Italy

Everything starts with a coffee in Puglia. May 2024. The olive trees here have mastered the art of patience. They have stood for centuries, watching empires rise and disappear, families come and go, fortunes made and lost. They have seen architects arrive from Milan, foreign buyers searching for authenticity, and more than a few people convinced they would “only need light renovations”. [...] Our clients, Niels and Maxime, had been introduced to us by a local restaurateur.

Travelling to Puglia requires roughly the same mindset as life itself: expect the unexpected and try to keep your head held high, whatever happens. We arrive in May, drawn south by the red earth of the Terra Rossa. That evening, we join Tristan and his partner, our local Experts, for dinner at their masseria. The coolness of ancient stone walls. Candlelight dripping slowly onto long wooden tables. Homemade spritz, antipasti, pasta alle vongole...

There are transactions that unfold like a waltz — elegant, predictable, three-four time. And then there are transactions that unfold like an international custody dispute conducted by correspondence, across five time zones, with August in the middle. This is the second kind. It was September. Our expert in Italy was on holiday in Turkey for a cousin’s wedding. She was seated by the swimming pool — not out of leisure, but because that was where the wifi was least hostile — w

I’d come to Lake Como for three days. Not to holiday, not to sightsee. To walk the shores with our local expert, scout properties, and understand a market from the inside. By the time I left, I was convinced: Lake Como is the most underrated trophy asset destination in Europe.