Puglia Property newsletter January 2017

Posted on January 29, 2017 by PersonalPuglia

This is the first property newsletter in a very long time – mainly because I have been rushed off my feet finding and restoring properties for people! I now have more help, however, and will try and make it at … Continue reading →

Quite a year in Nardò…

Posted on January 10, 2017 by PersonalPuglia

Before I came to live in Nardò, I had been backwards and forwards from Monopoli for about six months. I certainly fell in love with the place and thought it extremely beautiful (see Nardo who knew for pictures and description of … Continue reading →

Don’t buy property in Puglia before reading this

Posted on May 22, 2016 by PersonalPuglia

I recently received a phone call from someone asking for my opinion about a property they were considering purchasing. I spent a long time talking to them, although they are not an existing client, or likely to become one, because, potentially they were about to make a big mistake. Almost half the property they were considering purchasing appeared as deposito or agricultural storage on the land registry. Their agent had told them this was for tax purposes and wasn’t a problem.They were also told they should be able to extend the property by 20%. It is not that simple. Continue reading →

A little piece of paradise, in Ugento

Posted on May 15, 2016 by PersonalPuglia

If you haven’t been, then Ugento is worth a visit. The historic centre has some beautiful buildings, and a stunning main square, and a ten minute drive away are some of the best beaches in Puglia. Add a fantastic, family … Continue reading →

Zeppole – a stairway to heaven (or, possibly, heartburn)

Posted on March 20, 2016 by PersonalPuglia

20160319_125518 Yesterday was San Giuseppe, father’s day in Italy, and in Puglia, along with most of Southern Italy, it is time to eat Zeppole. Continue reading →

A new Puglian adventure for me…..

Posted on October 23, 2015 by PersonalPuglia

Many years ago, when such a thing didn’t exist, I started up a magazine for parents. I had my first son very young, none of my friends were even thinking about starting a family, and I found it difficult to find the information I needed – bear in mind this was also before you could just look things up on the internet. The magazine became a kind of ‘word of mouth’ in print. Readers could recommend anything from schools, to toys, to babysitting services, or even plumbers, and we would include them alongside articles on children’s health, education and so forth. From being a kitchen table job, where I had to teach myself page layout software and do everything myself the magazine grew very quickly, ending up as a glossy monthly, on sale everywhere before eventually being sold on as a business. Continue reading →

Nardo’ – who knew?

Posted on July 26, 2015 by PersonalPuglia

The first time I visited Nardo’, I was there to see an apartment for a client, one of a series of appointments spread down the west coast of Puglia. The estate agent was also in a hurry and, as I … Continue reading →

A Property search trip – 3 beds, large garden, near sea & ameneties max 220,000€. Part 1

Posted on April 3, 2015 by PersonalPuglia

The brief was clear: Jim was looking for a three bedroomed house, with a large garden, close to shops and services and as close as possible to the sea. Maximum budget 216,000 € (160,000 pounds) including any work, which should be … Continue reading →

February property in Puglia newsletter

Posted on February 15, 2015 by PersonalPuglia

This is slightly different from the last property newsletter in that there are very few properties in it because I haven’t been on many general property viewing trips yet this year – January has been taken up helping people on … Continue reading →

What is it that you do exactly?

Posted on February 5, 2015 by PersonalPuglia

Updated 7/3/2022

The title is a bit tongue in cheek, but I get asked this question so often that I thought it might be useful!

With a background, first in Journalism, then in niche travel, and finding myself in Puglia, at a time when the area was relatively unknown, a lot of my work in the last sixteen years has come about from a feeling of ‘someone ought to…..’ and from people approaching me. For this reason it has been extremely varied, but now the area has become better known, there are more services offered (so I don’t have to) and I have also got older and perhaps have a much clearer idea of what I want to do when I grow up!!

Now my work mainly concerns property though I occasionally still organise tailor made travel. I enjoy both for the same reason, it is profoundly rewarding being able to work out exactly what people want or need and to be able to provide it. To be able to do both in a place that I love, and to share that place with people, and make it more accessible to them, is also very satisfying. 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…..