Arce, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy

Casa Loyola is a beautiful home in the historic centre of Arce, with sweeping views across the valley, a number of original features, and a charming patio garden.

The front door opens into a generous entrance hall. To the left is the kitchen, which looks out on the patio and the valley. Ahead is an unusual room with vaulted ceilings and a fireplace, which opens at one end onto the patio-terrace and at the other into the main salon.

The main salon has an elegant painted ceiling and a balcony running its length, overlooking the valley. Beyond the salon are two large bedrooms, also overlooking the valley, and two bathrooms. There is a third room, which might be used as for example a large ensuite dressing room or a study.

A stairway leads up from the entrance hall to the upper level, where there are three further rooms, all with antique floor tiles and exposed wood beam ceilings. One looks out over the old town, one over the valley, and the third has windows looking both ways. There is also a large attic space (also with windows). This area, once the private office of the current owner's father, could be further living area, or bedrooms and another bathroom.

The large patio terrace is ideal for al fresco dining, and there is also a small garden area beyond. An entrance from the garden leads down into a cellar room (it is in fact beneath the family's private church, which is not for sale). This could be used as a cellar, or for storage, although the current owner at one point envisaged creating a small spa area, which could also be an attractive possibility.

The property retains many of its attractive original features - marble, terrazzo, and red & black tiles, a fireplace, the arched and painted ceilings. The owners have maintained the property, even though they now live elsewhere, but it does require modernisation, updated kitchens and bathrooms, and some redecoration.

There is nearby free public parking, but it is also possible to purchase a garage in the next street from the owners. A small further apartment, completely restored, and with a large garden is also available for sale by the same owners. It is in the same building as, but does not conjoin, Casa Loyola, although it is probable that the middle section of the house (divided on inheritance a generation ago), and the rest of the garden, will be available for sale at some point in the not too distant future, for anyone who would like to put the entire palazzo back together.


ARCE AND THE CIOCIARIA

Arce is one of the many beautiful medieval 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 Rocca d'Arce 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, Rocca d'Arce 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 CASE & CASALI REAL ESTATE 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 Case & Casali Real Estate Agency represented by Sig. Ciro Tomei. Sig. Tomei has been enrolled in the register of real estate agents at the Chamber of Commerce in Frosinone, Lazio since 2007 and has much experience in the international marketing of Italian real estate.