Fans of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing will have welcomed the Italian flair brought to this year’s competition by Nancy Dell’Olio, but how many people know which part of Italy the ex-partner of former England football manager Sven Goran Eriksson comes from?

Despite being born in New York, Nancy’s family moved back to their native Puglia when she was a child, which resulted in her spending her childhood in Bisceglie, a coastal resort just north of the port city of Bari that receives direct flights from the UK.

Puglia is regarded as the bread basket of Italy, thanks to it being the country’s agricultural hub and largest producer of olives. More affordable than the north of Italy, the region is famous for its conical stone character properties, called trulli, which many Brits have renovated as quirky second homes. Rural villas with large plots are also less expensive than the north, typically costing around £100K for a property around the picturesque towns of Ostuni or Ceglie Messapica.

For details of properties in Italy, visit the Italy listings on Rightmove Overseas. One way to save money when buying in Italy is to use a currency specialist when transferring your pounds into euros to complete the purchase of your property. For more information on this, contact Smart Currency Exchange.

To understand the full step-by-step process to buying a property in Italy, collect The Overseas Guides Company’s ‘Italy Property Buying Guide’