Simon Hollingworth – Trullo Genista

August 16, 2023August 17, 2023

Welcome to Our First Guests

At last, at the beginning of July, we were able to welcome our first guests. We returned home from Puglia at the end of June having prepared the trullo as best we could for the impending visitors. There were two difficult aspects to this. Over the course of four years, we’ve seen the gradual transformation of the house from slightly neglected second home to, hopefully, stunning holiday location – all designed in our own image. It’s tough to suspend your own preferences and try and put your thinking into the heads of families and friends on holiday. But we did. No doubt, as well as getting plenty right, we probably got some things wrong so we’ll rely on feedback from departing guests to get it better in the future.

The other really tricky part of the process was, after all the trials and tribulations of the last four years, we had to sit back and realise we were leaving the spoils to other people having never properly experienced the finished article ourselves. And it looked fantastic when we handed over. But that’s a short term issue. We will of course be back at some point in the future.

That was June. Fast forward and we’re in the middle of August and a number of sets of guests have now arrived and left. Generally the feedback has been good and we thank them for that. We have also learnt a number of lessons about what people do and don’t need that perhaps we had neglected to think of. But that’s good because we will never know if people don’t feed back to us. If you are one of our guests and you are reading this, do leave a comment in the guest book on this site.

Time passes quickly and it’s incredible to think as September approaches that we are heading towards the end of our first season and looking forward to the next. We already have bookings for 2024 which is (to us at any rate) remarkable – and very encouraging. If the idea of a newly converted trullo in Puglia’s ‘Golden Triangle’ appeals, the contact details are all on this website. For us it remains only to say it’s been a long time coming but well worth it when you get there.

Ciao for now!

April 12, 2023

The End of a Long Journey

We are now in the process of having the Trullo painted finally. Four years on from when we first bought Trullo Genista the final building work on the pool has been signed off and we are ready to put the finishing touches for when guests begin to arrive in the summer. There were times during lockdown, many attempts to get answers from the Comune and what seemed like endless delays for a variety of reasons that we thought we may never get to this point. But thanks to perseverance and a lot of help from our friends at Puglia Pools we made it.

The picture you see at the top of the page is a newly painted front of the house and as you can see here we are adding to the outside garden furniture to offer guests plenty of options for relaxing and enjoying the beautiful outdoors. The inside of the house is receiving a brand new coat of paint from top to bottom. Just a few more items of furniture to assemble and some lighting and landscaping to be done and we’re finished.

The pool looks great now and we have some loungers. The shade umbrellas are on order and due to arrive in the next few days which will complete the outside. It feels like a long haul but once guests arrive and start to enjoy the trullo as much as we do, we’ll be really happy. And hopefully they will too.

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023

Hello. What is this?

Unless we’re very much mistaken it would appear to be a swimming pool. All in place and waiting for the final sign off from the Comune at Martina Franca. We’re assured that unless we hear otherwise by the end of January that we’re good to go. Consequently we have begun the process of listing Trullo Genista on the main holiday rental sites so that we can begin taking bookings for the beginning of May.

We will be begin the final leg of the building work beginning of February to be properly ready for then. The outside kitchen barbecue area will have a bamboo-style roof to provide some shade and a fridge for keeping the drinks and food cool while guests are cooking. As can be seen from the photograph here it is all ready to go but needs the addition of some cover. We will also be landscaping the pool area with the addition of some plants and bringing in the standard pool furniture such as loungers and umbrellas etc.

With that, the process to get Genista ready for rental will be complete but only as far as phase 1 is concerned. We still have massive plans for improving the trullo further but after three years of waiting the priority right now is to start getting guests through the door. We’ll be continuing updates via this blog so that those who have booked can feel reassured that all the work will be complete by the time they come over.

It’s nice to finally feel 100% confident this will be the case now given the journey we have been on to get here. Hopefully you are reading this and thinking of coming.

October 12, 2022

Starting to Look the Part

Looking at these pictures it’s hard to imagine that it was nearly two months ago when we last posted on this blog. Maybe things might have progressed further but there was little point rushing anything as important as allowing the concrete to go off properly when the holiday season was coming to an end anyway.

We’re confident though that come April 2023, Genista will be ready for visitors to come, stay and enjoy Puglia throughout the spring, summer and autumn. So what are we looking at here? The picture at the top of this blog is the swimming pool after fitting the lining. You may ask why does it look a sort of sandy beige colour when traditionally pools are coloured light blue. Three to four years ago, the regulations for building swimming pools in the Valle D’Itria were made more strict in order to preserve the authenticity of the region while allowing the tourist industry to continue to continue to grow. Consequently pools are not allowed to be plain azzure blue anymore in order that they blend in better with the landscape.

We think you’ll agree from the sample photograph above of this lining actually in situ that the end effect is a very calming and pleasing one. We are extremely happy we chose the one we did. By the time this post goes live the process of back filling will have been completed and we can then start the paving around the edges.

When we visit in a week’s time we hope to be able to report that that particular process will have begun. Maybe we’ll be finished by Christmas but December and January are notoriously slow months in Italy but we can hope.

August 16, 2022

Pouring Cement

OK, we’re not exactly on the completion timeline that we intended but after the last couple of years we’ll take any progress we can get. We were hoping that this late Summer/Autumn we’d have been welcoming our first guests through the door at Trullo Genista but sadly it looks like we’ve missed the boat again.

But on the positive side, that gives us the entire winter to get the house ready to open the doors to the first holidaymakers next Spring – likely early May but no doubt if people wish to book for April, or even Easter, we could likely accommodate.

What then is happening here? Last time we visited the house in May, there was a big hole in the ground (see previous posts). Since then the hole has been lined with brickwork in readiness for cement to be poured. Why the time lag between the two processes took so long we have no idea. Now it’s done, we have to wait a month (maybe less as the weather is very warm) before back-filling can take place and then the liner can be fitted.

In order that the pool can be used for as many months of the year as possible, or at least well into October, it is also going to be solar heated. The solar panels therefore have to be installed as part of the project alongside everything else. Maybe then by end of September we could be all finished. This project has taught us never to take anything for granted so we will just keep the positivity levels up and carry on.

May 10, 2022November 25, 2022

Permission at Last. Time to get Going

I know! A scene we thought we may never see. This is an actual excavator digging the hole for our actual swimming pool.

In a bid to accelerate construction work in Italy post-lockdown the government passed legislation that basically said if you have had a construction permit request outstanding for more than 18 months, you can give 60 days notice that you are going to begin the work unless you hear from the comuné with any objections. We did all that but nothing seemed to happen. When the 60 days were up our geometra went to sign the letter that said we were due to start and sure enough it all went through.

Hole for pool filter and pump — The pump and filter space for the pool. Solar panels will sit above this area so the pool can be used right up to and including October

On the 4th May, as pictures bear witness here, digging began which means we hope to start having paying visitors in Genista in July/August. And being solar heated visitors can come right through October and enjoy a heated pool.

The Imhoff septic tank — A new septic tank. Least said the better but actually far more environmentally friendly.

On a slightly les savoury note, law dictates that a new environmentally friendly septic tank has to be installed as a result of the swimming pool work. Consequently, as you can see from the picture here, another big hole has been dug at a safe distance from the pool and a new tank installed. We haven’t inspected the work yet but we are desperately hoping that we don’t have to move any of the olive trees to accommodate this new installation. There’s a long way to go but having waited two and a half years for this when it should have been ready to start in October 2019, we were seriously bemused as to what was going on at the Comune. Was there something they weren’t telling us? Is there a problem that hadn’t been identified when the previous owner got his permit? All this stuff goes through your head and you begin to wonder if you’ll ever come out the other side. We will probably never know but right now it is onwards and upwards.

March 2, 2022November 25, 2022

Puglian Snow. That Wasn’t in the Plan!

Last week of February and I landed in Bari for another meeting with Martina Franca planning department as we are so close to final sign off and I wanted to get an update on progress. For the record Chiara at the Comune assured us she had stamped the permit and sent it for final sign off on February 10th. Meaning by 9th March we should be ready to start work. Generally then, very positive. We await with anticipation.

We once read that February is the coldest month of the year in the Itrian Valley which surprised me as I’ve known some warm days in March and assumed that February would mark the beginning of a warming up process. After a useful week of administrative tasks and some work around the house, I prepared myself to close up the house in advance of a trip back to the UK.

The images you see here are what greeted me when I opened the shutters. I knew that it does snow in Puglia, and it had been a cold week, but it still took me somewhat by surprise. My mind jumped immediately to the fact that I was supposed to be flying that day and that a trip to Bari airport was on the cards for me that day. Thankfully, the gritters had been out and the snow was very rapidly turning to slush by the time I left for Bari later that day. But some great photos for the scrap book nonetheless.

Returning briefly to the building project, we are now working on the assumption that we can finish sometime in June in time for guests to begin to visit Trullo Genista in July, August, September and October. We’ll keep you posted.

February 7, 2022November 25, 2022

Christmas Comes and Goes in Puglia

As I write this on February 7th 2022, I can’t believe it is over a month since we spent our first Puglian Christmas. The picture above shows Alberobello on Christmas Day.

Rather than the subdued, pre-eating and drinking atmosphere in England, Christmas morning is bustling over there and all are out in the town. People come out to go to Mass, eat cakes and pastries and meet friends – or all three. We were pleased to see the ladies who ran the cafe we were in open up a bottle of Prosecco just before 1pm when they were due to close. All together a really enjoyable atmosphere.

Add to that the sun came out around lunchtime and were were treated to a glorious day. In fact the weather treated us well for the whole ten days we were there. This was the view from Trullo Genista on our return from Alberobello that morning. All makes for a very different and very enjoyable Christmas.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, for us it’s interesting to spend Christmas in a different country and secondly it makes for better reading than the ongoing building permit saga. If you have followed this blog you now likely have your head in your hands and are thinking you wish you hadn’t bothered.

The good news is that on 28th December I had a meeting in the planning department at the Comune with a lady called Chiara who not only gave me her contact details she said there was no need to make an appointment but to just drop in and ask for her any time I needed an update. The not so good news is that she checked progress and said that the permit was with the department in Taranto and would be with her and approved by 31st January. That, of course, was a week ago. You’ve guessed it. It didn’t happen.

Our friends at Puglia Pools are going back for a further update this week but my guess is the news will not have changed any. This is the way of the world there just now and so we must just get learn to live with it. The frustrating thing is that the other Comunes nearby, Locorotondo and Cisternino are pulling out all the stops to get things moving post-pandemic. The luck of the draw is that ours is Martina Franca who appear to be the most slow.

I think the really sad thing from our point of view is that another summer may go by without us being able to rent out the trullo and that’s what we really want to do. There’s still plenty to buy and to finish but with no guaranteed date, we can’t move to do anything. But there we are. Things could be far worse let’s be honest. Next update will be….who knows?…hopefully next week when we have an approved permit back from the planning department.

October 7, 2021

Have we been here before?

The post below this one was written on October 1st 2020. This one comes to you on 7th October 2021 and it is staggering to think that a whole year has gone by with precious little progress. We could certainly claim Covid was a factor in this and I’ve no doubt it played its part.

But, as stated up front, it has been a year for someone to literally read a permit application…previously approved permit application even….and stamp it approved again. The previous owner of the property has already paid for this permit to be reactivated so the Comune were sitting on the money but doing nothing. They have had disruption due to the pandemic but not so much that this couldn’t be done.

Let’s take a bit more of an optimistic view for a second. As a result of the pandemic and the need for Italy to reboot its economy, a new law was passed. If you had a planning application that was outstanding for 18 months or more you can now write to the Comune stating that, if you hadn’t heard from them with any objections in 14 days, you could carry on with the work. Consequently, our Geometra, Giuseppe, staked out the swimming pool area and sent pictures with the letter signed by us to say that we would begin work on 6th September unless we heard otherwise. Hence the picture you see at the top of this post. That isn’t a police crime scene, it is the beginning of swimming pool construction. We hope.

OK, that’s the good part. We eagerly awaited the arrival of a JCB but technicalities delayed proceedings for a week. Which were delayed again due to Giuseppe having to take some measurements from the new building and submit them to the Comune. It is at these moments that you start to wonder really who to believe. You get a different story depending on who you talk to. And you start to invent all kinds of possibilities about what is actually going on. I might add we are not the only people going through this nightmare.

Anyhow, we were then informed that we would have the official go-ahead from the Comune by October 4th. At this point we really didn’t know what to say. We thought we had been waiting the last two years for the official go-ahead from the Comune and it hasn’t happened. What happened to the ’14 days or we are going ahead’ law? We still don’t have the answer to that question.

At last count, we have received the go-ahead and work will begin on 14th October. We are assured by Christmas we will have a fully-functioning, solar-heated swimming pool. I know….watch this space.

October 1, 2020October 7, 2021

Weeks not months…hopefully!

Writing once again from Puglia where we are not experiencing quite the same weather that we had this time last year. It’s been incredibly windy with the Sirocco blowing most days and some fairly spectacular rain and thunder to boot. But as can be seen from the header picture here we have new doors on the cupboards which means we can start to install appliances and store certain items down there to get them out of the house. The washing machine for example is now resident behind one of those white doors you see there. It’s difficult to get too excited by cupboard doors but given what this build has had to endure, every step forward feels like a significant one so forgive us if we get emotional about the smallest of things.

The new ensuite bathroom is now really starting to look nice. The towel rail, shower and sink are all in and it looks very slick. A few little snagging items in particular with the floor tiles have to be resolved but we’re pleased with how this looks.

The marble surround for the sink looks really nice and we’re glad we took that decision. But we still live and learn on the assumptions front. We just kind of assumed that they wouldn’t build a nice surround for the sink and leave all the pipework underneath completely exposed. That, perhaps, they might put some doors on the front? What we realise increasingly is that nothing should be taken for granted and that extras like doors have to be factored in. We have an ongoing joke at the moment that every time we meet the builder at the house he leaves a good few hundred Euros better off. But it’s all worth it to make the place look as good as it can be.

We’ve also ticked off another box with the gate posts. These are now clad in the same stone as the rest of the house which finishes them off nicely. All that remains here is for us to purchase a new house sign. Being in quite a rural and remote location it will help guests know that they have actually turned up at the right place. We know from experience that some of the later flights that tend to bring you in to Bari Airport result in your arrival at the house being in the dark. It can get a bit fractious if you are in a strange place and not sure where you are. GPS and Google Maps have improved this massively of course but a welcoming sign adds that little touch to round off a journey in the right way.

Pomegranate fruits in the garden in Puglia

As we speak, we have been assured the permit to build the pool should be finally signed off by end of October which is a blessing. Why it has sat on someone’s desk at the town hall since this time last year we can only guess but with lockdown and restructuring of departments at the Comune in Martina Franca to contend with, we are only too pleased that someone is still aware that we exist. We can gaze on this year’s crop of pomegranates and hope that by December we will have sunk a spade into the earth and begun the process. But we know from the past that until we have that piece of paper signed and in our hands we will not be opening the bubbly just yet.

But the next post on here should be one that shows the current building work just about complete. And we’re talking weeks not months.