For many property hunters, the popular Italian region of Tuscany might be associated with exorbitant property prices.
During the boom years, and the era when Tuscany became highly fashionable due to bestselling books and aspirational films such as Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun, the prices of delectable farmhouses in the "Golden Triangle" of Chiantishire heated up fast.
We all dreamt of hazy, sun-drenched days drinking Chianti Classico in our honey-coloured farmhouse surrounded by olive trees, citrus groves or vineyards.
Before the downturn you were looking at nearly €1million for a nicely renovated five-bed farmhouse within a sniff of the beautiful medieval towns of San Gimignano, Arezzo, Siena and Florence.
But outside this Central Tuscany hotspot, there's a lot more to the large region. It offers many homes in lesser-known areas that investors can purchase without paying a fortune.
Gate-Away.com, the Italian property portal for overseas buyers, encourage buyers to focus attention in particular on the Lunigiana, the northern tip of Tuscany, on the border with Liguria.
Here you can find for £78,000 a charming two-bed stone-built cottage halfway between the mountains and the sea, and about one hour from the international airport of Pisa.
Or a 80m2 detached house to be renovated with garden for £23,000?
So why Lunigiana?
This territory, usually described as the area with the most castles in Italy, as it once boasted over 100 examples, is a perfect location due to its villages superbly positioned and enclosed by the Apennine Mountains, the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
It is a pristine land, uncontaminated by industry and pollution, and handy for Pisa airport.
According to the portal, non-Italians in Lunigiana currently make up about 7 per cent of the overall population.
But this data will increase in the future as you can own a home in the popular Tuscany on a small budget.
Gate-Away.com provides a huge selection of Lunigiana properties to choose from, or search here for our own listed examples.
