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Bocelli the Builder

Alberto Bocelli is sitting in the family vineyard in Tuscany. If the relaxed, shy smile is familiar, it is no surprise: he has the gentle grin with which his brother Andrea, the singer, has charmed the world.

The Bocelli brothers are the descendants of generations of farmers who have tilled the fields around the hill town of Lajatico for more than 300 years. Their father worked the land and made wine, and tradition dictated that the sons would join the family business. But Andrea, 50, turned to singing and Alberto, three years his junior, became an architect.

Now Alberto is using his skills to improve the fortunes of his native town. “Like many rural farming communities, Lajatico has gone though difficult times,” he says. “People left in search of work in the cities and there was little to keep the younger generations here. I was one of those who set off to make my way in the world, but after university in Florence, I felt the need to come home. My first job was converting a local farmhouse into a second home for an English lawyer from Surrey.”

Alberto hopes to attract British buyers with his latest project: with Luca Catalano, director of the property company Realitalia, he is restoring an abandoned 200-year-old villa next to an olive grove on the edge of the village and turning it into flats. Alongside the villa, which has views across orchards into the valley, will be three homes built in traditional style. “We want the buyers to become part of our community, and in return our new residents will help Lajatico by creating work for locals,” he says.

Prices start at £190,000 for a one-bedroom flat, rising to £590,000 for a three-bedroom villa with two bathrooms and a large garden. The development includes a swimming pool, a play area for children, a solarium and part ownership of the private olive grove, which is ideal for picnics and barbecues. The shops and town square are a couple of minutes’ walk away. As part of the plan to integrate buyers into the community by creating jobs, the optional services on offer include baby-sitting, cleaning, gardening and shopping.

The show flat should be ready for viewing from next March; and, having seen the style of the scheme, potential buyers will be able to choose the kitchen fittings and other finishes. “We will encourage buyers to follow our commitment to using only locally sourced materials in the traditional style,” Catalona says.

Realitalia, which is an offering an on-site management service, reckons buyers who wish to let out their properties should be able to do so for 15-20 weeks a year – producing an annual income, after management fees, of £11,800 for the two-bedroom flats, which are priced at about £235,000.

With Pisa airport a 40-minute drive away, Lajatico is an interesting option for British buyers who are looking for a second home in northern Italy. Although this area of Tuscany is relatively undiscovered, and cheaper than the more famous parts of the region, the familiar rural landscape is all there: the rolling hills chequered with cypress trees and olive groves have prompted some to describe this as the Pisan Chiant-ishire. It is also a good deal closer to the coast than much of Tuscany – the beaches of the Italian Riviera are only an hour and a half away by car.

Lajatico’s real claim to fame, however, is the annual concert Andrea Bocelli stages in honour of his birthplace. “A few years ago, we were walking on the hills on the side of our home town, with their views across the valley to the historic town of Volterra,” Alberto recalls.“It was late in the day, the sun was setting, and I said, ‘It seems like a theatre.’ ” From this Tuscan sunset, the Teatro del Silenzio (Theatre of Silence) was born in 2006. In July, that hillside becomes a 7,000-seater auditorium, with Andrea performing alongside guests who have included Sarah Brightman and Lang Lang. Local schoolchildren join the international stars on stage and the town’s 1,000-strong population grows ninefold. All the profits are used to help the local community.

This year’s show was even more of a family affair, with Alberto’s seven-year-old daughter Maddalena acting in a scene that accompanied one of Andrea’s songs. “Last year, she spent so much time watching the rehearsals that this time she wanted to join in,” Alberto says. “She insisted on doing her make-up and costume on her own, and since her performance she talks about nothing but next year’s show.”

For Alberto, watching Maddalena and his other children, Alesso and Rachele, grow up in Lajatico brings back memories of his childhood adventures with his brother (who was born with congenital glaucoma, and went blind at the age of 12 after a football accident). “We would ride around town on a tandem,” he says. “Andrea insisted on steering while I pedalled behind, and we’d fly around the bends on the hills of Lajatico. He always liked to be in charge, though he would never admit it.”

Forty years on, Alberto is still pedalling. Much of the organisation for the Teatro del Silenzio is run from the Bocelli wine cellar on the edge of Lajatico, and as well as running an architect’s studio, Alberto looks after his brother’s financial affairs, which he took over because of concerns that they were being mismanaged.

After the death of their much-loved father in 2000, Alberto also began to oversee production of the Bocelli vintage, which is snapped up by fans visiting Lajatico. Yet the architect turned agent and winemaker is sanguine about the many demands on his time. “Since I stopped going on tour with my brother, I have more time for other plans,” he says.

Besides the Lajatico project, these “other plans” include a development in the nearby town of Chianni. Borgo in Chianni is a collection of 11 houses down a private road. Built in the local stone, the one, two and three-bedroom properties are arranged around communal gardens and a swimming pool. Prices start at £185,000.

Chianni’s historic architecture has caught the attention of people looking for a countryside lifestyle that is not too remote from the resources of a large city. A mini revival in the town is being led by incomers such as Paula Parodi Ciurlo, from Genoa, who has moved there to open two fashion shops specialising in the local Casentino textiles. This year she organised a fashion show that attracted 400 visitors to a town of less than 1,000 people. It will be some time, however, before the fashion world can compete with Chianni’s wild-boar festival. For six days in November, the community dedicates itself to everything porcine – stalls in the streets offer tastings and the smell of roast sucking pig fills the air.

“This community energy has encouraged people to buy in the area,” Catalano says. “We have already sold three of the properties in Chianni, and the market is fairly lively in this part of Tuscany. Britons looking for a home here will find that prices have not fallen as in other parts of Europe. A lot of Italians buy second homes, and because they don’t use mortgages, the prices here have not been severely affected by the credit crunch. This market doesn’t fluctuate much; it has grown more slowly, but is less vulnerable.”

The helter-skelter of the housing market aside, Alberto Bocelli hopes that these houses will add to the local community. “There are always concerns when new people move into a rural community,” he says. “But we are trying to make sure that these are not just holiday homes, but part of the area’s life and economy. Our aim is to create jobs for local people; for baby-sitters, for gardeners and for the local shops.

“I have seen visitors who have come from Britain befriended by some of the older members of the village who didn’t speak a word of English; through gestures and a few common words, they have ended up having dinner together. It’s those kinds of bonds that I hope will create the community of tomorrow.”


Collieries Earmarked for Wind Farms


UK Coal has teamed up with green energy company Peel Energy in a bid to develop a series of wind farm projects on former colliery sites.

The mining group has already identified locations for 14 schemes which will be covered by the deal. These projects are at varying stages of development from pre-feasibility to planning negotiations.

If all these projects climb off the drawing board they would involve some 54 wind turbines generating up to 133 megawatts of power.

Under the deal Peel will have two years to evaluate the sites and submit planning applications. Once that stage is reached the scheme will become part of a joint venture which the two companies plan to establish.

Peel Energy has a growing portfolio of green energy projects in the UK including England's biggest operating onshore wind farm, the Scout Moor scheme in the Lancashire Pennines.

The chief executive of UK Coal, Jon Lloyd, said: "We believe there is a significant opportunity to develop wind farms on parts of our land portfolio. By allying with Peel Energy we are joining forces with one of the UK's most active and knowledgeable wind power companies."

He added: "This will accelerate our alternative power business whilst maintaining total flexibility on the level of investment we make in it and without distracting us from our core mining and property development operations.


The Power of Water

UK Coal has teamed up with green energy company Peel Energy in a bid to develop a series of wind farm projects on former colliery sites.
New Mills, in the High Peak area of Derbyshire is an Industrial Revolution textile town. At one time there were 16 mills along the fast-flowing river Goyt, borrowing the massive power of the water to turn the mill wheels.

But the last textile manufacturer closed in 2000; the gritstone mills are derelict and the Victorian weirs that produced this water power are now man-made waterfalls.

All save one. At the old Torr Mill, where the wheel once stood is a gigantic 12-ton steel screw, 2.4 metre in diameter. Powered by the water tumbling over the weir, the ''Reverse Archimedean Screw" makes enough electricity to supply 70 homes. At present a private line provides the New Mills Co-Operative supermarket with electricity and any surplus is sold to the grid.

When conventional power supplies come under pressure this winter, as some commentators are forecasting, the good people of New Mills will still have lights blazing in their supermarket. ''Archie" will even continue turning when power stations run out of coal and gas.

"Archie started turning at the beginning of September and has created enough energy to make the equivalent of a million cups of tea," says Sean Whewell. A director of Torrs Hydro, Sean, an IT director, is taking an unpaid career break to get Archie up and running. The beautiful thing about Archie, is that not only does it create green electricity, but it is owned by residents of New Mills - the first community-owned hydro project in the country.

"There is no major building and no using up of resources - we simply 'borrow' water from the River Goyt for about 10 metres, then put it back," says Sean.

Archie is forecast to earn £24,000 this year, but the now certain introduction of a Feed In Tariff announced by the new Climate Secretary Ed Miliband - where green electricity producers are paid a premium - could see that soar to over £100,000 a year.

The 210 homeowners who have invested in Archie - from £1 a share for a minimum of 250 shares - will receive dividends but much of the income will be ploughed back into community projects, including the conversion of other weirs along the Goyt which could provide enough electricity to power hundreds of homes.

"Up and down the country, riverside communities are turning to relics of our industrial past to provide clean, green power," says Steve Welsh of Water Power Enterprises (H2oPE), which aims to provide electricity to power the equivalent of 10,000 homes from about 25 weirs by 2015. It's nothing short of revolutionary given that there are about 10,000 weirs on British rivers.

The Torrs Hydro has inspired dozens of nascent hydro projects across the north of England. Next in line is Settle, another old mill town, on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales. Steve Amphlett, owner of the Plough inn at Wigglesworth and chairman of the Settle District Chamber of Trade, says there has been enormous local support. "Our scheme will power around 50 houses and save around 80 tonnes of carbon a year, which doesn't seem that much - but 50 similar schemes will power 25,000 houses, and then you're starting to make a difference." The energy will be pumped into the grid and homeowners will receive money back from the energy companies.

These old weirs are in ''brownfield" sites, often along sections of river badly in need of regeneration, says Steve Welsh. "We're using 2,000-year-old technology, in 200-year-old weirs to help solve a 21st century problem."

Wind or Hydro?

For a prospectus on the Settle project go to: www.greensettle.org.uk/hydro  

For information on future weir projects visit: www.h2ope.co.uk 
 
Archie will produce 250,000 kW/h per year and cost £300,000 to install. This compares to 10,000 kW/h per year for a 12-metre high wind turbine costing £24,000. Twelve 12m wind turbines costing roughly the same as Archie would only produce about half of what Archie can.