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Daily Telegraph - Inghilterra:
Filed: 11/04/2004)
Cast aside all worries about the Mafia. With idyllic scenery, period
property to rival Tuscany - at bargain prices - and low crime, parts of
Sicily are proving increasingly hard to resist. Sebastian Cresswell-Turner
explores the safe havens
"Buongiorno." Pause. "Parli . . . um . . . er . . . parla inglese?"
"Yes. I am English, in fact."
"Oh, jolly good. Now listen. I'm looking for a dream property here in
Italy. A pretty farmhouse with a few acres and an unspoilt view over
rolling hills and sun-kissed countryside would do nicely; near a beautiful
old town with good restaurants, of course; and within easy driving
distance of an airport with direct budget flights to the UK. I'm not
ruling out a town property, mind you. But it's got to be something I can
rent out when I'm not there. Plus I want sunny weather virtually all year
round. Oh, and I don't want to spend more than a few hundred thousand
pounds . . . "
Try that on with any estate agency in Tuscany, and they'll roll around the
floor in fits of uncontrollable laughter before they recover enough to
call the men in white. Move on to Umbria or Le Marche, or anywhere else in
Italy where the British think of buying, and the reaction will be similar.
But there is a place where this extravagant wish list is perfectly
reasonable: in the south of Sicily. Here you can pick up the sort of
bargains that are a distant memory in Tuscany. This, surely, is Italy's
best-kept property secret.
The reason why the British almost never buy in Sicily is simple: fear of
the Mafia. Are we right, though? Some areas of the island are indeed
hotbeds of "organised crime", as the Italians call it. But others are
safe. Thus, while only a madman would buy a holiday home near the unruly
town of Gela, not very far away is Ragusa, the incarnation of real-estate
desirability.
This Baroque gem is the capital of a province whose crime rate is not only
the lowest in Sicily, but also one of the lowest in the whole of Italy.
The reason is partly geographical. Much of the area is a plateau called
the Val di Noto that has in the past been cut off from the rest of the
island. Accordingly, it is often referred to as un'isola in un'isola, or
"an island within an island".
It is also called la provincia babba, "the dim province", the one whose
inhabitants are too slow off the mark to get involved in crime like
everyone else; and it has the reputation of being one of the few places in
Sicily where businesses don't pay the pizzo, or protection money. To quote
a senior police source: "Nothing ever happens here."
While it would be rash to take this statement too literally, one thing is
sure: as regards the Mafia, Ragusa is as clean as you're going to get
anywhere in Sicily. And in any case, private citizens rarely attract the
interest of the Dons, who have other fish to fry. As Susan Clarke, a
British resident, says: "I have lived a normal family life here since
1978." And in the words of Douglas Ponton, another resident: "I have lived
here for seven peaceful years."
No, the real concerns for prospective British buyers are the same here as
everywhere else in Italy. Will the countryside near your house be ruined
by the illegal building that Berlusconi's government is doing nothing to
discourage? And how high are the chances of you being burgled?
As regards illegal building, the comuni (town halls) in this province are
now almost as strict as those in Tuscany, where planning permission is
notoriously difficult to obtain. The area has numerous nature reserves,
too, and Unesco recently classified the Val di Noto as a World Heritage
Site.
As for burglary, often the work of roving gangs of illegal immigrants,
this is a scourge that now afflicts the whole of Italy. But take
reasonable precautions, such as installing an alarm system linked to the
police station (no charge), and you are no more at risk near Ragusa than
anywhere else. One British citizen, who is about to move to this part of
Sicily for good, tells me: "I've owned a property in the country here for
the past four years, and haven't been burgled once."
Leaving aside the inevitable risks involved in owning property anywhere in
Italy, much of the landscape around Ragusa is idyllically beautiful, and a
match for anything in Tuscany. The weather is fabulous. The food and wine
are great. The roads are empty. Parking, even in the towns, is no problem.
And the cost of living is far lower than on the peninsula. I paid only 4 Euro
for a cinema ticket, and a meal of steak and chips and unlimited wine at a
decent restaurant in the centre of Ragusa cost just 12 Euros.
But perhaps most of all, after years of being inaccessible for British
tourists, this part of Sicily is suddenly within easy reach. Ryanair
opened a Stansted-Palermo route last year; and next month, British Airways
and Air Malta will run budget flights to Catania, a mere 75-minute drive
away. Added to which, a new international airport is due to be built at
Comiso, barely six miles west of Ragusa.
Not surprisingly, shrewd investors, mainly from Germany and the north of
Italy, have started buying up everything they can find here. But apart
from the singer Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, who recently bought an estate
near Milo on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna in the neighbouring
province, the British are almost entirely absent.
It is not too late, however, because even though prices have risen sharply
(up 40 per cent over the past three years in the centre of Ragusa, having
been stagnant for ages), they are still at giveaway levels compared with
anywhere in central Italy. The abandoned Masseria Torrevecchia, for sale
through SunWay, is a typically mouthwatering bargain. This old-fashioned
sandstone farmhouse with an imposing faade and a courtyard behind is in
the large and hyper-protected Pino d'Aleppo nature reserve, and consists
of 560sq m of floor space with 17 acres of top quality farmland. The price
is Euros.200,000 (£131,800).
Granted that the cost of restoration varies from Euro 400 per square metre for
good work in decent materials to Euro 750 for work of the no-expense-spared
variety (hand-carved stone, antique materials, marble surfaces and solid
brass taps galore), the estate might end up costing you as little as
Euro 425,000, or well under £300,000. Not bad for a fully restored farmhouse
with 17 acres of land that would be ideal for vineyards. What would you
have to pay for anything similar in Tuscany? Five times that? Or more?
Not far away, and with stunning views over fields dotted with carob trees
and crisscrossed with dry-stone walls, is the even more imposing Villa
Cartia, for sale through A & M. This abandoned masseria, or farm, with a
large courtyard surrounded by outhouses, two terraces at first-floor
level, and Art Nouveau frescos on the vaulted ceilings inside, has 3,000sq
m of floor space, and comes with 12 acres of land and the chance to buy up
to 15 more.
The buildings are structurally solid, and since the property is huge,
economies of scale would apply to restoration costs, which would be no
more than Euro 400 per square metre. The asking price is Euro 2 million, so the
fully restored masseria would cost approximately Euro 3 million (£2 million).
A rich man's place, certainly; but most impressive, and still only a
fraction of what you'd have to pay for anything comparable in Tuscany.
Those who want a country property with minimum risk of burglary might
consider the secure estate that is being developed by SunWay at Cavalonga
near the neo-Gothic castle of Donnafugata, still in the same area. Here, a
number of traditional stone houses with between 70 and 120sq m of floor
space will be for sale at between Euro 100,000 and Euro 200,000
(£67,000-£133,000). There will be a clubhouse with a security guard in
permanent residence, and owners will have the use of the 37-acre park. The
point of the development, which will be completed next year, is to offer
peace of mind inside a private estate that is guaranteed untouchable.
Nor is there any lack of bargains in the Baroque towns scattered about the
province. In Modica Bassa, SunWay is restoring a slice of the town known
as the Quartiere del Cartellone, where other outside investors have
already bought. Here you can acquire the picturesque Casa Rossa - red
stucco and a balcony supported by carved corbels outside; 45sq m and
rustic frescos on the ceilings inside - for Euro 95,000 (£63,000), fully
converted. The house looks onto Modica Alta, with its famous cathedral of
San Giorgio.
Baroque bargains: properties are also
to be found in provincial towns
More interesting still is what is on offer in the provincial capital
itself; and let's not forget that like any farmhouse or villa in the
country, town properties can be rented out most of the year round;
Patrizia Antoci of A& M can arrange that.
Here in Ragusa, Gabetti is selling a vast 440sq m flat on the piano nobile
of an early 19th-century palazzo bang in the middle of the town for
Euro 500,000 (£329,000). It comes with original floors and spectacular
frescoed vaulted ceilings.
In the evocatively named Via Ecce Homo, again in the middle of town,
Gabetti is selling an entire late 19th-century palazzo: 400sq m on three
floors, original features intact, with 80sq m of bassi on either side of
the entrance that could be let out, and a rococo building opposite. The
asking price: Euro 415,000. Assuming a maximum of Euro 250,000 for renovation,
that comes to Euro 665,000. In other words, well under £450,000 for a large
and fully restored town house. Where else will you get deals like these?
And where, too, will you meet a man like U Scarparu ("the shoemaker"), who
works at his trade in the same room where he was born 85 years ago, and
who refused point-blank to accept a penny from me after he had spent the
best part of an hour repairing a shoe whose heel I had left somewhere in a
nearby nature reserve?
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