Our 5 year plan to move from Amsterdam to Italy |
The ancient hill-town of Narnia, now called Narni, lies in
the central Italian region of Umbria, about 50 miles
north of Rome. |
The village stands on a spur dominating the Nera valley
and the Terni basin, and was unnoficially identified as
the geographical center of Italy. |
CS Lewis picked the name "Narnia" from
an atlas and drew inspiration from here
for his famous novel "The Chronicles of Narnia". |
August 2022 - First househunting trip to Umbria
With Axa and Raj old enough to travel alone to California, Sarah and Tony decided to head to Italy. This time to Umbria, about an hour drive north of Rome.
We spent the next 2 blissful weeks on our first househunting trip to Southern Umbria. One of the cities of interest was Narni. See the full travelogue here |
main town square - Piazza Garibaldi |
Via del Monte, the main street from Piazza Garibaldi up to the castle |
Tony was attacked by a cat during their first visit to Narni in 2022 |
a very boozy and memorable
gin and tonic |
February 2024 - Househunting trip to Narni
Having spent one afternoon (and endless hours researching online), we were more than excited to plan a trip back to Narni and visit some properties with a real estate agent.
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The ancient city stands on a spur dominating the Nera gorge
and the Terni basin, and was unnoficially identified as the
geographical center of Italy. |
La Rocca, the fortress that looks over the town, was built in 1370 |
map of historic center of Narni |
most of the properties we saw had gorgeous panoramiic terraces |
one of our favorite homes overlooking the nera valley |
some of the homes have art nouveau designs |
did i mentions all of the
amazing terraces? |
the castle of Narni was one of 7 of the most important fortifications protecting Rome from the north |
there are lot of walking paths around the hills of the Narni |
Stifone is a small village near Narni on the nera river flowing
to Rome where ships were
built and repaired |
WWI monument |
Umbria has a special "digestable" pizza crust which is little like light sourdough |
ancient wells |
one of two public fountains in the city |
super cute and tasty old bakery just off of Via del Monte |
one of many artisan shops |
the famous italian aperol spritz |
The Corsa all’Anello - An ancient tradition of Narni founded in 1371 (and rediscovered in 1969) where the city is divided into 3 parts... Terzieri di Mezule, Fraporta and Santa Maria and challenge
each other |
and of course about 5 restaurants |
February to May 2024 - negotiating "The Wardrobe, Narni"
Our perfect little Italian day dream. Right on Via del Monte, the street from the main town square lead up to the castle. It was renovated completely in 2006 with 70 m2 move-in-ready main house which is connected to a 15 m2 14th century tower. The tower was at times used to store millstones for the local wheat grinder ... hence the name "The Millstone Tower". There is also a seperate entrance to a ground-level unit of 32 m2 where Sarah can renovate for her bookshop themed AirBnB. And to top it all off, the entire property costs about the same as a new, top-or-the-line F150 truck!
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main home is the red door up the stairs |
Sarah's future bookshop |
the ancient door on the other side of the tower (now there is an entrance from the kitchen of the main home |
short video walkthrough |
main level floow plan (tower is upper right) |
living room |
living room from the other side |
master bedroom |
2nd bedroom |
kitchen |
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they framed one of the millstones stored in the tower when they did the renovation in 2006 |
entrance to tower from kitchen |
looking down from tower to kitchen entrance |
inside tower |
small mezzanine in tower |
window from tower toward nera valley |
floor plan of unfinished basement (future bookstore) |
Tony in basement thinking about how he will enjoy renovated this with his dad :) |
video tour of the unfinished basement (where we will fit the bathroom and small kitchenette) |
July 2024 - The deed signing
Tony and Sarah flew back for the final signing of the property deed on July 4th... our new day of independence. Our ancestors left Italy for the new world (United States) in search of a better life a few generations ago. We now return to Italy in search of the same. |
after signing the deed... our agent in the middle (Elisa) and the two previous owners on the right |
one of many ZOOM meetings with our amazing agent, Elisa |
Sarah sitting on the stairs and holding the keys to her property in Italy |
attending the Narni Theatre as the newest residents of the town :) |
September 2024 - Starting to Furnish
Our first trip back to turn on the water and the utlities and begin furnishing.
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Hello neighbors |
Lyra has already claimed her favorite place in the house |
eating meals where we could... |
until our furniture began to arrive |
the house is on a walking only street... not so nice for the delivery people :[] |
the first of many amazing antiquies Sarah will be filling our home with |
vintage mid-century Venetian gold-gilded bed? Yes please :) |
we discovered this piece of furniture had wood worms... so it was banished to the cellar for treatment |