A rural, affordable land of clean lakes and pretty hills, there’s much more to Lazio than Rome. This diverse and increasingly popular bit of Italy offers properties for every pocket.

All roads lead to Rome, they say. It’s paradoxical, therefore, that so few roads seem to lead into the region surrounding The Eternal City. Here quiet countryside and tiny ancient towns see very few passers-through, in complete contrast to the mad hustle and bustle of Italy’s capital. Rome may have been the centre of the world for a long time, but Lazio – radiating for miles in every direction from its one big city – has never really been the centre of anything.

Price-wise, Lazio has a very mixed market. Rome is one of the priciest spots in Italy, but it offers superb rental prospects and sees no shortage of foreign property-seekers. Town-sized Viterbo, to Rome’s north, is strangely expensive for what it offers, and yet attracts quite a few overseas buyers. The lovely Sabine Hills area

Elsewhere foreign buyers have very little presence, and property prices can be very low indeed. Chances are that whatever your budget, you’ll be able to find something to suit you in Lazio. There are farmhouses here for less than €100,000, and old country villas up for more than €1 million. Village apartments can go for

Heart of Italy
Lazio sits halfway down the Italian peninsula, bordered to the north by Tuscany and Umbria, to the east by wild, mountainous Abruzzo, and to the south by Molise and Campania. The Mediterranean laps its long western edge. More than any other single Italian region, Lazio can be said to mark the turning point between the rich, cultured north and the hot, slow-paced south. Culturally, it doesn’t really belong to either half, having its own special status as the region round the country’s capital. Economically, it’s rather poor and thinly-populated, like many of Italy’s southern regions. But the presence of Rome ensures a certain level of sophistication, and encourages a high standard of infrastructure reminiscent of Italy’s north. Set at the heart of things, and bordering such a diverse selection of other regions, Lazio offers arguably unparalleled opportunities for understanding Italy as a whole. The north and the south are both on your doorstep, as well as the country’s capital.

Physically, Lazio enjoys immense diversity. The green and fertile northern tip, with its rolling volcanic hills and tiny ancient towns, shows clear similarities to the landscapes of adjacent Umbria and Tuscany. This northern area is increasingly known as ‘La Tuscia’, a tourist-board-driven revival of the name given it by the Etruscans who used to dominate the place. It’s a land of unspoilt countryside and fabulously clean crater-lakes – namely Lake Bolsena, Lake Bracciano and tiny Lake Vico. Ex-pats and second-home-owners from northern Europe have been increasing their numbers here over the last decade – especially round Lake Bolsena – but without making much of a dent in the area’s character or prompting any excess of new building. Throughout northern Lazio’s spacious, pretty landscape, you can expect repeatedly to come across thermal springs, Etruscan roads carved through the soft volcanic rock, Etruscan tombs and innumerable ancient Roman relics.

Northeast of Rome, on the long spur of Lazio which stretches out between Umbria and Abruzzo to touch the tip of Le Marche, the landscape grows very different. The pretty Sabine Hills here recall the gentle, rolling landscapes of La Tuscia, but thereafter they buckle into forbidding Apennine peaks – wild and very thinly populated. The Sabine Hills, with their olive groves, sunflower

South of Rome, beyond the attractive Albano Hills, Lazio spools a vast flat plain – perhaps mountainous Italy’s largest area of flat land after the mighty Po Valley. Much of it is reclaimed marshland, dotted now with small modern-built towns. Far inland, gentle foothills rise from the plain to meet the high Apennines again. Lazio’s coastline tends to be a flat, relatively empty place with long, straight stretches of grey-gold sand. There are a few modern-built resorts of greater or lesser charm, but there are also plenty of wild, windswept stretches where you’ll have only sand and dune-grass for company. Near Sabaudia in the south you’ll find tranquil lagoons teeming with wildfowl. The general consensus is that the southern half of Lazio’s coast is more appealing than the north. There are a few undeniably charming seaside towns in the south. And for the last few miles before the border with Campania, Lazio’s largely flat coastline suddenly buckles into attractive cliffs and coves – a foretaste of the drama to come in Campania. Perhaps Lazio’s best-kept secret is the gorgeous little group of Caprí-like Pontine Islands off its southern coast.

Finding your space
As this physical description of Lazio makes clear, this is a thinly-populated region with lots of space. Only five million people live here – and four million of them are in Rome. As such, unless you plan to buy in Rome, you’ll probably find life much easier in Lazio if you have your own transport. The roads are very well-maintained, and there’s enough of them to get you quickly to all the places you want to explore, but they’re neither very big nor very full. They’re certainly not well-stocked with buses. And there aren’t many train lines to get you from town to town, either. So do try to factor a car into your thinking if you’re planning to buy here.

Naturally, for many would-be buyers, Lazio’s relative lack of traffic and people is a positive boon. As is the small size of the vast majority of its settlements. There are lots of pleasant villages and peaceable small towns to choose from. And a low population means relatively little modern building. So there’s a wealth of old stone homes available in the unspoilt ancient villages and towns. As the region borders highly-desirable Tuscany and Umbria, many buyers who’ve been priced out of those two regions have been coming to Lazio. There’s a wider age range of buyers here than in pricy Tuscany and Umbria. Younger buyers have been taking advantage of lower prices in the countryside, or taking up jobs in Rome and buying there. And many Brits in their 40s, 50s and 60s have bought holiday homes in Lazio with a view to eventually retiring in the region.

The numbers game
[All quoted prices accurate in 2007.] As we noted earlier, property in Lazio sports a very wide range of pricetags, so there’s something here to suit every budget. Let’s look at some sample properties currently for sale in different price brackets, to give you an idea of what you can expect to pay for what and where. Buyers hoping to spend less than €100,000 in Lazio can still find smallish properties for sale in more popular parts of the region. In ‘La Tuscia’ (the far north), you can find village apartments for around €50,000. In the northeast, in the Apennines foothills, a large farmhouse needing work with land might ask €75,000. Buyers on a small budget should definitely investigate the currently less popular parts of Lazio – the southern plain or the southern Apennine area, for example. It’ll be more difficult to find properties in these places advertised in English on the internet, however, and you might have to rely on small local estate agents or on finding properties yourself by driving round and/or asking local people if they know anyone who’s selling anything (a very normal way of property-hunting in Italy).

Buyers planning to spend between €100,000 and €200,000 have a good deal of choice in Lazio, and can easily consider its more popular areas. There’s a three-bedroom apartment to restore near Viterbo in 'La Tuscia' for €130,000. Not far from here, about 50km north of Rome on a rural hilltop, four ruined houses and land are offered for €135,000. In Montefiascone on Lake Bolsena, there’s a five-bed house needing work for €120,000, and a three-bed one needing no work for €146,000. Nearby, in the beautiful borderland with Umbria, a derelict stone farmhouse is asking €160,000. In the Sabine Hills northeast of Rome, village homes go for about €120,000-€220,000, and at least one farmhouse needing work is asking €190,000.

Upward from these prices, you might consider any of the sizeable modern homes in Montefiascone asking €220,000-€350,000. Fully restored medieval village homes 45 minutes north of Rome ask €300,000-€400,000. How about a two-bed apartment in central Rome? They average about €360,000. Country villas, often with pools, get going at about €400,000 and go up to over €1 million. Assorted stately townhouses and grand village houses up to 45 minutes from Rome in any direction start at about €500,000 and again go up to over €1 million.

Rent, relocate
Many British buyers in Lazio will be thinking about retiring here, and it’s true that the region offers a good quality of life. It’s warm, it’s unspoilt, it’s safe, it’s quiet. But it’s not ‘backward’ in any way. Medical services are good, along with roads and schools, and there’s always the world-class facilities of Rome never too far away. Most buyers, meanwhile, whether they want to retire here eventually or not, will be hoping to rent out their Lazio home to holidaymakers for at least some of the year. Depending on how important reliable rental returns are to you, you might want to buy in the most potentially profitable areas. Earlier parts of this article will have given you an idea where those areas might be, but here’s a quick rundown to make it absolutely clear.

Central Rome is an obvious first choice for rentals profit. You can rent out an apartment here pretty much year-round, as visitors don’t just come for the summer (in fact, Rome is horribly hot in July and August, and best avoided). To maximise a Roman apartment’s rentability, try to buy one close to a metro station and, if at all possible, with an outdoor space like a balcony or terrace. Don’t expect it to come cheap, though! Note that holidaymakers need not be your only target clientele. Many owners find that long-term lets to young professionals or even to students gain them an ultimately better return on their investment in Rome.

After Rome, you’re best off considering obvious holiday destinations to maximise your rental return in Lazio. Look at the seaside resorts in the south – places like Terracina and Sperlonga. And look at Lake Bolsena in the far north, on the edge of Tuscany and Umbria. These are reliable places to garner summer holiday rents. In the case of Lake Bolsena, you could expect a range of northern European nationals to show interest in your property from May to October. Beyond Rome and the more obvious holiday areas, a fair few visitors are drawn to Lazio’s quiet rural spaces. Specifically, they come to the Sabine Hills, the Albano Hills, and the countryside north of Rome. If you advertise well, you shouldn’t struggle to find paying summer guests in these places.

If you buy a home in Lazio, in whatever area, you can tell yourself you’ve made a canny choice. You haven’t gone for the obvious prestige and ruinous expense of Tuscany or Umbria, but you’ve got yourself a place in glorious central Italy. You’ve got easy access to unspoilt countryside and to a dazzling capital city. You’ve got hills, mountains, lakes and the seaside to visit. Your chosen region has an awful lot going for it, and with an increasing number of foreign buyers realising this, you’ve got a good chance of watching the value of your home in Lazio rise and rise over time.

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[All quoted prices accurate in 2007]

‘La Tuscia’ – north of Rome
Northern Lazio, a.k.a. ‘La Tuscia’, was a major Etruscan stomping ground. The roads and tombs of these high-achieving ancient people litter the countryside here, lying alongside innumerable Roman relics. Highly volcanic in prehistoric times, northern Lazio is lushly fertile and green now, with spectacular displays of wildflowers in the spring. The long-dead volcanoes also spawned a trio of lovely lakes, Bracciano, Vico and Bolsena – each crystal-clear and drinkably clean. These lakes, together with the pretty countryside and pleasant little towns typical of the area, have drawn increasing numbers of visitors and second-home-buyers over the last decade. Lake Bolsena in particular has seen a rise in property prices, with homes here making very good holiday rental returns. The whole area is still completely unspoilt, however, and remains much cheaper than neighbouring Umbria or Tuscany. Village apartments can go for around €50,000; medium-sized townhouses and farmhouses in various states of repair range from €120,000 to €400,000. Attractive new-builds appealing to the holiday-home buyer are particularly plentiful on the outskirts of Montefiascone on Lake Bolsena, with 3- and 4-bed homes going for €200,000-€350,000. Pleasant little historical towns abound in la Tuscia; consider Tuscania, Tarquinia, Bolsena, and Bagnoregio. The largest settlement in the area is Viterbo, a dour medieval city with a lively young populace. Note that property prices are higher round Viterbo than they are round nearby Lake Bolsena.

The Sabine Hills – northeast of Rome
About an hour’s drive northeast from Rome, the lovely rural Sabine Hills have in recent years been attracting numerous retirees and second-home-buyers from northern Europe. The rolling, olive-clad countryside here is peaceful and thinly-populated – dotted with medieval villages, old castles and churches. With Rome just an hour away, and with Umbria just a few miles off, the location is understandably appealing. Property prices are still fairly low, especially compared to nearby Tuscany, Umbria and Rome – three of Italy’s priciest locales. Village homes tend to go for about €120,000-€220,000, and foreigners have bought up quite a few of these. A good-sized farmhouse needing restoration might ask €190,000, while a comfortable, modern-built country villa might go for as much as €500,000. Property prices tail off noticeably as you move further northeast, from the Sabine Hills up into the Apennines. The area around Rieti has the second lowest population density in Italy (after Valle d’Aosta in the Alps). Wholly unspoilt by industry, modern housing estates and the like, Lazio’s northeastern Apennine area should definitely appeal to the bargain-hunter. You might find a large farmhouse needing work round here for €75,000.

Rome
Seat of one of the world’s most influential and longest-lasting empires, Rome is a spectacularly historic city which currently attracts around 12 million visitors a year. They come not just for the Classical relics, the Renaissance palaces and Baroque fountains. Not just for the abundant Caravaggios and Michelangelos, not even just for a glimpse of the pope. They come to taste the brash, loud, quirky, vibrant city immortalised by Fellini et al. They come to sample a unique atmosphere, and they’re rarely disappointed. Some never leave. A high proportion of ex-pats who settle down in Rome ‘for a while’ never go home again. This is good news for foreign buyers who’d like to have compatriot friends in Italy’s capital, and good news for relocaters who want to send their kids to international schools. The bad news is that Rome is one of Italy’s priciest cities, with central properties costing between €2,500 and €4,500 per square metre of floor space, and outlying properties asking €1,500 or more. So central two-bedroom apartments average about €360,000, and three-beds around €400,000. Currently the most expensive districts are Parioli and Salaria, with Trastevere and Gianicolo hotting up fast. Rome is considered a good investment, especially given the excellent rental prospects for most properties here. Long-term lets to students or young professionals are thought to be an even better bet than holiday rentals.

South of Rome
Marking the real beginning of ‘Il Mezzogiorno’ (the Italian south), southern Lazio is remarkably different from the Lazio north of Rome. The green and sometimes rolling countryside of the north gives way south of the capital largely to flat marshlands and harsh, inaccessible mountains. The weather is warmer, the pace of life just that little bit slower. It’s a largely ignored place, with few visitors, few foreign buyers, and generally low property prices once you’re more than an hour from the capital. Immediately south and southeast of Rome, Lake Albano and the Albano Hills create a very pleasant area, home to many attractive little towns such as Frascati and Palestrina. Further south, from Fiuggi to Montecassino, the area called ‘Ciociaria’ is a remote and pretty stretch of Apennine foothills dotted with ancient towns especially notable for their cyclopean walls. Buyers hoping for bargains in Lazio could do a lot worse than looking for a property round here.

The coast
Few visitors come to Lazio for its seaside. But that might be the very reason you’d like to buy a home here. If you like long, straight stretches of dull-coloured sand backed by flat, empty countryside, look to the region’s northern half. You should find pretty low property prices until just before the border with Tuscany, and there’ll be plenty of space and quiet. If you’re after a seaside locale with less subtle charms, keep going south. Small coastal resorts like Anzio and Nettuno are pleasant places, while Terracina and fashionable Sperlonga are very attractive indeed. These last two towns are sited on what many believe to be Lazio’s loveliest stretch of coast, featuring cliffs and coves which prefigure the delights of Campania’s coast a few miles further on. If you fancy somewhere really gorgeous and ridiculously unknown outside Italy, check out the Pontine islands offshore from here.

My Home in Lazio

Juliet Haydock from Twickenham owns two properties in Capena, a village 30km north of Rome. One is a small house and the other a flat in an old monastery. She visits as often as she can, and rents her homes to holidaymakers when she’s not there.

“I used to live in Capena about 20 years ago, in my twenties, just after I went to live and work in Rome,” Juliet explains. “There were always a lot of artists living in the village; an artist friend of mine took me out there and I fell in love with it. I ended up living there and commuting to Rome.” After moving back to England, Juliet couldn’t resist renewing her links with Capena. “When my children were about 5 and 6, I started going back, and I was welcomed with open arms. They actually set up a trestle table in the square of the village and we had this wonderful meal to welcome me back. I couldn’t believe it. My two little boys made friends there, and after that we never wanted to go anywhere else on holiday.”

A holiday home in the village was the obvious next step. “I’m lucky enough to have been friendly with a local builder for many years. He bought the places and did them up, and I agreed to buy them when he’d finished. All I had to do was furnish them. The monastery where my flat is dates back to the 16th century. It’s built on the site of a medieval citadel, which is on the site of an Etruscan burial ground. It all goes back years and years. I’ve got caves in my property which were carved out by hand 2,000 years ago. All the old houses in the village have got old cantinas and caves.”

The holiday bookings for Juliet’s homes are going well. “Funnily enough, a lot of the bookings I get are not for school holidays; they’re out of season,” she says. “That suits me just fine, because with two teenage sons at school I can only go out there in the school holidays myself. I think maybe it’s the sort of place that appeals to retired-active people who want to do something different to just sitting by a pool, do something with a bit of history.”

Asked what she likes about Lazio, Juliet is unhesitating in her answers. “There are some lovely beaches if you know where to look. I love the island of Ponza.  I love the lakes, I love the hot springs – you can find hot springs in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere. And there’s even skiing about an hour away in the Apennines or the Abruzzo National Park.”

For more on Juliet’s homes, visit: www.casacapena.com