VILLA CENTOFIORI GILI GEDE ISLAND

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Come for a visit. Call +62 (0)817 368-444 or email me: centofiori.giligede@gmail.com.

We will refund your travel expenses if any of what we said is untruth or exaggerated.

I have spent my entire life to produce well-

being for my family. The reasons were some-

times different but at the end it was always the

same: to provide for the family satisfactorily.

Initially, the motivation was almost exclusively to

raise children so they do not lack anything and

had the highest chance in life that awaited

them.

I think I've done a good job and at this stage

the mother figure was essential, and my wife

has done an excellent job. The trips were very

important part of our lives and once complet-

ed our task as parents, we have abandoned

the city life that would no longer met our aspi-

rations and planned a sabbatical year spent on

a journey from Singapore to Darwin, through

the whole 'Indonesia'. We realized that living in

this country would provide new interests and activities for at least another life. It was not

our intention to stop at Lombok but the case and maybe the luck almost forced us to

put down new roots in this land which at the time was really primitive and I would even

call it genuine.

It was 1999 when we arrived in

Lombok and we settled in Senggigi

that was the only possible accom-

modation, We tried to stay in a

couple hotels with direct access to

the beach but we were attacked

by street/beach vendors also in the

water while swimming and then we

moved to hotel "Panorama " just

outside Senggigi and we settled

into a charming cottage. We shot

in Lombok far and wide and some

areas were still underserved and difficult to reach.

VILLA CENTOFIORI GILI GEDE ISLAND

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Come for a visit. Call +62 (0)817 368-444 or email me: centofiori.giligede@gmail.com.

We will refund your travel expenses if any of what we said is untruth or exaggerated.

A visit to the southwest that we had noticed from the ferry coming from Bali we had to

postpone several times because we had to cross a couple of rivers and our car was not

a 4-wheel drive. When we finally were there we could go immediately fascinated by

the beauty of the people, the beaches of white coral sand and we went back several

times to spend the day. Our particular interest is the sea to have spent our entire life

never too far from it.

During those months in Lombok, friends

joined us for their holidays and absorbed our

enthusiasm for this land and the Sasak ethnic

group that lives here. Being too close to re-

tirement, they pushed us to consider settling

here indefinitely. In the reality of things they

did not have to insist much because the

idea persistently overlooked our mind for

some time. At the end of our trip that took us

to Papua and Darwin we returned to Lom-

bok with the well-established intention of

finding a place where we could settle down.

After spending a few weeks to survey possi-

ble destinations, we decided that the prom-

ontory of the island Gili Gede so close to the

coast was the place where we could have

everything we were looking for. Isolated but

not too much, a space wide enough to be

able to enjoy the freedom we never could

have had in the city or other inhabited

place. A fishing village a few hundred meters

away, and dozens of uninhabited islands and

pristine white beaches to go for any marine activity above and below the sea surface.

A dazzling sun, a sea of crystal clear water and the absolute absence of mechanical

sounds.

Even today we wake up at dawn with the birds chirping, the crowing of the cock of the

forest, the sound of the sea on the beach and the water flowing in our park, was no

longer even need to fish for eating fresh fish. Communities living in the southwest of

VILLA CENTOFIORI GILI GEDE ISLAND

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Come for a visit. Call +62 (0)817 368-444 or email me: centofiori.giligede@gmail.com.

We will refund your travel expenses if any of what we said is untruth or exaggerated.

Lombok are mainly fishermen and without electricity and refrigeration where stow their

catch, are in the position of having to sell quickly the fruit of their labor. The fish that can

not sell in the day to local markets, is intended in part to their table and the remainder

is cooked over wooden fire and sold the next day to the market.

With our coming, fishermen with their boats

dock directly on our beach and offer us

wonderful fishes that still gasping on the bot-

tom of the boat. Even today I was able to

enjoy excellent red mullets, and this evening

I will have dinner cuttlefish with peas and

partly fried and golden. Last week we had

some wonderful lobster and often excellent

turbot with baked potatoes and sole ‘a la

meuniere’, especially welcome by our

grandchildren.

Once provided essential services to make our life a comfortable one, that otherwise

would make staying on the island very uncomfortable, every day is a blaze of well-

being and enjoyment of life.

My wife imposed a condition ‘sine qua

non’ to come and live in Gili Gede, I

had to provide electricity and with it

all those services that depend on it, a

means of communication and reliable

internet. The purchase of a boat was

the first act had after buying the land.

The water on the island is poor and

tied to the monsoon period, it is ex-

tremely rich in dissolved minerals that

have caused the continued corrosion

and deterioration of galvanized pipes

and taps. For this reason I strongly desired, sought and obtained to have better water

that I brought from the mainland making an underwater pipeline to the island.

Life at Villa Centofiori flows serene and fulfilling. No lack in past emergencies due to

VILLA CENTOFIORI GILI GEDE ISLAND

Watch Publications on http://issuu.com/villa.centofiori/docs

Come for a visit. Call +62 (0)817 368-444 or email me: centofiori.giligede@gmail.com.

We will refund your travel expenses if any of what we said is untruth or exaggerated.

monsoon that can be very violent

and destructive, but with time,

though always careful, I have

learned to better respect and work

with nature and its forces, even

more than I did before.

Today the abrasion of the soil be-

cause of the rains is minimized

thanks to the terraces we made, the

many trees planted and the under-

ground sewage pipes that spill into

the sea the huge amount of rain

that literally washed the soil in the

past. Fruit trees scattered throughout the park give us delicious fruits and pour in the air

their scent of flowers first and ripe fruit then. We only have the choice of where to enter-

tain us to talk or dining, both indoor and outdoor in the dozens of nooks that we creat-

ed for the purpose. A terrace almost hanging under a tree where indulge in pleasant

activities, catch the breeze that blows almost incessantly in the dry season or follow the

sunset behind Mount Agung in Bali.

Once again I made it all with my own strength with the unlimited help by my wife but

many times we had to recognize of having been also fortunate to have had those

friends who have encouraged us to stop, we met people decent and available on our

road, to have had the friendship and respect of many people who have helped us on

many occasions even if only with their advice.

Now, that I've offered our paradise for sale, I hope that you will seize this unique op-portunity that is presented to you. You will benefit from our expertise and experience that offers the fertile ground where you will find already a very advantaged starting point for your own projects, whatever they are. Villa Centofiori offers already a lot without changes and still lends itself to countless solutions and developments unimaginable to anyone able to grasp the opportunity and the fortune.