Now that we had seen a number of houses and apartments on line that appealed to us, we really needed take a look in person. Even we were not impulsive enough to buy a house online. But a few properties we liked had been sold as we waited to go to Italy so we were eager to be on our way. We had identified about ten properties we planned to see. In addition to freestanding houses, Terry had chosen several attractive apartments. I was less than enthusiastic about them because I had experienced condo living and knew that you can nearly always hear your neighbors. Not to mention that their water leaks may well become your leaks or, just as bad, the reverse. No, I wanted an “earth-sky” house–a house in which every floor belonged to a single owner from the earth to the sky. A townhouse might have walls adjoining another building, especially in a small borgo, or hamlet, but these were still essentially individual structures.
Our trip was booked for the end of January, the coldest time of the year in Anghiari. Though the timing had to do with other factors, going then would tell us what kind of temperatures to expect in deep winter. Much of Tuscany spans approximately the same latitudes as North Carolina so winter is real there, with daytime temperatures in the forties and snow a possibility. We had lived in Florida for some years, so we supplied ourselves with more coats and sweaters than we had worn for a long time in anticipation of much colder weather.
We arrived in Anghiari on a Sunday afternoon and checked in to our room at an Agriturismo on the outskirts. These farm-turned-lodging accommodations are popular throughout Italy and offer a change from the usual hotel. After spending a night or two in the room we had reserved, the owners offered to trade it for a full apartment at the same price. There were few people staying there at that time of year, and no one in the apartment, but it was still a more than generous offer, which we were happy to accept. Breakfast was included, of course, and it was hearty, with cheeses, meats and a variety of home baked breads.
Nine o’clock Monday morning, we had our first appointment to tour houses we had only seen on line. We met the young realtor, Federico, in Anghiari’s main piazza and he suggested we start with a trip to Caprese Michelangelo, birth place of the Renaissance artist, where two houses had looked promising. Caprese Michelangelo is a beautiful, very small town situated above Anghiari. The road leading to it wound through curve after curve, always on an uphill grade. Grateful not to be driving myself, I gazed out the window at the landscape. Heavily forested and spotted with an occasional lake, the great beauty of the Tuscan countryside reinforced our decision to settle in this area. The two houses we had asked to see, though, were disappointing and we didn’t stay long in either. Perhaps it was fortunate that we didn’t fall in love with one of them because the long, difficult drive to more populated areas, with services, had eliminated Caprese Michelangelo from our list.
In the afternoon we headed to nearby Sansepolcro. It’s almost possible to see Sansepolcro from Anghiari when standing at the top of a dramatic road leading to the flat land of the Tiber Valley. At the base of that hill lies the presumed location of the Battle of Anghiari, marked by a small stone building. The road continues along a nearly straight line to Sansepolcro, home of Buitoni pasta. Natives of Sansepolcro, the Buitoni family lived and worked there before before expanding to international locations. Today, you can tour their facility and enjoy a pasta lunch afterwards. But we were here to see houses, not the process of making pasta.
All of the properties we were to visit in Sansepolcro were apartments, located in or near the town center. While some of them were lovely, I walked through them with little interest since I had pretty much ruled out buying an apartment. Next we drove to Citta di Castello where I had seen the perfect house online. Perfect, in part, because it had two terraces, one covered by an arbor loaded with grape vines. The house itself was also appealing, with a corner fireplace, plentiful windows letting in the light, and spread over just two floors. Not only that, but Citta itself was a moderate sized city offering lots to do and an attractive downtown area. But “Perfect” faded away when we arrived at the property to find it was not actually in or very close to Citta, but twenty or more miles away in a small borgo named Lugnano. Not a person in sight until we met the owner of a pizza restaurant, which was the only place for a dinner out in Lugnano. This was a place for people seeking quietude, or who were willing to drive some distance for activities. Terry and I both feared we would simply huddle in our perfect house, watching NetFlix movies every night, meeting few people and withdrawing evermore into ourselves.
Following that disappointment, we drove into Citta di Castello proper to see an apartment there. And it was terrific, but still an apartment. Perhaps if we had not been impatient to buy, we might have been willing to wait for new properties to appear on the market. We thought then, and still do, that Citta di Castello would be a wonderful place to live. But we had an agenda, a schedule, which, along with our own impatient natures, egged us on to begin our Italian adventure sooner rather than later.
We had seen a lot of properties and covered a lot of area on that first day. Tuesday promised a look, finally, at the places we wanted to see in Anghiari. The first was an apartment and lay on a fairly busy road, so definitely out, though the apartment itself was quite nice. After that we went to one of our favorite properties located just outside the city walls. It was almost an earth-sky house, but not quite. Neighbors in the attached house next door had extended their top floor, incorporating the upper floor of the house we were going to view. The property was lovely though, having a beautiful vista across an olive grove and an easy to live in floor plan. Built in bookcases could hold our many books, the kitchen was large and updated, as were the bathrooms. We both loved some sconces the owner had placed around the living room. Would it be so appealing that we could overlook the apartment above our heads? Possibly, but we needed to see our other favorite before making any decisions. You can see this house at:
http://www.romolini.co.uk/en/panoramic_apartment_sale_anghiari_tuscany_1469/
We then walked to the house that had accelerated our search, changing it from “next year” to “we don’t want to wait that long.” The owner, a slightly disheveled but very friendly Brit, met us there and accompanied us throughout our tour. While that is discouraged in the U S, we appreciated his information about the heating system, double glazed windows and so forth. He had owned it for about ten years and done some major renovations, including installing new bathrooms and changing the location of the kitchen from the 1st floor (second floor in the U S) to the ground floor. His home had been on the market for well over a year so he was no doubt anxious to promote it to us. He was planning to relocate to Umbria where he had lived before and where he played tennis twice a week.
This house did have everything we were hoping to find. Terry loved the beamed ceilings, the exposed stone and the terracotta floors. I loved its location overlooking the Tiber Valley. We both liked its proximity to the Piazza IV Novembre, where there was a theater, a cafe and on Wednesdays a market. And it had all the rooms we needed. As interested buyers everywhere tend to do, we began to imagine our furniture in each of the rooms. Still, the house just outside the city wall remained a contender. It was clear that we would need to take another look at both.
A visit to the Wednesday market in Piazza IV Novembre in the morning helped pass a day given mostly to discussing the virtues of each property. Our return flight left on Saturday, so, if we were to make on offer on either before we left, we needed to do it within the next day or two. Federico agreed to join us Thursday for second visits to both properties. At this point, I leaned toward the property outside the city wall, though with serious doubts about the upper floor, while Terry preferred the medieval townhouse within Anghiari. This one had an extra room, which Terry could use as a painting studio. That room advantage carried a lot of weight.
In the end, after second visits to each, we reached the decision to make an offer on the earth-sky townhouse. Federico encouraged us to start low, very low in our opinion. He, of course, knew the market and the procedures better than we, so we agreed to his opening offer. Not surprisingly, the owner countered with a somewhat higher amount, but it was still well below the asking price. We were satisfied and ready to sign the papers.
Lurching towards Italy 