Hi. My name is Clive West and I have been married to Damaris for 18 years, the last 5 of which we have spent in Umbria which is in Central Italy.
Initially, we just came out here on holiday but we liked the area so much that we decided to stay and spent the last part of the holiday viewing potential properties. Quite by chance, and no thanks to the estate agent, we spotted a ‘bi-familiare’ (semi-detached) that was sited at the top of a high hill and which overlooked getting on for 100 square miles of vineyards, olive groves and small villages with a backdrop of mountains (up to 2800 metres high) and a national park.
We tried to make an offer although the price (€130,000) was reasonable for a large 3-bed semi with about an acre of olive grove and fruit trees and with the fantastic view from the terrace. The estate agent (we later found out) was a relative of the vendor and didn’t even tell him about our offer so we ended up paying the full price. The other half of the property had already been sold – to a German lady who was married to a Sardinian quite a bit older than her. They had moved in 6 months earlier.
When we got back to England, no-one could believe that we’d put down a partial deposit and were committed to this house right in the dead centre of Italy – horizontally and vertically. I think we were generally thought of as having finally ‘lost the plot’.
