Villa Gloria is a beautiful newly-built 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home with commanding panoramic views and a dramatic landscaped setting, although located only a few minutes drive from the heart of the historic centre of the ancient hilltop town of Arpino.

Enter through the elegant wrought-iron electronically-controlled gates and sweep up the private driveway to your own secluded villa where modern styling, perfect in every detail, blends harmoniously with the beauties of the Ciociarian landscape.

Although the house benefits throughout from windows perfectly positioned to capture the breath-taking views, the crowning glory is the huge main room on the lower floor, running almost the entire length of the house, with two very large picture windows framing the valley below and the mountains beyond. Here, there are both living and dining areas designed for you to enjoy the splendours of the panoramic views at every hour of the day and night.

A fully-equipped modern kitchen adjacent to the dining area lends itself to effortless entertaining or family meals. And the lower floor is completed by a large bedroom and bathroom.

The upper floor is accessed by both internal stairs and a flight of external stairs leading to a separate upper front door.

Here you will find another very large sitting room, opening onto a large roof terrace with stunning views of the valley and the garden area. Adjacent to the roof terrace is another small kitchen, fully fitted out, for meals on the roof terrace or to allow the upper floor to be used as a self-contained unit - perhaps by adult children and their families - hence also provision of a separate entrance.

On this upper floor there is a large bedroom, a bathroom and a study which could double as a third bedroom.

Additionally there is a large storage area / laundry room.

The dining terrace opening off the lower floor and facing the garden has a barbecue and a very large storage area. The garden awaits the purchaser's decisions as to landscaping, but has already had lights and irrigation installed.

A striking feature: behind the villa is a dramatic rock face, which - when landscaped with lighting and rock plants - will not only make a stunning and unusual backdrop to the garden, but, because the property includes a line of ground at the top of the rock face, ensures that Villa Gloria can never be overlooked and thus will remain completely private.

Cars will be parked to the left of the house, leaving a large area on the right for the garden, for the installation of a swimming pool and for a gazebo and any other desired facilities.

Raised high above the road, the property is not isolated but does have both privacy and unbroken views. And a few minutes drive brings you to all the shopping and social facilities of Arpino, a medieval hill-top town continuously inhabited since the pre-Roman era.

Energy classification: G


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 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.