Living La Dolce Vita

Outside, the market is buzzing. The smell of rotisserie chicken wafts towards a group of old men shooting the breeze, their sun-baked faces squinting under faded caps. Youngsters lean against the wall eating paper-thin slices of pizza topped with black truffle, mushroom or potato. Costume jewellery glints in the sunshine and trellis tables dip under the weight of pyramids of bright fruit and vegetables. Bent over the produce is an old lady in a green wool coat and matching hat. After a furtive glance in both directions she cracks open a pod of peas and pops them in her mouth.

A couple meander across the square holding hands and beaming from ear to ear. She cuts a dash in bright pink. It's only when they speak that they are set apart from their surroundings: their Scottish accents are startling among the sea of undulating Italian vowels. Helen and Peter Pirrie, from Glasgow, are here to finalise the purchase of their new home in a nearby village. They have holidayed in Italy before and love the way of life, but this is new territory. "Abruzzo is really undiscovered and it just appealed for that reason," says Helen, who is 57 and works for a bank. A visit last October on the recommendation of one of her colleagues proved inspirational. "We just loved the countryside, the people, the mountains, which are fabulous, and the fact it's not touristy. We haven't met any other British people here, which is just up our street."

The couple have also been seduced by the quality of the food and relatively cheap prices. "If you do a lot of cooking, this is the place - the local produce is just wonderful," says Peter, 62, a semi-retired sound engineer who admits, with a chuckle, to doing more eating than cooking. Last year's holiday caused them to change their long-held plans to retire to France and move instead to Abruzzo, 70 miles east of Rome. Two-thirds of the region is mountainous: the Apennine range runs through it and L'Aquila itself is gateway to the 22 ski resorts in the area, the most developed of which is Campo Felice. To the east, 80 miles of sandy coastline fringe the Adriatic Sea. In between is a handful of national parks. Despite such natural riches, the region is still untouched by mass tourism.

"Public transport is fabulous - you can get a bus to all of the small villages," says Helen. "Everything is easily accessible and, despite our lack of Italian, we have managed to make ourselves understood. The reaction from local people has been positive, especially when they realise you are Scottish."

The Pirries have been guided in their search for a home by a UK-registered sustainable tourism company called Tricali. Set up in 2005, the company specialises in renovating and selling traditional properties that have fallen into disrepair, acting as a buffer between Italian sellers and overseas buyers. Once a house is legally signed over, it is renovated and furnished with rustic-style furniture, the cost of which is incorporated into the sale price.

The initial project was in Calitri in Campania but for the last 18 months the company has been selling properties in the Borghi Nascosti villages - half a dozen medieval settlements in Abruzzo which include Fossa - and the town of Irsina in the region of Basilicata. To make itself accessible to British buyers, Tricali operates through agents including Each Property Med, the sole agent in Scotland. Katrina Tasker, of Each Property Med, explains: "The aim of our sustainable tourism projects is to offer a practical, grassroots solution to developing the local economies in the villages we work with. These areas are as beautiful as Tuscany, yet suffer from slowing economic growth.

"We are committed to exclusively using local workforce in the village projects, and each project is fully backed and supported by the local city councils."

The Pirries' new home is an apartment within a former townhouse in the hillside village of Fossa, eight miles from L'Aquila. "The house has not been renovated at all. It's a shot in the dark for us, but we trust our agent," says Peter. The property will be rewired, replumbed, have a basic kitchen and shower room installed, and should be habitable in eight months. "We could not have done it without our agent," says Helen. "She led us through the legal stuff; it was an absolute minefield. She provided all the translation services for us. We don't have any quibbles at all about it, it's been a fabulous experience. Initially we'll come here for holidays, but we do plan to retire here lock, stock and barrel - dogs, budgies, the lot."

Nick Batty, a father of four from Leeds, is a year further down the road. A frequent business traveller to Italy, he was keen to buy a holiday home for his family and initially tried to go it alone. "To be honest, all the houses had the same problem - they all needed vast amounts of work to be done," says Nick, 39, a group finance director for a leatherworks company who has several investment properties abroad. "Dealing with builders in the UK can be hard enough and I don't speak Italian, and the thought of trying to organise full renovations from the UK was almost a non-starter."

After being guided through the legalities, he signed for his two-bedroomed property, also in Fossa, last May. The house was handed over in November. "I'm generally quite cautious," says Nick, "but I got a good feel for the whole set up. It went through very smoothly."

The family will enjoy their first holiday there next month.

Fossa is characterised by honey-coloured houses clustered round a belltower. With a population of only 700, it's a laidback place dubbed the Stonehenge of Italy thanks to the stone structures put in place by the ancient Vestini tribe between 1000-800BC. Around the central square is a bar, a small shop and an area where children play football. An assorted tribe of friendly dogs has organised itself into an informal welcoming committee. Nearby, two elderly gentlemen sit silently on a bench enjoying the peace, which is broken only by chiming bells. The occasional car emerges from a twisting, cobbled street which seems only fractionally wider than the vehicles.

Further up one lane is Casa della Fortuna, a three-roomed terraced house which has been bought by The Herald to be given away as part of an exclusive reader competition (see page 23). Sitting up a couple of steps, it looks onto the narrow street from the front and the mountains from its rear window. Although still to be renovated, the original stone floors will be retained and the wooden ceiling in the bedroom restored. One room leads into the next with the kitchen closest to the street. The central room has a traditional stone scalloped ceiling and the far room is the brightest, on account of a pretty picture window.

Like many of the surrounding villages which traditionally had economies based on agriculture, Fossa has suffered a dramatic depopulation over the last century. During the post-war period many left to seek their fortune overseas. This was compounded in the 1970s by a period of internal migration from rural to urban centres. While the decline has slowed in recent years, a negative birth rate means many villages have only a fraction of the population they had in the 1920s.

One of the more recent emigrants is Vincenzo Pasta, who was born and brought up in Fossa. A 32-year-old languages graduate, he moved to Greenock, Inverclyde five years ago to work for IBM and decided to stay in Glasgow. "I'm more than happy to have grown up here - it's not a stressful place, it's peaceful. Moving from a small village to a big city was a major change," says Vincenzo. "In terms of people and attitude it wasn't such a culture shock because overall there are similarities between the people. I found the sense of humour in Glasgow was quite similar to home."

He is back staying at the family home for a few days, which he can do six times a year because of cheap flights to Rome. "Most of my school friends still live here, although they work in the main town. There are a few factories within 15 minutes of the village and a couple of them work there. Saying that, it is quite hard to get a job. The way it works in Italy is that if you know people and you've got a connection it's easier. Some people like me will always want to travel." Leaving the area has given him a more objective viewpoint, says Vincenzo. "Since I've left there have been a lot of changes, redevelopment."

Many of these changes have been implemented by Luigi Calvisi, the mayor for the last seven years and a doctor in the accident and emergency ward of the local hospital. Describing himself as a restoration "maniac", he explains he introduced planning restrictions to ensure new buildings were sympathetic to their surroundings.

Vincenzo's mother, Maria Pasta, 58, has lived in Fossa all her married life. As she serves marble sponge and espressos in her kitchen, she's keen to find out about her new neighbours, the Pirries. "It's good to see a lot of people in a small village because so many have gone away from here. People coming in is always positive," she says, pouring small glasses of Lemoncello liqueur. "There are already people from eastern Europe living here who are very well integrated and we had a lot of people coming from Macedonia and Croatia after the Second World War. The bakery is run by Croatians. There are a lot of people from Romania as well, and the florist's down the valley, it's beautiful and it's run by people from Macedonia."

Post-war emigration means there have always been family members visiting from far-flung destinations. The Pastas have relatives in Australia and Miami. Vincenzo believes an increase in visitors without family connections will create the momentum to improve local services. "The transport links are the one thing they need to improve," he says. "After 8pm you can't get a bus into town. As more people come from abroad, they will want that and the demand will change it. People here don't complain, so things don't change."

Fossa is one of the villages where overseas buyers are linked with locals who own homes that are no longer inhabited. Local tradesmen are employed in an effort to regenerate the economy. In Fossa, projects are overseen by Giovanni di Tommaso, a 32-year-old building engineer who has worked for Tricali for two years. He is keen to point out that because the company aims to keep house prices low, the profit margins aren't huge.

"If one wants to make money, there are other ways to do it," he says. "The key to the project is restructuring the property faithfully. In the 1980s there was a big trend in Italy for restructuring. Beautiful wooden windows were exchanged with windows made from copper and aluminium. Overseas buyers want the rustic charm, they want it to look as simple and authentic as possible, whereas Italian buyers are looking for something more extravagant and prefer modern properties."

In order to contain costs, Giovanni and his team try where possible to restore, rather than replace. They also bulk buy floor tiles, wall tiles and shuttered window frames. With prices starting at 30,000 (£24,000), these properties are an attractive investment for UK buyers. But how do Italian residents feel about foreigners moving into their communities?

"Speaking honestly, it depends," says Giovanni. "They don't easily allow foreigners from overseas, from another part of Italy, from another town, to enter into their community. But because fundamentally they're good souls and respectful of everything that surrounds them, once they realise the commitment a project like this needs and the benefits it can have for the area, they will dedicate themselves to you. The key is being able to get them to understand and once you are in, you can get anything. It is a characteristic of populations that live in mountainous areas." His words echo those of comedian Billy Connolly, who observed that Highlanders were hard to make friends with, but once you'd won their trust you'd need to have them surgically removed.

Using a network of locals like Giovanni is central to the thinking, shared by local politicians and Each Property Med, that regeneration should come from within the community, not be imposed on it. Sustainability is also key: Each Property Med closely monitors the number of homes being sold to foreigners in any one area to avoid any negative reaction from locals. The policy of restoring rather than building houses not only smartens up the appearance of the villages but also means the projects have minimal environmental impact.

This philosophy is shared by Marino Roselli, president of the Regional Council of Abruzzo. An architect by profession, he is keen to undo some of the damaging building decisions of the past. "We have a law which helps recover old historic centres and funds have been used to restructure the external parts of buildings," he says. "Old cobbled streets are being recreated and elements of buildings, added in the 1970s and 1980s when there wasn't the culture of keeping the original, are being removed."

A native of the region, Marino says Abruzzo has always attracted summer tourists from Rome but rarely beyond. "We are out of the main Italian circuit - the western coast is much more accessible. Abruzzo is the first region after the north but has never really been considered as a location for mass investment. This really helps us today because the logic of tourism has completely been overturned. In the 1970s, the coast was very attractive, now we seem to be attracting people from northern Europe and England, and tourism has moved into the hills and the mountains."

Marino believes eco-tourism is vital, since it's the unspoilt landscape that makes the area attractive. Equally important, though, is that the region becomes more accessible. "Abruzzo doesn't have a large industrial sector," he explains. "The territory is very particular, between the sea and mountains, and therefore difficult for industry. A lot of the economy is based on agriculture and tourism, and on artisan industry. The area has a lot of niche products and there are typical Abruzzan recipes which are quite good." He laughs and adds, "In fact you can tell people from Abruzzo because they're always a bit round."

One business which exemplifies this small-scale artisan production is Ugo de Paulis in L'Aquila. The de Paulis family has been producing high-quality salami and prosciutto since 1924. Mimino de Paulis, son of the founder, works here with his brother Marino and his son Mauro. Aged 82 and still working a 15-hour day, Mimino says he will retire next year. "He's been saying that for the last 10 years," says Mauro. While EU stipulations have changed some aspects, the family's methods of preserving meat are essentially unchanged from those of traditional farmers. Such is the quality of their produce, the chef Aldo Zilli buys it for his Covent Garden restaurant and the shop is included in several fine food guides. "These are the small satisfactions that make you happy," says Mauro. "Recognition of the quality is better than selling lots."

While family enterprises remain a common business model here a few young entrepreneurs are reinvigorating traditional industries. In the mountains, sheep farming has all but disappeared but a burgeoning winter sports industry is now creating jobs.

Down in the villages, Riccardo Ulizio is one of a group of thirtysomethings who turned dinner party chat about a saffron-growing business into a reality. "That night, six of us decided to try it out commercially and we are here today, four years after," he explains.

Abruzzo is Italy's principal source of saffron, a rare seasoning which has to be hand-picked and used in cooking, cakes, honey and pasta. The business partners, who have main jobs elsewhere, sell quality saffron-based products, alongside exclusive wines, from their small shop Perle d'Abruzzo in the village of San Demetrio. They send their products around the globe through their website. Like other local businesses, they have the utmost confidence in their wares - the challenge is getting people over the threshold in the first place. "Tourism is fundamental to our business because everybody who comes here takes a little something home, so it's important for us that everybody comes to try something."

While local businesses will continue to pour passion into their products, pioneers like the Pirries are needed to sustain the long-term growth of this fledgling tourist economy. The Pirries, who will have their new home by the end of the year, are more than happy to dedicate their retirement to sampling the best of the region's food and drink.

• Visit www.eachproperty med.co.uk or call 0800 988 0185/01799 524493.

Abruzzo: the facts

• GETTING THERE
  Fly from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Prestwick to Rome with airlines including British Airways, KLM, Flyglobespan and Ryanair. Flight times range from two hours 45 minutes with Ryanair direct from Prestwick to Rome Ciampino to eight hours 30 minutes from Aberdeen to Rome Fiumicino with KLM via Paris or Amsterdam. Visit www.britishairways.com, www.klm.com, www.flyglobespan.com or www.ryanair.com.

Both airports have car hire facilities - the drive to the Abruzzo region takes about 90 minutes. Alternatively, take the metro line B to the bus station (Autostazione Tibus) in the north-east of the city, from where frequent buses go to L'Aquila.

• WHERE TO STAY
  For a rural retreat, the Hotel Stiffe is a three-star hotel in Stiffe, a small village with four restaurants which is well known for its beautiful underground caves. Double rooms start at £56 per night. Visit www.stiffehotel.it or call 00 39 0862 86218. Alternatively, stay in L'Aquila at the three-star Hotel Duomo, just off the town's main square. Double rooms start at £72 per night. Visit www.hotel-duomo.it or call 00 39 0862 410 893.

• OTHER INFORMATION
  L'Aquila is the gateway to 22 ski resorts in the area. The Abruzzo mountains offer downhill, cross-country and alpine skiing from November to April. The most developed resort is Campo Felice, in the highest region of the Apennines. It has 20 ski runs, ski schools and several restaurants and hotels.

For beach life, the Adriatic coast is approximately an hour's drive from L'Aquila. The resort of Roseto degli Abruzzi has a wide uncluttered beach fringed by small hotels, apartments and eateries. Visit www.regione.abruzzo.it.