2 questions

[chrisellis]

Hi,
My husband and I are Americans looking at the possibility of purchasing property in Scalea or Santa Domenica Talao. I was wondering what the music scene is like there. I play classical violin and am a singer/songwriter.
Also I have read about earthquakes in the region. We are from California and have been through some big ones so we do worry a bit. I do know that a lot of the buildings are quite old there so it follows that they have not been destroyied by earthquakes and most of the nasty seismic stuff seems to have been occurring some 60 miles south near Sicily. Any information you can give would be welcomed.
Thanks
Chris :-D

[Dermot Brophy]

Ciao, Chris.

I can make no useful comment on the seismic situation - except to hope that modern buildings actually obey the earthquake resistant building code which has been in force for some time now.

My wife and I live for part of the year in San Nicola Arcella - a little spot we have grown to love. We are both interested in clasical music - I have been conducting choirs and orchestras all my life - we both play early music on recorders of various dimensions, etc.

The main musical activity around here is some quite seriously good jazz, but not much in the way of classical. I know of one serious young pianist - I'm sure there are other musicians about. It would be rather nice if we could develop a bit of music-making in the region.

So, if you do decide to come over, please get in touch. If nothing else, we can shoot the breeze about common musical interests!

Dermot

[jessie]

Hi Dermot,
Just thought I would mention (since you mentioned orchestra conducting) that last September on our way back from Scalea to Rome on the train, we met a lovely couple, Vladimir and Olga Ponkin. I think he is a very famous Russian composer and they have a holiday home in Scalea.

Jessie

[jessie]

Sorrry Dermot, I ment to say conductor.


Jessie

[Italy4me]

Oh yes - he sure is famous!
Vladimir Ponkin, Conductor - Blue Orchid Artist Management Wolfgang Condin

I am pleased to see he has the good taste to have bought a place in our area!

[chrisellis]

Hi Dermot,
Thanks for your reply. How exciting! I love jazz as well and would love to really play more. I also sing and have always wanted to sing some of my old favorite jazz tunes with great musicians. I love all kinds of music and love talking about it. I am so glad you responded to my post. It makes me even mroe excited about heading over!

[chrisellis]

PS Thanks Jesse and Modertaor. I am excited about meeting you all!
Chris

[Doug]

Hello Chris,

We too moved here from the states, but cannot answer the music questions other than Santa Domenica doesn't seem to have any formal music groups. It's just 1340 people here. You hear kids practicing instruments during siesta, and we hear similar young musicians at the Scuola Media where some of us take our daily Italian lessons. Scalea, being larger and wealthier, probably has more going with music groups. There are some people in San Nicola Arcella into jazz.

Regarding the earthquakes -- right-on about everything still standing. SDT is not as old as Scalea Centro Storico, but buildings of 2-300 years are still standing. We looked at one for sale this evening with huge cracks and thought "yeah, it can withstand a lot". That, since most of Italy is an earthquake risk. We found we cannot buy earthquake insurance here as "the government will take care of you". Well, you may have heard about the government response to victims in L'Aquila!! At any rate, we chose not to worry. You cannot burn these buildings with wildfires and earthquakes have not leveled the village, so the risk must be relatively low. Crime is about non-existent, so what remains for an insurance policy? Maybe liability coverage for serving people my versions of Italian recipes? dj

Good luck with your planning.

[chrisellis]

Doug!
You are hilarious! I would eat your Italian cooking any time. Your thought mirror mine with regard to earthquakes. Most of those houses have been around for a long long time. Plus nothing is foir sure in this world so we may as well go for the dreams. Hmmmm, SDT may be a good place to get all those cute music students together and organized. Is it tough to have a business there what with visas and work permits and things?
Thanks for all your info!
Chris

[Italy4me]

Doug,

Although ITALIAN insurance companies don't offer earthquake insurance our UK broker does.
Overseas Property Insurance, Property Insurance, Holiday Home Insurance

Also offered by Italsure (who you already use for car insurance, I believe)
www.italsure.it

[Dermot Brophy]

Hello, Chris, Jessie et al.,

This Ponkin chap seems to have a pretty impressive CV all right, Leslie - I have just followed the link you quoted. Would be interested to meet him sometime - he must speak something other than Russian!

Thanks for passing on the imformation, Jessie - we'll assemble a cultural cadre in the place yet!

We should be over by early June - volcanic ash etc permitting - so we'll hope to have a few good faccia-a-faccias over a few coffees before long.

Meanwhile, auguri a tutti.

Dermot

[chrisellis]

Brophy, yes I looked at his site as well. Very accomplished. I spoke with my cute string group which are my students. They all want to come over when we get settled. I will miss seeing you Brophy as we will be there for a short time in October for about a week. Hopefully we will find our place then but it may take a few trips. I have never done this type of thing before so don't know what to expect but it sure is fun to plan. I hope it won't be too long before we meet.
Chris

[chrisellis]

OOOps! Sorry, I meant Dermot or Mr. Brophy!

[claire tudge]

We get our insurance via intasure it costs us £9.34 a month, and you have to pay the first £5,000 of any claim against earthquake damage, dont think Scalea is on a major fault line though, from what I heard recently, which has reassured me

[june]

Originally Posted by claire tudge

We get our insurance via intasure it costs us £9.34 a month, and you have to pay the first £5,000 of any claim against earthquake damage, dont think Scalea is on a major fault line though, from what I heard recently, which has reassured me

Hi Claire

This seems very reasonable, what else does it cover you for apart from earthquake damage?

June

[claire tudge]

From memory, it was buildings and (modest) contents insurance, it also covered legalities for rental, damage/injury hope this helps but the website would be more useful as my property is in the lower bracket in terms of valuation so it may not give you a clear idea of costs Intasure Holiday Home Insurance & Second Home Insurance telephone Croydon +44(0) 208 274 6777

[june]

Originally Posted by claire tudge

From memory, it was buildings and (modest) contents insurance, it also covered legalities for rental, damage/injury hope this helps but the website would be more useful as my property is in the lower bracket in terms of valuation so it may not give you a clear idea of costs Intasure Holiday Home Insurance & Second Home Insurance telephone Croydon +44(0) 208 274 6777

Thanks Claire

That sounds great.

June

[dmbt54]

We use
Italsure - Expatriate Insurance Solutions
and feel they have good terms.

Both of these are - speak English, insure in Italy....... (Which I guess is what we all look for! - certainly to start with.)

I took over our property last year and arranged cover instantly by phone/credit card ringing a UK number.