Pictured above: Grinzane Cavour, Piemonte (photo by Richard Noble).
Welcome to a new series of “Share Your Italian Story”. This month, Richard Noble, originally from Southend-on-Sea, talks to Barry Lillie about living in the Langhe and his passion for the ski slopes of Piedmont.
Richard and Allegra (pictured left) had a dream. They wanted to live in northern Italy, run their own business and spend their spare time enjoying the winter sports resorts. After five exhausting weekends of viewing houses that didn’t quite fit their vision, they quit their jobs in the U.K. and with their three-year old miniature Schnauzer, Otto, they devoted their time to some serious house-hunting. Eventually they found the perfect place, a semi-rural property surrounded by vineyards, thirty-five minutes’ drive from Turin.
Why did you choose Italy?
We thought about other countries – France, Portugal, Germany, even the U.S., but we just kept coming back round to Italy. My wife, Allegra, is half-Italian and, having family here to fall back on, is a big help, plus Allegra is fluent in Italian. I guess it was an obvious choice really.
Where have you relocated to and why did you choose this particular part of Italy?
We’re in an area called the Langhe, which is in Piemonte. We wanted to be somewhere a bit less obvious than Tuscany and Umbria. We also needed it to be close to good skiing. The scenery here is spectacular and on our first visit it just blew me away. We get warm summers and cold winters, and autumn is just beautiful, very foggy and atmospheric.
How long have you lived in Italy and how was the transition?
We’ve been here for a year and the house purchase went fairly smoothly. The only problem was that we didn’t know how the process worked. We read various guides and we asked a lot of questions but things still happened along the way that we weren’t expecting. No matter how stupid the question, we just kept on asking. It proved a good tactic in the end.
If you don’t mind me saying, at thirty-four, you’re quite young in comparison to most of the expats that I’ve interviewed. What prompted your move to Italy?
We were both working hard in what were essentially good jobs, but jobs that we had long since stopped enjoying, so we started considering other options. Among those options was moving to Italy and setting up a business.
Tell me a little about the business you want to set up.
We’re setting up a holiday rental business – we’re currently renovating a large farmhouse near Barolo. We want our guests to be able to experience the area like a local. We’ll be on hand to arrange tastings at some of the smaller wineries, offer advice on restaurants and teach Piemontese cooking. Of course, if they don’t want any of that, they don’t have to have it, but it’s an area where a little bit of local knowledge really goes a long way and we want people who stay here to have the best possible experience. We’re currently researching wine tastings as hard as we can and we’re hoping that the skills we’ve picked up over the years will stand us in good stead.
How have friends and family reacted to the move?
They have all been great. My friends love it because they get free holidays in Italy now. Loads of them have been out to visit already. My family also seems fairly happy; we lived about three hours apart in the U.K. so in a way this isn’t so different. They’re just glad we’re not in New Zealand.
What advice would you give someone thinking of making the move?
If you can, then do it. We did all our sums and from that point on we knew that if we didn’t give it a try, we would regret it. Try to spend as much time as you can in the area you are considering and get a real feel for it and stick to your guts on what you want from the property. The search can be soul-destroying at times, but so long as you’re not being unrealistic, you will eventually find what you’re after.
Earlier you mentioned that close proximity to ski resorts was a priority in your property search.
Allegra, being Italian, could ski before she could walk and I started skiing when I was about 10. We both love skiing, that’s how we first met, through the ski club at university, although I’m actually a snowboarder. The proximity of the mountains was one of the big reasons we wanted to be in this area. It’s great to wake up and see that it’s snowed; nothing gets me out of bed faster.
Are there any resorts you’d recommend to other snowboarders?
I like the feeling of getting away from it all. I think that’s why I like Frabosa Soprana and Limone Piemonte so much. There’s no rush for first tracks. Three days after a snowfall there is still plenty of untracked powder to be found. Both resorts are not far from the Mediterranean, so the snow isn’t as reliable as at it is at some of the resorts further north, but when the conditions are right, they are really great places to be, very Italian.
Limone is a beautiful mountain town about half an hour south of Cuneo. It’s one of the biggest ski areas in the Southern Alps. When it snows there, it really snows; we spent three days there last March and it just kept on coming. It’s an area I can’t wait to see more of. I’m looking forward to heading up there a few times this season.
Frabosa Soprana is a small mountain village not far from Mondovi. For skiing, it’s linked in to a couple of other resorts – Artesina and Prato Nevoso. Again, with the right conditions, it’s a great place, everyone is friendly and the food is cheap and delicious. It’s just perfect. The single chairlift takes half an hour to get to the top of Monte Moro, but when you eventually get to the top you have as much powder to play in as you could possibly want.
How was spending your first Christmas in Italy?
This was our first Christmas actually living here in Italy, though we have spent Christmas in Milan with Allegra’s family a few times previously. One thing I’ve always loved about being out here at Christmas is the weather, it’s invariably cold, usually snowing, often foggy. It actually feels like Christmas. As for the festivities, all the Italian family have a huge get together, we get a good fire going and everyone brings one or two elements of a huge Christmas dinner. There’s a bit more pasta involved than there is in an English Christmas dinner, but we have a roast as well. We always do proper roast potatoes and roasted parsnips; the Italians go crazy for them. They still don’t know what parsnips are, they always just ask for “those yellow things”.
You can follow more of Richard’s adventures as he settles into life in Piemonte by visiting his Facebook page: Facebook.com/LivingintheLanghe.
