Elena Miroglio and Paul Grobler dreamed of a house in the countryside. But the little taste of wilderness that they imagined for themselves wasn’t easy to find in Piedmont, one of Italy’s most important wine-producing regions.
According to the local tourist office, there are some 250,000 acres of vineyards, as well as olive groves and hazelnut farms in this section of northern Italy. “They are completely man-made, and not what we wanted,” said Ms. Miroglio, 52, who is the president of Miroglio Fashion SRL.