UMBRIA, ITALY - HEALTH

My wife and I are both English and have been living in Umbria, Central Italy for almost 30 years. During that time various friends, clients and relatives have suffered from broken, shoulders, legs and ankles, have had heart attacks and nervous breakdowns, have torn their hands, cut their fingers and had things in their eyes, have suffered from perforated ulcers and internal haemorrhaging, but apart from that, have been pretty healthy! The local Italian, or Umbrian health service is outstanding.

So, our area of the Upper Tiber Valley is served by three excellent hospitals, Perugia, Umbertide and Citta’ di Castello. No-one, as far as I know has ever received a bill for more than €30 – 40 despite the cost of their treatment, ambulance transfers and after care. Excellent Umbrian Health care.

My visits to all these hospitals has found them to be clean, well equipped and caring. No-one waiting, or dying, in the casualty or emergency reception. No-one parked to live, or die, on trollys in corridors, no-one ever turned away because they hadn’t paid their medical insurance, and no-one being turned away uncured. unhelped or uncared for.

I can't rate the local health services more highly.

We run a country house, hotel, B&B, guest house called La Preghiera, rent a villa for holidays and vacations called Moscatelli, and build and restore ancient farmhouses, country houses or real estate and, depending on where our guests, friends and clients have come from, our local health service seems to be, like our home and properties, four star.

John Tunstill, Umbria, Italy.

Novel Ideas for Selling Houses

With the ever deepening credit crunch biting more and more into our pockets, a house is the most expensive purchase we ever make. So during this difficult time, people are finding it ever more difficult to sell their properties and turning to novel methods of selling and marketing their houses.

While some of these appear ridiculous and others bound to fail, the need for perhaps a different approach is important and the need to make your sale stand out from the many other unsold properties in the Estate Agents window.

There are many quirky attempts people have come up with to entice potential buyers. At present a homeowner trying to sell her converted country farmhouse is offering interested parties the chance to stay the night, visit the local pub and investigate the house. There was the instance of a man including his £150,000 Lamborghini to anyone who bought his £1.1m mansion and a lady who gave away a free two bedroom terrace house when you purchased her parrot for £120,000.

Even on the continent unusual offers have been appearing to whet the appetite. A Spanish developer has been offering to throw in a one bedroom apartment worth £90,000 when you completed on one of his £1m villas.


Other strange sales techniques have included selling by lottery, for a £25 ticket you get the change to own a £150,000 house but you have to make sure you do not fall foul of the gaming laws here. Ebay and Craig’s list websites have also had their share of houses auctioned on them, again you have to be careful. One individual along with his house tried to his Bentley, a lordship title as part of the deal but pulled out when bids reached £3m believing people didn’t have the inclination or funds to meet their offers.

While “open houses” are a popular concept in both USA and Australia , they are still treated with circumspection by the conservative British buyer. Even celebrities have resorted to this method and in 2005 the Osbournes, Sharon and Ozzy opened their now famous Los Angeles mansion for viewing.

For the religiously inclined you could employ the assistance of Saint Joseph , who apart from his many other roles is the patron saint of Real Estate and carpentry. A company called Luckymojo offer for $2.99 a small plastic statue of St Joseph, with instructions for you to bury him in your back garden to ensure a quick and profitable sale.

Who knows maybe during the current recession this may just be the trick you need to make that move.