Arpino, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy

Il Monastero is a free-standing property in the historic centre of Arpino dating back centuries, formerly a palazzo which was gifted to, and is still in the ownership of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church wishes to sell the property as four apartments and, upon the sale of the first apartment, will at its cost subdivide the cellars and restore the entrance hall and common stairwell (including creating the base for a lift shaft so as to allow the option for the upper floor apartments to install a lift).

The penthouse floor, three bedroom, four bathroom apartment has spectacular panoramic views from many of its windows and magnificent 360º vistas from its 40 sq.mt. roof terrace across the medieval hilltop town of Arpino and the valleys to the mountains beyond. Beautiful hand-painted wallpaper in the salon dates from the 1800s and requires only a little careful restoration to regain its former glory.

The building is structurally sound but each apartment requires complete interior fitting-out and decoration, allowing you to create your own individual dream Italian home. Should you wish to install a lift, the base of the shaft and the wiring will have been predisposed in the refurbishment of the common stairwell by the Church; it would be possible to create a lift up into the loft space for even easier access to the private roof terrace.

The Church has retained the expert local master builder, Claudio Cinelli, to draw up the plans for the sub-division and restoration of the common areas, and to carry out this work upon sale of the first apartment. Claudio Cinelli is also available to work with the purchaser of each of the apartments on the internal restoration of that apartment.

The top floor apartment has inside habitable space of 192 sq.mt., a terrace of 40 sq.mt. and also will benefit from a 20 sq.mt. individual lock-up cellar storage area. (The middle floor will also constitute one complete apartment, and the ground floor will become two smaller separate apartments. There will thus be four apartments in the building.)

According to the plans for the restoration of this property (available by clicking on the floor plan tab above), a graceful arched doorway leads from the stairwell into a spacious entrance hall. The entrance hall has doorways into the salon, the study and the kitchen/dining room.

The salon is a large light room with windows on two walls overlooking a piazza, decorated with beautiful hand-painted wallpaper from the 1800s. The wallpaper is in surprisingly good condition considering its antiquity and can easily be restored. One of the guest bedrooms with ensuite bathroom, opens off the salon.

The study, also opening off the entrance hall, will have an ensuite bathroom, useful as a powder room, but also ensuring that, with the addition of a sofa bed, the room could double as a fourth bedroom if needed.

The third doorway from the entrance hall leads to the splendid kitchen/dining room, a very large room with windows overlooking a magnificent vista of the hilltop town of Arpino, the valley and the distant mountains. Depending upon your desired configuration, this room can have only kitchen wall and counter units, or additionally an island unit or an island unit with breakfast bar - in addition of course to a full-sized dining table.

Beyond the kitchen, and enjoying privacy from the rest of the apartment, is the master bedroom suite. Again with views across the valley, this is another lovely light room that can be configured to the purchaser's individual taste to incorporate an ensuite bathroom and either a sitting area (as shown on the proposed floor plans) or an expanded dressing room area.

A spiral staircase from the entrance hall ascends up into the very large loft space where it is envisioned that a third bedroom and ensuite bathroom will be created. If this is not desired by the purchaser, this space could instead become a games room, a TV/movie theatre lounge, or indeed a very large study/office, allowing the room on the floor below, designated as the study in the plans, to become the third bedroom. Really, it all depends upon what the purchaser wants.

Opening from the loft space is one of the jewels of this apartment - the 40 sq.mt. roof terrace with amazing 360º views of the valley, the distant mountains, the hilltop town of Arpino and high above, the oldest part of Arpino, Civitavecchia, a settlement predating even the Romans.

A laundry opening off the communal stairwell and 20 sq.mt. of lockable cellar space complete the features of this amazing apartment. The property has excellent road access and free nearby parking is available. It is only a few minutes walk or drive from Arpino's main piazza.

Energy classification G

ARPINO AND THE CIOCIARIA

Arpino is one of the major medieval hilltop towns in the area of Italy called the Ciociaria, the name given to the fertile land that lies south of Rome but north of Naples, situated inland in the hills in the heart of Italy.

The Ciociaria region is within easy reach of both Rome and Naples and their respective airports. A day's shopping in Rome is a common pastime, while an even shorter drive brings you to the charming beaches south of Rome. Alternatively, drive east, and the mountains of the Abruzzo National Park await with horse trekking in the magnificent beech forests, and sparkling mountain lakes and rivers where you can swim in the heat of the summer. And at the other extreme of temperature, although Arpino itself is temperate, less than an hour's drive brings you to the winter ski slopes.

Often overlooked, both by tourists and by those foreigners in search of an Italian home, in favour of the more publicized regions of Tuscany and Umbria, the Ciociaria remains largely an unspoilt gem with beautiful scenery and medieval hilltop towns. A home or second home in the Ciociaria, in the hilltop towns of Arpino, Veroli, Alatri or in the rolling countryside that surrounds them, will afford you a setting where over two thousand years of history combine with an idyllic rural Italian lifestyle, where you can still discover the 'real' Italy and take time out from the busy crowds of the larger tourist cities, while being less than ninety minutes journey from central Rome or either of Rome's two airports.


VIA ROMANA Srls and the CINELLI IMMOBILIARE AGENCY

Via Romana Srls is an Italian-incorporated company owned by a British/Australian Chartered Accountant and her photographer daughter, and offers a package of services to facilitate all aspects of the purchase and restoration of Italian property by overseas clients. The Via Romana team works in collaboration with various fully-licensed Italian real estate agencies including the Cinelli Immobiliare Agency. The Cinelli Immobiliare Agency aims at identifying unique buildings with outstanding locations in the beautiful Ciociaria region, including apartments, historic houses, villas, palazzos and farmhouses. Some of these properties are already renovated while others are to be restored. The Cinelli Immobiliare Agency also provides reliable and full service renovations focussed on the appropriate use of original materials, such as stone, wood and wrought iron, drawing on over 40 years' experience in the restoration sector of their partner company Cinelli Claudio Restorations and their technical office, headed by Ing. Valentina Cinelli.