The apartment we’re renovating is fairly typical for Montepulciano, being a multi-story townhouse style dwelling that is sold as a single unit from the street level up. While there are numerous larger (and grander) palazzo style properties in Montepulciano that have been split up and sold condominium-style, our apartment (to be) is what is more typical in historic Tuscan towns.
The picture above was “borrowed” from Google street-view and is probably from a few years ago, as the sellers have since had the facade completely re-rendered in a very nice (and typically Tuscan) light cream color.
The door on the left is the primary entrance to the apartment living areas and opens to a set of stairs that lead you up to the first floor. The door in the middle provides access to an area that is zoned as commercial space, which we could potentially rent out to a local business as a store front or for storage. The larger door on the right is access to a garage – a very precious thing to have in a small town with limited and challenging parking.
The living area floors are approximately square in shape, about 45 sq meters each (485 sq feet) and split into two approximately equal rooms. Currently, the first floor (above the street level entrance) is designated to be the soggiorno (living/family room) and pranzo (exact translation means “lunch,” but meant to indicate a simple kitchen, IMO), and the second floor is designated as two bedrooms. We plan to reverse the layout, placing the bedrooms on the first floor and the kitchen and lounge on the second floor. This places the kitchen closer the rooftop terrace and also give access to the better views from the second floor to the rooms we will spend more of our waking hours in.
This is what the entry staircase looked like when we first saw the property in September of 2023 vs. now. We plan to leave much of the stonework exposed and incorporate tons of interesting and subtle lighting.
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