Yet here you can buy a two-bedroom apartment or a property 3km inland for around £80,000.”Buzzing seaside resorts such as San Benedetto del Tronto and Roseto degli Abruzzi are two such resorts that Travella feels will particularly appeal. Travella is clearly smitten and explains the draw: “The food there is wonderful, the beaches are sandy with enormous palm trees and there are the most picturesque medieval villages.”The area is also close to mountains, and often has snowy winters, but it is the opportunity to buy affordable properties either right on the coast or just a few kilometres inland that Travella believes will have the greatest appeal: “It is such a good investment to buy here as lately it’s been very hard to find apartments on the sea at an affordable price. Inevitably, Ryanair’s low-cost flights to Pescara and Ancona will play a large part in the area’s growing attraction as a destination as both airports give easy access to this region via good motorways. Foreign ghettos like you find on the Spanish Costas are just not to be found in Italy,” says Emmet.Agents are noticing a shift, according to Linda Travella, chairwoman of the Federation of Overseas Property Developers, Agents and Consultants (Fopdac) and director of Casa Travella, which sells property all over Italy. “People who bought in Italy used to be of a certain type but in recent years people are casting their nets wider and this is due to Italy now offering good property prices and easy access.”Travella specialises in property in the Lakes, western Liguria, Sardinia and Tuscany. A recent trip to Italy has uncovered another region, however, which she is convinced is certain to attract huge interest from buyers who want Italy at affordable prices: “I sell property all over Italy but I have to say I think that Abruzzo really is a lovely area, it’s absolutely beautiful and has so much to offer.”Le Marche is now well and truly on the buyers’ map and the region borders Abruzzo, but the latter is still comparitively undiscovered.

2002 was a record year for sales for us in Italy and this year looks set to be equally good.”
Italy is certainly not new to the British but increasing prices over the years have inevitably dampened buyers’ enthusiasm for the country. But today, Italy appears to be shaking off its reputation for being expensive, says Emmet: “We have always had people who would buy in Italy whatever the prices, but from time to time some would comment that in France you got more house for the same money. Now people who have looked at France tell me the opposite.”British buyers are topping agent’s client lists, closely followed by Americans, Germans, Dutch, Swiss and even Australians, but it seems buyers all have a common aim: “The great thing is that because all these nationalities are buying into existing housing stock, they mix and integrate with the local population. All agents dealing in Italy are seeing a major boom in their UK customer base and Steve Emmet, MD of Brian French Associates, says: “Italy is experiencing something of a renaissance. As emerging markets for overseas property rapidly proliferate, buyers are heading off to ever more obscure destinations around the world. But some buyers, it seems, are staying firmly with tried and tested favourites – and are finding that their budget stretches further than ever before.

But I don’t want to live by feeling that I have to please others. I want to live by pleasing myself.”‘British Artists at Work’, with photographs by Eliasch and text by Gemma de Cruz, is published by Assouline, £55. I’ve never liked chintz before, but now I do, perhaps because I’m older. Some people make no bones about the fact they find my rococo taste revolting.