Arpino, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy

Casa del Maestro di Caravaggio is a very prestigious and important historic apartment of 140 square meters, plus balcony, extended on the second (and last) noble floor of the monumental Palazzo Cesari di Arpino, counted among the "five wonders" of the Ciociaria and formerly the home of the famous Mannerist painter Giuseppe Cesari (1568-1640), master of Caravaggio, better known in the chronicles of the time as "il Cavalier d'Arpino".

The residence, finely restored in every detail and elegantly furnished, dates back to the first decades of the 17th century. In addition to a wonderful panoramic view of the beautiful Media Valle del Liri, the apartment contains stuccos and original floors of the time, magnificently preserved, as well as a fresco, also from the seventeenth century, depicting the nymph Thetis immersing Achilles in the magical waters of the Styx. The fresco has been attributed by the great German scholar H. Röttgen to Bernardino Cesari, son and collaborator of Cavalier d'Arpino. For its recognized artistic and monumental value, it has been admitted to be among the members of the prestigious "Association of Italian Historic Houses".

The apartment, which is accessed via an independent entrance from a charming common courtyard, consists of a large entrance hall, a master bedroom with en suite bathroom (both of these rooms have vaults decorated with period stucco), a kitchen (located in a room formerly used as a small chapel), a large and panoramic hall with an original fresco by Bernardino Cesari Jr and other decorations by local painters, with an eighteenth-century Neapolitan riggiole floor, perfectly intact, an elegant cellar/wine bar, a hallway used as a study/ TV room, with large custom built wardrobes, another bedroom (like an attic), a second bathroom with bathtub and laundry room, plus utility room and attic.

The apartment has precious parquet and period terracotta floors and the kitchen and bathrooms have marble tops.

The apartment was recently included in the volume Dentro la storia. The Palaces of Ciociaria (2022, pp. 35-37), published by the Provincial Administration of Frosinone, in which the most beautiful and important historic houses of Lower Lazio are published, with relative historical and iconographic files.

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 Alvito, 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, is one of the largest and most highly-regarded real estate agents in the area and has much experience in the international marketing of Italian real estate.