THE START OF OUR JOURNEY INTO PUGLIA 2002

Um the start of the journey that was a while ago now some time after 2000.
It was a cold wet rainy day in England and we were flicking through the Sunday papers when this great article shone out on Apulia, the land that time forgot, we were hooked.
So anyway we started to read up on Puglia (in the heal of the boot) and went there on holiday, as much as possible, there is something infectious about the area and the people and we started to feel very disappointed every time we left.
We decided to look for a holiday home, we'd really managed to pin point the area that we wanted to live in after travelling the length and breath of the region, on lots more holidays, (we don't stint on the research).
So finally after a lot of house hunting we fell in love with a renovated Trulli, (the wonderful dome shaped dwellings that the area is so famous for, which most people tend to gravitate towards when they come to this region.)
It was on a hill top surrounded by forest and with olive groves and vineyards stretching as far as the eye could see. It was breathtaking and we were ecstatic. We put in an offer that was excepted and things went smoothly, until we found out that there were many owners who didn't want to sell their part, so it would have meant knocking down walls and not having much land or even getting assess to the place. We were mortified and eventually had to pull out.
However we found out later that the trulli was built on an ancient burial site and were glad that we pulled out when we did, not only was it very very remote, who knows what might have happened in the dead of night!
Again over to Puglia we went in search of our dream property. We looked and looked and finally found an amazing farm house surrounded by Trulli -Casale. We argued with the owner over the price for 8 months it was so exhausting and stressful. To cut a long story short he was a terrible gambler and had to sell his families house from under them, as he was in so much debt but it was heart wrenching for him and he obviously didn't want to sell it, we did not see the obvious warning signs, so basically after tears and arguments we had to pull out again because it was a disaster waiting to happen. We were so distraught this had now gone on for two years and we still hadn't found any where.
However we had come to realise our love of the country and its people and new now that we wanted to move there permanently and decided to put our house on the market (that we had only just finished doing the d.i.y on after 7 years of non stop building work) However that bought up a selection of non stop problems in England and over the last year and a half we had over 100 viewing and two sales full through. Again more anxiety and stress, its almost like someone was telling us something.
But there was a happy ending we finally found a house after almost giving up hope and coming to puglia searching many many times, It is beautiful, not as old and rustic as we'd wanted but that is because we were lucky that the previous owner had renovated it a little before us, now we are glad that we didn't have to renovate the Masseria from scratch like some of our friends have done.
The house has breathtaking panoramic views of the sea and valley and the possibility to make apartments we could now do the 'no going back' thing.
So now that the house was bought (and that part was wonderfully easy and so much less hassle than the English system, there is no gazumping and once you sign the Compromesso you're tyed in, quick easy and officiant. So next was the big move!