FORTE DEI MARMI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th April, 2019) It is a weekday in Tuscany, where rain showers are touch and go, and the air smells of the sea, lilacs, fresh greenery and wet pavement. A house that may well belong to Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy is hidden in the silent, neat streets of the town of Forte dei Marmi and is surrounded by cottages, family hotels and shops that serve as cafes.
A Sputnik correspondent visited the seaside resort, which is popular among the elite, and tried to find traces of the new Ukrainian leader's presence.
According to Zelenskiy's income statement for 2017, when his political career only consisted of him starring in the television show "Servant of the People," in which he played a teacher who inadvertently becomes the head of state, he owned a company named San Tommaso SRL, which is registered in the northern Italian region of Piedmont.
According to the extract from the public register of legal entities, which Sputnik has at its disposal, the company is administered by Ivan Bakanov, a native of the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, who was born in 1975. Zelenskiy's campaign manager had the same name.
San Tommaso, according to the register, has a property in Forte dei Marmi with a total area of over 400 square meters (4,300 square feet). The sole owner of the Italian company is Cypriot firm Aldorante, which is also listed on Zelenskiy's financial disclosure form.
Forte dei Marmi is situated between the coast of the Ligurian Sea and the spurs of the Apuan Alps, a small mountain group with a national park on its territory. Walking in this area is not common, and what few people are around travel by car.
The road to this quiet corner of simple Tuscan happiness seems to protect it from crowds of vacationers and unnecessary attention to those who have decided to settle down here. To get here from the nearest large city, Pisa, you need to take the train and then wait for an interurban bus, which runs once an hour.
"Zelenskiy's villa" is located about 2,000 feet from the sea and about a half hour away from the city center by car. The modest two-storey house is painted white and pale gray and differs from its neighbors only in the freshness of its renovation. You can see a manicured lawn and well-groomed bushes behind the fence. Despite the fact that the house itself looks uninhabited, it seems that someone is keeping things tidy.
Neighbors and passers-by say that they "have heard something" about the owner of the cottage. A woman from a house nearby, who talked to the Sputnik correspondent via intercom, said that only gardeners came to her neighbor's home, and that the last time they were there was a few days ago.
Another local could not recall the last time he saw someone at the villa. He did concede, however, that it was difficult to remember the many people who came to the city for vacation. He was surprised to learn, though, that one of these people could be Ukraine's new head of state.
Forte dei Marmi became known in the early 2000s as a holiday destination for the Russian elite, some of whom now call the city home. However, it would be an exaggeration to say that you can see traces of Russia at every turn. But perhaps the calm and emptiness of the streets are due to the bad weather or fact that it is the off-season.
The abundance of real estate agencies is what catches the eye. You could even say that there are more offices where you can buy an apartment, cottage or villa than grocery stores in Forte dei Marmi. Costs range from a couple of hundred thousand Euros to the mysterious "price upon request" for the largest properties, whose descriptions are often carefully translated into Russian. This way, agencies primarily attract Russian-speaking clientele.
Speaking about the possible cost of the villa that purportedly belongs to Zelenskiy, an employee of one of the agencies was hesitant.
"If the total area is over 400 square meters, then the price starts at two million euros [$2,2 million]. And then everything [the price] depends on the state of the house and the availability of extra options, for example, a pool," the manager said.
Judging by the surface area, the house seems to occupy most of the area, leaving no room for a pool.
According to manager, real estate firms see a steady demand for properties from Russian buyers, and, recently, Ukrainians have also picked up the trend of buying houses in Forte dei Marmi.
"I think that this is fashionable for them. In addition, the infrastructure is well developed here for Russian clientele [with] the sea and many luxury shops," the girl added.
The construction company that supposedly worked on "Zelenskiy's house" a few years ago is offering its services for new residents of the Ligurian resort. In addition to signs in three languages and descriptions of available services, visitors of the company's office are greeted by Russian-speaking employees.
Upon finding out about there was interest in one of their alleged clients, they politely refused to provide any information. The only question a manager agreed to answer was one about how much demand there was for their services.
"Well, it is Forte dei Marmi after all," he said importantly in Russian.
