, we’d probably be divorced and broke by now, but on the brighter side, our Italian would definitely be better! As a current TV commercial intones, "I got people!”
Our place was in pretty good shape from the start. Old? Yes, indeed. Over our entry inscribed in the marble jam is the date ‘1875’ but that was a much later renovation date then the origin of the structure, I’m sure. It goes farther back as indicated by its name “Casa della Feritoia” – House of the Arrow Slot, as in bow and arrows!
For pictures of our finished home, just as we received them recently, plus a few others, access a new photo journal album entitled “Calitri Home”. Use the pull down in the upper right side of this travel blog's main page in the area labeled “Photos” to select the album. Enjoy the slideshow!
Oh, and by the way, I know what they call this sensation now. It’s called Italophobia!! Tell me, does that come under the ‘American with Disabilities Act’?
On a road less taken,
Paolo

POST A COMMENT