Familiarity

Boxing day, 2007

When I was a kid I had little appreciation of how fortunate I was to have stayed at the flat in Venti; that was until a dispute in the mid/late '70's saw the family pretty much split in two.

You see, 'Calandre' was no ordinary appartment in a block built off flat ground. It was one of a few hanging off the side of a cliff with a roof top car park, a private beach accessed via either a scary lift or an even scarier and at times treacherous path. What made Calandre really special though were the views across the bay and along the coast past Capo Mortola and into France and Cap Martin; Cap Ferrat as far as Cap d'Antibes.

The intervening years saw me drawn back, like iron filings to a magnet, to the area even though it became increasingly difficult to use the flat.

It is difficult to say when I first developed an interest in having a property in the area myself. I suppose that if our access to the flat hadn't been so difficult the thought would never arisen but as I grew older and my business career developed, more and more I became fascinated, perhaps even a little obsessed with the idea of owning a little bit of Italy.

I first really seriously toyed with the idea in the autumn of 2004 when, following a trip to Genoa on business, I travelled with my wife, Michelle, to the region of Piemonte adjacent to Liguria where we visited a few 'rustici' and land plots. The weather wasn't great: but even if it had been I think I had already made up my mind that if it were to happen anywhere it would be in the area I had known since a boy.

The real catalyst to realising my dream came after I walked out on Beazley in October, 2005. Faced with 6 months 'gardening leave' I found myself spending a lot of time at home. In between the interviews, telephone calls and e-mail associated with the necessity of finding another job I spent a lot of time surfing the net.

It was during one late night surf that I happened across an Estate Agency called Agenzia Liguria.

A couple of e-mails whetted my appetite and as soon as I had secured another job at the beginning of Feb 2006 I arranged to visit the area and meet my contact, Paolo Rossini, as well as a couple of other agencies.

Two days at the end of Feb saw me driving a hundred miles or so, village to village, property to property, rustico to rustico, plot to plot.

At the end of the trip I ended up where I had started, literally, 2 days or 38 years before - in Perinaldo.