A cardoon convert!

Posted on January 5, 2019 by PersonalPuglia

I first saw cardoons at the fantastic sunday veg market in Sant’Isidoro, a seaside fraction of Nardò, where I currently live. An entire stall was devoted to them and when I asked the stall holder what they were he said … Continue reading →

Puglia Property News – Winter

Posted on December 2, 2018 by PersonalPuglia

While there have been perhaps less properties coming onto the market in the last month or so, now is actually a very good time to look for property. Lots hit the market in the autumn for various reasons. Some Italians are … Continue reading →

La Festa dell’Immacolata, 8th December

Posted on November 25, 2018 by PersonalPuglia

The public holiday on the 8th of December, known as the ‘Immacolata’ creates some confusion, among the less devout, about what is being celebrated other than, clearly, the start of the Christmas festivities (seeMore than 12 days of Christmas in … Continue reading →

Property search, town properties with period features and outdoors space

Posted on September 23, 2018 by PersonalPuglia

I have been out and about looking for properties for my new Puglia property investment fund (see previous newsletter for details). I have also had some requests for properties similar to Palazzo Cairney, so was killing two birds with one … Continue reading →

Palazzo Cairney – a buyer’s perspective, before and after

Posted on August 3, 2018 by PersonalPuglia

Readers of my latest Property news will know that we have just finished work on a large project in the historic centre of Nardò and that it is now available for holiday bookings : We had nightmares with the chamber of commerce and the local council which meant that we had to delay formal bookings till now, so there are great last minute offers for August and September. http://www.palazzocairney.com

It has been an amazing, exhausting and exhilarating experience working on the house and Lorna (see below) has been the perfect client. I have to say, at this point, that the fact that the house is called Palazzo Cairney is my fault – I started calling it that as a joke and it stuck! Scroll down for before and after videos and visit the Palazzo Cairney youtube channel for more detailed room before and afters (with somewhat amateurish voice overs)… Continue reading →

Personal Puglia Property News

Posted on July 15, 2018 by PersonalPuglia

I have been somewhat quiet on the blogging front as, for the last 11 months, we have been working flat out on a large restoration project. The house was the first one mentioned in this article. Someone saw it on … Continue reading →

Nardò Nosh part 1 – L’Inferno

Posted on May 29, 2018 by PersonalPuglia

The joys of living in a small town in Puglia are many, and you soon acquire your favourite places to eat and drink. Generally, meals are so affordable that you tend, like the locals, to eat out a lot and, … Continue reading →

Frittata con zucchine e menta

Posted on April 19, 2017 by PersonalPuglia

Zucchine, or courgettes, with mint is one of my favourite combinations and you find it a lot in Puglian dishes, like my favourite zucchine alla poverella. They say that the use of mint is due to the influence of Saracen … Continue reading →

Buying to holiday let in Puglia

Posted on April 2, 2017 by PersonalPuglia

Many dream of a little, or even large, place in the sun. Owning a holiday home for your own exclusive use comes with it’s own problems though. It always seems as if at least the first few days of any … Continue reading →

Brindisi – Gateway to the South

Posted on March 24, 2017 by PersonalPuglia

As a child I must have passed through Brindisi numerous times; as a family we used to drive down from Rome and get the car ferry to Greece. At the end of a long drive there was little inclination to explore … Continue reading →

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Gut Feeling.”

I first came to Puglia, to Monopoli in fact, at the invitation of my mother, Diane Seed, who had taken a group to a five star hotel there for a ‘culinary adventure’. At the time I was organising specialist holidays in the UK for families. Getting talking to the owners, they suggested I organised some trips there. So I did – coming back a further three times and, each time, falling more in love with Puglia.

On my third trip, I went into Monopoli with my mother who was thinking of renting an apartment there, to use as an occasional escape from Rome. We were outside an estate agents, looking in the window, when a man approached us and asked if we were looking for an apartment to rent. We went with him, into the centro storico where he showed us an apartment; the top floor of a house with medieval origins. My mother was not impressed – too many stairs, small kitchen, no bathtub. I stood on the roof terrace looking at the view (cathedral, church spire, church spire, sea) and fell deeper still in love.

I wanted that apartment so much it hurt but, despite the fact that the rent seemed impossibly low by London standards, I couldn’t justify it. Why on earth would I need a, small, apartment in Puglia? The following night I had a dream where someone sat me down and told me I was going to die much earlier than I imagined. It was very vivid and waking up, still half asleep, I believed it absolutely. The first thing I did was work out how old my three children would be when it was supposed to happen, my second thought was ‘right, I am having that apartment’. It felt right so I did it.

During this period I had split up with my husband and was finding alternate custody of the children very difficult. There were super cheap flights to Puglia at the time so, in my child free weeks, I would hop on a plane and go to my apartment… exploring Puglia and extending the number of holidays I organised for other people. A few months later, when things back in London were getting increasingly difficult, my downstairs neighbours in Puglia told me they were moving out.

It was an absolute impulse – I told the owner that I wanted to rent the ground floor as well, packed up everything in England and moved over to Puglia with my two younger children. At the time I still didn’t really know anyone there so it was a bit scary, but I did it.

Across a narrow street from me there was an elderly lady who, unable to get about much any longer, sat all day in her doorway framed by the open top shutters of her door, above which there was an icon of the Madonna, surrounded by light bulbs. She befriended us, and her acceptance made it easier moving into, what was then, a fairly closed community.

Provider of much local knowledge, recipes and herbal remedies (as well as arcane rituals involving bowls of water and oil to cure all that ailed you) she told me repeatedly that I had come to the right place and the Madonna had sent me to Monopoli. A friend at the time commented rather waspishly that he was not sure what Monopoli had done to deserve this…

It hasn’t always been easy and, in my first year, I was taken royally to the cleaners and lost a lot of money, one of the reasons why I am very committed to making sure that other ‘foreigners’ who want to buy or do up properties here are looked after properly, as well as being guided through the endless red tape and illogical rules which make up the Italian system.

I still think occasionally of the old lady, Nina, and it makes me smile. While it is never flattering to be compared to a plague of locusts, or similar it did feel, and still does, like I came to the right place….

Continue reading →

Gut feeling – how I ended up in Puglia…..