Best Immobiliare

Perhaps it is because the owner /MD of  Best Immobiliare and his foreign wife spent years in the Travel Industry before changing careers some 8 years ago that international clients have always been important and why Best Immobiliare is one of only a few Italian based, Italian owned and managed estate agencies that has become a member of AIPP, the UK- based industry body for the international property market that sets out to improve standards of professionalism in this sector.
These days, ensuring that foreign buyers get all service and assistance they need to buy the right property for them, with as little stress and tension as possible, is as important as it once was to ensure holiday-makers had the experience of a life-time here in “il Bel Paese”.  After all, a house is an even bigger investment that a holiday, and this way, enjoying a slice of La Dolce Vita will last for more than a fortnight! Best Immobiliare provides all the usual services one would expect of an estate agency, and in a thorough and professional manner, with English (and French, Dutch and German) speaking consultants available on request.

 

Based in Poggio Mirteto, a market town some 60 minutes drive NE of Rome, the area covered  by Best Immobiliare is known as the Sabina which extends through much of the province of Rieti, the first real city along the old via Salaria, the consular road built to join Rome to the salt (sale) mines in central Europe. Roman soldiers were often paid in “salt”, a precious commodity back then, which is why today some of us are lucky enough to get a “salary”!  It will come as no surprise therefore to know that the area has a long and rich history . As well as some ancient Roman sites (Horace spent time here) others are associated with Italy's patron saint, Francis of Assisi – Greccio for example is where he mounted the first ever nativity scene –  and there is a beautiful Benedictine abbey in Farfa (where Jamie Oliver filmed) not to mention areas of national parkland and Terminillo has winter ski-ing and rock climbing and trekking in the summer.

 

Scenery is not unlike that in Tuscany and Umbria, with gentle rolling hills, many of which are topped with woods in which wild boar roam, mushrooms abound and where the black truffles used in local speciality dishes attempt to hide underground until a keen canine nose seeks them out. Lower down, hundreds of olive groves produce the area's fabulous and famous olive oil – which with 0% acidity is one of the best in Italy – but in quantities that mean it is unlikely to ever find its way to your local supermarket shelf.  Its an area known for its cherries too, so along with the usual range of Mediterranean fruits and salad crops,  good food is assured! Many of the festas in the area are food related, others have a religious background and some villages still re-enact medieval scenes of flag tossing and the like.

 

Other hills feature the dozens of little-known but often beautiful and interesting medieval villages - like Casperia and Roccantica - most of which are still inhabited that are not only fascinating to explore, but where a steadily growing trickle of foreigners have chosen to either settle, or buy a holiday home.  Apart from old properties in the historic heart of these villages - flats, maisonettes and town houses- there are of course plenty of old farm/country houses in the surrounding countryside too. Whatever the property, some need total rebuilding / restoration, some have already had the work done and are ready to move into, whilst the condition of others lies somewhere in between.  Modern homes are also available – everything from a studio flat in a small block, to high-tech/spec villas .  And of course there is plenty to choose from regardless of  taste or budget – talking of which, prices in Sabina are still generally cheaper than Tuscany and Umbria.
 

Travelling to the area could not be easier as Italy's famous Autostrada del Solo runs along the western edge with three exits that feed onto the local road network. There is a direct train from Rome's  Fiumicino airport (approx 90 min. away) that passes through 3 stations in Rome itself  and serves some six stations in the Sabina Low cost airlines use Rome's Ciampino airport             , still accessible by public transport, although several changes are needed,  (approx 60 min away by car), Perugia airport  is a couple of hours away, and in 2010, the new airport at Viterbo (an easy 60 min drive away) will also be opening for use by budget airlines.

Florence, Siena, Assisi and even Naples, Capri, Pompeii etc are all possible to visit in a day, and Civitavecchia, Rome's port for ferries to Sardinia and Sicily, not to mention cruise ships with Mediterranean itineraries is only a couple of hours away too.