| Italian Dreams:
Le Marche Real Estate & Culture Tour
“The steaming polenta just came out of the brick oven, and its aroma invites you closer. You cut a slice. The olive oil decanter is empty, so you walk back to the jugs in the storage room, fill it from your neighbour’s latest pressing, and drizzle it over the polenta. As you walk out under the pergola, you grab a sprig of rosemary from one of the herb urns and sprinkle it on your snack to add another dimension.
“Your hair brushes the cool green grape leaves hanging down from the trellis, which is now pregnant with new fruit. You pluck one and plop it into your mouth – it’s tantalizing but sour, a little early for them yet. Not so the Verdicchio that draws your taste buds around its palate of exotica and subtle bitterness. Warm herbed polenta, crisp dry Verdicchio – perfect companions to each other, as well as the Vivaldi that lilts joyfully from the living room. The warbler’s chirp-chatter provides merry accompaniment, as the golden eagle glides high above in effortless spirals.
“A brief gust rustles the leaves, you take in its freshness with a deep breath, and the sweet fragrance of the rose’s perfume that comes with it puts a smile on your face. The breeze is coming over the Apennine mountains, which are etched blue-gray behind the rolling hills, against the deep infinite blue of a cloudless sky. The sun is on its way over there, ready to take its daily bow in colorful fanfare – the sunset’s going to be another good one.
“On the hilltop to your left, the ancient stone walls and terra cotta roofs of the village’s historic past glow warmly in the day’s remaining rays. The purple, yellow and white mosaic of wild lilies and daffodils on the slope below the village complete this picture of utopian hues.
“You settle back into your chair, your senses aroused, your contentment complete. Life is good.”
Dreamy? Yes. Unrealistic? No. Many live this life, and you can too – a villa and country life in the rolling hills of Italy is not an unrealistic dream, it’s readily achievable. After all, we did it with modest means, simple desire, and a sense of adventure, and we’re living examples of how it can be done.
But first – this is not Tuscany … and it’s just as well. Prices there reached the “silly” level some time ago. Even its neighbour Umbria has become expensive … and it doesn’t even have a coastline. The south if Italy may be cheaper, but it doesn’t have the infrastructure and cultural offerings of the central and northern regions (not to mention that it’s unbearably hot in summer), and in the north – which is just as expensive as Tuscany – life is more of a rush.
This is Le Marche, the perfect Italian solution. Mountains and ocean within an hour of each other, living traditions, and a cultural heritage to match any other in Italy. English-speaking foreigners have been buying and restoring houses here for years – a good portion of them live here – and yet it’s not overrun, retaining an authenticity that’s hard to find elsewhere. And while prices have risen as a result, they’re still affordable and far, far more reasonable than in the neighbouring regions of Tuscany and Umbria.
The Real Estate and Culture Tour offers the ideal introduction to this region – a guide to the practicalities of what’s involved when a foreigner buys and restores a country home, an exposure to the culture of this secret gem, and a diverse inventory of available homes on the books of multiple English-speaking agents (some of whom have been through the process of moving here themselves).
If you’re hesitant or unsure, this tour will ease you into the idea at your own pace … without having to do all the research on your own. If you’re more definite about a move here, this tour will put you on the fast track, and help you to clear up any lingering questions you might have about what, where, and how.
Come to Le Marche. You might just find your dream life here.
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