イタリア、コルトーナのエレガントで快適なトスカーナの農家の別荘

In 1988 my wife Shirley and I decided to travel the length of Italy by train to Sicily where all of my grandparents were born. It was also a transition time for me as I was leaving the corporate IT world and starting a one person business as a software developer. The seed was planted on that train ride passing through the Tuscan countryside. The rural terrain spotted with old stone farmhouses in varying degrees of decay struck a deep cord within me. The dream faded away when I woke up upon returning from vacation and had a business to get up and running.

In 2000 I was getting tired of what I was doing and revisited my dream from 12 years ago. I came to Siana for about five weeks and visited a different town every couple of days. I finally decided on Cortona and came back in 2001 to stay for five weeks to get to know the area and confirm my previous feelings about the town and the area. I talked to some real estate agents to check out the market and have some properties to look at knowing Shirley was coming out later.

After looking at several properties we went to see a property we knew was outside of our budget. As soon as we walked on the property it was like getting hit in the chest with two open hands. I was physically taken back and instantly knew this was the property we have been looking for. We just looked at each other and said, 'whatever it takes...'

In 2001 we started the purchase process. In 2002 we finalized the purchase and started a cosmetic restoration. In 2003 we had our first guests. Splitting my time between Cortona and Santa Barbara got old, so in the Spring of 2005 Shirley early retired, I wound down my business, we put our house in Santa Barbara on the market and moved here permanently.

We were never running away from anything but rather running to something we found in Cortona. We very much like the culture, lifestyle and of course meeting and accommodating our guests. Any regrets? Yes. I wish I did it 20 years sooner.