FOR SALE: a medieval village in Tuscany, complete with its own Medici-era church. No electricity or gas and no telephones. British buyer preferred, and must be keen on DIY. Price: about £40 million.

Britons who hanker after sunshine, olives and Renaissance landscapes often dream of buying a villa in Tuscany in need of renovation. But here is an offer that could put the most committed DIY enthusiast to the test, comprising unoccupied houses, farm buildings and outhouses, many little more than overgrown ruins.

The village is located on the edge of the hilltop town of Peccioli in the rolling hills between Pisa and Florence. It is to be auctioned in London this week, with bids invited during La Dolce Vita, an Italian lifestyle exhibition at Olympia, London, which opens on Thursday.

Plans have been drawn up to transform the village into a “state of the art” hideaway, with power supplies, wireless technology and swimming pools where once there were slurry tanks and farm rubbish tips. Diana Levins Moore, of Tuscany Inside Out, the property agency, said that “the Tuscan property market is clearly becoming buoyant again”.

She added that there had been a “quiet period” after the attacks in America on September 11, 2001, and “more especially the drop in the dollar against the euro about three years ago”.

But American buyers had returned, “and the British have recently started coming back in quite a big way”.

The village, which is approached by a secluded, four-mile road, has been described as “the last piece of unspoilt Tuscan paradise left” by the daily La Repubblica.

The nearby town of Peccioli (pop. 5,000) boasts a 12thcentury castle that was once at the centre of Renaissance battles between Pisa and Florence.

Renzo Macelloni, a former mayor of Peccioli who has a stake in a local consortium that seeks a buyer for the abandoned village, said: “The place has been derelict for more than ten years. Patterns of rural life have changed.”

Paolo Riani, an architect recruited to redevelop the village, said: “If someone does buy the entire village they will be expected to honour the tradition of an annual festival at the village church, the Church of the Madonna of the Greenhouses.” Some Tuscans have come to resent the “invasion of rich foreigners” but Signor Riani said that “without investment our treasures go to rack and ruin”.

Home abroad

The owners hope to sell the medieval village by Peccioli for “about €60 million (£41.3 million)” but if no single purchaser comes forward it would be offered to investors in lots

The purchase price includes 34 unoccupied houses and 15 farm buildings and outhouses plus 2,234 acres of vineyards and olive groves

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