The area around the buildings is fenced, providing safety for children and pets, and there is a remote-controlled gate at the driveway entrance. The apartments are in the west half of the main building. The east half is not yet developed.

Within the fence are a large two-car garage with storage for firewood, a separate laundry with two washers, a dryer and a sink.

Behind the garage is a garden for our guests, with an eating area shaded by a kiwi arbour. Surrounding the arbour are a herb garden and a vegetable garden that we plant each year, always including tomatoes and zucchini and a variety of other produce.  The garden is bordered by walnut, laurel, peach, plum, apricot and pomegranate trees, and the lawn area beside the main building is edged by mature fig and cherry trees and has pots of strawberries around the edge.

On the other side of the house, a terrace gives a magnificent view of the medieval town of Cisterna d’Asti against the backdrop of the Alps.  With plenty of space, a brick oven that’s perfect for baking bread and pizza, a vine-covered pergola, and umbrellas to provide shade, this terrace is set up for relaxed alfresco dining for you, your family and your guests.

The vineyards outside the fenced area can be reached by a right of way which starts at the front, just outside the gate. These little rights of way – “sentieri” – are part of a network of paths that lets you roam the whole of the Roero.  There are maps of this  network which also show how to get to Canale, and Ca Momplin, where Franco and Claudia live.