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Hello! most likely you need to contact the local Comune (local government) where the house is located in order to report any “Manutenzione ordinaria”. It may even require hiring a local geometra to inspect the area surrounding. Do you have someone currently helping you in Italy at the moment? 

Hi Georgette, thanks for your reply.we do have a geometra and lots of help.Our project will be monitored and dictated by rules of the Beni Culturali.Our place is 800 years olid, in parts. Has anyone else dealt with a project that old?Thanks!

Yes, we did a project like that. All you need is a very competent, persuasive and experienced geometra. There will be things you want to do that the Beni Culturali won't allow (punching a window through a wall, for example). It's the task of your geometra to see how far you can go and what the work arounds are. Usually, if it's allowed by the comune architect, the others will go along, but not always. We had no problem - there are things they can't say "no" to - e.g. installing a bathroom - it just has to be done in the least invasive manner possible.

We once asked how old the oldest person in our village was. He died last year was the answer!

Hi! We own the miller's house, which is part of a very old chestnut and grain mill on the Lima River in Bagni di Lucca. We do not know the exact date of construction; however, we do know that it was up and running in the 17th Century and that part of it is possibly older. There was an old bridge located where the courtyard is and this was destroyed back in 1733. When we bought it, some 7 years ago, it had already been through some restructuring by the former owner. The windows had been replaced by double-glazed PVC windows, which look and feel like wood, but insulate the house. The original openings had been respected and there are no two windows of the same size and height. This is one of the basic conditions of all "vincolati" buildings. Don't do anything that may alter the original appearance of the building, although you may use modern materials to get the best of both worlds. Fortunately, my husband is a retired architect and he goes and discusses everything with the local council whenever we need to do something (like adding ventilation for the boiler, etc. Never had a problem with them, on the contrary, they were happy to help. In any case, this type of projects is not for everyone. In any case, good luck and enjoy it!

Thank you, Gala. I've enjoyed your comments for years. We are just home from a 2 week visit starting work on our new project. We have purchased a deconsecrated church and casa canonical (rectory). The original building was part of a twelfth century fortress. It was made into a church guessing in the 16th century.we cut decades of ivy, dug up large paving stones and the altar base. We have many exciting stories to look forward to once we pass approval from the Beni Culturali.thanks 

Thank you for your comments missjanem+c. Your project sounds like a wonderful one. Very challenging and rewarding. I wish you all the best!

By the way, I find this publication most useful and full of interesting information on suppliers, etc 

HiOur our was a church but a local historian told me that it was probabably made into a house in 1860 due to heavy taxes levied on the church authorities meaning that they 'gave up' some of the small rural chuches.On our wall we can see where the original church door was and there are some incised stones that date back to about 1200/1300 coming from a ruined monastry further up the valley.In areas where most buildings were built from cut or rubble stone all buildings are likely to have an older core or at least some sections of wall which contain very old cut stones.It is possible to age the stones by looking at the marks made by tools used to cut them.Interestingly where we are in Abruzzo a pre-roman head (a sculpture) was found actual incorporated into an inside wall.This was most likely just picked up from a pile of stones left ready to build the wall from.So if you do have a very old house it might be worth doing a very though search of the walls just in case you have any valuable artifacts there! 

In Italy, it was customary to recycle many building elements, particularly stones. Most older stone buildings have being built on top of existing foundations, dating way back in time. In our case, we can see the different "layers". Behind a more modern partition, we found a stone that had a cross and a date, 1661. The stone is similar to the one used throughout the  "middle layer" and the total height of the building, including the foundations, which are arches on the river bank, would be about 6 storeys high. We know that the mill was already there in the 17th Century, but we suspect that it may have been built on top of an existing structure (quite possibly an older mill. Up to 1733, there was a bridge on the side, connecting the two banks of the river. It was called the "Ponte Vecchio". This was replaced by the "Ponte Nuovo" built around that time and subsequently enlarged, whis is nowadays the main bridge going downtown.Whoever owns an old stone building may find quite a few "surprises" inside. 

Another thing you'll find if you are lucky is a whole fossil -we found a scallop which I incorporated into a section of outside wall.I also found half (but still havent found the other half) of an ancient stone font.It was in the garden chucked into a genera pile of stones.Keep your eyes peeled.  

Again, thanks for your replies. We have now ascertained our property was originally a corner of a little walled fortress, complete with arrow slits. It was repurposed as a church 16th century ish judging from additional use of local brickwork. We have not yet uncovered the entire floor, just enough to see the altar base slab and lovely large bricks in a herringbone pattern. Neighbors have told us about the ossaia and tunnels which go half a mile towards the nearest town. So much to explore. We are waiting for permits and hope to start the real work on the roof of the residence in October.

keep us posted with the progress and share pictures :) 

Georgette, hi, I need instruction on adding photosthanks

Whoops! Guess, copy image, then CTRL-V (to paste) works... So RIGHT click any image you want to post, "copy image", then use CTRL-V here to post your picture. Not too sure if there is any size restriction or if it only works in certain web browsers (Firefox here)... Hope this is of some help...

I am using an iPad and the Italy Mag site doesn't behave well on mobile devices. When posting the screen jumps and wiggles about. There is no option for adding photos as a part of a conversation. Starting a fresh subject didn't work either. I've had the same issue on 2 different devices.The copy and paste method works at first, image posted nicely, but it is not there when opening the page again.

Sadly you cannot hit two buttons on an iPad, although we do have other nifty options for copying and pasting.as I mentioned above, I happily copied 3 photos which I pasted and they transferred beautifully but  do not show up after closing and reopening the Italy Mag site.its a bummer. I'd love to show you our project.

Try the command (CMD) key then "C" and "V" to paste, however there is every possibility it could be one of many other problems. Looking at the small square you have pasted, it could be a URL (web address) you are actually copying and pasting. Else it could be the browser you are using (Safari?). Or one  of a number of other problems, dare I say non-standard propriety hardware and software, good as it is, does not work with the rest of the world.  Saying all that I don’t think the editor used here is the best I’ve seen, likely one of the worst! I would certainly put a subject on your post as any normal forum would treat the absence of a subject and no text as spam.If you are using iOs7, then you might want to look at this Scroll down to "How to cut, copy and paste", note the difference for Safari in the footnote.