Italy’s regions press ahead with Piano Casa

Italy’s regions are pressing ahead with their implementation of Silvio Berlusconi’s Piano Casa – his relaxation of planning regulations that now make it far easier for homeowners to increase the size of properties by up to 20 per cent.

The regions have exercised great freedom in implementing the agreement reached with central government in April over the plans, which aim to revive the construction sector – and the property for sale in Italy market – by bringing in a greater volume of extension, demolition and reconstruction of homes.

In different parts of Italy, renovation and rebuilding work has been allowed not just on detached or semi-detached houses but in some cases entire apartment blocks, with little heed of the size limits Mr Berlusconi envisaged.

This has certainly been seen in the Venice real estate sector, where the Veneto region passed draft legislation that preceded Mr Berlusconi’s initiative. It has also been true for Sicily property, where regional authorities have exercised almost total autonomy over the interpretation of the Piano Casa.

The various regions’ plans extend far beyond residential property. Tuscany, the only region with a fully enacted law in place, has remained strict. But in virtually all the other six regions to have already brought in a draft bill – in particular for property in Umbria, Campania and Piedmont – the 20 per cent size expansion will be allowed even for residential buildings that contain shop and/or office premises.

In Umbria, the provisions of the Piano Casa have also been extended to renovation work on buildings used solely for craft and/or industrial purposes. Veneto, meanwhile, will also allow its provisions to cover the demolition and reconstruction of buildings and factories.

The April agreement dictates that renovation and reconstruction under the Piano Casa must also improve the energy efficiency of buildings. But the requirements vary from one region to the next.

To enlarge a property in Piedmont, for instance, one must the building’s primary energy requirements by 40 per cent. In Lombardy, however, all that is required is a 10 per cent cut in heating consumption. Sicily and Veneto, meanwhile, impose no such strictures.

Another delicate issue is over Italy’s medieval centres, where the agreement states building sites cannot be set up. But even here there are two exceptions – Sicily (where work can begin with approval from local authorities) and Veneto (but municipalities can block construction work in some areas).

Then there’s the compromise adopted in Lombardy, where owners of residential properties that are out of kilter with the dominant architectural style of the area can be knocked down and rebuilt, again once permission is granted by regional authorities.

Similar provisions exist also in neighbouring Piedmont, the difference being that non-residential properties can also be knocked down and rebuilt for the same reasons as in Lombardy. Again this is dependent on an OK from local comune authorities.

In Campania, meanwhile, every building that undergoes extensive reconstruction under these plans will have to submit an “identity card” detailing its specifications. This has been done with April’s Abruzzo earthquake in mind, where even new buildings were found to have been flimsily constructed.

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Russians boost Puglia property market

Among the most unique type of home in the property for sale in Italy market are the trulli of Puglia, traditional whitewashed stone houses with conical roofs. Puglia property, of course, is also famous for its masserie – the fortified farmhouses also common in Sicily.

Now it seems that the market for these unique examples of Puglia property is booming, thanks to Russian buyers. This new wave of Eastern European investors are buying in the hills straddling Brindisi, Bari and Taranto – three of Puglia’s six provinces – and look set to become the new lords of the manor in the Itria Valley, replacing earlier British purchasers.

Indeed, many Britons, having bought and lovingly renovated trulli in Puglia, are now increasingly putting them up for sale and cashing in on the new surge in demand. As one Puglian real estate agent, Piero D’Amico, commented: “Who said the market was in crisis?”

He continued: “The fact that today’s clients reflect for longer before they invest and rightly want to see more properties before they decide has been mistaken for a stagnant market.” Mr D’Amico believes that although sales of rustic trulli needing renovation remain sluggish, sales for already-restored trulli is booming.

He believes customers with medium to high-spending power are driving this resurgence in demand. Typically they have budgets of €250,000-€350,000, enough to get a lovely trulli complex of four to six cones, including at least two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with the presence of a swimming pool naturally raises the price. Significantly larger trulli tend to go for €450,000-€500,000.

The new Russian investors – who Mr D’Amico believes are mainly money-market financiers – are snapping up Puglia property in areas such as Ceglie, Cisternino and Martina Franca.  Also moving into the market are developers who look to buy old abandoned complexes and restore them for minimum outlay, then sell for a tidy profit.

Puglia, of course, is a stunning region overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Famous foreigners who have bought homes in Puglia include Dame Helen Mirren, who owns a 500-year-old €785,000 castle in Tiggiano that she is said to have bought to mark her 2007 Oscar for The Queen. As Mr D’Amico puts it: “We do not sell just houses, we’re selling pieces of history, great scenery, hospitality and unmatchable cuisine.”

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Michelangelo crucifix has experts cross

It’s nowhere near as well-known as the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of Rome’s Sistine Chapel or the statue of David in the Accademia Gallery in Florence.

But a miniature depiction of Christ is, for the time being at least, Michelangelo’s most-talked about work.

The wooden statuette, just 41.3cm (16¼in) high, is currently taking pride of place in a Naples exhibition. The posters advertising the event proudly proclaim it as the work of “Michelangelo Giovane” (Young Michelangelo). Yet there is controversy in Italian art circles, with experts bitterly divided over its authenticity.

The piece dates from around 1495, when the Italian Renaissance genius would have just turned 20. It came to light in 2004 among the collection of Turin art dealer Giancarlo Gallini.

Ministers paid him €3.25million for it and in late December and January it spent a month on display in the Italian parliament. The Government’s cultural heritage chief Roberto Cecchi hailed it as a new “ambassador for Italian culture in the world”.

A team of scientists and professors from Florence, Perugia and Siena universities examined it and were convinced that its style and anatomical accuracy were in keeping with the great man’s work.

Renaissance art expert Cristina Acidini Luchinat, superintendent at Florence’s state museum, added: “You can attribute it to Michelangelo…I’m as sure as I can possibly be.”

However, numerous dissenters are less convinced, believing amongst other things that a true Michelangelo would have fetched 10 times the amount the Government paid for it. They accuse Silvio Berlusconi’s administration of purchasing the piece to boost its standing with the Catholic Church and conservative voters.

One foreign museum is said to have been so unconvinced about it that it rejected the chance to exhibit it. One expert who might sympathise with that view is world-renowned Florence-based art specialist Prof Tomasso Montanari.

He said empathically: “This is way below Michelangelo’s standard. It’s like it came off production line and could have been made by any one of a dozen wood carvers of the time.”

Fellow Florence-based expert Prof Francesco Caglioti echoed his sentiments and said: “It’s a scandal. The muscle definition is all wrong. Michelangelo rarely worked in wood. He rarely made small pieces like this. His contemporary biographers make no mention of his having made small works in wood.”

Regardless of the furore – and perhaps in part fuelled by it – visitors will flock to see it in the Naples gallery. But Prof Montanari warned: “This is making Italy look foolish and is harming our reputation as the world centre of culture and expertise.”

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The allure of Abruzzo

For hundreds of years the region of Abruzzo has been one of Italy’s most isolated – and the signs are there to see.

The region couldn’t be more different from Rome, despite being less than a couple of hour’s away by car. In Abruzzo, gone is the frantic pace of the Eternal City, to be replaced by a the slow, deliberate heartbeat of the countryside. Gone too are the enclosed streets and in their place, open spaces often as far as the eye can see.

In Abruzzo, nearly a third of the landscape is given over to natural parkland, as the sprawling plains, scenic valleys and towering mountains are broken up only by beautifully preserved medieval towns and villages.

Abruzzo was absorbed into the then Kingdom of Southern Italy in the 1100s and flourished for some four centuries or so until it fell under the ambit of Spain in the 1500s. The Spanish held sway until the early 18th century, when they were replaced by the Austrians and after them by the Bourbons.

The region began to flourish economically in the 1970s, thanks to agriculture and increased tourism, which tends to be focused on the coast.

Inland, the 375,000-acre Gran Sasso National Park is the most popular part of Abruzzo. It includes the Gran Sasso mountain whose peak Corno Grande peak is the highest point in the entire Apennine mountain range and the sprawling plateau that is Campo Imperatore, a mecca for everyone from tourists to shepherds to movie-makers (the 1987 Sean Connery flick The Name of The Rose was shot here).

Abruzzo National Park lies further south, one of Italy’s great wildernesses. More than 100 types of flora and fauna are to be found here, as are wolves and bears. This mountainous, heavily wooded area is very popular with hikers as it offers hundreds of memorable walking trails, many of them reachable from medieval towns such as Pescasseroli and Sulmona.

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Italy to house G8 leaders in cop barracks

Leaders of the world’s 20 richest nations may have thought they had it tough when they had to turn up for April’s G20 summit at London’s ExCeL centre, swamped by a bleak grey sea of concrete in a desolate, windswept corner of the capital’s Docklands district.

Yet that will be nothing compared to the privations waiting for them at July’s G8 meeting in Italy. First, Italian Prime Mister Silvio Berlusconi last month announced he was moving the showpiece gathering from the picturesque isle of La Maddalena off Sardinia to quake-hit L’Aquila.

Now it has emerged he plans to billet world leaders – including Barack Obama, the UK’s Gordon Brown, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev and Germany’s Angela Merkel – and their retinue of officials and aides in spartan barracks on the outskirts of the Abruzzo town.

The two bleak buildings are currently used as accommodation for officers and their spouses. A source confirmed to the Guardian newspaper: “Everything is ongoing. But that is the idea.”

It will certainly be a far cry from the five-star hotels the world’s leaders have come to expect at such high-level gatherings. Or from the luxury cruise liners off the coast in which they would have stayed had the event taken place in La Maddalena.

Mr Berlusconi has argued that switching to L’Aquila will save the €220million that the La Maddalena summit would have cost, money that is now being earmarked towards reconstruction in Abruzzo following the April 6 catastrophe that killed 295.

The choice of frugal accommodation is said to have been made to show that world leaders were attuned to the more constrained times in which their economies find themselves in 2009.

A senior Italian Government official said: “There will be everything the leaders need.” But he added: “Whereas the accommodation at La Maddalena would have been beautiful, at L’Aquila it will be totally sober and  spartan.” However, it may be that not everyone stays in town to find out. Some delegations are tipped to base themselves in Rome and make the daily 120-mile round trip to L’Aquila by helicopter.

Last month, as he outlined his reasons for the switch, Mr Berlusconi suggested it would deter the rent-a-mob demonstrators who invariably mar such events. He said: “I don’t think they would have the desire, gall or heart to demonstrate here.” The Premier, who has held a number of cabinet meetings in the quake-hit city, also said having the G8 gathering there would place it “in the centre of world attention”.

However, some media reports have suggested the real reason is that his administration is struggling to get La Maddalena ready in time for the summit or find enough cruise vessels to accommodate delegates and the world’s press.

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