We bought our house in Italy because we fell in love with it, ruin and all, with no mains services; it had been abandoned for twenty years. We could see the heaved floors, soaked walls due to lack of guttering and the land piled over a metre high at the back wall, north side of the house. We knew that the house involved hard work but honestly we had no real idea, we were excited, enthused by the prospect.

We wanted to embark on the building works ourselves, our finances were low and so we knew that we couldn’t afford surveyors, architects, builders, landscapers, designers, etc... We decided to take on the project ourselves, for most the project would have involved planning on many levels, financial, practical, long term, short term, and critical path analyses! But we were enticed, spontaneous; we were keen but also complete novices.

We both have creative backgrounds and are open to challenges, diversities, the changing ebb and flow of life. And so full steam ahead, fuelled by enthusiasm, drive and commitment we began. Long, long days, weeks, which became months that led to years of long days – time, that is the key. We thought of ourselves as time rich and cash poor, we were happy to invest our time into something we felt important and time is what was required, lots of it and hard work.

We wanted to keep our costs low but also to sensitively restore the house with as many natural, traditional materials as we could keeping a rustic yet visually pleasing look.

We met with our local comune, council and organised the relevant permissions to complete works ourselves. Every local council here is different and permissions and laws change not only from place to place but by year to year. We found ours to be encouraging and whilst there are always hurdles to jump we found this part relatively easy.

So feet first we dived in using just our common sense and a bit of internet research to work out the order of events and the tasks themselves. We wanted to keep our costs low but also to sensitively restore the house with as many natural, traditional materials as we could keeping a rustic yet visually pleasing look. We were keen to be as environmentally friendly and green as possible while not looking for a complete eco house we preferred to minimise the impact. We tried to tread lightly. This we achieved by reusing natural materials and using hand tools for the majority, breathing life back into a smallholding that had been left dormant.

 We asked a couple of friends from the UK, who have lived in Abruzzo for the past 6 years, what in their opinion are the pros and cons of living in Abruzzo. They are youngish, cultured, with a young kid and have chosen to live in the countryside, to embrace a slower pace of life, surrounded by nature.

Let’s see the pro’s and con’s of living in Abruzzo as a British citizen from Lisa’s point of view:

<< Two decades then past working in the city, long hours for little pay, fun, social times but finally the decision was made to look for a property in Italy. I had started an Italian language night class for beginners and was introduced to the region Abruzzo from a small article I noticed in a national newspaper mentioning the Marsican brown bears. Was it possible that there were bears still surviving in Italy? This led to further research into the region, I was hooked, national parks, mountain ranges, the greenest region of Europe, incredible rare flora and fauna, azure coastlines and untouched medieval villages.

This had to be the place, finances dictated too, we had very limited funds, and this region seemed affordable.

The adventure started, we spent 5 months in our old VW camper weaving through the mountain tracks trying to get a feel for the region and to which part we felt more attracted to.

 Olive oil flows like blood through the veins of most Abruzzan’s. Famously proud of their culture, traditions and of course their food, olive oil is held in the highest of esteem.

We arrived in this little spot of paradise 8 years ago, heady with desire to make a home in this rich and diverse region, attracted by the wild, uncontrived landscape and the draw of the mountain ranges and azure coast alike. As big city dwellers we were searching for a healthier, slower pace of life and wanted our feet firmly stomping on fertile ground. We were overwhelmed by the depth and passion the Abruzzesi share with everything they do. Olive oil was something we definitely wanted to produce for our little family and extended family and the hoards of friends we knew would descend on us throughout the years.

In September we give a counter prune, take out shoots that have no fruit, or branches that will hinder picking, let in an extra bit of light to mature the fruit.

Our first taste of production was by a chance meeting with our now great friends whilst waiting to view a house in Casalanguida, a place we later found out to be considered the heart of olive oil in this area. We met in March just in time for the pruning stage of the plants and we were openly invited to assist, we eagerly agreed and spent a happy few weeks pruning and cleaning 1000 plants. We say plants as that is the translation here, they are then forced into a tree shape for maximum production.
We learnt that pruning is done in a two year cycle, with half of the trees pruned hard to encourage new growth. Those then would produce less fruit than their less harshly pruned neighbours which would be called production plants for that year. We even joined our friend on a day pruning course to learn how to recover abandoned olives, a skill that became essential when we finally had our own grove.

If you ask 10 locals how to prune you will get more that 20 different solutions, so we slowly fell into our preferred style with consideration to the abandoned grove we have. The plants are huge and were surrounded by edging woodland so we slowly freed the plants revealing gnarly gloriously shaped trunks. Some with so many trunks we renamed them Stonehenge! They are grand and powerful and shimmer in their beauty.
We try to keep them low for ease of picking and try to divide them into four champagne glass shape corners, opening out the centre to allow light throughout the whole plant.
We were told that the olive is very forgiving and they grow so vigorously we have never held back on their sculpting, all is a learning curve and what you may think were mistakes will be forgiven by next year’s growth. Every year we improve on the grove. The grove is then left for the summer, just merely keeping the grass down, the plants make gentle dabbled shade for afternoon naps!
In September we give a counter prune, take out shoots that have no fruit, or branches that will hinder picking, let in an extra bit of light to mature the fruit. The most important job then is to clean around the bases where new growth is shooting up, this makes laying the nets under difficult, we make sure that the bases and land is very clear and clean, this prevents ripping nets, one of our catchphrases is ‘no noses’.

The great harvest – branches laden, drooping to the floor, almost like bunches of grapes. When to pick, that is the question, every year brings new influences, is the fruit ready, how has the weather been, too much water, not enough, too much sun, not enough, high winds at flowering, the dreaded fly, all negate the quality and quantity of the harvest. Ours being an experimental approach we prefer early picking towards the end of October, we prefer full flavours over high production. Again some wait for the plants to be an array of fruit both green and black morphing from one to the other, whilst others will wait till all is black, full of oil, easy picking, or is the choice to wait until the perfect phase of the moon, should your approach be biodynamic.

 Once you’ve found a home you want to buy, the next step is to make an offer, usually through an estate agent. There are no restrictions on foreign ownership in Italy.