The Other Place 02 - The Building

Cisternino, Puglia, Italy.

The new apartment building forms one corner of the old town walls which dates it to some time in the 1600's is a best guess from our builder. It is on the corner of Corso Umberto I which is L-shaped, one half of which is pedestrianised.

It is clear looking from the outside that it spans three separate buildings. That explains the different ceilings, the different roofs and the low doors that must have been hacked through from one building to the next.

The stairs from the street come up in the middle of the apartment. The first (left hand) part is the living room and bedroom, above an apartment which is above a seamstress. The room immediately to the right is the kitchen / dining room above the another part of the first floor apartment which is above an archway into the old town. The far right hand part is the subdivided room with a terrazzo and will be another bedroom.

The aerial view makes it clear with the grey roof on the corner covering the rooms on the left side, then first red tiled roof and then the red one next to it wth terrace. The grey roof is currently undulating because of the barrel-vaulted ceilings below but we are getting part of that levelled for a roof top terrace.

The roof has a stunning 360 degree view over the town roofscape to the Itria valley and the sea beyond.

This is the view from the top of Via Regina Margherita showing our neighbour's balcony below. You can see the exterior will need some work - re-pointing and whitewashing.

This is the view of the back showing the old town gate with our kitchen-diner above, again some repointing and repainting is in order. To the left of that is the terrazzo that adjoins the bedroom and overlooks the alley.

Next up we demolish the recently added internal walls in the bedroom and work out how to make best use of the space...