Newspaper articles about Le Marche

[patch2277]

Wife Swap to life swap thanks to olive oil | Money | The Guardian



Wife Swap to life swap thanks to olive oil

Miles Brignall speaks to a couple who gave up their lucrative careers in reality TV and made a new living for themselves among the remote olive groves of Italy
Miles Brignall
The Guardian, Saturday June 14 2008
Article history

Who of us, while on holiday in Europe, hasn't wondered what it would be like to switch our dreary nine-to-five grind for a new life running an olive grove in the warm Mediterranean sun?

A bit of mild pruning in the morning, a long lunch complete with a bottle of wine, followed by a swim in the late afternoon heat ... this is the day we have probably all imagined as we pack up the car to go home.

One couple who decided to try to find out whether that dream could be realised are Jason Gibb and Cathy Rogers. Five years ago the British pair both had well-paid jobs making reality television programmes in Los Angeles. Cathy was earning more than £100,000 and their careers were both on the up.

Now, after what they describe as a "huge journey", they run a successful olive grove in the area of Le Marche in eastern Italy. This year, they expect to turn over £300,000, but they say it has been more hard work than lounging around the pool.

"When we announced we were quitting our well-paid jobs, selling up and buying an olive grove in Italy, most of our friends and family thought we were completely mad. We were earning good money, but something wasn't right. We've both always been very foodie - for some reason we settled on olive oil," Jason says, speaking from the apartment they now rent in Rome.

Having extricated himself from LA, Jason spent eight months writing and rewriting business plans and researching a business that was completely new to them. Meanwhile Cathy continued working for the company that produced the US version of Wife Swap.

A family friend, Craig Sams, founder of the Green & Black's chocolate empire, advised them both to avoid olive oil because the margins were so small. Either that, he said, or come up with a "bloody good idea".

Undaunted, they sold Cathy's half share of a flat in London's Pimlico and set off for Le Marche - on the basis that it was the "new Tuscany", but without lots of English people.

After looking at more than 80 properties, they settled on a 60s farmhouse complete with 21 acres of olive trees that had been abandoned about eight years earlier. They paid €210,000 - which was then around £144,000 - and spent a further €140,000 modernising the house.

"We chose the house with our heads rather than our hearts. It wasn't a picture postcard Italian farmhouse but it was structurally sound. So many people arriving in Italy buy ruins but end up spending small fortunes, and several years, trying to renovate them. We didn't want that - even our relatively modest changes took twice as long and cost twice as much as originally quoted, so we did the right thing."

The couple started making visits to the farm to work on the olive trees which, after eight years of neglect were in a pretty poor state. Finally, in 2005, they - along with their one-year-old daughter Rosie - packed everything up and moved in.

Jason says the locals initially thought they were crazy to take on the farm. With basic Italian, they managed to complete a four-day course to learn the art of pruning an olive tree. After that, it was simply a case of slowly working their way through the trees to make them productive again.

"Central to our plan was the idea that we would give members of the public the chance to adopt an olive tree. We'd seen a farmer in Abruzzo who had had his sheep adopted and thought would use a similar scheme," says Jason.

"In his case investors were given some pecorino cheese. In ours, through our brand Nudo, they would get the olive oil from their tree. We were lucky that we got a bit of publicity early on which generated a lot of interest, but more importantly, sales."

They were lucky, too, when the wife of a Selfridges buyer adopted one of their trees (it costs £65 for a year, and you get all the produce from your tree - see nudo-italia.com) as a present. The buyer liked the product so much he decided to stock it in the store's food hall and Christmas hampers.

Within the first year they managed to break through the £100,000 sales barrier, but it wasn't all plain sailing. "People used to come to the farm and say, "Wow, you are living the dream," but it never really felt like that. In the first few years we were constantly wondering why we had given up our cushy lives to prune trees. We barely paid ourselves anything in the first year and we worked bloody hard. However, the sense of satisfaction we got when our first olive oil came back from the press was extraordinary."

Looking back at the move with the benefit of hindsight, the pair still have no regrets. "The biggest shock for us was getting used to living in the countryside. We had always lived in urban areas. Moving to Italy was less of shock than moving from the city into the middle of nowhere - I hated having to get in the car all the time just to get a pint of milk," says Jason.

After deciding the country life was too much full-time, the pair, who now have two daughters, split their time between the farm and an apartment in Rome. The other important thing they say they have learned is that it is not all that healthy for a relationship to be together all the time. Meanwhile, they claim they don't long for the days of reality TV, and say they now feel very at home in Italy.

"It has been a tremendous adventure and I would urge others who have a dream to do it. I think the stats show that around 60% of Britons who move abroad return within a few years. But even if it doesn't work out, you'll still return a richer person," says Jason.

"The future for the farm is bright. We have gone through the process of becoming organic, and have been talking to our neighbours about extending the adoption scheme beyond our boundaries. We are now offering it in America, where it is going a bomb - not least because so many Americans have Italian backgrounds. I'm not sure I see myself being an olive farmer forever, but walking around the grove, it's hard not to feel a great satisfaction about what we have created here."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

[patch2277]

Christine Toomey: my hilltop home in Le Marche - Times Online

From The Sunday TimesAugust 10, 2008

Christine Toomey: my hilltop home in Le Marche
Finding an unexploded shell in the bedroom was only the first of many surprises for Christine Toomey when she set about renovating a hilltop townhouse in central Italy
Image :1 of 2


At first, the good-humoured poliziotto showed only mild interest in the second world war shell I found perched on a shelf in one of the upstairs rooms of my newly acquired home in Le Marche. Striking a pose in his knee-high black boots, tight trousers and shiny white belt, he held it up for me to photograph before tucking it nonchalantly under one arm and taking it away for disposal. Given the many things that could go wrong when buying property in Italy, this seemed nothing more than a minor hiccup.

Within the hour, he was back, looking flustered and cradling the shell, a great deal more cautiously this time, in both hands. “Scusi signora, but we can’t allow this to be taken out of your house,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.” Then he hotfooted it back upstairs and placed the shell gingerly - prone this time, and in a box - back on the shelf. I discovered afterwards that he had been told he should not have touched it in the first place.

A few minutes later, the wail of a police siren could be heard approaching at speed, then two more policemen in even more dashing uniforms – one with the epaulettes and braided cap of an ispettore capo, or chief inspector – hurried up the narrow lane to my house. “This matter requires the attention of experts, signora,” said he of the braided cap as he ushered me politely out of my house. Minutes later, it was sealed with crime-scene tapes wound around the door handles. There was talk of evacuating residents close by. In the end, a carabiniere was posted to keep a nightly vigil outside my house until the experts arrived.

It was to be a long wait – during which I had plenty of time to ponder whether it had been such a good idea to mention the shell to my neighbour, who had helpfully offered to call the local police station for advice.

I had not initially planned to buy a house in town at all. Like many Britons who buy in Italy, my dream had been of a renovation project in the country. For years, when taking my daughter to visit her Italian grandparents in a busy town in Umbria, I had trekked along dirt tracks to look at what were little more than piles of stones in the countryside. Then, after a visit in which I had to negotiate the car back along miles of precarious mud path, the patient friend who was accompanying me suggested that I might want to restore a townhouse instead.

Since I would be overseeing the works from London, during snatched weekends and holidays taken in between reporting from far-flung places for this newspaper, I realised she was right. It was the gentler pace of Italian life I wanted to savour when I could. And what better way to do this than in the heart of a small community?

Slowly, I started to venture further afield. It was then I discovered Le Marche, one of the most beautiful regions of central Italy, and in particular the string of medieval hill towns that circle the stunning Monti Sibillini National Park, perched on the spine of the Apennines. This was an area of fierce fighting and partisan strongholds during the second world war – hence the old ordnance I found in the house, which I bought in the summer of 2004.

I returned to London and, over the weeks that followed, received regular telephone updates from the chief inspector. It was nearly a month before an army bomb-disposal squad arrived from Rome to resolve the problem. On the day of their operation, an ambulance was placed on standby in the main square, together with officers from the three branches of the Italian police forces.

The army team confirmed that the shell was still live. They identified it as an old German “rocket” with a firing range of more than half a mile and a double-trigger mechanism – making it doubly unstable, I was told later, as it deteriorated with age. It contained half a kilo of TNT. Placing it in a metal case lined with sand, they drove it to an isolated field, buried it and detonated it by remote control. The explosion left a crater more than 20ft wide.

Just whose idea it was to keep a shell as a household memento remains a mystery. I asked to see the police and army reports. Copies of their faxes marked “urgentissimo”, together with a local newspaper article about una signora inglese and the “quick-thinking police” who had averted disaster, revealed few clues.

The last permanent occupant of the property, I was told, was a priest who had lived there at the turn of the last century. During the course of the restoration, I was to find both touching and intriguing time capsules from this period: crates full of letters written to him by his father, sister and a brother, who had emigrated to America; journals handwritten in immaculate script; books from a different age, including one promoting priestly celibacy, called The Limits of Sexual Morals; and wooden cabinets full of religious statues and ecclesiastical paraphernalia.

The house was full of other surprises, too. When I bought it, for about £80,000 at the then more favourable euro exchange rate, it required a complete overhaul. Spacious – about 250 square metres, set over three floors – it had no electricity or plumbing to speak of, needed a new roof and just about everything else. In the course of knocking through walls and opening up rooms to let in light, however, I found old beams, arches and stonework, some of it dating from the Middle Ages, hidden by false panelling. Underneath the plasterwork of one of the domed bedroom ceilings were fine coloured stencils.

There were less welcome surprises, including the disappearance of the former ballet dancer turned architect on whose advice I relied in the early days – he left me grappling with contractors who doubled their prices overnight. Then there was the weather. The fact that one of the neighbouring towns is a ski resort should have alerted me to the heavy snowfalls in winter, but I had viewed in spring and bought in summer.

Over the years, I have come to love the dramatic change in seasons in the Monti Sibillini. Throughout most of the year, I enjoy the rare privilege (for a townhouse) of a large sunny garden with a towering palm, mature walnut, laurel and fruit trees, and church bells echoing across the rooftops. On summer mornings, I can swim in the Adriatic, a 45-minute drive away, before exploring the area, with its year-round calendar of festivals: wine, truffles, theatre, music. At Christmas and New Year, I have an open fire, while snow blankets the mountains, of which my house has spectacular views.

Most of all, though, it is the warmth of the local people – more low-key than their flamboyant neighbours in Umbria and Tuscany – that sold me on Le Marche. One lesson I learnt from my experience with “the bomb”, however, is to be more circumspect when asking them for help. Especially when it comes to mentioning other discoveries made in the house during its restoration.

In addition to my other finds, I came across, tucked away in the attic, two large, rolled-up oval oil paintings, so dirty they were almost black. I brought them back to London to be cleaned and delicate portrayals of saints, angels and the Virgin Mary emerged from the grime. I am told they date from the late 17th to early 18th century, and am intrigued. What if they turn out to have been stolen? I might find crime-scene tape wound around the handles of my house again.

LA DOLCE VILLA

Life could be beautiful in these three homes in Le Marche

Macerata £3.1m In the heart of Le Marche, nine-bedroom Villa Leoni stands in an 8,000-square-metre park surrounded by ancient walls. The property includes a guesthouse and caretaker’s cottage, a private church and a pool.

It is a 30-minute drive from the town. Casaitalia International; 00 39 0743 220122 , Luxury Italian Properties ::: CASAITALIA :::

Corridonia £658,000 Casa Colonica is a five-bedroom villa with vaulted ceilings that dates back to the 17th century. It has 11 acres of land, with a plantation of 60 olive trees and 200 vines, and offers a wide panorama of the Macerata countryside. Visual Property; 01277 261140 , Visual Property | Home

Comunanza £277,000 A recently renovated townhouse on the edge of the Sibillini mountains and the national park, with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a garden. Formerly a bakery, its outbuildings have been converted for office use. Jackson-Stops & Staff; 020 7828 7387 , Jackson-Stops & Staff

[annec]

Blimey - posh UK agent Jackson Stops taking the property plunge in lil' old Comunanza

[jepsonclough]

According to Comunanza, Le Marche - Italian Property For Sale it's sold so suspect JSS are not really selling their extensive list of Marche Properties but are just listing them in some commission share deal.

[patch2277]

By WNYC Music

September 23, 2008

Guest Blog by WNYC’s Aaron Cohen
Le Marche is one of Italy’s best-kept secrets. I had the great pleasure of spending a week there in early August with author & journalist Fred Plotkin. Fred’s three great areas of expertise are Italy, food, and opera, and many people know him through his books, articles and media appearances in these fields. Among his books are “Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera” and “Italy for the Gourmet Traveler.” As you can imagine, I could not ask for a better travel companion. Through Fred I learned that this region (the Italian equivalent of a US state) called Le Marche, with Tuscany to the west and a long Adriatic coastline to the east, has more historic opera houses (76) than any other region of Italy. We set out to explore some of them.
Our visit began in the charming hill town of Macerata. I knew of Italy’s reputation as a global food capital, but nothing could prepare me for the food in Macerata. I had heavenly gnocchi at Osteria dei Pigliapochi, the most voluptuous watermelon I’ve ever eaten at da Silvano, and a local lasagne called Vincisgrassi at Trattoria da Ezio that I will remember for the rest of my life. Aside from the food, the most famous summer attraction in Macerata is the Sferisterio Opera Festival. We saw two classic operas here, Tosca and Carmen. The performances take place in the open-air Arena Sferisterio, which was originally built as a place for sporting events nearly 200 years ago but became home to the festival in 1921. The three things the struck me were the half-moon shape of the arena, the enormous width of the stage (almost 200 feet), and the beauty of the 56 columns that make up the back wall:

Arena Sferisterio by day

and by night
From Macerata we traveled to Pesaro, a beach town on the Adriatic and birthplace of the composer Gioacchini Rossini, a figure who dominates the entire place. There is Rossini street, Rossini theater, the Rossini Museum in the house where he was born, and every summer you can attend the Rossini Festival. Fred said that what Bayreuth is to Wagner, Pesaro is to Rossini, plus it has much better food and nice beaches. The Festival presents performances in two main venues: the Teatro Rossini and the Adriatic Arena (a sports complex). Surprisingly, the sound was quite good in the Adriatic Arena. Seeing Rossini here would be the equivalent of seeing a Monteverdi opera at Madison Square Garden.


And from the inside

The Festival takes great delight in presenting many of Rossini’s lesser-known works. Most people are surprised to learn that Rossini wrote about 40 operas. We heard three, none of which I knew: Ermione, L’Equivoco Stravagante, and Maometto II. Ermione (Hermione), written in 1819, is a tragedy in two acts based on the Greek story of the daughter of Helen (before she became Helen of Troy) and Menelaus. L’Equivoco Stravagante (The Outlandish Misunderstanding), written when Rossini was just 18, is a comedy in the same style that would later make him famous with The Barber of Seville. Maometto II (Mahomet the Second), written in 1820, is another tragedy set in Greece, this time about the conquering of Negroponte by the Sultan Mahomet and his Turkish army in the fifteenth century.
The standout performer at the Rossini Festival was mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona. She sang the role of “Calbo” in Maometto II and brought the house down with her aria “Non temer d’un basso affetto.” Here she is with a bust of Rossini in the Festival offices:

Fred asked Daniela why Rossini loved mezzos so much and why he used them to play male roles in several of his operas:



And here is Daniela Barcellona joined by Marina Rebeka and Francesco Meli singing the Trio from Act 2 of Maometto II live at the Rossini Festival in August 2008:


After Le Marche, I was off to the Veneto, Liguria, and Tuscany. The details of those places will have to wait for my next entry, but I leave you with three of my favorite memories from Le Marche:
Gnocchi



In addition to serving as WNYC’s Associate Director of Programming Operations, Aaron Cohen is an accomplished oboist. His most recent solo CD, “Oboisms,” features works for oboe and piano by 20th Century North American composers.

| Posted in Guest Blogs

[patch2277]

EU Investment in Le Marche

Commissioner Hübner visits Marche (Italy): From historic sites to research centres, Cohesion Policy invests in success - 7thSpace Interactive

Commissioner Hübner visits Marche (Italy): From historic sites to research centres, Cohesion Policy invests in success


Danuta Hübner, the European Commissioner for regional policy, visits the Marche region in eastern Italy today to see the results of Cohesion Policy investment on the ground. EU co-funding for projects is a catalyst for innovation, competitiveness and jobs. During her visit, Commissioner Hübner will hold talks with Gian Mario Spacca, President of the Region, members of regional authorities and economic and social partners, reiterating the need to channel new EU investments for 2007-2013 towards research and development.
Speaking ahead of her visit, Commissioner Hübner said: “Europe's Cohesion Policy provides a rock of stability for Member States and regions at a time of global financial crisis. The EU has invested strongly throughout the Marche region - modernising harbours, renovating historic buildings and helping to build state-of-the-art research centres, to name but a few areas. Cohesion Policy has a clear impact on the economy and benefits citizens in their day-to-day life. We want to build on what we've achieved so far, with investments that focus on areas that will deliver more growth and jobs: in innovation, the knowledge economy, information society, renewable energies and energy efficiency."

The new programme for 2007-2013

The overall objective of the Marche programme is to boost the competitiveness of the regional economy. In total, the region will benefit from €426.5 million in support from the European Union: this includes €113 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), €111.5 million from the European Social Fund (ESF) and €202 million from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The region's priorities are focused on research, innovation, sustainable development and the efficient use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in local businesses. As well as targeting the creation of 1500 new jobs (with a 20% increase in research and development jobs), Marche is aiming to decrease both greenhouse gas emissions (by 5% before 2013) and local air pollution levels (MEMO/08/338).

Commissioner to receive honorary degree for commitment to integration

Commissioner Hübner will start her visit in the town of Camerino in the province of Macerata. This important centre for culture and art was one of the areas most severely affected by the earthquakes which struck Italy in 1997. The Commissioner will see the renovation work carried out in the churches of St Filippo and St Domenico, with support from the ERDF. In the Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the University of Camerino, she will be granted the title of Laurea Honoris Causa in political sciences for commitment to European integration by the Rector, Fulvio Esposito.

In the city of Ancona, she will meet the President of the Region, Gian Mario Spacca, and will visit the harbour area. This has been refitted, providing a boost for the local fishing fleet, which remains an important activity in the local economy. The port is also a major departure point for trans-Adriatic ferries and a dedicated area for boat repairs has also been developed. (EU contribution: €2.07 million)

Support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a priority for the region. Commissioner Hübner will visit “Meccano”, a research centre in the town of Jesi, which helps to promote the development of regional firms specialised in electro-mechanics. Its laboratory is housed in a new purpose-built site, co-financed by the European Union (EU contribution of €3.02 million). In the same town, she will also see the 'multimodal platform' - crucial for the development of the regional transport system and the economic development of the region as a whole. Together with the Ancona harbour and the airport at Falconara, it forms a logistic hub for traffic between the region and the centre of Italy on one hand, and the Balkans and Adriatic sea on the other (EU contribution: €850.500)

Note for editors

In 2000-2006, the Marche region received €130.7 million in support from the ERDF. During this period, an estimated 1400 new jobs were created.

Italy is the third largest beneficiary of the EU’s Cohesion Policy behind Poland and Spain. Over the 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy programme, the country will receive a total of €28.8 billion of support.

More information on regional policy in Italy:

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas2007/italia/