Looking for la dolce vita? A Tuscan property restored by Alan Carr and Amanda Holden in the second season of their BBC renovation series is for sale for €220,000 (£188,160), with proceeds to go to charity.
“I fell in love with it when I saw it,” says Carr in the programme, Amanda & Alan’s Italian Job, which sees the TV presenters renovate crumbling €1 properties in the Italian countryside. “When I went inside, I fell out of love with it.”
Purchased under Italy’s €1 home scheme, Carr and Holden’s latest property is a 17th century townhouse overlooking the river and mountains in Fornovolasco, Tuscany. “I like a fairytale, I like a nice story, so I wanted a house that’s got a bit of history,” says Carr. “It’s so romantic – it’s got a watchtower.”
Like many €1 houses, the property had been vacant for a decade when Carr and Holden bought it. It still contained the previous owner’s furniture and belongings and, after so long unoccupied, it was in bad condition. The floorboards were rotting, the walls were damp, the ceilings were sagging and the structure was decaying.
“I knew it needed work, but I didn’t know it would look—” says Carr,
“—as bad as this,” Holden finishes, surveying one of the sagging balconies from the outside.
“Basically, they can’t give the house away.”
As in series one, Carr and Holden embark on a wholesale restoration of the property, determined to do justice to the former owner, a local woman called Rosa Pucci whose identity they discover from her dusty suitcase and passport left in the living room.
With the help of a BBC production team and their project manager Scott Thompson, the house is miraculously gutted, restored and given an authentic makeover within the space of a single summer.
Today, with a new lease of life, the house covers 155 sq m (1,668 sq ft) over three storeys, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
On the first level, Carr and Holden have converted a damp, drooping space below the floorboards into a wine cellar, adding a new kitchen —complete with a Carrara marble breakfast island and wood burning fireplace— and living room. The rough-hewn room in the house’s tower, meanwhile, has been turned into a home theatre.
Both bedrooms are on the third floor, one with a muralled ensuite bathroom and gold resin flooring, and the second with its own muralled walls and views of the river.
Outside, the garden has been landscaped to create a terrace for outdoor dining, with a herb garden and olive tree. The house’s new name, Casa Alamanda, is displayed on a tile outside the front door.
“We’ve been inspired by the area, the countryside. We’ve been as authentic as we can,” says Carr, reflecting on the finished property.
“I think because Rosa and her family had it before, it felt like a home,” Holden adds. “I think we’ve left it a better, cosier, more practical house.”
Casa Alamanda is listed with Dimore Toscane and Houses in Tuscany.com for €220,000, with all proceeds to go to charity.
On last year’s series, Carr and Holden renovated and combined two €1 houses in Salemi, Sicily, which was listed for €145,000. It is believed to have sold for close to the asking price, raising money for Children in Need and Comic Relief.
