Arpino, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy

Casa Paoli is in a quiet location near the top of the Arco quarter of Arpino, a few minutes walk from the piazza.

There are entrances to the building on every level. If you choose to enter through the little courtyard, you will come into a tiny entrance hall. To your right is a room (on current layout, a bedroom), and ahead of you are the stairs to the upper floor.

These stairs arrive at a landing, from which you reach on one side another room with views over the rooftops of Arpino to the valley and hills beyond (currently also a bedroom), and on the side a large room with another front door. This room as had a section partitioned off to make a separate kitchen, although the partition wall would be easy to remove. There is also a bathroom.

On the lowest level, there is a 'cantina', also with its own entrance - the cantina, which is unrestored, has a large old fireplace.

The courtyard is technically communal - there is a small unused cellar room and a small unused garden also opening off it, but in practice it is used only by the owner of Casa Paoli.

For partial restoration - the wiring and bathroom would benefit from updating, and there is currently no heating.


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.