Subject: Re: Invitation from Umbria, Italy
Hi John,Thanks for the kind invitation. I do believe a story about yourproperty would make an interesting article. It turn out that Umbriais my favorite region of Italy and I looked long and hard for aproperty myself (I wish I had known of your site a couple of yearsago!) but eventually I bought a place in in the Lunigiana.We seem to have somewhat parallel lives going here. The first house Iever rented in Europe was Calboccia, near you around Umbertide. Ialso know Bill Hocker, of model soldier fame; I worked with Bill onan archaeolgical project on Sardinia, where he was enlisted to doarchitectural drawings of the Nuraghe, while I handled thearchaeology and the cooking.I also have a website offering properties in the Lunigiana--as a helpto the agency from which I bought my house. I also attended theUniversity for Foreigners in Perugia to work on my Italian.I really enjoyed your stories on Tunstill's Umbria. Not so differentthan life in the Lunigiana or in the interior of Sardinia for thatmatter.I've added a link to La Preghiera to my Umbria Lodging links.http://goeurope.about.com/od/umbrialodging/index.htmThat category doesn't get a lot of page views--but I'll writesomething on the joys of Umbria soon and maybe we can get somethinggoing on that.I'll be in Italy in late spring/early summer. Perhaps we can arrangea visit then.
Thanks,
James Martin
Europe for Visitorshttp://goeurope.about.com/

Dear Mr. Martin,
We recently saw your website on about.com and are very interestedin offering our expertise for any questions that may arise regardingtravel and lodging in Italy, Umbria in particular, as well as buyingproperty in Italy or legal issues related to buying a home abroad.We have recently restored a small, twelfth century monastery, located between Cittá di Castello and Umbertide, and will be using itin the future as a venue for luxurious and up-market holidays. Thehistorical background to the building, and its restoration andtransformation, might just make an interesting article for yourreaders. Our website www.lapreghiera.com contains more informationwhich hopefully will appeal to you, and them.We have lived in Umbria for the last twenty years, and in that timehave bought, sold or restored some two hundred and fifty propertiesin our area. We are currently working on about eight sites which arebeing restored for non-Italian clients and our websitewww.propertiesumbria.com gives a good picture of our activities,which also might find favour, but perhaps with a different clienteleas might the site dedicated to our life and times in Umbria,'Tunstill's Umbria' www.tunstillsumbria.com. We do hope that you will be able to spend a few days as our guestsampling Umbrian hospitality and proving the local proverb that says,'a stranger is a friend as yet unmet'.We therefore look forward soon to have the pleasure of yourcompany, along with a partner or friend, here at La Preghiera.Sincerely,John and Liliana Tunstill