Europe for Less—Where You Can Buy a Seaside Home in Coastal Italy for $80,300 or a Village House for Less Than $20,000

Italian vacationers adore traditional beach holidays. During July and August, families often rent a seaside property for the whole month. Although amenities are fairly low key, Metaponto Lido is eastern Basilicata’s main resort—and its golden sands stretch for miles. Armed with parasols, chairs, and overloaded bags, during these summer months, beach-goers head toward the golden sands of the Mar Ionio—the Ionian Sea. Many come from nearby Bernalda town; others from Taranto, a city across the regional border in Puglia.

On euro budgets, nothing is expensive here. A Peroni beer costs $2.80. In the busiest gelateria, a double scoop of ice cream (hazelnut and mint) is $2.33; coffee and a pastry, $3.10. Gargantuan wood-oven pizzas are around $9, a liter of house wine the same. So is a mound of spaghetti and clams.

I’d hate to think of foreign property developers turning Metaponto into the “next Costa del Sol,” but I can’t imagine it staying secret for much longer. It’s perfect for family sea-and-sun vacations. Come and see for yourself.

Metaponto’s vacation apartments are all low-rise. A few steps from the beach, one 1,074-square-foot apartment is $190,000. A mile away in Metaponto Borgo (the main part of this little town), a fully furnished 752-square-foot apartment is $109,000. But you could own for just $80,300. That buys a one-bedroom unit of 430 square feet, plus a balcony.

Reflected in the rents, the vacation market is highly seasonal. A typical 645-square-foot apartment sleeping four people fetches $290 weekly in low season, $555 in mid-season, and $1,240 in July and August.

If renting for a month, vacationers expect discounts. Monthly rates for such an apartment average $730 in June, $1,985 in July, $2,389 in August, and $584 in September.

Few foreigners realize that eastern Basilicata shares the same warm sea as Greece—or that it has two coasts. The instep of Italy’s boot, it’s practically unknown to non-Italians. And that means it’s almost virgin territory for overseas property buyers.

Basilicata divides into two provinces: Potenza and Matera. With only around 600,000 inhabitants, it’s one of Italy’s most sparsely populated regions. Much of its territory is taken up by the Pollino National Park—around 475,000 untamed acres of mountains, streams, meadows, and pine forests.

The province’s western half has a sliver of Mediterranean coast. There’s just one resort town here: Maratea. Hill town above, marina below, Maratea is stupendously attractive. But it’s got a chic reputation among well-heeled Italians, so bargains here are in short supply.

Beaches are never far away, but the region’s overall character is rural. Decades of emigration have had a big impact, which means you can often get fixer-upper village houses for well below $20,000.

Of course, at that price, you’d spend at least as much on restoration. But in a moment, I’ll explain about one hill town project where all the work is done for you—and a move-into property costs less than $44,000.

To me, Basilicata is as close as things get to time travel. This is like the Italy I first discovered almost 30 years ago. In small towns, you still come across rustic trattorie with no menus—just whatever is being cooked in the kitchen. When the sun goes down, people bring out their chairs onto the street for a glass of wine and a gossip session. Farm laborers escaping the midday sun take their leisurely lunch under the trees.

Even today, English isn’t widely spoken. Especially in hill towns like Irsina, it reminds me of what neighboring Puglia was like in the late 1970s—long before the Brits and Germans discovered it. The old ladies in their thick stockings and floral pinafores could easily be the same ones I saw back then.

The ghosts of ancient history
Metaponto’s beach-goers don’t care much, but memories of Graecia Magna—Greater Greece—are scattered everywhere. Only a couple of miles away, Metapontum’s tumbled ruins are where Pythagoras opened a mathematics and philosophy school. For him and countless other ancient Greek settlers, Italy’s entire deep south represented their “New World.”

If you’re drawn to the long-ago past, things don’t get any better. At sunset, I had ancient Metapontum all to myself. The town, occupied by Hannibal in his struggle against Rome, was later sacked by the slave-rebel Spartacus.

One reason why Basilicata has clung on to its cultural integrity is its remoteness. No budget airlines fly here—the region has no airport. (The nearest is in Bari.) Due to the terrain, once you turn off the Naples-Reggio Calabria Autostrada, getting around is slow.

From Hollywood to Bernalda…

Don’t look for real estate agents in Metaponto—you’ll need to take a 20-minute drive inland to Bernalda. Although Metaponto appeals for a summer vacation home or a rental investment, it’s not the best option for year-round living. During winter, almost everything along the Ionian coast shuts down.

That’s not the case in Bernalda. Home to around 12,000 inhabitants, it’s a proper settlement with medieval origins and an imposing castle. There are supermarkets, too. Most commercial activity is in the modern part, along tree-lined Corso Umberto.

Imagine stopping at a café and seeing movie director Francis Ford Coppola at the next table. If you lived here, you probably would at some point. An honorary citizen of Bernalda since the 1980s, Coppola maintains strong ties with his grandfather’s birthplace and visits frequently. You may even run into Coppola’s nephew—actor Nicolas Cage.

Before long, Bernalda should be firmly on the tourism map—which would be great news for nearby Metaponto. Coppola has bought the town’s 19th-century Palazzo Margherita and plans to convert it into a 12-room boutique hotel.

In a video he produced for the regional tourist office, Coppola is more than enthusiastic about his ancestral homeland. “When you see Basilicata, you see fields, vineyards, beautiful landscapes. You see the land as it should be.”

If you’re seeking a home in small-town Italy—and within easy reach of one of the best sandy beaches on the planet—Bernalda may check all the right boxes for you.

Events to look forward to include a summer jazz festival with jamming sessions down on Metaponto’s beach. The biggest saint’s day festival is on Aug. 31, when the miracle-working San Bernardino is commemorated for saving townsfolk from the plague.

A procession of costumed knights carries a statue of the saint through Bernalda in an elaborately decorated wooden cart. To have the honor of bearing it, truck and tractor owners take part in an auction. Bidding goes on even during the procession, so substitutions often happen. If it all looks familiar, it’s because Coppola recreated scenes from the festival in The Godfather: Part III.

For sale and rental properties in both Bernalda and Metaponto, Fin Center has a good choice. A (fairly) new 1,182-square-foot apartment on Bernalda’s main avenue, Corso Umberto, is $146,000. A 645-square-foot apartment with a small courtyard garden is $80,300. Most apartments here are around $136 per square foot.

Unfortunately, neither Disantis Dipierro nor his assistant speak much English—take along your phrase book. Fin Center; Corso Umberto 233, Bernalda; website: www.fin-center.it.

Back to Basilicata’s Stone Age

Basilicata’s biggest draw for foreign visitors who do find their way here is the city of Matera, particularly its Sassi quarters: Barisano and Caveoso. Stitched together by long flights of stairs, their tangle of rock chapels, abandoned cave dwellings, and tiny stone houses peer back into another age.

Often described as “biblical,” this surreal cityscape was a ready-made set for Mel Gibson, who filmed The Passion of the Christ within the Sassi. Along with bars, restaurants, and B&Bs, some dwellings have been electrified into the 21st century. There are a couple of boutique cave hotels, too.

Under crumbling archways, stepped passages descend into the Sassi from modern Matera. The color of the jumbled dwellings may remind you of weathered gravestones—or bones.

Houses are often stone facades, with caves behind. Gouged from the tufa rock, the most primitive were in a deep ravine. Stroll Strada Panoramica and you’ll see their black oblong entrances—like dice with no spots.

Nowadays, Matera flaunts its troglodyte credentials. But within living memory, this was a Stone Age slum. Twenty thousand people—laborers, peasants, and often animals, too—lived in conditions unfit for human habitation. Citing the Sassi as “Italy’s shame,” an embarrassed post-war government forcibly removed its population into newly built apartments in 1952 and 1953. Until the late 1980s, when people were encouraged to move back, it was a ghost town.

Basilicata as it used to be
Less than 70 years ago, Basilicata was almost a byword for poverty, despair, superstition, and lawlessness. Given the dearth of guidebook pages devoted to it, you might suspect things hadn’t changed.

They have, but Basilicata has long suffered a bad rap. Then known as Lucania, in the 1930s it was one of Mussolini’s prime banishment locations for anti-fascist opponents. If you’re coming this way, grab a copy of Carlo Levi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli. (Eboli is a Basilicata village just over the border from Campania.)

Levi’s journal of malaria-ridden exile gives an insight into the harsh realities of life as it used to be. His title stemmed from a belief among locals that the authorities saw them as barely human.

Of Matera’s 58,000 inhabitants, less than 3,000 are Sassi-dwellers. Even if it was restored, $183,000 seemed ludicrous for a 700-square-foot cave. Numerous houses look beyond salvage. Local demand is for modern city apartments, mostly $280 to $420 per square foot.

I can’t say I blame them. Parking within the Sassi is almost impossible. I had to leave my rental car in an uptown multistory garage. Although I don’t lack stamina, the cobbled steps up to the modern center are crippling. After dark, pit descents are treacherous.

Rent before you buy, indeed. Refurbished one-bedroom Sassi apartments (430 to 537 square feet) are around $620 monthly, furnished. In new Matera, you’ll get two bedrooms in a building with an elevator for that. A 1,290-square-foot apartment with three bedrooms is $855 monthly.

Most Sassi dwellings change hands through private sale, but the one I mentioned is through Gabetti’s agency on via Ascanio Persio. See: www.gabetti.it.

Renovated homes for $44,000

Perched on a hill overlooking grain fields, Irsina is a small town of around 6,000 inhabitants just within Basilicata’s border with Puglia. Like many hill towns, it has churches, fountains, and a labyrinth of medieval lanes opening onto little squares. From the ramparts, views seem to stretch forever over the open countryside.

Backed by the local council, a couple of U.K. agencies offer properties under a project called Terre D’Irsina. There was no agent “on the ground” during my visit, but I went to look at what has been happening. Irsina is a 40-minute drive from Matera. Certainly from outside, the renovated houses look appealing.

Olga Vertija of Real Point Property told me: “The aim of the house sales is two-fold: First and foremost, to generate employment and services locally. The area is traditionally agriculture based and very sleepy. The Terre D’Irsina project uses local artisans for the restoration process as part of a plan to breathe fresh life into the local economy.

“Second, to offer homebuyers a vacation or retirement home in a location where quality of life is high and the cost of living and travel is low. A one-stop shop for people’s dream home in Italy.”

In Phase I, 20 properties (studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom properties) will be available. Once Phase I is complete, a further 50 houses will come on sale. After year one, commercial properties and aristocratic palazzos will also be available for purchase and restoration, subject to availability.

Phase I prices include restoration and furnishing: Studio (approximately less than 376 square feet): $43,800.
One bedroom (less than 538 square feet): $55,500.
Two bedrooms (less than 914 square feet): $65,700.

That’s only a guideline. You sometimes get more space for less money than that. Casa dei Moschettieri (House of the Musketeers) sounds nice—a two-bedroom home (one a loft) with a roof terrace. It has a kitchenette/living room and a little outdoor courtyard, graniglia marble floors, and vaulted ceilings. Size: Approximately 613 square feet, including terrace. Price: $58,400.

And I really like this idea. The local council’s initiatives aimed at welcoming foreign homebuyers includes a mentorship program that matches local families with incomers. You’ll be taken under a local family’s wing and matched according to similar interests. “So if it’s wine tasting, fishing, or vintage cars that’s your passion, you can make friends locally and enjoy it basking in the Italian sun.”

For more information, contact: www.realpointitaly.com or www.tricali.co.uk.