Affordable Tuscany

LEE COGHER is living the Tuscan dream. The Guernseyman divides his time between his family farmhouse in the village of Pergo, near Cortona, and a 14th-century hamlet tucked high in the heavily-wooded hills of the Liccione Valley.

And he's on his way to the latter now. Sipping espresso on a vine-covered terrace, we hear the distant sound of wheels on gravel – and that's unusual in itself. Up to now, the only remarkable sounds have been those of birdsong and the occasional fox, barking in the night.

This is Borgo di Vagli, a collection of restored medieval buildings set in 32 acres of olive groves and terraced grounds. It is stunningly lovely, with huge views across a valley that could have sprung straight from the pages of a fairytale book. It even has its own Rapunzel tower, the ruin of a 10th-century castle on a distant hillside. The tower is the first thing you gaze at when you open the shutters in the morning and the last to sink into the hillside as dusk gathers.

And there has been a lot of gazing.

In fact, for the past two days we have been so wrapped up in this typically Tuscan hideaway that we have barely moved.

Cortona is just a 20-minute drive and Perugia Airport around 45, but we may as well be a world away, wrapped as we are in a magical bubble marked 'chilled'.

The most energetic thing we've done since arriving is hunt for a corkscrew.

Which is exactly as developer and architect Fulvio di Rosa planned it. The man whose string of highly-regarded restoration projects includes the home of Under the Tuscan Sun author Frances Mayes is something of a legend himself.

And looking around here, you can see why.

All have original stone floors, beamed ceilings and antique furniture. But the beauty for me is in the detail: carved stone sinks, copper cooking pots, handmade cutlery and huge beds dressed in fine linen. And with maid service and an on-site trattoria serving some of the best rustic Italian food I've tasted, the borgo's guests need never lift a finger.

Except that many of them are not guests. They're owners.

For as little as 60,000 euros (around £48,000) they have bought into the dream. And they can have as much of it as they like.

The key is fractional ownership, a concept that removes all the terror, red tape and hassle from buying property abroad.

The borgo offers 10 of its one- and two-bedroom properties under the scheme.

A maximum of 10 owners can buy into each one, a share that gives them access to all the properties within their category.

Their share can be sold, willed, transferred or placed in trust at any stage and, subject to availability, they can spend as much time there as they like.

It's a simple and – in an area like this, where even ruins go for silly sums – affordable way of owning a piece of Tuscany.

The drive to Borgo di Vagli had been interesting. I'd done my homework and knew that it was reached via an unmade road twisting high up into the hills along a 1,000-year-old track.

'Expect narrow,' I warned the old man, whose grey hair quota grows by the second on any Italian road, regardless of size. Lee laughed when we confessed this. 'You drive in Guernsey,' he reminded us. 'This will be a piece of cake.'

He explained that the road acts as a filter to help maintain the hamlet's privacy.

Once there, it is easy to see why its original community moved lock, stock and animals to less remote villages following the Second World War.

Life here would have been tough: no electricity, no running water and only the surrounding land from which to eke a living. And no one knows that better than Dina, who cooks at the borgo's trattoria each evening. The 72-year-old was brought up here, as were the rest of her family. Now she lives in the neighbouring village of Mercatale but presides each evening over the trattoria's kitchen, with its open wood-fired stoves.

When di Rosa set his heart on buying the borgo he spent two years tracking down the people who had lived there – which is how he met Dina.

In the candlelit former medieval guard tower she served us the region's famous Chianina beef, flavoured with the fragrant herbs that line the borgo's pathways and finished with olive oil made from its own crops. Wines came from Montepulciano and Montalcino, a short drive away.

The following morning, breakfast of local salamis and cheeses from the borgo's small shop followed a dip in the 20-metre pool, which has panoramic views across the valley.

And then... nothing much. A stroll into the woodland along one of the eight circular walking trails, a sun-lounger pulled into the shade of an olive tree... zzzz.

'How do you stand it?' I ask Lee, 41.

More laughter.

'I never need much of an excuse to come up here,' he admits, having driven the few miles from his office in Cortona through heart-stopping scenery.

He and his Italian wife, Cecilia, lived in the medieval town for five years before decamping a couple of miles out into the country when their youngest child, Thomas, was born.

Their girls – Camilla, 10, and eight-year-old Carlotta – are, he says, Tuscan through and through and still correct their dad's Italian grammar from time to time.

But the former St Peter Port School boy is still a Guern at heart. Parents Jess and Mike live here, as does his brother, and he confesses to missing the sea.

Jess and Mike were in the hospitality industry – they ran the Deerhound Inn and, for a time, Petit Bot tearooms – and Lee followed the same path.

At 21 he was running Wyndham's Hotel, having graduated through a CFE catering course and La Fregate kitchens, as well as spending three years working in Tenerife.

He has fond memories of jumping into the dory he kept in the marina opposite and pottering around the coast to have lunch with his mum and dad at Petit Bot.

But his career path took a different turn the second time he visited Tenerife. He ended up staying, working in sales and marketing for the following 14 years.

That's when he met Cecilia, who is originally from Florence – and Fulvio di Rosa.

'I'm thinking of restoring a medieval hamlet in Tuscany,' di Rosa told him.

Lee was intrigued. But when he first set eyes on Borgo di Vagli, it was derelict.

'That was millennium year,' he recalls. 'Fulvio showed me two other hamlets he'd restored and they were absolutely incredible. But then we came down here and I saw this, in ruins. And I thought, "this guy's mad".'

But di Rosa had it all planned: 'This will be number four,' he told him, indicating a ruined building, 'and this number five...'

'I spent a couple of hours with him,' said Lee. 'It's now exactly as he said it would be.'

But back then, Lee was still sceptical. 'Don't spend any money on marketing,' he warned di Rosa.

'But six weeks later I was doing the marketing. He called me in the first week of January and asked me to work for him, and move to Italy. I said to Cecilia: "What do you think?"

'"I'd love to go back", she said, and within three weeks we were in Tuscany. And I didn't speak a word of Italian.'

Di Rosa was determined to restore the place the way it should be. 'And he's done an incredible job,' said Lee. 'He was very much a pioneer in his field, buying and restoring and selling to wealthy tourists.'

The renovation took two-and-a-half years, with materials on site carefully recycled. Most of the roofs had caved in and a huge crane was in situ for the best part of a year.

The architect used the same building team as he'd used for 20 years: 'Six men,' said Lee. 'You can't have too many people on this site. It was strenuous work. The oldest guy was 73, with hands like shovels.'

When Lee started marketing the finished result, he first concentrated on timeshare of one or two weeks and leasehold. Then he found out more about fractional ownership.

'With this, you're buying into bricks and mortar in perpetuity, with unlimited access. You can send friends and family. Some owners did nine weeks here last year,' he said. 'People buy for family, to hand on and to share.'

We spoke to publishing consultant Andy Rogerson, who was on his 'third or fourth' visit this year, and leaving wife Brenda there as he reluctantly set off back to London.

'We bought a year ago after finding the place in a magazine,' he told us. 'It's not a credit card purchase, but it's not a life-changing sum either. We're loving it.'

And that, says Lee, is the key.

'Here you can be totally private or you can have company. Owners get to know each other and the trattoria is a great meeting place, especially on Monday nights, which is pizza evening. That's great fun.'

And Dina, creator of the food shared at

'l' cche c'e c'e' (it means 'whatever there is to eat') was instrumental in the whole project.

'Six members of her family were at the notary's office when we signed the deeds,' says Lee. 'There must have been 40 in the room in all.

'Dina used to work in the forest, collecting wood. We knew she'd been brought up here.

Just before we started the renovation she said: "Come round for a meal". That's how we discovered Dina's great food.'

The feeling of being part of a community is an important part of the Tuscan dream.

When Lee and Cecilia lived in Cortona, they knew everyone there.

They still do. A few days later, I bumped into them in the medieval piazza, enjoying an evening drink and catching up with whoever was passing.

It's that sort of place. Everyone knows everyone. People shop every day, and every shopping expedition provides a dozen chances to stop for a chat, a coffee, a coo over the latest bambino.

Camilla and Carlotta take part in the town's legendary medieval pageant each May: 'They love dressing as princesses,' says Lee.

This is the Italian way of life, viewed by so many with envy.

'It is fabulous,' he admits, as he and Cecilia prepare to set off for their summer expedition to the Italian lakes, 'to cool off' – Tuscany has basked in 30C-plus sunshine all summer.

It's a tough life. And Lee and the Cogher family are living it to the full.

• There are five airports within easy driving distance of Borgo di Vagli: Perugia (45 minutes), Florence (one hour and 45 minutes), Pisa and two in Rome (all two hours). All are served by low-cost carriers.