Falling in love with a holiday home in Italy

It had always been something we had talked about but as we approached our joint significant half centuries we decided to take the plunge in 2014.
We considered buying in the UK but a pre- requisite of ours was hot sunny weather for weeks on end. Whilst you can have glorious summers in the UK they are few and far between so abroad it was – but where to choose?
We have friends who had second homes in France and Spain and we have had great family holidays in both those countries, as well as in Turkey, USA and Greece.
When we thought about it, our holidays in Italy were always the most enjoyable and memorable. We love the food, the wine, the weather and the language but – most of all – the people. So Italy it was.
We had never been to Abruzzo on holiday but after a visit to A Place in the Sun roadshow, we booked a few days visiting this region for some serious house-hunting.
Casa Foelas was actually featured on A Place in the Sun back in June 2015. The filming had taken place a few weeks after we viewed the house in October 2014.
We fell in love with the house, made an offer and actually got the keys in December 2014. We moved in during February 2015 with a great deal of help from our lovely new friends and neighbours.
Over the last two years we have continued to upgrade the house with a new kitchen, wet room, all newly painted walls and had the garden landscaped with the help of Seppe our lovely gardener who you will probably meet if you come and stay.
We love our Italian home and bought the house with a view to always installing a pool – we applied for permission in the summer of 2015 and it is with great excitement that over the next few months our pool is going to become a reality.
Hopefully the next few blogs will follow the installation of the pool and more information about staying at Casa Foelas.
Jane