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To enlarge any one of these 'thumbnail' images just click on it |
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SOLD - but for a good selection of properties for sale in the scenic Monferrato Hills and the Alto Astigiano of Piedmont please click here |
| For Sale - Rural Property Complex Piedmont, Italy |
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To enlarge any one of these 'thumbnail' images just click on it |
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SOLD - but for a good selection of properties for sale in the scenic Monferrato Hills and the Alto Astigiano of Piedmont please click here |
| ARTIST'S IMPRESSIONS | ||
| The 'thumbnails' above, which are expansible, show what this property looks like now. There is also a sketch plan of how the property is laid out and a map of Regione Piemonte in which it is situated. What might the buildings look like after renovation? Please click on this link to see a couple of sketches of how the principal buildings might look. | ||
| COMPLEX OF HOUSES FOR SALE IN RURAL PIEDMONT, NORTH-WEST ITALY | ||
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The property is situated on the hill of Perosio in the most commanding position in this charming hamlet, which is in the wine-producing Monferrato Hills of Piedmont in north-west Italy.
This is a substantial property in several units, most of them over 300 years old and traditionally-built in brick and stone. The interiors and exteriors retain many of their original features including floors tiled in terracotta, open fireplaces, timber ceilings, old doors, a full-sized, wood-burning bread oven, roof tiles (tegola), etc. The property offers great scope for conversion to such as a very large private dwelling, apartments for sale or apartments for holiday letting, or some other business use. It could also be converted and used for a bed and breakfast business or as an equestrian centre, especially as there is extra land that can be offered for sale as well as the buildings. There is a small, sloping field of exactly a quarter of an hectare, or 0.6178 of an acre, that would be thrown into the bargain if the asking price for the buildings was met, or nearly so. This field is a few metres outside the courtyard and is in the middle-background to the 'thumbnails', above, called View 1 and View 2. But it is not the field that can be seen there; this 'makeweight' field is much nearer to the buildings than the field that can be seen. The extra land is available at extra cost, though it is not particularly for sale and is only mentioned in case the new owners of the property might like to have it. One could buy all of this extra land, or some of it or none of it. All of the extra land would cost less than £14,000 sterling; part of it would be available at a pro rata price subject to negotiation. The extra land comprises about 5.109 hectares, equal to 12.6248 acres, and is in ten divisions, seven of them under grass and three woodland (the combined area of the woodlands is 1.2390 hectares or 3.0617 acres). These fields or paddocks are not together in a group; they are scattered along the hillside. The furthest from the buildings is one of the woodland areas, which is on the next hill, about 550 yards distant. The land was mostly used for pasturage and growing wine. There have been no horses on it in living memory, as would be obvious by a glance at the fields - they are not fenced. Access to all of the fields is legally established and is along public byroads or rights of way. Perosio is ideally situated as a base for things like pony-trekking or horse riding in the surrounding hills. There are extensive woods nearby; they would be ideal for walking, hiking, orienteering, mountain biking, activity weekends and the like. Because the area is hilly there are many rivers, so fishing is good. Shooting parties could be organised in season. The views are molto panoramica, particularly from the top floor of the main house. To the west and north west permanently snow-capped mountains can be seen in the distance on a clear day. Identifiable peaks include Monviso, in Italy, Monte Cervino (The Matterhorn) and Monte Rosa in Switzerland and Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc) on the international border. | ||
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GUIDE PRICE - £95,000 sterling | ||
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Link to Currency Converter - compare 26 currencies in a single table | ||
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| A CONVENIENT LOCATION, RURAL and UNSPOILED but NOT ISOLATED | ||
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For a quick overview of Piedmont please enlarge the 'thumbnail' called Maps at the top of this page. To approximately locate Perosio, the hamlet in which the property is situated, please imagine a straight line drawn between Vercelli and Asti. Perosio would be about halfway along the line, about 2-3 miles or about 4 kilometres south of the River Po. Local people often give distances in terms of hills. They usually say the distance from Perosio to the Po is "two hills".
Perosio is in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Some of the nearby countryside is part of the Parco Naturale del Sacro Monte di Crea, a protected area. On the Sacro Monte is the Santuario di Crea, one of the most-visited pilgrimage sites in Italy. The hill on which it stands is visible from the property. In July 2003 the Santuario was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Immediately below the next paragraph is a prominent link to a scaleable Multimap which shows the immediate area around Perosio. The exact spot where the buildings stand can easily be identified, as can the nearest village, Valle Cerrina, which is in the top-right (eastern) corner. Multimaps have 13 scales, starting at 1:5000 (the following map is set at the third scale up, 1:25000). One can 'zoom' the maps up or down in scale. The first three outward steps show Perosio, the seventh step shows the position of Turin in relation to it (Perosio is a few miles north-east of Murisengo, which is shown near the centre of the seventh map). Further steps show progressively wider areas. |
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| LOCAL ADMINISTRATION and THE WIDER AREA | ||
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The property dominates the eight or nine other buildings in Perosio, which is so small it is shown on few paper-based maps. For administrative purposes Perosio is a frazione, literally fraction, of the local council district, Comune Cerrina, which is based in the nearby small town of Cerrina Monferrato and is one of the comuni or municipalities of Provincia di Alessandria, one of the eight provinces of Regione Piedmont, in north-west Italy.
Perosio is about 36-37 miles or about 58-59 kilometres east of Turin; about 16-17 miles or about 26-27 kilometres west of the small city of Casale Monferrato, and about 19 miles or about 30 kilometres north of the town of Asti. It is conveniently placed for getting to and from Turin, Milan, Asti, Casale Monferrato, Novara, Vercelli, etc. It is within commuting distance of Turin, a comfortable hour's drive to the west, or by train from a station about 5 miles from the property. The nearest motorway passes Casale Monferrato to the east and is therefore about 15 miles or about 25 kilometres from the property. The ordinary roads are good and linking-up to the main routes to and from France, Switzerland and Germany is easy. | ||
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| FIVE AIRPORTS THAT COULD BE USED TO REACH THE PROPERTY | ||
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The nearest airport is Turin International, also known as Torino-Caselle. It is situated north of Turin and handles a great number of charter flights from Britain in the ski-ing season, as well as daily scheduled flights from London-Stansted and London-Gatwick,which are operated by, respectively, Ryanair and British Airways. Turin International has very few flights from outside Europe.
The distance between Turin International Airport and the property is about 36-37 miles or about 58-59 kilometres by the shortest route, which avoids toll roads and does not go near the city of Turin. This is another comfortable hour's drive. The city of Milan is about 65 miles or about 104 kilometres to the north-east of the property and has two international airports, Malpensa and Linate. It is Malpensa that handles most of the long-haul flights to northern Italy. For instance, it presently it handles about 15 flights a day from USA, including JFK, Boston, Newark, Chicago and Miami. Both Milan airports are favourably situated for avoiding the city of Milan when driving to and from Perosio, and Malpensa is the nearer of the two; it is just inside Lombardy, near the dividing line with Piedmont. There is also an international airport at Bergamo, from which it would be feasible to drive to the property. This airport is sometimes called Orio al Serio; it has been developed and is a favourite with the budget airlines. Some now refer to it as 'Milan-Bergamo'. It is simple to get from Bergamo International Airport to Perosio, because using a couple of motorways would account for most of the journey. Many provincial airports in Britain have flights to and from this, the third airport serving Milan. Genoa International Airport is about 81 miles or about 130 kilometres south of the the property and on the coast of Liguria. It would be feasible to use it to get to Perosio because most of the drive would be along two inter-connected motorways. One would leave the second motorway near Casale Monferrato. From there the property is only 14 miles west. As in the case of Turin International Airport, as above, Genoa International Airport, which is also called Genova Sestri, Cristoforo Colombo, has daily scheduled flights operated by Ryanair from London-Stansted and by British Airways from London-Gatwick. | ||
| RAILWAY STATIONS - LOCAL, REGIONAL and INTERNATIONAL | ||
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The nearest railway stations to the property are, to the east, Serralunga-Cereseto and, to the west, Montiglio-Murisengo. Those stations have compound names that refer to well-known villages on hills some distance either side of the lines, which are in the valleys.
Serralunga-Ceresto station is actually at Madonnina di Crea. This is the Asti-Casale Monferrato line and the station is about 5 miles or about 8 kilometres from the property. Montiglio-Murisengo is on the Asti-Chivasso line (change at Chivasso for Turin) and is about 6 miles or about 10 kilometres from the property. The international train services through Asti and Turin are notably good, with international services continuing south to Florence and Rome, etc, and northwards to Lyon and Paris. From Vercelli, to the north of the property, one can catch equally good, fast international trains running to Germany and Austria, while other trains on the same line terminate at Venice. |
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The property from the air: boundaries marked in red |
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| DETAILS OF THE VARIOUS UNITS OF THIS PROPERTY | ||
| Unit 1 - seen head-on in the 'thumbnail' called View 3, above | ||
| This is the main house and was originally the landowner's residence. It is a tall house with
unrestricted all-around views from the top floor. It has been kept in good structural condition and
has very basic facilities.
Beneath the house is the smaller of two cellars. Using the 'thumbnail' called View 3, above, the door at the top of the steps that lead to this smaller cellar can be seen at ground level. The floor area is about 32m2 (dimensions are approximately 26 feet by 13 feet). This cellar was for storing wine while it matured. The ground floor was the main cellar; it is vaulted and is the same size as the house. The floor area is approximately 68m2. The door to this cellar is quite imposing and is about 7 feet to 8 feet (about 2.13 metres to 2.44 metres) in width. The door is not visible on this website because it is 'around the corner' to the right of the main house as one looks at View 3, above. Access to it for horses and carts was through the secondary gateway, similarly imposing, which leads into Unit 6a, one of the Porticati. The first floor was the principal living area. It comprises 3 rooms plus a basic bathroom. The approximate total floor area on this storey is 67m2. A flight of stairs leads to the second floor, which comprises 4 full-sized rooms plus a small box room. The approximate total floor area on this storey is 77m 2. The electricity and water supplies are from the mains. There is a telephone line in place. But all three services are cut off at the moment. They could readily be restored.
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| Unit 2 - seen on the right in View 3, above | ||
| This is the second house in the complex and is the
one that retains the greatest number of original features, but it needs considerable modernisation.
It is of two storeys. The ground floor area of the house is approximately 88m2. A flight of stairs leads to the first floor, the area of which is approximately 90m2.
NOTE The well is about 3-4 metres (or 10-13 feet) in diameter and is about 8-10 metres (or 26-33 feet) deep. There will be a great deal of water in a space as large at that; it would be a valuable resource for summer use because it would reduce consumption from the mains. Nobody associated with the property ever remembers the well running dry. The well-head is just about visible, with a pipe feeding into it, against the right-hand margin of the 'thumbnail' called View 3, above. A clearer idea of where the well is situated can be obtained from the second of the artist's impressions on this website; there is a link to the relevant page from near the top of this page, under Artist's Impressions. |
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| Unit 3 - seen on the left in both View 1 and View 2 above | ||
| This is a former stabling unit which is directly
attached to and has access internally to/from the house described in
Unit 2, above. The ground floor area of this building is approximately 70m2. The first floor of the building was the hayloft for the stables and has open arches at the front. The area of the first floor of this building is approximately 70m2. This unit could readily be converted to living accommodation. |
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| Unit 4 - seen head-on in the background of both View 1 and View 2, above | ||
| This comprises two rooms, the lobby to the bread oven, which is not functional, and a small room above the oven itself.
The total floor area of this building is approximately 35m2. |
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| Unit 5 - a part of its roof is just visible on the right of View 2, above | ||
| This is a former storage building or barn and has a ground floor area of approximately 60m2. The building is about 2.5 storeys high and has no upper floor. Therefore the area of this building could be doubled to approximately 120m2 if the building were converted to living accommodation and an upper floor added. | ||
| Units 6 and 6a - seen in the right-hand corners of the 'thumbnail' called Plan, above | ||
| These are lean-to garages. They have a total ground area of approximately 121m.2 | ||
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| GLOSSARY | ||
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| NOTES | ||
| The small field that would be thrown into the bargain as a makeweight if the guide price were met, or nearly so, is the other side of a very quiet communal road which connects with the public road that runs downhill to the nearest village, Valle Cerrina, where shopping could be done. Where the private road passes outside the courtyard it is actually part of the property, and though others have right of way over it, it means the property is all in one piece.
The communal road is of concrete. The distance between the property and the public road is about 80 yards or about 80 metres. The road that runs through Valle Cerrina is the SS 590. This is a strada statale piccola ('small state road'), an ordinary public road. It is shown on most maps and is the principal route through the Monferrato Hills. Going westward this is a secondary route to Turin. If heading eastwards along the SS 590 the direction is Casale Monferrato. The property is being offered for sale privately, with full vacant possession. There are no estate agents, realtors or immobiliari involved. All the buildings on the property face inwards and, with a long brick wall, form a large, secluded courtyard to which there are two entrances - which would make it simple to divide the property into two. In February 2003 the property was re-registered as part of a national survey of the buildings in Italy and the opportunity was taken to have it registered in two parts. That means there would be no legal fuss about joint-ownership of the property. The distance down the courtyard from the front of the main house to the main entrance is a little over 32 metres or about 106 feet. The area of the courtyard is about 4002 metres or about 4752 yards. It would easily be possible to supply visitors going to view the property with detailed driving directions and .......... It would also be possible to supply visitors with contact details for hotels of various grades not far from the property. If a party were staying in, say, the small city of Casale Monferrato or the town of Asti the man who would show visitors around could call at one's hotel to introduce himself and lead the way to Perosio. Alternatively a meeting could be arranged in Valle Cerrina, the nearest village to the property, on the SS 590 road. Sometimes, especially for a viewing of the property on a Sunday morning, it might be possible to have on hand to act as translator an Italian who speaks good English. | ||
| LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES | ||
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Luxurious house in Oxted, Surrey, UK - SOLD
FOR SALE - a nice variety of properties in the Monferrato Hills of Piedmont, east of Turin FOR SALE - unfinished villa; in select district; 19 miles N. of Rome; own grounds; idyllic location | ||
| INTERNAL LINKS FOR THIS WEBSITE | ||
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[View 1] [View 2] [View 3]
[Sketch Plan] [Area Maps]
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| MISCELLANEOUS DETAILS | ||
Last Update: 9 March 2005 |
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