On a clear morning, you push open the shutters of the upstairs bedroom and the Apuan Alps are just there — close enough that you can trace the ridgelines with your finger, white-tipped in winter, darkly forested through July and August. The smell drifting up from the kitchen is coffee, and somewhere below the terrace an olive grove is already warm in the early sun. This is your Tuesday. Imagine your Saturday.
Sitting at the end of a quiet lane outside Aulla in the Lunigiana corner of Tuscany, this two-bedroom, four-bathroom stone villa sits on four hectares of land — olives, fruit trees, vines — and feels genuinely removed from the world while remaining surprisingly easy to reach. It's the kind of property that gets into your head the first time you visit and doesn't leave.
The house itself has the bones that matter. Thick stone walls keep rooms cool well into the afternoon heat of August. A wisteria-covered portico frames the entrance, and inside, the living room pivots around an impressive stone fireplace that earns its keep from November through March. The kitchen-dining room has marble surfaces and a marble sink — not an affectation, just the way kitchens were built here, and still the best material for rolling pasta dough. There's a utility space tucked out of sight with a washing machine, a ground-floor WC, and a separate ground-floor room — flooded with light on three sides — that opens directly onto the garden and has its own ensuite shower. Upstairs, two double bedrooms each have their own ensuite facilities: one with a bath, one with a shower, both with air conditioning for the peak summer weeks. The first bedroom steps out onto a large terrace where those mountain views hit you full in the face. Every room in this house has been carefully restored and maintained; the condition throughout is excellent, and the property comes partially furnished, so you won't be starting entirely from scratch.
The swimming pool sits on terraced ground below the house, bordered by stone and open to the hills. It's the kind of pool you actually use — not a feature, a daily ritual. Morning swims, late-afternoon dips after a long walk, evenings where the water holds the day's warmth long after the air cools. The terracing around it gives you space for sun chairs and a table, and the views from up there across the valley to the Apuans are frankly unreasonable.
Practically, the property runs on gas central heating and draws water from a private well — both systems in working order. Four hectares of land means genuine privacy, and the old mule tracks that connect the surrounding villages start practically from the front gate. These are proper marked trails, not tourist walks, threading up through chestnut forest and between hamlets that see very few visitors from one season to the next. In spring the hillsides are covered in wild orchids. In autumn, the tracks smell of woodsmoke and damp leaves and chestnuts roasting at the sagra in the village square.
Speaking of which — Fivizzano is twelve kilometres away and worth the drive several times a week. It's a medieval walled town with a cobbled central piazza and an outsized cultural life for a place its size. Local people call it the Florence of Lunigiana, and while that's a bit of hometown pride, the description captures something real: the architecture is genuinely grand, the piazza hosts live concerts through the summer, and the town's deep musical heritage draws international folk musicians every year for the Fivizzano Folk Festival. There's also the Festa della Polenta, a food festival that turns the streets into an open kitchen, and medieval parade reenactments that fill the piazza with colour and noise well into the evening. The town has a hospital, restaurants, a supermarket — everything you need for a comfortable, year-round base.
Aulla is also twelve kilometres in the other direction and handles the bigger practical needs: motorway access, a train station with connections toward Pisa and La Spezia, and a full range of supermarkets. Between the two towns, you have everything covered without having to plan around logistics.
The wider Lunigiana region rewards slow exploration. The landscape is dotted with Medici and Malaspina castles, many sitting on hilltops above villages that have barely changed in three hundred years. The Fortezza della Brunella in Aulla itself is worth an afternoon, and the castle museum there has an unexpectedly compelling natural history collection. For the coast — and the coast is thirty minutes away — Lerici has golden sand beaches on the Gulf of La Spezia, a working harbour, and excellent seafood restaurants along the waterfront. The Cinque Terre, forty kilometres out and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers the pebble coves and pastel cliff-villages that have made this stretch of Liguria one of the most photographed coastlines in Europe. You won't bring the crowds home with you. By evening you're back in the hills, where it's quiet.
Winter has its own appeal. Cerreto Laghi, a ski resort in the Apennines, is thirty kilometres away — close enough for a day trip, easy enough that you don't have to commit an entire week to it. On the days you don't ski, you walk. The trails around this property are extraordinary in the cold months: empty, crisp, the views sharper without summer haze. The fireplace gets lit. The wine is local Colli di Luni or a bottle of Candia dei Colli Apuani, white and slightly mineral, from a vineyard you can see from the terrace.
For international buyers, three airports serve the area with roughly comparable travel times: Pisa (ninety-five kilometres), Parma (around an hour and twenty), and Genova (also just over an hour). All three connect to major European hubs, making this a realistic second home for anyone based in northern Europe — not just a fantasy for the retired. The Italian property market in Lunigiana continues to represent real value compared to Chianti or the Florentine hills, and stone villas of this size and condition on significant land parcels are not abundant. Rental demand through summer from the Cinque Terre and coastal overflow market is consistent, and the combination of pool, outdoor space, and mountain views positions this property well for premium holiday lets during the months you're not using it yourself.
Key features at a glance:
- Restored stone villa, 160 sqm, in excellent condition
- 2 double bedrooms, each with private ensuite bathroom (1 bath, 1 shower)
- Additional ground-floor room with ensuite — ideal as a third bedroom or studio
- Impressive stone fireplace in the main living room
- Marble kitchen-dining room with utility space
- Private swimming pool with stone terracing and mountain views
- Large upstairs terrace with direct views of the Apuan Alps
- Air conditioning in all bedrooms
- Gas central heating and private well water supply
- 4 hectares of land: olives, fruit trees, and vines
- Partially furnished and move-in ready
- Direct access to marked village-to-village hiking trails
- 30 minutes to Lerici beaches, 40 minutes to Cinque Terre
- Three international airports within 95 kilometres
If you've been looking for a vacation home in Tuscany that offers real countryside without the Chianti price tag, this is a serious property in a serious location. Reach out to the Homestra team today to arrange a viewing — properties like this one, with this combination of land, condition, and position, rarely stay available for long.
