Photo courtesy of Francesco Sgroi
For 30 years, International Living has operated on a simple premise: The world is alive with opportunity…for travel and investment…for living and retiring…for fun and for profit.
These ideas are at their most appealing…and most potentially rewarding…when we identify beautiful real estate in not-yet fashionable places.
Places where your property would not only remain attractive…but become much more valuable as the local economy improved and foreign buyers flocked.
One of our favorites right now may surprise you…because it’s in a part of Tuscany that so far has remained “hidden”.
For many people, Tuscany embodies all that is Italy. Here you’ll find Florence, Siena, Pisa, and the quintessential landscape of dreamy hill towns and cypress trees.
Fifteen years ago, IL recommended areas of Tuscany slightly off the tourist route for bargain village houses and unrestored farmhouses.
Today, even these outlying areas are one of the most expensive of the Italian regions for property buyers. Great news if you bought back in 1995—but what about now?
You can find much better value today if you look away from Tuscany’s heartland to the north of the region.
Although Tuscany is one of Italy’s most explored areas, few foreigners know about Lunigiana.
Even fewer have discovered its castles, country churches and clusters of walled villages. But it’s only a matter of time before word gets out that you can still find small, renovated apartments in medieval stone buildings in these villages for around $50,000.
Large two-story unrenovated barns halfway between the sea and the slopes (30 minutes each way) cost $40,000.
A restored three-story house with beamed ceilings, exposed stone walls and an iron spiral staircase costs $100,000…in a typical Tuscan village.
Historically the mountains have kept this area cut off from the rest of Tuscany. Maybe that’s why prices are so low. If so, it’s ridiculous—these days, it’s well connected. Pisa and Genoa are within an hour’s drive and the beach is only 30 minutes away.
Rolling landscapes, medieval castles, fortified towns and hill villages set high above twisting valley roads. This is Tuscany without the crowds, and, for now, the high prices.
IL’s European Editor Steenie Harvey has just returned from a trip to this “hidden Tuscany”—on assignment for International Living magazine, where her full report will appear.
