Berlusconi

I must send compliments to my friend John, journalist at the UK The Guardian & based in Rome. His article today sums up Berlusconi perfectly and I would recommend you to read it, including between the lines….not just skim it…It makes you understand the true Italy. Coincidently I had heard that Berlusconi was considering running for the new European President job. I hope The Guardian article wasn’t aimed at ruining his chances…Gordon Brown are you still backing Tony Blair ??? …..or was the dig at Berlusconi just a Halloween hokes??

Would you vote for Berlusconi as the New European President ?

Serious comments only please.

Trapani will host the Trapani International Match Cup from 29/10 – 1/11 /2009 part of the International Sailing Federation ISAF Italian Male Grade 2 sailing competition.

Trapani International Match Cup

Trapani became famous in the sailing circuit after hosting the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup in 2005, followed by the Trapani Cento Cup from 2006-2008.

This year the Trapani International Match Cup races will take place in the Sicilian sea near Trapani port and in the waters in front of Via Dante Alighieri, downtown Trapani. Hosts are Trapani Yacht Club, in partnership with the Circolo Canottieri di Marsala.

Ten competitors from 9 different countries will compete to increase their ranking in the ISAF Ranking List racing in the Comet 21 Open sailing boat with short 15-20 minute races.

During the weekend there will be live music from the Bohemian Rhapsody-Queen Tribute Band, talk-shows, cultural events and a night time sailing event.

The events are organised by Velaevento.

Buy a property in Sicily, Trapani.

Italian mortgage for the purchase of a property in Italy is available to non resident citizens with Barclays Bank. A maximum of 70% LTV is available.

Italian property in need of restoration can also attract finance with an Italian Restoration mortgage for a maximum of the higher between 70% of the restored house’s value or 70% of the restoration costs.

If you plan to buy a house in Italy and you require further information on current fixed/variable mortgage rates email MIPC for our Italian mortgage datasheet.

Yesterday the British bank Barclays made an improved offer of 540 million euros (804.6 million dollars) for 135 branches of Italian Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS).

This expansion by Barclays despite the crisis saw Barclays offer about four million euros per branch office, an increase from 2.5 million euros proposed a year ago.

Barclays is unusual among European banks in that it is expanding. Last year it picked up cheaply the North American activities of failed US investment banking giant Lehman Brothers and now appears particularly interested in southern Europe.

Whilst travelling looking for land in Sicily to buy for clients to build a house in Sicily a little local knowledge of dialect and traditional measurements is required. It gets very complicated as different regions of Sicily use the same words for different sizes of land in Sicily.

When evaluating land in Sicily always get an Italian surveyor to document its size in hectares. Remember the crop and quality currently on the land is the principal product you are buying.

Most of the land is agricultural land with restrictive building permission. The restriction is that you can only rebuild a set volume of cubic metres based on the existing registered cubic metres of buildings on the land. Always check with the local Italian land registry, where it will be documented the official volume of buildings on the land. Remember some of the registered buildings may have been knocked down to cultivate the land, so you may have more volume than you can actually see on the land in Sicily. Once you know the existing volume in square metres divide it by 3 (the average height of a room is 3metres) and this will give you the square metres that you can rebuild.

Farmhouse in sicily with 4 hectares

MIPC has available a mix of farmhouses with different plots of land and crops. You too can become part of the Sicilian culture owning your own farmhouse in Sicily producing your own grapes and olives under your own label. Follow this link to download Farmhouse in Sicily.

Sqm = square metre : Sqf =square feet :  1sqm=10sqf

1 Hectare=10,000sqm

Now for the Sicilian land sizes:

Un (one) tumolo = 2,143sqm (in the province of Trapani…remember it varies in different areas.)

Un (1) salma = 16 tumoli = 34,288sqm

1 tomolo = 4 mondelli : 1 mondello = 4 carozzi : 1 carozzo = 4 quarti : 1 quarto = 4 quartigli

So 1 hectare is just under 5 tumuli.

These are important measurements as they originate from the time that the Sicilian barons and land lords handed out land to the peasants to farm. Most farmers in Sicily were given a “Salma”, with a small farmhouse (rudere).

Many farmers are now struggling to work the land as the price of crops has dropped with the opening of European markets. Grapes once were sold onto the vineyard consortiums to produce the wine at 120 euros /kilo now the market is only paying 30 euros/kilo. With manual labour during the vendemmia costing 50 euros per day, they have to collect a lot of grapes for it to pay.

There is an increased trend for the farmers to sell their land in sicily. MIPC is currently sourcing farmhouses in the Sicilian countryside. Prices vary primarily depending on the crops and quality of the land and density of the crops. Most of the farmhouses are very old and need complete restoration.

Uncultivated land costs from 2000 euros/ tumolo  which is 10,000/hectare. The more expensive land having quality grapes or olives can reach 5000 euros/tumolo or 25,000euros/hectare.

The actual farmhouses don’t have a market value as there is limited demand for them, but they still carry a symbolic price, depending on their size and structural state, from 10,000–50,000 euros.

Prenoti camera Londra

MIPC e lieto di communicare una collaborazione di promozione di CLUBROOM.
Clubroom offre appartamenti di lusso a Londra per affittare.
Avete deciso di profittare del offerta Ryanair e viaggiate a Londra per la fine settimana ? o magari dovete andare a Londra per lavoro ?
Clubroom offre appartamenti di lusso nella zona di Clerkenwell, 5 minuti del duomo di St Paul nel cuore della city di Londra e 5 miunti a piedi della stazione della metropolitano di Farringdon.
Ogni appartamento ha una camera doppia con bagno in camera. Cioe sono come la camera di un albergo.
Il prezzo speciale e 80 sterlina a notte per la camera. Dovete registrare al sito per prenotare. Usate il codice discount  “MIPC” quando prenotati online a CLUBROOM per profittare del prezzo promozionale.

Io gli uso spesso quando viaggio a Londra.

Salemi was discussed on National German radio today. If you are one of our German clients and you missed the transmission then we will have the link to the radio transmission here hopefully by tomorrow. Follow this link to read more about Salemi tactic.

Car rally in Sicily. rallye sicilia 2009

Car rally Sicily

Ever fancied racing across the Sicilan landscape in an epic, historic, prestige racing car in Sicily ? This weekend there is “The race in Sicily” hosted by Historic Racing Club.

Not much info on their website, but its normally a race that takes place round Lake Garda. This year there is the 1st Sicilian edition. Visitng Trapani, Erice and then onto Salemi, Selinunte and finishing in Marsala.

The event has been organised by the Associazione Culturale Sportiva Historic Racing Club, Marsala.

If you fancy hiring an epic race car for touring Sicily, then ask MIPC for further details.

Al Martino The Godfather

Al Martino famous for playing the role of Johnny Fontane in the 1972 film The Godfather died on Tuesday at his childhood home in Philadelphia.

Besides acting in the Marlon Brando classic “The Godfather,” Martino sang the 1972 film’s title score, “The Love Theme From The Godfather.” His Fontane character is a singer and occasional actor and is the godson of Brando’s Mafia boss character, Don Vito Corleone, a character supposedly based on Frank Sinatra, but with eerie similarities to Martino’s own career.

The Italian American singer, Al Martino, had Britain’s first number one record. The song, Here In My Heart, was top when the New Musical Express introduced its chart in November 1952. Martino, the former bricklayer’s other hits included Spanish Eyes, Can’t Help Falling in Love and Volare.

Mafia Tourism

Interest in films like the Godfather continue to drive mafia tourism to Sicily. Mafia tourism is a developing sector in sicilian tourism. If you are a travel agent and would like to know more about our mafia Godfather tourism program, including visits to Corleone, the mafia museum, Don Corleone memorial and more Godfather film locations please contact MIPC using the EMAIL MIPC tab at top of this page.

Al Martino | The Godfather | Johnny Fontane | Mafia Tourism

Berlusconi legal immunity was overruled, removed, annulled, cancelled yesterday.

Berlusconi  prime minister of Italy during lhis ast term enforced the Alfano Law which was not really an immunity law but simply a suspension of the judicial process for himself and 2 other ministers in his government.

Berlusconi has claims against him of corruption and financial irregularities in his media empire. Court procedures against him were stopped after he introduced the Alfano Law.

Just to put this into perspective Berlusconi is prime minister, media magnet (newspapers & TV), AC Milan football club owner and surely has many more activities. This is like Rupert Murdoch been voted as the new prime minister and inventing a law that blocks any legal action against himself whilst in office !!!

The overruling by the Constitutional Court of the Alfano Law now means that Berlusconi could shortly be in court defending himself against corruption claims, one of which invloved David Mills, estranged husband of UK minister Tessa Jowell, whom is currently serving 4.5 years for the corruption.

Politically if key coalition members The Northen League now withdraw from Berlusconi’ coalition then this could trigger a general election.

But to be honest…Berlusconi has survived a recent divorce, allegations of young call girls and now this and much more…and the Italians still look up to him as a role model….in Berlusconi’s words “These things invigorate me, they invigorate italians. Long live Itlay, long live Berlusconi” !!!!

Discussed further in detail in the UK Times today : Berlusconi

Venice is very popular with American & Russian buyers of property in Italy. There was a very good article in yesterdays New York Times discussing house hunting in Venice. If you too are interested in property in Venice then please contact MIPC as we too have some interesting investment opportunities in Venice.

Just make sure you don’t buy a ground floor house in Piazza San Marco, as recent floodings in the Venice city centre have reached as high as 1 metre.