Spoleto Villa, Umbria, Italy
This is the home where your days are shaped by going out to the garden, checking what's freshly ripened, and coming up with an idea of how to prepare it.
In theory, at least. Right now the garden seems to be mainly olive trees and irises.
How about -- this is the house where you'll open the window shutters and lean out into the fresh air to enjoy the views of the Apennines mountains and the cathedral?
That's how life is best lived in Spoleto, an Umbrian hillside town in central Italy. It's where wealthy Romans built military strongholds shielded by the mountains, then later built vacation villas as retreats from life in the big city.
It looks like people have been leaning out of the windows here for centuries, but in reality the house is only around 100 years old.
The entry opens to a "double living room with fireplace," that is currently a large dining room.
See what I mean about it looking centuries old?
While that has its charm, if it were mine, it would be more conducive to relaxing by the fireplace.
It works, because on the other side of the hall, the living room currently looks like this:
It would be better served as a dining room, like this:
You can find more of those wide-opened shutters in the sitting room:
The kitchen has a fireplace, but as the listing says, it could "benefit from updating."
Once again, I found renovation inspiration from designers Suzanne Tucker and Timothy Marks:
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Upstairs are three bedrooms and one bathroom.
Again, if it were mine, I'd want to make things a little more relaxing, like this:
It needs a yellow bedroom to go with this yellow tiled bathroom:
On the tower floor are an additional two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a terrace. The house has 297 square meters, or 3,196 square feet.
The terrace has a view of Rocca Albornoz, the hillside fortress built in the 1300's.
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The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is another Spoleto focal point.
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It has frescoes by medieval artist Fra Filippo Lippi, one of which (The Annunciation) features a villa that definitely looks like it belongs in Spoleto:
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If exploring all the medieval wonders of Spoleto makes you tired just picturing all of the hillside climbing you would have to do...
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