Finding Villetta Bianca
Villetta Bianca - the little white house - is situated on the lower slopes of Monte Nero overlooking the large town of Bordighera, on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline.
What started with a holiday in summer of 2013 quickly became a dream of what could be. Constantly depressed by the erratic British weather, long hours of commuting, endless days of meetings and weekends taken up with doing all those exciting household tasks we were too exhausted to tackle during the week, we dreamed of a better life. Realistically, we knew we didn't have the money to sustain it, so a few week's of escape every year would have to do; just a little sunshine to look forward to beneath those heavy English clouds.
We threw ourselves headlong into a search of the area, but really, the house found us.
A short drive up a steep and bumpy, sometimes narrow track, we came upon this little white house. Trotting down a stone staircase on a warm late summer morning, under the branches of a tree laden with ripe figs, the air gently humming with the murmur of a million lazy insects - the main terrace presented itself.
A wide stone verandah of bleached ochre tiles wrapped lovingly around a small white house with pale green shutters and wrought iron railings garnished with pots of red gerraniums. In front of us, the slopes of the valley rising up to greet the sky and to the left and down towards the town, a wide triangle of sparkling blue mediterranean sea.
Looking up, we spotted a further generously sized terrace outside the double and twin bedded rooms.
Yet another terrace around the back of the house revealed a lovely outdoor summer kitchen, with large barbecue, pizza oven, and marble sink and worktops, the living roof a mass of heavily laden grape vines.
It had a fully equipped indoor kitchen too - but let's face it - what could be nicer than dinner cooked and eaten under the stars?
Topping it all was an orchard of trees bearing oranges, lemons, pomegranites, apricots, wild cherry and even sweet almond, along with an acre of mature olive grove.
That sold it for us. Since buying the property, we've been busy using all of our spare time taking the little white house to the next level. We've added new walls and railings, installed a new boiler and pellet stove, rewired the house and grounds, renovated an old olive terrace and turned it into a sunbathing hot spot. We've reinstated satellite tv and even installed a state of the art jacuzzi tub with views out to the sea. Its been a crazy ride but we've enjoyed every minute of it and made some great friends along the way.