Believing Campania was too expensive, I’ve never investigated property in southern Italy’s best-known region. But during an Internet trawl, I came across a real estate agency in Calitri, one of its hill towns.
Its listings left me dumbfounded.
Description: Living room with kitchenette; big bathroom, wine cave. Two bedrooms, balcony with view. Property size: 70 square meters. Price: €35,000.
A 752-square-foot property for $51,650? With a wine cave? In high-priced, glamorous Campania? From the photos, the house was move-straight-into. No restoration needed.
This wasn’t a one-off. Properties to restore started at just $15,000. I didn’t know where Calitri was—but I wanted to go find it.
First, though, a little about Campania. South of Rome, this region is major league. If you love good wine, good food, and all things beautiful, it’s certain to push your “come hither” buttons.
History bursts from every corner…lizards from every crevice. Umbrella pines bow down under skies as exuberantly blue as the sea. Centuries-old villas are graced with classical statues—their balustrades half-hidden with honeysuckle, bougainvillea, and morning glory.
The Isle of Capri…Positano, Amalfi, Ravello. Perched on cliffs, villages come with ever more mesmerizing views. Overhanging the Mediterranean, Ravello’s Belvedere of Infinity resembles some divine theater balcony designed for pagan gods. No surprise that Wagner partly composed his opera Parsifal here.
And rising above the Bay of Naples is Italy’s temperamental showpiece: Vesuvius—the volcano that obliterated Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Inspiring generations of writers, painters, and musicians, Campania is celebrity territory, honeymoon territory—and for many non-Europeans, vacation-of-a-lifetime territory. But it isn’t normally property-hunting territory.
Yet venture beyond the tourist trail and you’ll discover plenty of homes for less than $100,000. Seriously.
A town of around 6,000, Calitri hides in one of Campania’s hilly green recesses, up near the borders of neighboring Basilicata and Puglia. As many houses have similar pastel colors, it’s nicknamed “Positano d’Irpinia,” after the Amalfi coast fishing village.
Irpinia is this border area’s old name. Ridged with hills, peppered with abbeys and Norman castles, its trails are ancient. More than 2,000 years ago, Hannibal marched this way during Rome and Carthage’s Punic Wars. Folklore says the local Ofante river is a corruption of elefante—elephant. Apparently some of Hannibal’s elephants drowned in it.
Although remote-sounding, Calitri isn’t too far from Campania’s crowd-pleasers. If you lived here (or bought for vacations), day-trip options within 90-minutes’ drive are plentiful. The Amalfi coast…Pompeii…Naples. And that’s just for starters.
Understandably, first-timers focus on Italy’s brand-name locations. But repeat visitors often yearn for the more authentic. Heavily touristed areas can be disappointing.
With good marketing, I can envisage a little rental house in Calitri’s medieval quarter attracting seasoned travelers. Between spring and fall, a two-bedroom house should rent for $500 a week.
But before getting into property, let me explain why Calitri captivated me.
Along the brow of a steep hill, it’s one of those unspoiled towns that many of us dream of finding. The kind where locals follow the drowsy beat of their own drum, not some monstrous cacophony orchestrated by the tourism industry.
No horse-drawn carriages. No tacky souvenir shops, “tarantella” shows and idiots crooning That’s Amore. No fancy cocktail bars, no global brands. No menus translated into seven languages.
If you demand that nonsense, stick to Sorrento. Calitri is the real Italian deal.
A full quota of medieval magic
Awaiting you is its Borgo Antico—the “old village.” This is ancient Calitri, a world of stone archways, alleys, and narrow steps…faded palazzos…walls emblazoned with sculpted stone heads, shells, and coats of arms…a castle and Municipio (town hall) that in previous lifetimes served as a convent and then the town jail.
Calitri once needed a jail. The elderly black-clad women who sit outside their doorways grew up on stories of brigands like Carmine Crocco. At one time, his “bandit army” was 2,000 strong.
Brigandry as a career choice
During the mid-19th-century struggle for Italian unification, Calitri’s border country was lawless. Born in 1830 in a Monte Vulture village, Carmine Crocco took the outlaw path in 1851 after killing a man who compromised his sister. From lairs in the beech woods above Monticchio, his brigand army often descended on Calitri for their version of R&R. With an emerald lake overlooked by a monastery, Monticchio is a 25-minute drive over the border in Basilicata.
Aquilonia’s Ethnographic Museum possesses some early photos of captured brigands. The grisliest show the fate of some—their decapitated heads got displayed in cages. Crocco was captured in 1872, but his death sentence was commuted to hard labor. He died in an Isle of Elba prison in 1905.
These old-timers grew up on superstition, too. Witches, magic, and local healers were all part of daily life. Maybe they still are…in the nearby village of Aquilonia, an ethnographic museum reveals many odd secrets.
Wandering around is a joy. A grille might be covering a secret passage—yes, Calitri has them—or a subterranean “grotto” with perfect humidity. Some still store maturing cheeses, wine, olive oil, and huge jars of tomato pulp.
Scarlet chili peppers dry in the sunshine, and you’re usually offered marinated chili oil to drizzle across homemade pasta. From chickpea soups to peppery minced pork patties and sun-ripe tomatoes, the food is hearty and sublime.
Ancient Romans named this region Campania Felix, the fertile land. Even professionals buy pigs to be reared by farmers. The locally produced cured hams and salamis are like nothing you find in supermarkets.
Within the Borgo, there’s a carpentry workshop whose retired owner produces gorgeous marquetry-inlaid tables and mirror frames. These aren’t for sale—he makes them for family and friends. He read me a poem that seemed to suggest wood represents time, and that carpenters are the timekeepers.
Beware of rainbows, don’t break pots, and avoid the evil eye…
Translated into English, www.calitritradizioni.it details Calitri’s superstitions and spell-craft. If you think you’ve been stricken by malocchio (the evil eye), you’ll learn how to counter it. Apparently some locals still believe it exists…
One superstition told that if children pointed at a rainbow, their fingers would become jaundiced. The cure? Make a midnight visit to a crossroads, carrying an earthenware pot containing rue mixed with other herbs. The next person who passes—and inadvertently breaks the pot—releases the sufferer from the disease. Of course, the jaundice is transferred to the unlucky pot-smasher.
Calitri is so labyrinthine, I wouldn’t have found this place without Emma Basile, the young owner of Portadoriente real estate agency. Nor Locanda dell’ Arco, an inn whose terrace looks toward Monte Vulture in wild Basilicata. Thinking the mountain resembled the wing-spread of a vulture, Roman soldiers bequeathed the name.
With Coda di Volpe (Tail of the Fox) wine, this was a wonderful meal of local specialties. Adding romance to a starry night, three elderly men beside us suddenly started singing. Then a woman leaned from an upper window and erupted into verbal fireworks about their racket. Classic Italy!
Like most small towns, Calitri has its weekly street market (Thursday mornings) and the passegiata. Every evening, what seems like the whole population turns out to amble along Corso Garibaldi.
There’s an array of seasonal food festivals—and on Good Friday, the “Procession of the Mystery” to nearby Monte Calvario’s Sanctuary. Fratelli (laymen of church fraternities) put on white capes and hoods along with thorny crowns. At Christmas, Nativity scenes are created in some of the old grottos.
Small investments, massive potential
Some travelers—and property buyers—are now discovering Calitri. It’s largely through the efforts of English-speaking Emma. After getting a degree at Naples University, she returned home with solid ideas to resurrect the Borgo Antico.
In conjunction with the municipality, Emma works with architects, surveyors, and a construction company specializing in restoration. Along with reviving the Borgo, another aim is to attract quality tourism to the area.
For most locals, home is modern Calitri. Stretching for a mile or so, it’s nothing spectacular, but fine if you prefer a non-medieval home. An assortment of shops and a supermarket supply necessities—and the tasty $8 pizzas in Ristorante Manhattan come from a wood-fired oven.
Here, a 914-square-foot apartment with balcony on via Maffucci is $105,000. It has a view toward the Borgo and across miles of hilly countryside.
Nowadays, only around 500 people inhabit the Borgo. It doesn’t feel dead, but older residents remember when they had 10,000 neighbors. But life in the 1950s and before was tough. Most people lived a peasant lifestyle, rising before dawn to work tiny fields below the hill. Almost everyone owned a donkey.
With high unemployment and far lower wages than in the wealthier north, emigration has long been part of life. That’s one reason why southern towns like Calitri have gluts of bargain properties. Here there’s still little work outside of agriculture—only a couple of small factories producing denim jeans and ceramics in the valley.
Foreigners often romanticize old stone properties. However, for most Italians, they represent the past’s poverty and overcrowding. Dwellings of 600 square feet or less often housed families with six or more kids. A spacious modern apartment is still the Italian holy grail.
When Calitri’s new town was built, national government funding allowed the council to offer a swap. In exchange for new apartments, many inhabitants gave their Borgo properties to the Municipio.
Then came 1980’s Irpinia earthquake. Although most of old Calitri survived intact, it resulted in another hemorrhage of Borgo lifeblood. Even 10 years ago, people were getting grants to build new houses in the countryside.
Will another terramoto (earthquake) ever happen? Who can say? Like exploding volcanoes, geological gyrations aren’t unknown. Italy’s last earthquake was in 1997. It struck Assisi, the town of St Francis in Umbria—but tourists and homebuyers haven’t stopped going there.
Calitri properties: From basic to luxury
Pitched astoundingly low, a number of Borgo houses are habitable. Emma has one such 1,074-square-foot house on via Torre for $60,000.
Other properties have three options: bought “as is,” to include basic restoration, or to cover luxury restoration. For example, an unrestored 752-square-foot house on via Zarrilli is for sale. It has a living room with kitchenette, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a wine cave. Price: $33,000.
The $51,650 option includes basic restoring and furnishing—a fitted-kitchen, wardrobe, and double bed.
The “luxury opportunity” is $82,500. This package covers new floors with cotto tiles; restoring of windows and main door; new shower-room and fitted kitchen; various furniture. Plus electricity and methane gas connections and a Works Director/Surveyor to design drawings, get any necessary planning permission, liaise with builders, decorators, electricians, plumbers, etc.
Notary fees (around 2.5% of cadastral value) and property registration taxes are excluded. Purchase costs depend on whether you intend relocating to Italy. Residents pay 3% registration fees; non-residents pay 10%. As you have 18 months to decide whether to declare residency, you could still qualify for the lesser levy.
For most properties, annual property taxes and garbage collection taxes are €350 to €500 ($525 to $750).
Vines, olives, and fields of golden durum wheat…Calitri’s sheep-nibbled countryside also delivers bargains. About seven miles from town, near Aquilonia, Emma showed me a 1,935-square-foot modern villa purchased by a British woman last January.
In move-into condition, it cost her just $125,000—including 2.5 acres blossoming with wildflowers. It’s the usual hunt-for-work story. This villa was built with grant money. The former owners emigrated to Switzerland and are now settled there.
Although not as spruce, another habitable 860-square-foot country house on around an acre is $60,000. Two miles from Calitri, a similar-sized rosy house with covered patio is $210,000. It’s immaculate. The land, more than an acre, includes fruit and olive trees.
Outside Andretta village (once famed for its exorcist priest), a 752-square-foot rural house with 2.5 acres of land is $52,500. I don’t know how the village’s Casa dei Martiri (House of Martyrs) got its name, but a restored 860-square-foot apartment in this building is $60,000.
Contact: Emma Basile, Portadoriente, Corso Matteotti, 79, 83045 Calitri (AV), Italy; tel./fax (39)0827-34-955; website: www.portadoriente.org.
NEED TO KNOW
One drawback to Calitri’s Borgo is parking space. Some streets have suitable nooks, but most are pedestrian-only. It usually means parking below the castle and then walking.
Depending on a vendor’s need to sell, you may get non-municipal property cheaper. In Italy’s financial climate, offering 10% to 20% below asking price is common.
For those not living in Calitri permanently, Emma Basile provides a Residents’ Management Service. The annual fee of $225 covers paying utility bills and property taxes on your behalf, and “house ready for use” service.
Getting there
Rome airport is a four-hour drive; Naples airport is around 90 minutes. Buses go from Rome, Naples, and Salerno to Avellino (Campania). At Avellino, change buses for Calitri.
I went by train from Rome to Salerno city in southern Campania and collected a rental car there. From Salerno, take Autostrada A3 in the Reggio Calabria direction. Leave the Autostrada at Contursi Terme and then follow signs for Lioni-Calitri.
Where to stay
My base was Hotel Ambasciatori in Calitri new town. With seasonal outdoor pool and plenty of parking space, doubles are $105 a night. See: www.ambasciatorihotel-av.it. Emma can arrange a Borgo B&B or rental accommodation.