Living in Liguria

La Dolcevita Image
10/18/2011 - 14:46

I'm curious to know of the 24 members of the Liguria group:-whose still in Liguria?where do you live?Is it a permanent/holiday home?Are you soon to be moving to LiguriaWe're moving in August (give or take a few weeks!!) to Dolceacqua - it will be our main homeThanks all

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Thanks Alan - good idea didn't realise that..............I do know several people that live there already - just curious to know if anyone from this board lives there - always useful to know - thanks again for the suggestion

You will not be alone, quite a few people have settled in the area and it is becoming increasingly fashionable. In our case, when we were "house hunting" about 5 years ago, we had a look around and inspected a few houses, including one near Dolceacqua, and the region is lovely. Unfortunately, we did not find anything suitable at the time, so we went a bit further south and discovered what we wanted in Bagni di Lucca. But I know that you will find expats in the region. My personal advice would be, don't think that because they speak your own language these people will be suitable friends or acquaintances. Befriend the locals, they will be an important part of your life if you permanently live in the area. Good luck and best wishes!

I agree Gala - Liguria is beautiful - sea and mountains with a temperate climate - perfecto.  We've made a few friends already over there as we've been looking for a place for a number of years - a mix of English, Irish, Danish, Austrian, German and Italiain - my Italian is basic but I'd never me accused of not trying - conversations with my italian friends are a mix of italian/french and english!! - I get my italian and french very confused and then when that fails resort to sign language and then english!!!  Fortunately everyone is very patient with me!!!!!!!!!!  I know when we move it will improve quickly (not difficult really!)

Good Luck with your move smiley We're 'just up the road' from you but not permanentlysad  We have English/Italian friends who run a B&B in Pigna who love meeting new people.  Send me a pm if you want their contact details.  

Hi Cassini  Where abouts in Liguria are you?  we've been visiting the area for the last 9 years including several times in Winter and experienced exactly what you described - in February weekends in t shirts in the day with temperatures of 20 degrees (wrapped up in the evenings) and others including when they had their first proper dump of snow in 20 plus years in January  2010 (well we didn't actually get there as the plane couldn't land in Nice as they were just not prepared - LOL!!)   However having had arctic conditions in the UK for the last few years where for weeks it hasn't got above a couple of degrees in the day - to have the prospect of some lovely sunny days in winter and a lot of warm/hot days in the summer (as opposed to a handful in the UK - is very appealing to say the least 

Close to you in Perinaldo. There have been several very severe patches of cold weather and heavy snow in the last 11 years.  One of which where it hung around for weeks in frozen piles. Sometimes there is frost and/or snow just when the mimosa crop is reaching perfection for Festa Delle Donna in early March - often ruining much of it. However the weather is usually warmer down by the sea.  It also depends where your house is located, how much winter sun it gets.

Do be aware that although so far this Autumn hasn't been bad, winters here can be very cold indeed. The last couple of years have been dreadful and there has been snow here for the last few years.The summers can be blisteringly hot (not so hot this year) and can go for a long time without any rain.

I wanted to post this on the thread about the current floods, but cant find it anywhere.I cant get on to page 2 of the threads. It's just that I'm amazed there seems to have been so little media coverage of this disaster in newspapers + on tv in England (there is a lot on the web) and most people I know are not aware there is a problem. It is an IMMENSE ongoing catastrophe, not just on the coast but in most of the province of La Spezia in Liguria, and part of Lunigiana in Northern Tuscany. It has been declared a State of Emergency.Bodies are still being found and more missing, animals dead, many people still without drinking water, whole communes cut off on all sides by landslides, houses and bridges destroyed in many area, many people still homeless. I know I am particularly concerned because my house is in that area (luckily undamaged and dry, but now only accessible on foot as the 3 bridges on the road leading to it have been washed away. In fact at present all the roads in the area are blocked), but nearly a week after the 20 INCHES of rain in a few hours created all this havoc, I would have expected to see more than just one brief mention on the news here. It has been described as an inland tsunami. My consolation is that I think maybe we will get a better road down to our hamlet, and that if our house can come out unscathed from that it must be situated in a good position. My heart goes out to those who have lost members of their family in appalling circumstances. One of the latest victims to be found had been in her car on the motorway when it was crushed by a pile of masonry from a collapsing house. Historic centres have been decimated. The area affected is bigger than most earthquake zones. I hope any community members who have a house in that area (not many in that part of Liguria I think) have escaped the worst of the damage. The government are donating emergency aid and there are sites on the internet open to receiving donations if anyone feels they want to help a little. If anyone can put this post on the correct thread, about the flooding, please feel free to do so.

We hope to be moving either to Liguria (la spezia area) or south of France in September but can't make up out minds. Either way we expect to spend lots of time in la spezia as need to renovate a house - slowly, slowly why are you moving there?Wendy