In 2003, Jack had a liver transplant (a direct result of his former drug-taking lifestyle) and has since been unable to find enough time to visit. ‘I’m reluctant to sell because it’s in an absolutely gorgeous location,’ says Bruce. ‘Monet stayed in the village and painted the arched bridge crossing the river Nervia near the castle. But it’s two years now since I was last there.’
Bruce’s Italian home is on the market for £105,000. Dolceacqua is right on the western edge of the Italian Riviera (or Liguria), the coastal strip that sweeps from Tuscany to France’s Côte d’Azur.
The region is popular with tourists for its beaches and pretty towns and, while celebrities tend to head east to Portofino, where Giorgio Armani has a home, those seeking authentic Italian rural life head into the hills and stumble across places such as Dolceacqua, an hour’s drive from Nice and one of the loveliest inland villages.
Despite tourists flocking to the village in the summer, according to one local expat who runs a bed and breakfast there, only 15 Britons live in Dolceacqua, which has a population of 2,000. Cream’s enduring appeal means royalties still pour in twice a year.
Crossroads: Time to sell, says Jack Bruce
In the Seventies, Bruce used the money to buy the island of Sanda, off Scotland’s West coast, but sold it when he heard a nuclear power station would be built nearby to spoil his view. In 1986, he bought his farmhouse near Halstead for £79,000 and spent about £200,000 on improvements. In the grounds, Margrit keeps two horses in a small stable.
The couple have three children – singer-songwriter Natascha, 28, and film director Kyla, 26, have flown the nest while 18-year-old son Corin will begin studying this year at Bristol University. The couple bought their home in Dolceacqua in 1998 after Bruce saw it advertsied in a newspaper. He fell in love with the artistic feel of the village, with its winding, cobbled passages rising up to the ruins of Castle Doria, and snapped up the property for £73,000.
‘We’ve hardly done anything to it, except repair the leaking roof, because I prefer the rustic feel,’ says Bruce. ‘But we did buy a nearby garage for €13,000 – there’s only one road in the village and everything else is passageways.’ Bruce’s illness changed everything. In 2003, he was diagnosed with liver cancer and had to have an emergency transplant.
Afterwards, he bought a three-bedroom villa on the Canary island of La Palma for about £320,000. The warmer climate aided his recovery and shortly afterwards Cream played two reunion gigs, generating enough money for Bruce to splash out on his Colchester townhouse, which he bought later that year for £300,000. He has spent around £1 million renovating and extending it.
Four years ago, the Bruces considered selling their home in Dolceacqua but were advised to hold on to it because property values in the area were rocketing. Ann Nathan, owner of The Italian Property Company, says the market was enjoying strong interest from British buyers, but this has since disappeared.
‘Thankfully the market among Italians was not affected too much by the financial crisis because fewer of them use mortgages to buy property,’ says Ann, ‘but most of my foreign sales are now going to Russian, Dutch and German buyers.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-2016014/Cream-bassist-Jack-Bruce-sells-White-Rooms.html
