This pretty stone casale set among 100 olive trees is only 90 miles from Rome but it feels like a world apart.
Perched at the top of a tuff plateau, Civita di Bagnoregio surveys the Tiber Valley like an eagle poised to fly.
Only a long, narrow bridge links it to the rest of Italy and the world. At one end are the thriving town of Bagnoregio, Rome and modernity. At the other, Civita, a hamlet of ancient stone homes, pretty lanes, a church and a mill, lost forever in a time warp.
Civita’s lofty, isolated position has been both its main asset and one of its greatest threat. It has preserved the hamlet’s spirit, but it has chased away its people. Only a handful of residents remain, although that doesn’t prevent Civita from having a B&B, restaurant and wine bar.
Erosion, which is eating away the plateau the hamlet is built on, compounds the problem, which is why Civita is known in Italy as the village that dies.
But so far Civita resists, and at the foot of this miracle of nature, set in a meadow among tall trees and verdant countryside, lies a pretty casale with four bedrooms, which is now for sale with Immobiliare Polidori.
A golden stone façade hides charmingly rustic interiors that have been painstakingly renovated in vernacular style—think exposed stone walls, beamed ceilings and a traditional stove.
A pergola shelters a large table and chairs for alfresco dining. All around it are 3.7 acres of lush grounds peppered with 100 olive trees. The casale also comes with an orchard, a chicken pen, an annexe, a few outbuildings and its very own spring.
Rome is about 90 miles away, but this country idyll feels like a lifetime apart. The asking price is €350,000 through Polidori Immobiliare (+39 0765 576477, www.immobiliarepolidori.it).
