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Holiday villa with private pool at Tuscan Paradise. An historic private 4 bedroom (all en-suite)18C farmhouse with private pool in Tuscany overlooking an amazing lake sleeping 8. Additional studio for a further 5 not let independently to ensure complete privacy.

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The day of our final deed was fast approaching and due to work commitments we had spent the first 2 weeks of July in England. Robert had a very important concert to conduct celebrating the 60th anniversary of VE day which sold out to an audience of over 5,000. This meant we were a little out of touch with the Italians. At the risk of becoming the most complaining people who ever purchased a property in Italy, we were not prepared to commit ourselves to a massive restoration project without the signed contract from our builders. Like many Englishmen are and more should perhaps be, we were cautious and maybe a little untrusting.

On our first day back, a trip to the bank to collect the cash and bankers drafts took a lot longer then we had anticipated. As we had been in the UK we had not pre-booked the monies which meant that many of the drafts were of smaller denominations than was really necessary. Clutching much of our savings we left for the Notary’s office. In an atmosphere reminiscent of a Will reading we purchased the uninhabited buildings. The whole procedure was relatively fast, only lengthened by the counting in triplicate of the dozens of bankers drafts we had given to the vendors and the writing of cheques for the taxes and legal costs.

We left the Notary to visit our ‘site’ where our friendly builders were standing by to begin work. How’s that for project management! The place was ours…….. we were committed to bringing the buildings back to life, as far as our wallet would allow, and still without all the estimates, we weren’t sure if we would be able to complete the restorations.

The annual Pallio in Anghiari had given us some light relief during the major stress of the house purchase. With flag throwing, a gruelling race up a very long steep hill and medieval costumes galore, the whole town and more turned out for the event. Our bank manager, also a trumpet player in his spare time, was happy to pose for our camera while our plumber looked splendid on his white horse. A couple of days later, the narrow streets of Anghiari were the scene of an hour long, fast and dangerous mountain bike race, full of excitement..

We had a visit from the local water diviner. Using a metal widget on the end of a piece of string, in only ten minutes the nice old gentleman was able to identify the location where two underground springs meet, which will give us all the water we require for the 4 buildings and swimming pool. He also told us that we only need to drill down 55 metres. With a quick hand shake and clutching a 50 euro note, he was gone. Let’s hope he is correct because every bore hole we dig to this depth will cost us in the region of 3000 euros.

Since work started just 2 weeks ago, progress has been impressive. My two storey pottery studio will be ready in just another few days. We have ordered the new Kiln from Germany and expect to be up and running by mid-September. Our builder seems so keen to make for us ‘the best job ever’. Six days a week the seven builders start work at 7am and go on solidly until at least 6pm, with only a short break for lunch. No tea breaks every couple of hours here. At this moment in time we feel very confident that we have made the right choice of builder and hope he will be able to sustain his enthusiasm for the next 12 months. So far, it looks as if our Tuscan paradise is bang on track.