Two months later my husband and I went to visit Jane and her husband David at their house, where renovations were nearly complete.\u00a0 We walked down via Vico, turned left and continued downhill past a complex of modern apartment buildings and an old, uninhabited farmhouse.\u00a0 We had never walked this street before.\u00a0 We turned right at a corner where another house sat empty and silent.\u00a0 Across the bottom of the next bit of steeply sloping asphalt, an old wall of stone and brick ran perpendicular to the road.\u00a0 Two weathered wooden doors, one for people and the other for mule-drawn wagons, increased a sense of mystery that had begun to pique our curiosity.\u00a0 We turned right again, onto a neglected dirt road, and peered through rusty wire fencing into a sun-filled, overgrown yard bordered with trees and shrubs.\u00a0 The small house stood in profound stillness, wooden doors and shutters closed up tight.\u00a0 Concrete stairs with an iron railing climbed to a second story. The fa\u00e7ade, with two little buttresses jutting either side of a central doorway, was several different colors of masonry where time had done its work.\u00a0 Connected to the far side of the house a sort of covered passageway formed an ell built of dark timbers and heavy brick pillars.\u00a0 Trees and tall grass crowded the perimeter, but two yellow rose bushes stood outside the doors and a vine-covered pergola shaded a rickety table.\u00a0 This was more than mystery, this was enchantment.\u00a0 We tore ourselves away and continued walking to meet our friends.\u00a0 While we described the place Jane said, \u201cOh, but that\u2019s the little house I was telling you about!\u201d\u00a0 Mystery solved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next week, we visited a real estate office to locate the property owners and find out whether they might consider selling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DSCN0862-1024x768.jpg\")