Oria, Apulia 72024

In the historic centre of Oria, along stone lanes and a short walk from cafés and restaurants, this renovated house is arranged as two independent units that climb through several levels, from the vaulted ground floor up to open terraces on the roof. You step into a wide vaulted room, from which the staircase rises to the first floor beside it sits a smaller room with its own entrance from the street, today a TV room with a sofa bed, and just beyond a bedroom with a shower and a separate bathroom with WC and basin. It is here, beneath the old stone floor, that the house holds something no other home can offer: a semi-chamber tomb from 300 BC, brought back to light during the works, with the intact grave goods of a young woman of noble birth, her name still painted along the frame and, at the far end, a small child's burial. Today you look down on it through a glass floor, a piece of Messapian history you live above every day and the detail that sets this property apart from anything else on the market. The first floor opens out into a bright open-plan kitchen, dining and living area, framed on one side by an 18th-century stone balcony and on the other by a level terrace that can also be reached straight from the street, handy for welcoming guests without walking through the house. From here two internal staircases lead, one to a second bedroom with an en-suite bathroom with shower and bathtub, the other up to the roof terraces, where you find seating areas, a plunge pool with shower, a solarium, an outdoor kitchen and a dining table, all of it facing the old town and the polychrome dome of Oria Cathedral. Reached separately from the side lane, the self-contained 25 sqm annexe with its own shower bathroom, served by air conditioning, works well for guests or as a short-let that brings in an income. The house has gas radiator heating, air conditioning and energy-saving windows, is connected to all utilities and has fibre-optic internet. In all the property measures 175 sqm net (212 sqm gross), of which 25 sqm are the annexe. Oria is about 30 minutes from Brindisi airport, from Ostuni and from Ceglie Messapica, and 25 minutes from the beaches of the Ionian Sea. For foreign pensioners who move their residence here, the town is among those where you can apply for Italy's 7% flat tax on foreign income, a real advantage for anyone planning to retire to the South. Get in touch to arrange a viewing and see it for yourself.