property history

is this a listed building of historic importance?or a deconsacrated church or an important building in a town/village? in these cases it might be possible to get some more information but if it's just an old rural house it's unlikely you'll find much or anything sometimes the local comune has photos of old buildings going back to usually not much before 1900

speak to the locals - we have a fantastic view of a medieval castle built on roman villa remains - we know the owner lives in Turin and can't afford to do it up and we know all about its history from the geometra who dealt with the purchase of our house. He only proferred the information because we asked as everyone else already knew.

You might also try the land registry (sorry - can't remember its proper name in Italian) at the provincial authority. That should give you some details of the previous owners, which might in turn give you some leads to follow up amongst their descendants, (if still around your town). Having spoken to them, I found that historical detail of previous owners can be rather patchy... The official I spoke to said that the records could often be incomplete.Another source which might be worth a look is the cadestral register, at the commune. From that, we found that our house was part of what had been a far larger house, subdivided in the past.Happy hunting!!!