Winter - Classical MileEnd Alpacas

Wessex Frederica by Westcroft Cloud. She is a
pure white, very beautiful female huacaya and
we are thrilled to have Cloud's bloodline here
in Italy.
We are delighted with the quality of all of
these and only sorry we shall not be in the UK
with them to show them all off on the show
circuit in 2008.
As at the end of November all are
thriving well and totally unfazed by their
surroundings.
During this period I have been catching
up with administration. All the land here in
Puglia (and indeed in most areas of Italy)
has a building index which dictates how
many cubic metres of building can be built
for each square metre of land. If you can
obtain registration as a farmer with the local
equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce – the
Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato
Agricultura di Lecce – then you qualify for a
higher building index and so you can have a
larger house, buildings for animals, porticos
and garages etc. Every area of covered space
counts as long as the building is permanent.
One can therefore use wooden buildings for
animals but as soon as a concrete or brick
pillar is used and a roof appears it becomes
permanent.
It was very important for us to qualify for a
high building index so that we could not only
build our house but convert the ruin on our
ground into a second house which we plan to
sell to help finance the rest. A further smaller
ruin was going to be used as an alpaca house
initially but with plans to be converted to a
guest house in future years.
I was very concerned that I might get asked
all sorts of things in Italian when I arrived at
the Camera di Commercio and further that my
Italian would not be 'up to it'. I therefore took
with me Roberta, an Italian graduate who I
met at the local internet office. She spoke good
English and agreed to interpret for me. Thank
heavens! It took three separate visits because no
written instructions were provided informing
us of the documentation they required and
whilst the officials were perfectly nice people
there always seemed to be another piece of
paper needed before moving onto the next step.
Amazingly the one thing I did not need to
provide was any concrete proof that I bred
alpacas. They were more concerned that I
had proof of identity, proof of address and
was registered for taxes than anything else.
However on the third visit I decided to wear
an alpaca sweater (very hot) and by the time
the lady on the desk had finished discussing it
we were friends and the paperwork veritably
whizzed through. I then found out that it
took a minimum of one week to register this
application on the computer and that until
that time they could not print off a certificate.
'Did I want a certificate?' I was asked! Why
ever was I there if not for that I thought. 'If
you do please return with proof of paying five
euros at the post office and we'll give you one'
they said. Ho hum … Italian bureaucracy!
Giuglia del Salento, a black female
huacaya sired by our Zarza Rizardo
" … we decided that
whilst we would go
ahead and apply for
planning permission
there was no way we
would wait for what
could be over two
years in order to get
our own roof over our
heads."
A similar but much more long winded
exercise took place in order to get our Italian
residency. Again we took an interpreter with
us and once she realised the lady on the
desk was a distant aunt things moved very
quickly indeed. Another hurdle crossed and a
necessary one because until that was achieved
we could not (legally) own an Italian car.
However on the house front all was not
plain sailing. By September we had become
very concerned that the final plans for
the new house had not been completed by
the geometra (a sort of architect/quantity
surveyor who is responsible for applying for
the planning permissions). Neither had we
received a final budget. This was now some
ten months from when we first agreed to build
a house. A difficult and unsatisfactory series of
meetings was held, with interpreters.
We were told there were significant delays
in the planning departments throughout
Puglia particularly at this time because the
authorities were tightening up on applications
in order to achieve specific styles of property
that were in keeping with the traditional style
of Salento houses. Apparently many houses
here have not been built according to the
permission the owners have received.
We also found out that the budget for the
building we had pre-agreed prior to purchase
of the land was exceeded by 50% in the plans.
No amount of negotiating enabled us to
change this. We even agreed to have a house
two-thirds of the size but to no avail.
To cut a tortuously long story short we
decided that whilst we would go ahead and
apply for planning permission there was no
way we would wait for what could be over two
years in order to get our own roof over our
heads. So the search for a house with land
commenced.
We saw many properties but mostly we
could find either the house with no land or the
land with no house. Everywhere we went in
Salento we met the same planning problems.
Many houses did not have permission for
every part of the house or they needed extra
permission to achieve what we wanted.
Having come this far we were not about to
compromise too much.
Eventually we decided to spread the net
in our search and to look wider than Puglia
but still within southern Italy. We therefore
considered southern Campania and Basilicata
having found out that planning permission
was much more straightforward in these areas.
At the time of writing this piece, end of
November, I am pleased to report we have
now found a house with land that we love
in the mountains two hours drive south of
Naples. This is just over the Campania border
into Basilicata and is within 15 minutes of the
main north-south motorway to Naples, Rome
and Florence. Hence we shall be able to get
to the rest of our herd in Umbria much more
quickly and visitors will be able to access us
more easily.
We expect to complete the purchase in
early January and to move over there with
the alpacas as soon as possible to make a
permanent home. As for our land here in
Salento, we shall simply wait. It is increasing
in value all the time and we are advised it will
be a very attractive proposition for someone
to buy if it is offered complete with the two
planning permissions. Time will tell …
For more news of our adventure see our
website www.zarza-alpacas.co.uk where we
have pages in both English and Italian.
Alpaca World Magazine Winter 2007 / 08
65