Tony Blair is considering buying a £3 million property that is regarded as being the finest surviving house built by Sir Christopher Wren.

Friends of the Blairs confirmed yesterday that they had viewed Winslow Hall, which is set in 22 acres of countryside in Buckinghamshire and is about 20 miles (32km) from Chequers, the Prime Minister’s weekend country home.

With ample room for staff quarters, entertaining celebrity dinner guests and room to add a tennis court in its walled garden, it is grand enough for the Blairs to imagine that they had never left Chequers.

Marcus Binney, architecture correspondent of The Times, described Winslow Hall as “a trophy almost without rival” after touring the house when it came on to the market in May.

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It even has a Roman Catholic chapel and priest’s house that are currently let to the Catholic Church. To both Cherie Blair, a practising Catholic, and her husband, who has hinted many times of a wish to convert to Catholicism, this may only enhance its appeal. Friends confirmed that the Blairs had looked at Winslow Hall, among several properties that they had viewed, but could not say whether they would be submitting an offer.

Their house-hunting is another sign of the Blairs’ confidence in their earning power since they left Downing Street in June. They already have a vast mortgage on the five-storey townhouse in Connaught Square, Central London, that they bought three years ago for £3.65 million, as well as further loans on Mr Blair’s former constituency base in Co Durham and two flats in Bristol. Both plan to publish their memoirs, while Mr Blair gives international lectures and his wife practises as a barrister.

There were further indications yesterday that the Blairs were continuing to enjoy their jetset lifestyle. Italian media reports reported that they had slipped into Turin, northern Italy, to stay with a wealthy businessman who has strong British links.

The Blairs flew with Ryanair for a “strictly private visit”, according to Turin police, who organised “discreet but continuous security surveillance”. The newspaper Corriere della Serasaid that Mrs Blair had “fallen in love” with the city and its surroundings while attending the Winter Olympics with Laura Bush, the wife of President Bush, in February last year.

At the time she praised Turin’s “beautiful palazzi, marvellous museums and unforgettable cuisine” and said that she would return with her husband.

During their latest 24-hour visit, the Blairs had lunch with Claudio Recchi, an engineering magnate who sponsored the Turin Games, and his American-born wife Michelle.

They then stayed the night with Massimo Carello, the former head of Fiat’s UK operations, at his villa in the medieval hilltop town of Pino Torinese, 2,000ft (600 metres) above sea level.

Italian reports said that Mrs Blair had bought “clothes and accessories” designed by Paola Sanlorenzo, the Turin stylist, but the couple had otherwise devoted their visit to “their passion for Italian cuisine, both Piedmontese and Tuscan”.

Mr Carello is president of Diners Club UK and a member of the Aksia private equity group as well as of the British Industry Council and the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK. He is said to have first met the Blairs while they were staying with Sir Cliff Richard in Barbados in 2004, and his wife Sara shares Cherie Blair’s commitment to a cancer charity, the Sargent Cancer Care for Children.

A spokesman for Mrs Blair said: “They are private individuals now and what they do is their own private business.”

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