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23/01/01

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12/09/09

Calabria forms the toe of the Italian boot and is bordered by Basilicata and sandwiched in between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. There is a lot of coastline in Calabria. No part of the region is more than 50km away from the coast.

Calabria covers an area of just 15,000 km² and is made up of five provinces: Catanzaro, Cosenza, Reggio di Calabria, Crotone, and Vibo Valentia. Catanzaro is the capital of the region, but regional parliament is held in the former regional capital, Reggio di Calabria.

Calabria is still being discovered by tourists and investors alike. The natural beauty of the area has not been spoiled by hotel chains and fast food outlets. There are no huge crowds to contend with. The mountains still shine down beautifully, the coast is still clear and uncomplicated, the food is still indigenous to the region, and the people are still living the Italian way. The above criteria are only but a few small points that are attracting international investors to this up and coming region, that and the fact that the property market is still in its infancy, rental yields are quite buoyant, mortgage products are readily available for up to 20 yrs and at low interest rate’s, structural building guarantees are in place for all new developments, and last but not least low cost airlines are already flying into Calabria’s airports. This makes Calabria a sustainable investment like no other however destinations like Calabria will not stay like this forever

History

Calabria is a land of ancient Mediterranean Civilisations, and gave the Italian peninsula its name: Calabria was once called 'Italy' in honour of its inhabitants who were known as Itali.

Calabria still preserves important visible signs of the fundamental eras in European culture and history ranging from prehistoric settlements to the great epoch of the Magna Graecia. And the Romans, Goths, Lombards, Byzantines, Normans, Swabs, Angevins, Aragonese and Bourbons all left architectural traces of great cultural and artistic importance here. Calabria has always been a bridge for a variety of cultures and retains their influences even today in its folklore.

The terracotta of Squillace and Rogliano, where the "pignatari" ceramic artisans work, is beautiful. The name comes from "pignata", the clay container which still exists today and is used for cooking beans over a fire.

They were even mentioned by Cassiodorus, who lived between the 5th and 6th centuries BC. The pipes made in Brognaturo, San Roberto and San Vito on the Ionian coast are interesting: they are made of 2-year aged blocks of briarwood, a tree that grows almost exclusively along the Mediterranean coasts and is considered among the best for woodworking. Precious also are the silks made in Catanzaro, San Floro and Curinga where the worms are still bred with mulberry leaves, and other local activities include lute making in Bisignano, Soveria Simeri glass, the Chiaravalle and Morano antiques, Serrastretta chairs-making; then there are peach orchards. Sibari plain and the Acconia and Botricello greenhouses with their marvellous flowers; not to forget all the special Calabrian delicacies: "mostaccioli" biscuits from Soriano; nougat from Bagnara, Taurianova and Siderno; mushrooms from Camigliatello; "Bergamots", a citrus fruit from the area around Reggia; "soppressata" and "capocollo", sausage, bacon, nduja (a spreadable mixture of pork meat with hot red chilli pepper) from Spilinga; wines from Donnici, Cirò, Lamezia, Bivongi, Pellaio and Verbicaro; dairy products from the Sila area and swordfish from Bagnara; onions from Tropea and the famous red Calabrian chilli pepper.

Tourism

Calabria is still a region capable of astounding the traveller with its strong contrasts, its varieties of nature, cultural overlaps and history.

With its 740 kilometres of coastline, and its shadowy, rocky interior with the Pollino, Sila, Serre and Aspromonte mountains. Calabria is also rich in museums, from the National Museum in Reggio Calabria, which preserves the famous Riace bronzes, to the Picture Gallery in Palazzo Arnone in Cosenza, the archaeological museums in Sibari, Crotone and Locri, the State Museum in Vibo Valentia, the Provincial and Civic Museums in Catanzaro, Taverna, Castrovillari, and the Ecclesiastical Museums in Rossano and Serra San Bruno.

Calabria's churches have a particularly rich artistic heritage. Located in the province of Catanzaro is Taverna, where in the Church of San Domenico you can admire the paintings by the great Mattia Preti and Borgia, with the ruins of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Roccella. If you then go up into the Serre mountains, you come to the Province of Vibo Valentia where, located in Torre di Ruggiero, is the Church of Maria SS. delle Grazie whose sanctuary attracts many worshippers. Nearby is the Certosa di Serra San Bruno, a monastery with the Church of Santa Maria del Bosco, founded at the end of 1000 by Saint Bruno, whose tomb is still venerated today.

Located in the Province of Cosenza is the Church of Santa Maria delle Armi in Cerchiara. The Church dates from the 11th Century and today is a popular destination for pilgrims based on the prodigious events that have happened there. Finally, there is the Sanctuary of San Francesco di Paola, the patron saint of Calabria. The façade dates to the 16th Century, while that of the adjacent Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where the saint's relics lie, is Gothic in style; Reggio Calabria’s Monastero della Visitazione di Santa Maria built in 1754 is a must, and from there a panoramic road leads to the hermitage of the Madonna della Consolazione dating back to the year 1000.

Festivals in Calabria

  • Caccuri hosts an Easter Procession each Good Friday.
  • Silano host a wild mushroom festival in October.
  • Cantazaro also host an Easter Procession on Good Friday.
  • Laureana di Borello hosts a Madonna del Carmine Festival in July.
  • Villagio Mancuso hosts a Calabrian Folklore festival in September.
  • Cosenza hosts the Festival delle Invasioni in July.
  • Altomonte hosts the Festival of the Tow Seas in July.
  • Lido di Palmi hosts a Maritime Procession of the Madonna in August.
  • Cutro hosts a crucifixion parade in May.
  • Bagnara hosts a swordfish festival in July.
  • Soverato Superiore hosts an eggplant festival in September.
  • Corigliano Calabro hosts an Orange festival and parade in January.
  • Spilinga hosts a sausage festival in August.
  • Paria a Mare hosts a festival for the Madonna della Grotta in August.

Airports

Reggio Di Calabria

Reggio Calabria Airport, also known as Strait of Messina Airport, a European departure point in the process of development, plans to become a central hub for the Mediterranean basin, primarily because of its strategic geographic position, serving the two most popular tourist destinations in Italy.

Its attractive building offers a spectacular view of nearby Sicily. The building is being completely renovated to conform to current security standards, respect for the environment, and the region’s geographic, economic and tourism resources.

At this time there are two runways and there is an ambitious plan to strengthen the infrastructure and auxiliary services.

Lamezia Terme

The Consaer Association was formed in 1965 with the aim to construct a new centrally located Calabrian airport in the Lamezia area, which was expanding both industrially and in population, with lots of open space, near to the A1 Motorway, the railway and most importantly near to the huge port of Gioia Tauro. The airport opened in June 1976. In December of the same year the first scheduled flight services operated by the company ‘Itavia’, started flying to Ciampino - Rome, Milan, Catania and Palermo. The large, completed modern airport opened in 1982.

For a while now the flights to and from Lamezia are following a positive trend, growing constantly due to both logistics (the alternative ways of reaching Calabria, Motorway and Rail, given the long distance are not particularly comfortable or convenient) and flight traffic into and from the airport. Passengers who fly from Lamezia Airport come from as far south as Gioia Tauro, (seeing as the only other airport in the area is Reggio Calabria) and as far north as half way between Lamezia and Naples seeing as there are no other airports other than Naples Capodichno. The airport has a huge charter flight programme in the summer which represents 30% of the whole aviation business. There are 15 carriers which connect Calabria with numerous Central and Northern European destinations (all of the airports in Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria and Poland) and also North America. Near Toronto in Canada there is a large Calabrian community who use the numerous flights run by the company Skyservice who fly direct from the capital Ontario to Lamezia from May to October. You have Ryanair flighting up to 4 times every week from London Stansted and over the next month or so we will see Aeroflots initiation into Calabria with direct and in- expensive flights from Moscow, Russia.

The airport is structurally well organised and is able to hold up to 2 million passengers. The airport has been recently restructured and a new terminal awaits arriving passengers. However, there are other plans for restructure and refurbishment, some already nearly completed, which will make the airport even more comfortable and practical: The lengthening of the runway from 2340m to 3000m which will allow “wide body” planes to operate at the airport without having loading limitations. This will also enable the airport to grow and expand and become one of the leading Airports in the Region.

Crotone Airport

Born on the oldest airport installation of the Region (active from the years ‘60), the airport Sant'Anna of Crotone increased, in the last two years, the traffic of charter flights from 42 in 2002 to over 170 in 2004, with a commercial traffic over 100000 unity. Concerning to infrastructures, the Sant'Anna Airport offers guarantees for the comfort and the aerial safety and of the passengers and for the commercial and non commercial structures. New interventions are in progress and, shortly, the Calabrian airport will be equipped with a new tower of control, new instrumental installations for landing and take-off in conditions of low visibility, the prolongation of the runway and new technologies for the airport safety. Regarding the traffic, instead, the existent national flights are confirmed with a future increase of frequency and destinations. Surely, weekly charter flights will depart shortly for Milan and Verona, and other initiatives of advances plannings 2006 will see the Sant’Anna Airport connected with different nations of the Mediterranean basin. Easyjet have also indicated over the last number of months that they are looking at the possibilities of using this airport as its Calarian base.

Statistics

Calabria has 2,109,268 inhabitants (2007 estimate), with an average population density of 133 people per sq km. Catanzaro became the region’s capital in 1970; the former capital and largest city is Reggio di Calabria (2006, 184,353). Other important cities include Crotone (2006 estimate, 64,889); Cosenza (2005, 76,998); Nicastro (2006, 54,700); Vibo Valentia (1997 estimate, 42,373).

Italian is the official language of Calabria, although two regional languages—Napoletano-Calabrese and Calabro-Sicilian—are also spoken. Arbëreshë (a dialect of the Albanian language) has also been spoken in some villages since the 15th century, when a large number of Albanian immigrants settled in the region. The University of Calabria (1972) is located in Arcavacata, a small village between Rende and Cosenza. Other institutions of higher education in the region include the Mediterranean University of Reggio di Calabria (1968) and Magna Graecia University (1998), in Catanzaro.

Calabria is on Central European Time (CET) which is GMT + 1.

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William & Miki - Bristol

We made our way to an International Property Exhibition a few years ago in ?. After a good look around, we found a detached Villa just perfect for us near the beach in Tropea, Calabria. It was exactly what we had been looking for all those years, we decided there and then to reserve the Villa, being careful to ensure our dream home wouldn't be sold before we had a chance to inspect it more closely. After a successful viewing trip we were certain we had indeed found our dream property and the area was simply breathtakingly beautiful, needless to say, before we left we put down the first installment on the Villa. Even though we could not fault the Sales team and the lovely guys who really looked after us while visiting, once we had signed the preliminary contracts and returned home, we found that communications more or less stopped. We left message after message with the Sales Staff who really weren't able to help us, even with basic requests like build progress reports on our Property and the like, they were just to busy with Sales. We were amazed, thinking that such basic requests after sale would have been a standard service. It transpired that this is not the case, the norm is quiet the opposite.

I can't express then how relieved we were after speaking with Apple Consulting in Calabria on our very next visit. They immediately reassured us, as their whole business is actually geared towards after sales services alone. They answered all our many questions, really made life a lot less stressful for us. I would highly recommend anyone who has bought in the region to Apple Consulting for your after sales needs, they will look after every last detail for you and the cost is really very reasonable. I would even recommend them as someone to get some sound advice from prior to purchasing in Calabria, they have a lot of local knowledge, are based locally and the Manager is a lovely local lady who has perfect English and a very pleasant manner. Nice people, efficient service, no hassle.

Mark & Caroline - Glenties, Donegal

I made a phone call to Apple Consulting October last after viewing their site on-line. My lovely wife and I had purchased a couple of beachfront Apartments in Pizzo that summer and badly needed someone to handle the property management side of things for us.

We both live and work in Ireland and really we would only get the opportunity to spend a few well-deserved weeks in Calabria each year. We had got 70 pc finance arranged initially in Calabria, through the Bank that the Real Estate company recommended; which allowed us to make the purchase in the first place. As a result we really needed to see some rental income from our Apartments in Pizzo, but we didn't know where or how to begin with the Rental process in Southern Italy and the Company we initially bought through couldn't help us either.

Anyway, after getting Apple Consulting on board, our Property is now managed year round and kept well maintained for us. They have a range of Agents around the world, they then can market our Property for rent with great success, qualify the Tenants, handle the whole process, do the cleaning.everything, and what's important is they make sure that there Is a smooth transition process from one Tenant to the next, meaning I get the most rent I can from my property and its idle as little as is possible, off course there are certain rental periods which are low season, as anywhere else, but again Apple Consulting ensure the property is kept fresh and clean, ready for their imminent arrival. They also arrange it that the deposit and rents are paid directly to my Bank Account less their fee or instruct the Tenant to put a direct debit in place and bill us accordingly. Either way, Apple Consulting take a very reasonable fee off me for it, and to be honest, I would of quiet happily paid much more for such good service and reassurance. If I were to take on the whole thing myself I would have spend countless of hours and euro's in the effort and most probably would not have got a tenth of the Rental yields I currently enjoy under the Apple Consulting banner. What can I say, but I would highly recommend this Company to anyone looking to have Property Managed or rented out there in Southern Italy. I think they offer a whole range of other services too but I didn't really require them myself, I would look into it though.

Many thanks and good luck to you all. Mark O'Donnell.

Sergey - Moscow

I have Villa property in Zambrone, Calabria region. Big site and lots of room for garden near to beach. No garden in place when I buy. I need landscape and maintenance for property but I have not good Italian or English. Difficult for arrange in Calabria with persons by myself. Find Apple Consulting online, see are in Calabria, ring from Moscow. Have Russian speaker, English Speaker & Italian Speaker. They deal with me easy and say no problem, can arrange for me. I was surprised it so easy. Visit my property last month and it is like new. Soil and water system and fencing now on site. Look very nice. Meet with Garden man quickly when on visit, who company arrange at my request. He bring plants and everything for me to see. I pick and say yes, this is good, that is good. He will put in the ground and return every couple of week to maintain. Service very good. Good company. Good persons. High recommendation.

Thank you. Sergey D

Paul &Simon - California

We had dreamed of buying in Southern Italy for a long time and were viewing properties for the last few years while on holidays, we kept returning to Calabria after our first visit because it is so natural and untouched. The area was then generally not a tourist destination which also really appealed to us, just wanting to get away from it all. We found a beautiful three story Villa overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea one day in a beautiful spot called Capo Vaticano in Calabria. Turn Key ready and with the most beautiful Romanesque features. Very, very cheap too in comparison to the rest of the Properties we had viewed in the past across the Mediterranean, for the similar quality and location. This time we had made up our minds to buy.

Just before we did make payment the economy crashed. We had to put the purchase on hold for a while because we weren't certain we would have the free funds. As it happened we were right to hold off. If anything the cheap house prices are still as cheap now if not cheaper, the area has gained much more international interest in the meantime though so we decided we would have to buy asap or risk loosing the Property, which we had been paying a reservation fee on.

This time though we required a mortgage, which is basically impossible to obtain in the States at the moment. So we found a solution, we hired this great local company Apple Consulting. They explained the buying process to us in detail over the phone, in English, then they arranged to fly us over on a competitive corporate package that they offer to their clients; as we wanted to speak with them in person over the finer details. So they got us our fiscal codes, which you need before you do things like open a bank account or even get a sim card. They got finance approved for us through a bank that they are affiliated with, got us 70 pc, we were delighted. They have a Legal &Financial Team who help you out with all these things, and can give all the information you need for peace of mind. They took us to the Notary, which is like their Government Land Registry Offices, and did all the checks on Title and the rest. They handled everything really and Simon and I are really grateful to these guys for helping us realize our dream in moving to Calabria, which we will be doing in the next month or so.

Again, thank you very much to the Apple Consulting Team, wouldn't have done it with out you guys. See you soon on the Costa degli Dei.

Simon Roberts.

Should you like to avail of our services please do not hestiate to contact us further info@appleconsulting.it