PRETTY VILLAGES AND DELICIOUS FOOD 2007

Everyday Leo, Michaels assistant arrives at 8.30 and then he and michael go down on to the land and spend the whole day down there making terraces to support the large amount of earth that holds the swimming pool, that we imported in from local farm land.
Most days it is lovely and sunny here around 35 degrees, rarely it rains but then it just chucks it down non stop and we fill up our water reservoirs, so we don’t mind the rain as it doesn’t come frequently and we always have plenty of work to do inside, when it does.
We are so continually in Awe at the abundance of delightful towns that are near our house and when we have a day off we adventure out to a different place that we haven’t seen before and wander around the charming old centers that date back thousands of years.
We always feel like we are in a movie on these days of adventure, as the architecture is so unusual, almost magical, and the light shines in such a way that you can almost become hypnotized by the beauty of it all.
Of course after we have meandered around in glorious sunlight and stopped for numerous amounts of coffee in authentic Italian coffee houses and drooled in the window at the Italians beautifully made clothes, then we take a long leisurely lunches where the wine flows, the food just keeps coming and the bill is surprisingly cheap, from one of the always surprising and never disappointing restaurants, trattorias, osterias, pizzerias in what ever town we happen to be in at the time, we did all this last Sunday, after meandering around Bari city Centro storico and walking along the promenade in fabulous sunshine, we then found a fantastic restaurant which was Ala Carte and had a fabulous 3 course meal which was beautifully presented and it only cost £25 for two. bargain. it’s so reasonable here.
In a minute we are going over to a village selva di fasano which is on the next mountain to us, and we are going to meet a couple who want michael to do there kitchens and bathrooms, and then on Sunday we are going to meet our friend Maurizio who wants michael to make the bar for his new nightclub.
we have plenty of things to keep us busy here, its difficult to fit it all in, we only have two pairs of hands and so many hours in the day.
Still although we are busy, it is not stressful and the evenings are spent on the veranda reading a book, listening to music or watching a movie, it is a very quiet relaxing existence and we still love it intensely.Our language is coming on slowly, we practice every day, mainly local friends, michael seems to becoming along a lot quicker with it now that he is spending 8 hours a day with his little Italian buddy and when I go out, I practice in the shops and with friends.
Anyway my struggle with Italian legislation continues, I have been trying to change our driving licenses over, for the last few weeks and really am hitting a brick wall, with what should be such a simple procedure. Hah
First of all I didn’t have enough documents, believe me I had a lot, so I had to go and queue up and fill out more forms in the commune, which took hours.
Then they needed a translation of our licenses which we had done, then they said this had to be done by a professional translator, when I asked where I would find such a person, they said they didn’t know, Great how brilliant, so we made a lot of enquires and came up with zip!
Luckily, finally they found someone after a few more weeks but when I finally returned to get it done, they said they had a problem with Michael’s license.
All of his 6 Italian big identity docs say, michael john Foley, and his passport but his driving license just say michael Foley,so they said it wasn’t possible to change it at all, what???
We tried to explain the unimportance of a middle name in England but they weren’t having any of it.
So I phoned the dvla and asked if it was possible for a name change, and they said because we weren’t living in England any more, that the license was void because of a lack of address!
So I then went on line and did an address change and filled in everything with Michael john Foley and when the new one came back it had, guess what, Michael Foley on it.
So, I’m going round in circles here. Michaels had no license for a month while we sent it off and then he got pulled over by the police, who, Of course, asked to see his documents. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Luckily he pulled the ‘I’m a thick Irishman thing’ and pretended he couldn’t understand a word and they got so irritated with him, that they sent him on his way. Phew
So were back to stage one. What to do now!
All this is driving me crazy literally, so just to infuriate myself more, I tried to sign in with the National health society (nhs) so we could get a doctor etc.. Yikes what a polava that turned out to be:
I went with my friend Antonetta, to a crumbly smelly old building in Fasano, a great example of the cleanliness and pleasant service that we are about to have the pleasure of using (typical nhs is the same in every country it seems), Not so fast you might say, I can never walk in any where and simply fill in a few forms.
Yep as always, there was a woman behind the desk, that looked like the service clerk from ‘Monsters Ink’, she took one look at me and it got her racist back up straight away, and Oh yes the further we delve into the system, the more we're coming up against some serious racist issues here, they’re not used to anyone sharing there little piece of Puglia which is a shame, as I don’t want it to ruin my rose tinted view of Sunny Puglia.
Anyway we didn’t have half enough documents and more importantly, we didn’t have proof of income which was vital. Oh
Oh a change of note, at least I have been entertained, as I had some friends arrive last week that have a house in the next village- friends in the film industry, who were giving me the low down on whats happening, sounds depressingly messy, but kept me entertained at least over a few lunches, and it was nice to speak English for a while.
Not that my Italian is amazing, hardly! It’s slow but I’m now on to past and present subjunctive verbs, Yee gods what ever that is.
The weather has been gorgeous at least, I’ve been outside reading most days, lovely and were starting to get quite a few bookings now for next year.

BACK FROM FILMING TO SUNNY PUGLIA 2005

Well I have absolutely no excuse for not posting a blog apart from being intensely lazy and when you imagine this, don’t under estimate the laziness! I’ve not long finished filming and every time I do I’m exhausted
Oh my god I just don’t know what came over me, from the minute I set foot on Puglian soil, my whole being slumped and I could barely force my arm to pick up the remote control for some weeks, it was all quite exhausting.
Having passed through my big fat b***H on the couch time, I’m now riding the wave of D.I.Y like before; I think it was “THE LIST” of D.I.Y that put me on the couch in the first place, (It was my way of protesting, in some way after just finishing the film, where I kept receiving THE LOOK from Michael every time he rushed by in a hurry to do more work)
No really, he’s been wonderful as always, he doesn’t stop and things are really progressing nicely, and there were only a few comments like “get your lazy arse off that couch and pick up a paint brush”
Anyway I only feel like I’ve adjusted now after 6 weeks, ridiculous as that sounds, my brain always finds it hard to switch from a life style of hotels, bright lights and big cities to being on the side of a mountain.
Luckily we have a wonderful new log burning stove (stuffa) that's been keeping us toasty and we keep the wood burning all day long, the wood from the garden is all free although, obviously its taken Michael and his Italian work gang more than a few weeks to do the usual massive garden pruning for winter (or more so hacking in their case) and they’ve cut it all up into nice neat piles for the wood, so I simply have to stoke the fires every half an hour or so and this is enough to circulate the heat through out the whole house, which we never imagined would work so well, particularly with the high ceilings and marble staircase.
Anyway life in Puglia is great as always, slow, gentle and mellow. I've even started painting again, god I'm rusty, meanwhile Michael is working away like a trooper still with Leo,(our gardener)
They're a little gang now, we also have two cleaners and a plumber for the new business, its good for Michael as Leo is good fun and he's teaching him Italian, VERY SLOWLY. Their conversations are, on the floor hilarious but he’s got the patience of a saint and because of him were both learning a lot more, faster.
We’re interacting with a lot of different people now, any time we need any help or have any problems there’s a lot more people to ask, poor Maurizio is getting a break from our constant demands.
Talking of which he’s opening a new club soon (we will be expecting VIP treatment like always) and is plying all his time into this new venture, so we haven’t seen him as much as we’d like but we still speak regularly.
Michael's new property maintenance company is doing well as there are a lot of British clients who all seem very pleased to finally have found someone willing to do the work on their homes.
Obviously we are still working away on Villa Silvana. I hope by the start of the season everything will be finished, it’s mainly the land that is taking all the time.
We still have a lot of terraces to put in and a hell of a lot of gardening and we’ve even started decorating our own home, which we have left, due to the fact that the apartments were priority, as they are our bread and butter.
So were really pleased with the progress were making with our language, the villa, the business and Michael's new maintenance company, for sure none of this has happened over night but we’re certainly settled now.
The friends we’ve made are also soooo nice. The Italians do anything to help you, we’re VERY different and that is obvious by our views and opinions but we continually have to remind ourselves that we're living in the country now, so our extreme city opinions, general knowledge and lack of religion is still very different, but it doesn’t seem to matter as life here is JUST SIMPLE. how wonderful is that!
The World moves on and we are completely unaware of what happens outside Villa Silvana and Puglia, Still we like being blissfully ignorant, which probably sound utterly ridiculous but most days we don’t know what day of the week it is, let alone the date, it doesn’t matter, we're not controlled by time and have a different kind of stress (mainly overpowering lists of D.I.Y and new clients who keep changing their minds about kitchen and bathroom designs)
Wow, how our lives have changed, Michael's taken to it all like a duck out of water but it seems to take me longer and longer to adjust again, every time I go away and do a movie and live in that fantasy world. I’m sure the time is nearing to stop!We'll have to see what happens the next time the phone rings for the next Hollywood adventure

LIVING AT VILLA SILVANA 2004

Well undoubtedly there is no possible way that we can regret the Move, leaving behind the grey miserable skies and being overworked in my mundane job as site manger for a huge London company, now i am freeeeeeeeeeee to do what i want when i want, to live by the sun rising and setting and not need a watch.
Susan continues to work as a makeup artist in the film industry to provide us with enough money for us to continue to do the renovations on the Masseria (now Villa) and i can enjoy every moment watching the sunrise over the sea and stuffing myself with this delicious Puglian Diet and finally being able to spend the time on creating Apartments at Villa Silvana so we can provide Luxury to our guests for a reasonable price.
Sue is not long returned home after being away for almost 5 months on yet another epic film, Can’t believe how times fly’s, when you're off gallivanting around the world with celebs!
Things are always very busy preparing for our guests, we we're under the illusion that this would be a restful life change but it's on our own terms
We do wonder if we will ever achieve that calming, gentleness of life, that blissfully flows along or will it always be this manicness of trying to achieve some thing, in such a ridiculously short space of time, but one doesn't want to be bored
Anyway we wake each morning and take coffee out to the balcony and looked at the sea and stand in the warm early morning sun and think AAAAH. Perfecto
So much had happened since Sue’s been away and the pool is really taking shape now and they have just finished installing the new Hemof tank, which of course is essential as we're on the side of the mountain and we do not have mains sewerage, gas, water etc..
However they did smash open the old septic tank, which was an absolute delight with the heat of the day, um such lovely odors nearly suffocated our senses, personally, draining it first before destroying it, might have been the way to go, but you know what builders are like, got to do it there way. Yuk
Talking of which, the excavator hasn’t got that much to do now, thank god, so we went to buy the pool slabs, which we found in a local stone masons, beautiful pale stone completely irregular and uneven, it will be like doing a jigsaw puzzle but as a team we are good at mosaics. I of course left sue to sort out the financing, being rather cunning, knowing full well the mentality of the average Italian male leaving sue surrounded by builders, so she could bat her eyelids and get a rather large discount. Marvelous.
Still, i’m managing to communicate okish and Sue’s language is coming on in leaps and bounds.
It easy to think that you forget the language skills but actually I’m doing well enough and have even manage a bit of polite chit chat and banter, never sure whether my humour comes across but I normally manage to make them laugh, however that’s more so- at me rather than with me.
Sue went to our big garden center yesterday, she was a bit nervous as she had A LOT of plants and soil to buy, (We have to dress out our huge garden for the guests which we seem to do every year, its not easy to maintain serious flowers in Puglia’s sweltering heat, so we find ourselves doing a lot of replacing every season) but she did really well and as always the Italians were really sweet and helpful and she was ecstatic when she managed to buy beautiful birds of paradise plants for the apartments gardens, I never imagined that they would have them in Puglia but of course –the tropical plants love it here in the heat.
Speaking of which, the weather has been truly glorious here, almost every day it’s been in the 30s, clear blue skies, so lovely, however the evenings are still really cold but we always have a roaring fire to keep us toasty.
We still have a hell of a lot to do, mainly with the land, as both apartments are done, but I really feel like we are on the edge of turning things around.
Every day we work hard, long hours but it’s not unpleasurable and we are our own bosses, there is no stress or anxiety and the peace and tranquility remains constant.
We watch life go at a different pace, with the pleasure of getting up when we like, staying up late to watch movies and not having to worry about getting up at an insane time in the morning for work.
So that sums up my last few weeks really, its busy there is a lot to do but at the moment things are not a chore, I just hope it continues that way.

PUGLIA AND PIRELLI REAL ESTATE COMPANY 2003

We have always been great fans of Italy travelling here for work and pleasure over the years, but many reasons led us to Puglia. Originally we were drawn to the Heel of the boot, because of the lure of adventure and to explore its undiscovered secrets. So it was not a shock to our family, back home, when we announced that we wanted to live there for good and that England no longer felt like home.
It’s so hard to explain to other’s why you feel so passionate about another land, maybe it is the fact that Puglia feels like the rest of Italy did 50 years ago or somewhere you can escape the stress of life nowadays or is it Puglia’s seductive wildness, clear blue sea and unspoilt coastline.
Luckily after a lot of house hunting problems with various agents, we were introduced to Maurizio Carolillo of pirelli (based in Monopoly)
We were so lucky to have met him because he actually listened and it was a help that we were sure of the area that we were interested in but hadn't yet been shown any properties with the WOW factor.
Maurizio is one of the few English speaking agents in this area, with such a genuine, caring nature and with the help of his side kick Alberto, has a real ability to hunt out completely unique properties.
So we relaxed as we knew we were in good hands. The generosity and patience of Maurizio and his company was incredible and we would have never found this amazing property without him. He's helped us in so many ways that we do not know how to even start to express our gratitude and is now one of the most important people in our lives and one of our best Friends. Still we watch with fascination as his work continues to bring him to great places and he continues to give his clients 110% and makes great bonds with all of them. What a wonderful man.
We just want to share with others the warmth, consideration and help that we were given, every step of the way and are happy to say to all lovers of Puglia, that buying a house with Maurizio and Pirelli made the whole process simple, easy and enjoyable, because lets face it, its daunting enough buying abroad let alone if you don't have a good grasp of the language which is 100% important over here, so its always important to go with a recommendation, and we are happy to say that many Friends and clients have found great homes with him.

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!