Ostuni, Apulia 72017

Two minutes on foot from Ostuni's main square, behind a stone arched doorway that opens straight onto the street, this is a self-contained apartment of 80 sqm, fully restored in 2022 and set over two levels in the heart of Puglia's White City. It is sold freehold full and outright ownership, as is standard in Italy and fully furnished, with only the owners' personal belongings excluded. In practice, you collect the keys and the house is ready to live in. The ground floor is one generous open room beneath a whitewashed stone barrel vault. A king-size bed with a bespoke oak headboard sits at one end at the other, a sitting area faces a fitted oak-and-white wall unit, and a breakfast bar with stools looks through into the kitchen via an opening cut into the thickness of the old wall. The kitchen itself is a separate, private room, fully fitted in white lacquer with brass handles. A bathroom with a walk-in shower, a basin carved from a single block of stone and wall-hung sanitaryware completes the level, along with a storage room that keeps everything out of sight. A tall arched glazed door, framed by made-to-measure curtains, keeps the room full of natural light from morning to evening. A wooden staircase leads down to the lower level, and this is where the restoration becomes memorable. Under stone vaults threaded with fibre-optic starlight, a multi-seat hydromassage tub sits on a micro-cement plinth, backed by a panel of salvaged antique majolica tiles and a backlit timber niche. Beside it, a rain shower set beneath a stone arch and a relaxation area with two loungers make this a proper private spa quiet, and at a steady temperature all year. Because the level has its own independent access from the rear, it can be converted with minimal work into a second, self-contained bedroom if you would rather have the extra sleeping space. The finishes are consistent throughout: large-format pale stone floors, bespoke oak joinery, brass detailing, and lighting chosen room by room. Behind them sits a serious technical fit-out a heat pump delivering ducted heating and cooling, full home automation, fibre-optic broadband, and certified A1 energy performance. Low running costs and steady comfort inside a historic building are not something to take for granted. Everything you need day to day is on foot: the square, the cathedral, the restaurants and the white lanes of the old town. The Adriatic beaches are around ten to fifteen minutes' drive, Cisternino and the Valle d'Itria within half an hour, Brindisi airport around thirty-five minutes, Bari airport a little over an hour. Being turnkey and this close to the centre, it also works immediately as a lock-up-and-leave second home. Viewings by appointment.