Press Coverage on La Doccia

'Olive Farming in Tuscany' - Article reproduced from the Royal Agricultural College alumni journal 'Landmark 2005'

Rupert Mayhew D Course 1996

Determined not to be a farmer after leaving Cirencester I headed to London for a job in IT which resulted in seven years selling software for two American companies. A sideways step then took me into the family business in Italy which included an abandoned farm of 70 acres in Tuscany. We had been running the business, an agriturismo, for five years but to my constant dismay the land remained untouched during every visit I made, so, on heading out to Italy I quickly took on the task of changing this.

Half the land was mature oak woodland but the rest was full of staggeringly overgrown olive trees. Head high brambles made passage difficult and each tree needed to be cleared of wild roses and brambles, a job done by hand. I cleared 300 by the time Antonio joined me to prune the trees in springtime. Olive farming is a subject with hardly any information available in English. I tried a number of sources last year, including the College library and Landsmans, but information was scarce so this article may help you when you have an olive grove to restore. Eventually I copied the other farmers and I discovered point 1 – Prune your olive trees in April.

And burn the cuttings. 2003 was a drought in Tuscany and the olive harvest was awful, so 2004 was expected to be good, although it takes about 3 years to restore an olive tree to full production. I couldn’t do more than wait during the summer months, which suited me, I also watched the shepherd and discovered point 2 – Let a flock of sheep graze underneath them.

Olives started appearing at the end of the summer, most trees were empty, some had a few pathetic shrivelled attempts but a few were covered in them. It was enough to make some oil. Like pruning in springtime, harvesting takes a lot of time and cannot be intensified without damaging the trees. So I needed as many people as possible.

I recruited Antonio and my father (average age 70), nine months pregnant Lisa and Will Humphreys, the expectant father (E Course 1995), three excited dogs and an enormous parachute and the dream team went to work on two sunny days in early December. With the parachute under each tree we set about combing off the olives, collecting them, and on the second evening we took them to the olive press. With 149 kg of olives we made 4 gallons of oil, this year was just hobby farming but in a couple of years we should be harvesting 3000 kg.

The oil that came out was cloudy and almost lime green in colour, this is the best type of oil, fresh from the press. The rich taste was something I never expected, piquant to the point of spicy. Last point, if you buy olive oil, buy it fresh and green, and drizzle it onto everything.

Olive oil from La Doccia Agriturismo will be available from Chesterton Farm shop in early 2006. www.ladocciawelcomes.com, rmayhew@ladocciawelcomes.com

'The Italian Job Done the British Way' Overseas Property, The Sunday Times, Sunday June 22, 2003

By Richard de Melim

(Reprinted from the Sunday Times)

If you hanker after the rolling hills of Tuscany and aren't shy of hard work, setting yourself up in a small hotel could be the way to live your dream. Richard de Melim meets the Brits who have managed it

Four years ago, having not long entered their sixties, Edward Mayhew and his wife Sonia made a life-changing decision. They sold their house in Fulham, southwest London, and bought a property in the rolling hills of Tuscany. They had decided to live their dream and set up a hotel. And Tuscany was the natural choice for the location. "It's just about the only countryside in the world where you can guarantee visitors all year round," says Mayhew, who runs La Doccia, a country house near Florence, set in a 70-acre estate, where he and his wife welcome paying guests into a choice of apartments, B&B rooms and, by this time next year, cottages.

But if this is the dream, how does the reality shape up? "You have to make sound commercial decisions. If you don't, you'd go under so fast, your eyeballs would spin," Mayhew says. Sarah Townsend, from Suffolk, agrees. She is the owner of Palazzo Terranova in neighbouring Umbria - a 13-room country house hotel surrounded by stunning greenery near Perugia.

"My husband still works in finance in London and comes out here as often as he can," she says. "But this is no hobby. It is my venture and it has to work commercially. I've invested my life savings, as well as my heart and soul into this. You have to be prepared to work hard 24-7 for every day of the year."

Townsend is a veteran at this kind of thing. Terranova is her third venture - a far cry from Il Castagno, a small B&B she started in Tuscany 15 years ago.

Townsend, who has an art degree, which in part inspired the desire to live in the heart of Renaissance Italy, has been buying and restoring properties all her life.

With this background, the fact that Terranova was a ruin when she came across it was more of a fresh challenge than a problem. However, "purchasing ruins in Italy isn't easy," she says. "Thanks to the Napoleonic laws, you can find yourself trying to get permission from all kinds of family members who have a claim on the property."

The Mayhews had fewer problems, as La Doccia needed just a few alterations to become what it is today. "We were very lucky," says Mayhew. "I think anyone looking to do what we have done would do well in today's market to get any change out of £650,000." He doesn't, however, say how much they paid back in 1999.

But, Mayhew warns, "Finding a suitable property isn't the difficult part. Here you need consent to do anything. It's vital to find yourself a good lawyer and accountant."

Of course, Italy wouldn't be Italy without a healthy dose of bureaucracy, as Karen Hill has discovered. She and her husband, Marc Wisbey, run The Olive House, a small B&B near Todi in Umbria. "Every month, you have to fill in forms for the Italian Institute of Statistics and also for the police about who you have had to stay," she says. "It can get quite frustrating. We didn't have any guests for a couple of months, but the authorities were on to us asking why we hadn't filled in the forms for those months."

There are regulations to be adhered to. "The police came and checked the rooms to ensure there was enough wardrobe space, that the beds were of the required size, and also to insist that we had an alarm pull in the bathroom."

The couple met in Rome, where they worked together for a Middle Eastern satellite television network. Hill, originally from Southampton, moved to Rome after a long spell in Los Angeles, where she worked for the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. "There are some amazing B&Bs in northern California and that, combined with how I enjoyed helping out in my parents' pub back in Warminster when I was younger, was what inspired my desire to go into the hospitality business."

Marc still works as a transmission director for the satellite station in Rome, where the couple also rent an apartment. Hill teaches yoga in Rome as well, and offers themed yoga weekends to guests at The Olive House. "The profitability of The Olive House is important," she says. "And I like the fact we are running our own business and don't have to report to anyone."

The couple found The Olive House after seeing an advert in a Rome-based magazine aimed at expatriates. "It was owned by a Sicilian lady who'd spent a long time in Australia. The furniture was just fantastic, so we made an offer for that as well," says Hill. She had savings transferred from America, and her husband, who is from Merseyside, did the same with money from the UK. They used this to make the down payment before financing the rest through a mortgage from the Abbey National's Italian division. The property cost about £135,000 three years ago, and has two rooms they let to guests.

So how much should you expect to pay for your Italian dream hotel? If you aim to set up a small B&B like Hill and Wisbey, you should be able to find a suitable property around the £100,000 mark. If you want to set up a full-blown hotel, then closer to, or above £1m might be the norm. David Vaughan, who runs the London office of estate agent Pagus, says, "It's becoming a very popular thing to do. People like to restore these houses to how they used to look in the 18th century, but the interiors are such that you can chop and change them to suit your needs. Many of the properties have a large amount of land with them as well, which is perfect for conversion to a hotel."

Crucially, he also points out that non-Italian residents pay 10% Vat on property purchases whereas residents pay just 4%, so it's well worth a trip to the town hall to register before you buy.

The best properties for conversion are, says Michael Biagi, of estate agent Tuscan Homes, those with "a sense of arrival when a guest sees the property for the first time. It must have well laid-out gardens and external areas for dining al fresco and relaxing. A small pool, even if guests do not use it, is an important factor."

Once you are up and running, pricing is, of course, entirely up to you. While The Olive House costs from 55 euros (about £40) per night, a single night's stay at Palazzo Terranova could cost more than 750 euros (about £525). The larger the guesthouse or hotel, however, the more likely you'll need to hire staff and the higher the overheads will be.

"You need to find like-minded, enthusiastic people," says Sarah Townsend. "I am lucky that my daughter, Honor, is an excellent chef and she works here for me and offers some wonderful cooking courses to guests. You can also find when hiring people here that you have to deal with an entire family. I recently took on one lady whose husband came to the interview and was trying to answer questions on her behalf."

Another important consideration should be the year-round appeal of your property.

Townsend says, "Many of the properties here were built as holiday homes and are seasonal. Terranova faces due south and can be as enchanting in the winter as it is in the summer."

The owners of all three properties say you don't need a huge marketing budget to be successful. La Doccia is featured in guidebooks to inns in Italy. Edward Mayhew says, "We approached two publishers, Karen Brown in the States and the Charming Small Hotels Guides in Britain, to let them know we were setting up. It took about a year for them to accept us after they had both done a mystery inspection." There was no charge for La Doccia to be featured.

Terranova is a member of Chic Retreats, a company that promotes small luxury hotels. Members are chosen by the firm, which in return for an annual membership fee of between Pounds 750 and Pounds 1,000 will provide marketing support - including press releases and brochures. Although smaller, The Olive House has secured business through its website - which should be one of the first things to consider once you have made the commitment to set up business.

There are, of course, frustrations. "The bureaucracy in this country is a nightmare," says Mayhew. "You need to get permission from the comune (town hall) for just about everything. Sometimes you feel like you need to get consent just to go and buy a roll of loo paper. But the important thing is to be open-minded and realise that everywhere does business differently. People ask why I'd want the hassle at 65 years of age, and it is very hard work for six months of the year.

But we couldn't live like this without an income coming in, and we have our relative freedom during the winter months. And then there's my walnut tree just outside the window here. I didn't have that in England."

o La Doccia, 0039 055 836 1387, www.ladocciawelcomes.com; Palazzo Terranova, 0039 075 857 0083, www.palazzoterranova.com; The Olive House, 0039 0742 98987, www.theolivehouse.it; Pagus, 020 7736 1700, www.pagus.net; Tuscan Homes, 0039 0583 711225, www.tuscanhomes. com; Chic Retreats, www.chicretreats.com

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Lots of Work, Lots of Play' Reader's Digest, October 2003

By Susannah Hickling

(Reprinted from Reader's Digest)

A squadron leader in the RAF, Evan Davidge had always known a career in the RAF meant retiring at 55 or earlier. Even so, once he turned 50 he found himself needing to prepare mentally for the transition.

'I was scared,' says Davidge. 'I knew from colleagues experiences that retiring without making plans is a recipe for disaster. The service is like a big family. Cutting the umbilical cord was a frightening prospect.' Still, he was looking forward to spending more time with his wife and two teenage children, after years of weekly commuting to different parts of the country. And he definately wanted another job. An outplacement consultant carried out an audit of his skills he'd acquired in the air force, where he specialises in personnel and management training.

When a job as a Personnel consultant came up at the Nationwide Building Society near his Swindon home Davidge was delighted. He now earns a good salary on top of his pension but, best of all, he can work flexible hours. That gives him time to go out walking with his family, play tennis with his son or just sit down and talk. 'You have to place a high value on that,' he says. 'There's no substitute for being there.'

Davidge is part of a trend that's gathering steam as the baby boomers reach retirement age. They leave a job, collect pension or redundancy money, and continue to work full or part time. It's known as phased or gradual retirement.

Almost a million people in Britain are now working in retirement, compared with 771,000 five years ago. Experts believe this is an advance guard, as we live healthier longer.

'People retiring today are healthier than any previous generation,' says Rosemary Brown, author of the 'Good Non-Retirement Guide'. 'They want something with bite, that challenges them.'

Of course, many will have no choice but to work longer. Figures show that nearly 13 million of us are not investing enough for old age. Emotional needs keep people in their jobs too. 'We go to work for companionship and friendship,' says Psychologist Cary Cooper from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. He adds that retirement often raises questions of identity: 'I'm no longer of value, I'm dead wood.'

The shock of transition can be softened by phased retirement, an even stronger possibility after 2006 when retired workers should be able to claim their occupational pension yet still work part-time for the same firm. Here are two strategies of contented retirees:

Turn Part Time into Every Time

Five mornings a week at 7am, Roger Field, 75, walks into his local B&Q store in Newport, Isle of Wight, ready to start his five hour day as a 'greeter-fareweller'. He was hired at the end of May to help shoppers, drawing on the people skills he'd gained over almost thirty years of running a pub in London and a small hotel on the island.

Nearly 70 when he gave up the hotel, Field soon realised retirement didn't suit him. 'I'm one of those lucky people who's very healthy,' he explains. 'When you've worked all your life and you are still fit, you've got something to give. I felt I was wasting myself.'

Now at B&Q, he says, 'I enjoy meeting people.' The time goes quickly and the money comes in handy. 'It allows my wife and me to do things we couldn't do before.' The couple have been on two French holidays this year. A small private pension and another from the state cover the other expenses.

Field believes more retired people should work if they can. 'A lot of my friends don't have the confidance.' he says. 'They think they're finished when they retire, they're wrong.'

Live Your Dream

In 1998, when Sonia and Edward Mayhew, 65, first saw La Doccia, a beautifully restored traditional house in Tuscany, they fell in love. Situated 2000 feet up a mountain amid woodlands and wildflower-filled meadows, the house had panoramic views over vineyards and olive groves.

Several years earlier, Edward's property developing business had suffered during a dip in the market. 'We didn't have a tremendous financial future,' says Sonia. Knowing they'd have to work to supplement a small pension, the couple decided on a radical plan of action: they'd sell their London home and and set up a B&B. La Doccia, only 45 minutes from Florence, seemed ideal. 'We'd been frequent visitors to Italy and really liked the country and the people,' says Sonia.

The couple moved in over Easter 1999 and within three weeks were welcoming their first paying guests. Today, business is thriving - but they are not tied down all year round. In winter Sonia often nips back to London and last February she went to Bangkok and Singapore. 'We've done it for the money, there's no doubt about that,' says Sonia. 'But it's wonderful to see guests from all over the world getting on. I can't imagine living here without doing what we're doing. I'd be so bored.'