June 23rd, 2008

It was only ten months ago when Marja Kaarina Koivunen took the plunge and signed the reservation agreement for a property in Sicily. It all started when Marja contacted Go Sicily Properties having seen the properties listed on www.gosicilyproperties. The voyage from Poori in Finland, where Marja then lived with her husband, Sami, and five children, was quite tiring. A two hour drive to Helsinki, Marja then took the plane to Dusseldorf and, following an overnight there, she took the flight to Catania, settling in a Bed & Breakfast just off Via Etnea.

Mario, of Go Sicily Properties, picked her up from her Catania B&B early on Saturday morning and, following a coffee and a cornetto alla ricotta, set off immediately on the 2 hour drive from Catania to Ragusa.

The drive, which also gave Marja the opportunity to savour the fantastic mountain scenery along the way through the Hyblean mountains and quaint villages such as Vizzini – the home of the Cavalleria Rusticana – Monterosso Almo and Giarratana among others, also gave Mario the opportunity to better understand Marja’s exigencies with regards to the property she was looking for.

The day was spent going around viewing a number of properties and, by the end of the day, Marja had already fell in love with this partly-habitable 150 square meter farmhouse, with a 1,000 square meter garden, together with a field measuring 8,000 square meters situated about 50 meters away, in the peaceful and panoramic Contrada Bancali within the Comune of Rosolini.

The property was a perfect fit for Marja’s plans. Being a professional horse riding instructor with a growing family, Marja’s intentions were to eventually move permanently to Sicily, attracted mainly by the radiant all year round weather – a contrast to her native Finland where the sun actually disappears for more than three months – the slow pace, the hospitality of the local people, the genuinity and variety of the local produce and the possibility to raise her family, including her horses, in a more healthy environment.

In Marja’s words, ” www.gosicilyproperties.com , being based in Malta and specialising exclusively in the provinces of Ragusa and Siracusa, gave my husband and myself the reassurance that we could go through the buying process safe in the comfort that we could communicate effectively in English. This also meant that immediate clarification to our queries was a simple phone call, SMS or e-mail away. Mario’s commercial background as a certified public accountant also gave us comfort with regards to the facilitation of the transaction.”

That initial trip was followed by a second one three months later. On Mario’s advice, Marja and Sami flew direct from Helsinki to Malta on a Saturday evening, thus avoiding the hassle of Marja’s first trip. Mario had arranged both for their hotel overnight in Malta, their Malta-Pozzallo-Malta catamaran tickets from Virtu Ferries as also the drive from their Malta hotel to the port on Sunday morning.

Marja commented: “Malta’s connections with Helsinki were ideal for us and I was very favorably impressed by the high standards and quality of the catamaran.”

Marja and Sami took the opportunity to do some internal decorating work during their stay, during which they also arranged to give a power of attorney to Mario in order to authorise him to enter the final deed on their behalf. The signing of the power of attorney at the Notary’s office also necessitated the presence of an English translator, a young lady with Modican and Venezuelan parents born in Caracas, Venezuela, raised in the United States and now residing in Modica, together with her brother, who also understood English perfectly and who acted as the witness.

It is now already two months since Marja and Sami, together with their two youngest children – Mika, aged 5, and Kaarina, aged 8 -have made the long trip from Poori to Rosolini: Marja in her Volvo estate and Sami in his Ford Transit van, with a horse trailer in tow in which Marja had one of her favorite horses and also a pony. Needless to say, the two vehicles were full to the brim with all forms of belongings, including 5 dogs and some rabbits, necessary to enable Marja, Sami and the little ones to start converting their new house into their new home.

Sami spent the next four days, prior to returning to his job on the North Sea oil wells, helping Marja settle down: many things needed sorting out, including tiling, plumbing, electricals, cooking equipment and water heating. The Koivunens were in a very short time introduced to the various neighbours, who greeted the new arrivals with open arms. The kids also managed to attend the last two weeks of the school semester at nearby San Giacomo and, although language is still a barrier for them, they managed to make a lot of new friends, also thanks to one of their schoolfriends’ mum, who also speaks English. Kaarina’s eighth birthday was in fact celebrated by a noisy and cheerful party at the Koivunens attended by many of Kaarina’s new friends.

A container load of more belongings, and another with the remaining 8 horses, followed some three weeks later. Mario remembers with a smile Antonio’s phone call the morning the containers arrived. Sitting in his office at the MCS freight forwarding company in Pozzallo, Antonio could not sort out where to deliver his cargo and Mario took some time to carefully explain the country roads he had to take. Antonio rang Mario back later that day to confirm that everything was delivered in order but could not resist asking why would a lady from Finland decide to relocate to Sicily. Mario replied that to him the reasons were very obvious: who would not opt to swap a chilly, grey and sunless environment with the sun-drenched paradise which is Sicily? Which is the better choice for raising a young family? Antonio seemed convinced!

Marja is now planning to attend Italian language lessons in Ragusa Ibla together with her three older children, who since then have joined the family following the end of the school semester in Finland. This will enable her to improve on her Italian. In the meantime, the Suomi-Italiano-Suomi dictionary will probably remain one of Marja’s most treasured possessions.

www.gosicilyproperties.com will also be assisting Marja’s eldest son, Daniel, aged 17, to possibly attend the University of Malta. This will allow Daniel to continue his studies in an Anglo-Saxon but multicultural environment close to his new home.

Marja’s next plans are to set up a horse riding school: her many clients in Finland will then have the opportunity to return back to Marja’s wonderful horses whilst at the same time passing a week-end in the splendid climate and countryside of La Bella Sicilia.

Marja’s dream has only just begun…