Friday 18 September - Ceriana Again

[Photo: Ceriana town house plans]

I am writing this sitting in the Peugeot in a carpark, listening to the rain on the roof. Its been raining since quite early on our short drive here, with huge claps of thunder, but right now seems to have eased off. The car thermometer reads just 15 degrees. We woke this morning with about a 50/50 feeling for Ceriana. On the plus side, the building is large, and we know we would enjoy the process and result of doing it up. We'd probably make a decent lump of money for our troubles. The town is very Italian, and it has a reasonable range of services. On the negative side, Ceriana is a tired town, quite gloomy and poky in places. The locals are mainly older, and it might be difficult to find much to do outside working on the house. We would expect to come here for maybe 4-5 months, for 2-3 years. There is none of the seaside holiday atmosphere of say the Diano valley, but of course not the prices either. And the whole process of actually doing the purchase in Italy puts me off – sorting out lawyers, powers of attorney, deposits, registration and so on. Riccardo and Gill have very kindly offered to help in any way they can. They will be invaluable to have as contacts if we go ahead. Apart from that we have really enjoyed their company, and learning about their much-loved sons Giuliano and Marco and their families. We have much in common.

We got to Ceriana about 1145am, parked in our old carpark, and walked back to town in the rain. Thankfully Geometra Matteo (geometra is used as a title here, also professore, dottore for anyone with a degree) was at his desk, so we had quite a chat (perhaps more of a grilling from his point of view) trying to work out some of the rules and costs. Plumbing is 250€ a point , e.g. per toilet, basin etc. A full rewire might be 1500€. These both sound easily manageable, though of course don't include fittings. Found out some of the rules for bedrooms, as we would have all three bedrooms basically internal, which is not in the rules, at least not officially. Arranged to meet the agent at 3pm to take Matteo through for a rough check.

With a couple of hours to fill in, and nowhere to go, and rain falling steadily, we went back and sat in the car. Karen curled up on the back seat and started snoring, I did something useful and wrote up the diary. At ¼ to 3 we headed back to the agent through the rain. Partway along we had to go through a narrow stretch, with a road full of deep puddles. Unfortunately a car chose that moment to  zip through, and we both got an unexpected shower. I got totally blasted from the crutch down, and Karen let out a fearsome 4-letter shriek when she got struck. We must have been feeling OK about things as we found the whole thing very funny, if a little damp.

Arrived dripping to see the agent, sat down and started going through the details of the property. There had been a previous official project for it, so Alessandra had proper plans. She went through these with our geometra. Lots of talk back and forth then we went off with Matteo to view the property. We took a good hour to go through it from bottom to top. In general, the structure was pronounced sound and generally dry. However the room sizes, heights and lack of windows were a major issue, all outside the commune's rules, and the new roof and deck needed a lot of work to meet the commune's requirements. His recommendation was to let it go, an opinion we shared. In a way a great relief, as we didn't need to think about it any more, and could get back onto our travelling. But we were also disappointed, as this looked our best chance of finding a place in Europe. We haven't given up on the idea, but suspect the chances have been knocked back a lot. Matteo had been so good we got him a big bottle of limoncello as a thank-you.

It was lovely to get back to the car, with plain ordinary travelling ahead of us, no plans, and a GPS to make it easy. Woohoo! Off we went down the hill. Almost got cleaned out by a Suzuki Swift which came round a blind corner on our side of the road, doing a hundred miles an hour. Not really sure how we missed it, but no problem. I'm getting pretty blasé about sneaking past obstacles and other cars with only a mirror's width free. New Zealand will seem like a breeze when we return.

Down to San Remo, the GPS set back on small roads and aimed for Nice. By now it was after 5pm, so we thought we would try to find a place to stay just inside the French border. As it happened, we couldn't find anything suitable. It is a lot harder finding places to stay with a car, as you are past them before you can see them, and somebody has to leap out and ask prices while the driver has to loop around or find a park (mostly impossible). The 2-star hotels were 70€+, and travelling by car you never see pensiones at all. Couldn't find anything by the time we reached France, so we carried on. Quite odd that you simply drive through the border and in the space of a few metres the language, culture, food and customs have totally changed. Time to try and force the Italian out of my mind and replace it with French.

Eventually found our way to Menton, deliberately taking roads one back from the main road to increase our chances of finding an hotel. Ended up at one just outside the Menton Railway Station, perfectly reasonable and comfortable. Wandered about to stretch our legs, then ate a menu du jour meal at our own hotel. Pleasant service, the owner gifting me a paper I'd been trying to read. Between us we had a potage, a really nice strong fish soup with croutons and aoli and cheese, mince-stuffed tomatoes and aoli-covered fish, washed down with a well-deserved beer. All up a funny sort of day, both disappointing and a relief.

Thursday 17 September - Andora and Around

[Photos: A Diano town, Diano valley, house for sale, discussing house, our hosts Gill and Riccardo ]

Up a little late for another day's tripping around in the Fiat. We started with a trip up the Diano valley, having a look at a number of the Diano towns from Diano Marina upwards. Didn't get to Diano San Pietro, which was the location for Annie Hawes' book Extra Virgin. This book was what set us thinking of Liguria as a possible place to buy. The towns around here have an air of affluence clearly lacking in Ceriana. They are all much more open and airy, and generally had a better central square too. It does make Ceriana look like a poor relation, and we are not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. A noticeable number of German-registered cars about – the area is known to attract the Germans. And even a snake slithering along one of the towns – about 50cm long and not looking very dangerous.

At the top of our drive came across a small town in great condition, with a couple of places for sale. The first wasn't right, but the second was on the southern (sea view) side of town. Two rooms up and down, with a big roof terrace above. Riccardo got hold of the woman owner on his cellphone, and she popped out of the house next door. Great long animated discussions about the wonderful village, how Christopher Columbus was born there, and the house. Roof was newish, but a little suspect, and the internal floors were shot, but I clambered up a coupe of ladders to see the view. What a view. Out over the valleys and down to the sea. Despite the fact that it was little more than a shell, the asking price was 140,000€ down from 170,000. Not in our league, and would be a vastly more expensive proposition for renovation than Ceriana. However, worth seeing for the comparison.

The landscape in this region is quite different. The hills are softer, with more shallow slopes, and much more terracing than around Ceriana. There are not the rough forested places, nor any chestnut trees. Most terraces are in olives, all well-tended. There is clearly a lot more money about, and as Riccardo explained, on the Riviera huge numbers of houses and apartments are only occupied a few weeks a year, so the council gets the rates, but doesn't need to provide services, thus having spare for public works.

Back late for lunch, then out around 4pm for a walk along the waterfront south of Cervo, then into Cervo village above the sea for aperitivo. When you get aperitivo, you get your drink, whatever that may be, but also a few bowls of peanuts, olives and foccaccia. We enjoyed chatting quietly, with the sun setting (noticeably earlier now) over the sea. Back for dinner of risotto and leftovers from the previous night, with lots of talk about travel – where we have been and where they have lived.

The travelling around looking at the area was very interesting, and very useful for seeing what is about, and how Ceriana shapes up in comparison. I feel that it is either Ceriana or nothing. The prices everywhere else are beyond what we are prepared to pay. We suspect that doing up a rustico would involve too much effort, expense and hassle, as there is so much to do on them, from the groundworks to septic tanks. So if we decide against the Ceriana place, it seems unlikely we will find anything else. Riccardo and Gill don't think the French are anything like as nice as the Italians, which we have to agree with even from the limited exposure we have had to them so far.  And Spain has become very Anglicised along the coasts. They feel Ceriana is excellent value, and worth trying. We just don't know.

Wednesday 16 September - Bussana Vecchio & Andora

[Photos: Bussana Vecchio buildings and art gallery, Riviera interior, Alassio ]

We'd packed up last night, so were able to get out the door quite early. Solid rain all night, and in fact it didn't let-up all day. Managed to lug all our gear down near the tunnel, where Karen hid from the rain, while I umbrella'd my way around to the car at the far carpark to retrieve it. Packed our stuff in easily, and off on our next adventure, still with the possible town house whirring around in the front of our minds.

Down the hill, along the coast and back up the hill from Bussana to go to Bussana Vecchio. This is a village which was struck by an earthquake in 1887. Unfortunately most of the population was in church, and the church suffered worst with the roof collapsing, killing a large number of people and causing the abandonment of the whole village. In 1947 a number of southern Italians tried to settle in it, but the council objected and destroyed all the stairways to prevent it. In the 1960's artists started squatting there, leading to its establishment as an artists' village. It was pouring with rain but we were still keen to have a look about, so worked our way up the narrow road to the village. Parked in the rain and got out the umbrellas for the walk to the buildings. All very much ruined, but with pockets of flowers, creepers and lived-in rooms, rarely a full building inhabited. There are some 60 families here now, almost all artists judging by the huge number of little galleries with various types of art, ranging from OK to good.

Found the church which had killed the bulk of the then inhabitants, with the walls still looking fine, but with stone arches truncated. A little disconcerting thinking of what had happened. The alleys of the town were typical Ligurian with pebbles stood on edge and cement between, but today there was so much water coming down that the paths were awash. Stopped in the only café to have a coffee and a pastry, and spent quite a while talking about NZ with the German-looking but Italian-speaking owner. The artists here were from all over – in fact our real estate agent's parents came here from Switzerland and still live there.

Took a little long chatting with the owner, and didn't leave until 11:30, leaving limited time to get to Andora for lunch. Wasn't helped by me finding a supermarket on the way so we could find some antiperspirant, as I had run out, and for some reason it is easy to find deodorants here, but not anti-perspirants. Maybe they like sweating. Anyway found some, and raced away down the road to Andora. Our trusty GPS delivered us to the D'Ambrosio's electric gates perfectly. I had looked the place up on Google, and entered the co-ordinates, which worked spot on.

Gill and Riccardo were extremely welcoming. We are downstairs in their nice house, which is set in a private forested piece of land, with no visible neighbours. Riccardo was a high-level manager for Fiat, Gillian an ESOL teacher, and they have two sons who are both doing very well in the financial world in London. Sat out on their big terrace under a big verandah and had a delicious lunch of pesto pasta and more, discussing houses mainly. The two of them are more or less retired but do a sideline helping people find houses in Liguria. We are not in their normal spectrum; we don't even get near the normal bottom end. Prices here really start at 200K€, and we have a nominal maximum budget of ¼ of that, so you can understand our choices are more than a bit limited.

After lunch we jumped into their much loved Fiat Uno, and headed out on a tour of some of the local towns. We started with Laigueglia, then on to Alassio and Albenga, before heading inland to smaller towns. The three big towns were very smart, with nice pedestrian areas and lots of shops catering for the tourist trade, though without the glitzy feel that some other centres have had. Prices start at 38,000€ for a carparking space. We then headed inland, where prices are slightly more reasonable. I can't recall the names of the little towns. All very different both to each other and to Ceriana. The biggest difference is that Ceriana is still a little tight Italian village, everywhere else is much more open, but touristy. It does expose the fact that Ceriana is very old and tired, but there isn't the slightest possibility of us affording anything here in these towns, as prices are 4 times Ceriana.

Dinner was local long curly sausages (lovely smoky flavour), with three vege dishes, accompanied by red or white wine. We were back late, so by the time we had finished dinner and had talked for ages, we were quite late to bed.

Tuesday 15 September - Househunting in Ceriana

[Photos: House terrace, inside shots]

Woke up this morning a little worse for a sleepless night, but keen to work it all through. Thought the first thing to do was to do a wander around the town to revisit the two town properties, in order to get more of a feel for where they are. It seems a bit odd to New Zealanders that you could visit a place and not really have much of a clue as to where it is in relation to the rest of town, but because almost all the time you are in the town here, you can’t see anything to get your bearings on, it is very difficult to make sense of direction and height.

So off we went, starting by trying to find the first place. Not much luck, and ended up above the mill, where we had a bit of a nosey before heading down past the mill, along below the town and over the bridge to the other side to see if we could spot house 1 from opposite. No such luck, but did manage to find Les and Helen’s place. Back into town and on the second attempt, we spotted the little terrace from one of the squares. It was much higher up in the town than we had expected, only 3 or four levels below Piazza Marconi, and really very handy. We went down to view it from the outside, learning little other than it is quite close to the centre of town. By now we had to adjourn for a lunch break, the stress of house hunting taking its toll.

A bit of good luck after lunch. We bumped into Alessandra, the agent, and were able to pick up the key from her 10 minutes later to have a good look at the apartment by ourselves. Started with a trip to the top to check out the views, which were my biggest concern. I had thought them a bit average on first impression, but they were actually pretty good. A mix of roofs, views across to other houses, and the town and hills above, and the valley to one side. The apartment is a bit like home in that it is three stories, with the kitchen being at level 2.5, and the terrace over it at 3.5. Had our torches with us this time, so had a much better view of what is was all about.

There is no shortage of character. Most rooms have arched or double-arched ceilings, pillars with stone shelves partway up, niches all over the show, stones for balancing candles on and more. What would be the living room has some walls in nice stone which could be left exposed. The back rooms are certainly a bit gloomy, but with more white paint and plaster would be much improved. We don’t think it would make a great permanent home, but would certainly be good for the warmer 6 months of the year. I had worked out last night how the rooms could be used, and the trip through confirmed that they would all be fine.

In a way not what we wanted to know. It would have been so much easier if the view had been rubbish, or the walls all cracked and damp, or the rooms pokey. Fortunately or unfortunately, we find ourselves rather liking the place, and able to visualise its potential. Darn it! We must have spent 2 hours there, taking a good photographic record and a rough set of measurements based on the number of 200mm floor tiles each direction.

Feeling a bit lost, we headed back to town thinking we should look at more places, if for no other reason than to convince ourselves that there are no better options. Alessandra was closed up, so dropped the key off and went along the street to see the other agent, but he too had just closed. By a stroke of good luck, two doors away a geometra was working away in his new office, so popped in to see him. A geometra is a European vocation - a useful mix of project manager, architect, quantity surveyor, draughtsman and overseer. He can take an idea, draw it up, submit the plans to council, call tenders, arrange the contract, and oversee the work. For us foreigners, there couldn’t be a better mix of skills. Matteo Lanteri would be late 20s, speaks English pretty well, and was extremely helpful. He offered to do a survey for free, hoping to pick up work from us later on. Again, it might have been better if we hadn’t found him as the whole idea might have got too hard, but as it is he offered to pick up the keys from Alessandra in a few days so he could check out the building for us.

It’s beginning to feel as if everything is falling into place, and as I write this Karen is tossing and turning in bed with scary thoughts roaming around her brain. It all seems to be happening very fast, as we haven’t really got our heads round whether the whole thing is a pipedream, or something that we would get a lot out of. Looking at buying and temporarily living in Europe is after all one of the prime reasons for the way we set up this trip, and the places we chose to come to. But now there are real decisions to be made – we’re at the pointy end so to speak.

Tuesday 14 September - Househunting in Ceriana

[Photos: San Remo, town house, rustico, mill house]

Karen wanted to spend some time in the shops at San Remo, followed by a tan top-up at Bussana beach, then moving on to our real estate appointment, so in we went to San Remo. Had a pleasant enough time walking around, found a suitable cable to hook the MP3 into the Peugeot 's stereo, and stumbled across the old part of San Remo in the process. Shops were a little disappointing. Some closed being Monday, but Karen couldn't find what she wanted, not that I am convinced she knew what it was she was looking for. Ate a roll out on the sea wall looking back at the city, then ambled back to the car at the stazione car park.

Unfortunately the wind had come up a lot, so we suspected the beach was not a great option, but headed that way anyway as we knew there was a supermarket in that direction where we could top up our supplies. Shopped, and decided that indeed the wind was going to be too much, so back up on the 20 minute drive to Ceriana.

Did a bit of thinking about what we wanted to find out from the agent, Allesanda Bellini, then off to see her at 4pm. Didn't come to many conclusions about what we wanted other than a top limit of 50K€, 2 bedrooms (so we can have guests or children), a terrace or other outdoor space, sufficiently rough that we can spend plenty of man-hours working on it, walking distance to town, power and water handy or already on. Our ideal place would have a new roof, rough interior, and potential. Also of course that character thing.

Alessandra seems a little off-hand, perhaps she is aware that the two days we have left here is very limiting, but she should have restarted work earlier than last Wednesday! She found 3 properties that seemed to fit the bill. Our price limit and size requirements (2 bedrooms cuts out very many places) clearly reduced the options dramatically.

Number 1 was one Alessandra called "strange". The layout was said to be odd, spread over a number of levels. Here in Ceriana, individual titles spread over a number of levels and indeed buildings. A title may span across the top of three different buildings, or may take up 4 levels of one building, or may be a combination, as this one was. The approach was through some seriously medieval alleys, then an entrance tucked in under an arch. Quite a struggle getting the door open, then a cave-like arched room, stairs, a minimally lit room with another arched cave behind, up another level to a bright and stripped out kitchen, to the top level which would be a living room with limited windows and another internal room behind, and finally a good-sized terrace on top, with decent views out. First impressions? Karen found it a bit claustrophobic as there was no power on, and we didn't have torches. I found it fascinating, but rather dark. Clearly full of character – at least it seemed to be, though it was hard to work out using the camera flash only! It was advertised as 50m² but on pacing it out, I decided later it had to be nearer 80m², plus terrace and a cellar.

Property 2 was a whole different affair. A rustico or farm building, a couple of kilometres out of town, on 3000m² of land, mainly with young peach trees grown for their blossom – this area grows quite a lot of flowers and floral produce. A little too far out, but a charming rustico. Like almost all rustico this had cellars underneath, with a living room on top. In this case the cellars were arched, low and damp, so a lot of work required. Also no power, water or sewerage on site. A nice location with a stream, parking and nice views, but simply too much money and work required.

Property 3 was enough to make us Historic Places people go spare. It was an old olive mill. On approaching it there is a lovely vertical stone in a stone bowl outside. The mill was quite a big four-square building on two levels with steel doors below, and a standard door up some external steps above. Inside the steel doors was a real surprise. In the back of the single space were two more vertical stones, both in stone basins some 1.5m in diameter. They were attached to great wooden wheels above, with wooden teeth onto other cogs, and finally a spindle through the outside wall to a rusted up 4m diameter overshot waterwheel. Apparently it had been used up to 30 years ago, from who knows when, but olive growing started here around 100AD. Off to one side was a great iron press like a bookbinder's, with stone troughs under feeding into stone jars set in the floor. Just amazing. Could have made an extraordinary house, but some nasty practical things like no internal access between the levels, its location right at the base of town, no views, limited sun and so on counted against it.

So back to our apartment with our minds whirring away. I was quite impressed by the town apartment, but was concerned about the views. Karen not very keen on any of them, and in particular was more than a little put off by the sheer age and hairiness of the old part of town where the apartment was. Had dinner and went to bed feeling a little let down with what we had seen. I felt that if we couldn't find anywhere in somewhere like Ceriana, there would be little chance elsewhere. In many ways the location here is spot on. The locals are amazingly friendly, the population big enough (1400 – don't know where we got the idea of 76 families from) to support decent services, the swimming pool, Bussana beach and San Remo only 20 minutes away, and so on. We also love the villagy atmosphere, and total lack of "touristiness".

I lay awake for ages working my way through the odd apartment, and decided it was a whole lot better than first impressions revealed. For a start, it was big – there is virtually nothing more than 2 small bedrooms, and this had 3 decent sized ones. Also, much of the work on it would be basic manual stuff – stripping down paint and repainting, plastering, tiling, cutting grooves for power and water. Just what we need to be able to increase the value using our labour, but not too much in the way of materials. Also a fair scope for making it special with all the arches, funny openings, stairs and more.

Sunday 13 September, Karen's 50th - San Remo & Bassano

A lovely day. Got up gently to a clear blue sky as normal. I gave Karen breakfast in bed as every good birthday should begin. A little light on the presents this year, and the children pretty hopeless about texts, though we did pick up some emails later. However the location makes up for a lot.

Headed down to San Remo for a look about, maybe a little shopping, and then a trip to the recommended beach at Bussano Mare. Parked at the stazione, free for once which is a nice change, and also makes it more pleasant wandering as it means no time limit to have to be back for. Drifted down to the waterfront, looking in shops along the way. Bought a couple of pastries which were filled with chocolate hazelnut cream i.e. Nutella, before stopping to see if we could get some free internet. Cunningly we managed to hook into a network, and spent some time reading birthday emails, and sending some replies. The baby laptop continues to work out well.

Next stop a café for a birthday cappuccino. Not a lot open with today being a Sunday, but San Remo is enough of a tourist destination that there were quite a lot of fashion shops open. Karen found a lovely two-tone cream & brown autumn scarf (the shops are all displaying their new autumn ranges) and was well pleased. Found our way to the waterfront, which here consists of many little breakwater-protected bays with small private beaches inside. Not particularly inviting.

Got a bit bushed going back, but retraced our steps, buying an Italian hotdog, a slice of vegetarian something and some pizza for a late lunch, before retrieving the car and heading to Bussano Mare. What a lovely beach. White sand, mostly free, parking free again and not even crowded. The day was warm without being unpleasant, there was a gentle breeze, and the water was warm. A perfect day for the beach. Parked ourselves on the beach and just soaked up the sun and the atmosphere for about three hours. Always plenty to watch – lots of families, couples and sun-bronzed bodies. The water was just right – warm enough to get into, and cool enough to take the edge off the day. There were even fresh water showers (probably belonging to the paying beach next door, but everybody was using them). Karen felt that being on a lovely beach on the Italian Rivera couldn’t be bettered for a birthday treat. Of course the company she was keeping helped enormously.

Stayed until 5:30 when we thought we could afford to head home again. Tried to find a supermarket as we are getting a little low on essentials such as wine, but the one we spotted with cars outside turned out to be closed anyway. Up the hill via the road to Poggio, which was a bit more narrow than the normal road we have used, but again met cars at the right places. Time for a shower and a read before heading out to dinner. Were going to try the main street Ristorante della Posta, but he seemed quite a bit more pricey than Dario’s, so went back to Dario’s to find him closed, so back to the main street again! Had a very nice meal at Ristorante della Posta, just had primo piatti of ravioli and linguine al pesto, accompanied by a delicious pinot gris. Took quite some time working out the nose of the wine, before realising it was wet woolly socks, though suspect that was the oak coming through.

Altogether a well-enjoyed birthday.

Saturday 12 September - Ceriana

This is the last day of Karen being a sprightly 40-something year old. Tomorrow she will be a sprightly 50 year old. Saturday today so all is a bit quieter n the morning, less of the roaring Apes. As every morning, the locals are out tending their veges and watering.

We had so enjoyed the walk up to San Giovanni and its meadow that we did it again today, first stopping off in town for some panini to fill with the normal gorgonzola, camembert, tomatoes and peppers. We haven’t yet got sick of these fresh lunches, though we did enjoy having the more tasty French bread when we went to Nice.

We did the trip up in quick time, and then parked up on a picnic table at the top under the gum-oozing pine trees to make up our lunch. Most pleasant.

Had quite a surprise on the way down. First there was this new pattering sound we hadn’t heard before, then the odd drops of rain starting filtering through the chestnut trees. After a few minutes it turned into quite a heavy shower. Still warm, and remarkably little got through the chestnuts, but at some places we got a decent sprinkling. First proper rain so far this trip, and it sounded so nice on the leaves above us. A very enjoyable walk, though we were a little damp by the time we got back for our siesta time. Karen managed to get right up to date with corrections for the book. It will be nice when that is out of the way.

Tonight was a “danzante e gastronomica” in Piazza Marconi, which we had expected to mean sitting down at long tables sharing a meal of all sorts of Italian delicacies. Unfortunately though the long tables bit was correct, the meal was chips, bread and barbecued sausages, so we gave it a miss and cooked up some sausages we had bought earlier. Disappointing, as we have read of similar events elsewhere which have been a good deal more lively and interesting.