Tuscany is not all sunshine, fine wines and ice cream. It has some pretty fierce winters, especially in the mountainous Garfagnana region where Georgina and I are in the process of buying a home. But one of the reasons that Georgina is excited about our move is that she is keen to take up skiing again after a break of several years. The house we’ve set our hearts on is just 40 minutes by car from Abetone – a ski resort high in The Apennines – where, I am reliably informed, the snow is excellent every year from mid December to April. The word ‘abetone’ means ‘big fir tree’ and is thought to refer to a large tree which once stood in the centre of the town but which was chopped down in the mid-eighteenth century to allow the construction of a road to connect the Duchy of Modena with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The town was the birthplace of Zeno Colò, famed Italian skier and Winter Olympic gold medallist, after whom three of the resort’s pistes are named.

Skiing at Abetone costs around €34 for a full day; equipment hire will cost you a further €20. There are around 50km of runs across four valleys, one of which – the Val di Luce or ‘Valley of Light’ – will take your breath away with its majestic beauty. Georgina’s father, David, and I have decided to take lessons so it is reassuring to know that Abetone is only a short helicopter journey from l’ospedale Careggi di Firenze, the state of the art hospital in Florence where MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi recently underwent treatment for a broken leg.

Hopefully neither David nor I will have a similar experience. There are webcams at several locations around Abetone so you can check out the snow before you go. As I write this, it looks very impressive, deep and untouched, and the mountains are glistening in the bright winter sunshine. Take a look for yourself at abetone.com

La Befana
Although Christmas in our cottage above the snowline will be an enchanting experience, with a wreath on the door, lights in the windows and a log fire roaring in the grate, another festival we’re particularly looking forward to is Epiphany because it will give us an opportunity to take Georgina’s nephew and nieces to see La Befana.

La Befana is a haggard old crone who delivers gifts to Italian children in the early hours of January 6th. She pre-dates Christianity but has been incorporated into the Christian calendar in the same way that many pagan figures and traditions were adopted by the Church. She is an old lady, rather like a witch, who carries a broomstick and a sack of gifts. How she began I don’t know, but these days a lot of little children seem to think she is Santa’s wife. For them it is an opportunity to add to their toy boxes the presents Santa failed to deliver. For the adults it is an opportunity to guzzle Befana cookies, for which you will find numerous recipes online. La Befana makes an appearance in most Italian towns on the Eve of Epiphany. Sometimes she’s even lowered in to the central piazza by crane. The kids love it.

Another reason that I’m looking forward to living in Italy is that I am a keen cyclist and the Italians are absolutely fanatical about cycling. Throughout the summer months Tuscany’s roads are thick with riders in lycra shorts, tight shirts and little caps with the brim folded back; their clothing emblazoned with brightly coloured insignia and adverts. A lot of these guys spend a fortune on their machines; carbon fibre bikes worth several thousand Euros apiece are very common. One thing that has surprised and delighted me on my travels around Italy is that cycling appears to be extremely popular among the country’s pensioners. More than once I have found myself struggling up a steep, winding mountain road in the blistering sunshine only to be overtaken by elderly supermen the colour of hazelnut shells, relentlessly pumping the pedals with thighs like giant hams and calf muscles like Volkswagen Beetles parked on their legs. I’ll pass them again at the top of the hill, where they will have stopped for a quick smoke and a nip of grappa, before being overtaken once more on the downhill stretch, as they rocket past me, hunched low over the handlebars, haunches high in the air, absolutely fearless on the ill-maintained roads. It’s a joy to see them and gives me hope for a healthy future.

As regular readers will know, Georgina and I suffered the disappointment of losing out on our first choice of house because of problems regarding the ownership of the property. So we are trying not to get too excited about the fact that our offer has been accepted on another, in many ways better, house. We are being helped along in this endeavour by the estate agent, banks and mortgage brokers, all of whom have given us contradictory information over the past several weeks. It sometimes seems as though they are conspiring to confuse us. So, on the one hand, we are delighted to have finally found a house in the Garfagnana and pleased to have had our offer accepted, but on the other hand it is difficult to keep smiling as different agencies circle like vultures over our hard-earned cash.

Italian mortgage lenders are considerably more conservative than the UK lenders I’m used to dealing with. At the merest hint of an unconventional suggestion they start rolling down the shutters or hurrying to hang up the phone. One common problem in Italy, which quickly sends them scuttling off to answer another ‘important’ call, relates to the issue of joint ownership and forfeiture.

Italian laws of inheritance, designed to protect emigrant family members, mean that parents must divide their estate equally between their surviving offspring. The benefactors are known as ‘forced heirs’ and, in a country where large families were once the norm and from which millions of people have emigrated over the centuries, they can be a real problem. It’s something we came a cropper of with our first choice of house and unfortunately it has reared its head once again as I try to get a mortgage on the cottage in Caprignana. Before making an offer, I had a mortgage agreed in principle with the manager of the bank in the nearest town. However, in these straitened times, all mortgage offers have to be approved by head office, and head office took issue with my application. It was a cruel blow and may yet prove an insurmountable problem.

First impressions
When we first looked at the house, the estate agents assured me that all legal impediments had been overcome and that it would be a simple transaction between Georgina and I and the young English woman owner. That turned out to be untrue. In fact the current owner purchased the property as a ruin from a person who had clear and undisputed ownership of only half of the house. They had acquired the other half by means of ‘usucapione’, a word I hope you never have to hear. Essentially what it means in this case is that the owner of the other half of the house had been out of contact for such a long time that they were ruled to have forfeited their share. Such forfeiture is common enough. It is a perfectly reasonable and sensible addition to the inheritance laws, particularly since it was added in the days before electronic communication, and you might think it would settle any cases of unclaimed inheritance. But unfortunately it doesn’t. Not as far as the banks are concerned. You see, even after this forfeiture is established and written into the final contract for the sale, the missing heirs can still turn up, from the depths of the Okavango Delta or wherever it is they’ve been hiding, and mount a legal challenge to claim their share. And because of this many lenders are reluctant to offer mortgages to the buyers of such properties. But not all of them. There is still hope that I will be able to complete the purchase. So, with the help of Benito and Francesca Casci of housesintuscany.net, I’ve spent the past several weeks trying to find a willing lender. And, almost unbelievably, after being turned down by dozens of financial institutions, I seem to be getting somewhere.

Along the way I have learned that brokerages frequently have a minimum loan value below which they simply won’t bother with your business. I have learned that the banks have a maximum limit for the loan-to-value: the ratio between the amount to be borrowed and the value of the property. And I am afraid I have also learned that mortgages on Italian properties are taxed – residents must pay 0.25 percent of the value of the loan to the Italian Treasury and non-residents must pay two percent. Mortgage lenders typically charge around one percent of the value of the loan as an arrangement fee and mortgage brokers can charge as much as two percent of the value of the loan, to be paid on completion. I sometimes wonder if I will ever reach a stage at which, other than my ongoing mortgage payments, there are no more costs related to the purchase of the house. More than anywhere I’ve been in Europe, Italy is a place where it helps to know the right people so if you are able to call in any favours when organising your finances I would suggest you do so.

Looking forward
On a cheerier note, skiing and cycling are not the only outdoor activities we’re looking forward to taking part in when we move to Italy. We also plan to grow our own vegetables.  The garden of the house is already well stocked with tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and aubergines and I plan to add lemon, lime and orange trees and numerous herbs. But before you start building up a picture of a pair of bores holed up in the mountains, knitting their own muesli, let me explain that our number one priority will be to sort ourselves out with high-speed broadband. Georgina has also insisted that I install a satellite dish so she doesn’t miss the television dancing competition in which former Conservative politician, Ann Widdecombe, is dragged around the floor like a slaughtered cow. I’ll be busy perfecting my ‘snow plough’…or watching Rai Uno in a Florence hospital.