International briefs

From the October New York issue: After nearly a full decade of real estate boom, the luxury market in Tuscany is sliding downward. Overall prices have fallen 10 to 20 percent over the past two years, according to brokers who work in the region, though the dip is still less than in France or Spain. In the Chianti countryside, prices for some rural properties have fallen to as low as half of what they were five years ago, according to the International Herald Tribune. It is the first major decline since the euro doubled the cost of property roughly ten years ago. Compiled by Sara Polsky