The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
A castle, a Count and a chorus of cicadas
History meets live jazz and thoroughbred horses at the lovingly reimagined Castello di Reschio in the Umbrian hills. Nicky Swallow checks in
It all started, it seems, with a whiff of wild thyme. I was sitting in Castello di Reschio’s fin-de-siècle Palm Court, chatting to Count Antonio Bolza over a refreshing glass of iced ginger cordial about how he came to be the owner of 3,700 acres of wooded hills and farmland with a dilapidated 10th-century castle and 50 crumbling stone farmhouses on the UmbriaTuscany border.
A lifelong Italophile with Italian roots, the Austro-Hungarian count was on the lookout for a house for himself and his family when a series of serendipitous events in 1984 brought him to the region of Umbria and San Martino, an old stone house and chapel. He fell for it: “It was the scent of wild thyme being crushed under the wheels of the car as we drove up that did it; I remember it very vividly.”
Reschio’s long and complex history began in around AD900; it is one of several fortified castles and watch towers that guard the hills in these parts (there were endless frontier squabbles in those days). It was added to over the following centuries and passed through many owners, eventually becoming a thriving farm estate; in the late 1930s there were 500 people living and working there. But by the time Count Antonio arrived, few houses were still inhabited and the land had been all but abandoned.
San Martino stood on a hill, a tiny island in a corner of the sprawling estate that he eventually bought in its entirety in 1994. He sold his publishing business in Munich and moved the family to Italy. “I fell in love with Umbria because I love nature. It was untouched yet full of ruins and art treasures; it still is,” he said.
The Count set about reviving the ruined farm buildings one by one, and five years later, he was joined by his son Count Benedikt, a Londontrained architect, who moved into the draughty, leaky castle along with his Florentine artist wife Donna Nencia Corsini.
The Bolzas continued meticulously restoring, decorating and finishing each house to the highest standards. Benedikt (who took over the reins in 2012) personally oversaw every detail, from the landscaping of the gardens to designing the bespoke furniture and light fittings, calling on the best local stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths and upholsterers. They sensed that the new owners – a sophisticated, international bunch – would want the dream house in Umbria without the responsibility of up-keep, so ongoing management was part of the package. And thus it continued; today 27 of the houses have been sold, nine of which are available for rent.
I learned about the grand finale of the story when I met Benedikt in his studio in the Tabaccaia, a converted 1940s tobacco-processing factory and the creative heart of Reschio. The time had come to take on the storied castello. “We loved living in the castle and had our five children there, but really had to move out in 2011 when the roof started falling in.” Having inhabited the space for so long, he had a very clear idea of how it should look, this wouldbe hotel with its fairy-tale courtyard and where past would meet present.
The restoration was a massive undertaking. Frustratingly, even with the work finished, there were Covid-enforced delays, but the first hotel guests were finally welcomed in May this year. Thus, one sizzling hot early afternoon in late August, I found myself winding up into the scorched, precociously autumnal hills above Lake Trasimeno, just over the border from Tuscany. Then along the flat Niccone valley, past fields of tobacco until I saw the castle perched atop a wooded outcrop, the zigzag approach lined by cypresses, its pale, circular walls and towers stark against the hazy sky.
Once through the grand, arched entrance, the wonders of this 1,000-year-old castle are revealed. The perfect stage set of a courtyard; the boot room hung with drying flowers; the Palm Court, a soaring steel-framed glasshouse with a 1908 Steinway, rattan chairs and dainty velvet sofas for afternoon tea and pre-dinner gin and tonics; the oval, mirror-like pool shaded by umbrella pines just outside the castle walls. It’s all exquisite.
The 36 bedrooms and suites – all different shapes and sizes – are mostly housed in the castle; mine is an attic eyrie with misty, far-reaching views over the green-gold hills. Apparently they once kept silkworms here. Benedikt has done a masterful job of combining old and new; beamed ceilings, arches, nooks and crannies sit well against a warm, moody colour palate and a savvy mix of his own sleek design pieces in brass, steel, oak, marble, leather and velvet, and the intriguing collection of antiques, paintings and quirky vintage objéts he and Nencia have amassed during their antique market rummagings.
Food is an important part of life at Reschio, and a committed farm-to-table ethos means that as much as possible of what goes on to the plate in the two restaurants is picked, plucked and foraged from Nencia’s biodynamic kitchen garden and hillsides where wild boar and fallow deer roam free. The west-facing terrace of the Ristorante Al Castello is an undeniably romantic dinner spot, but I preferred the less formal Alle Scuderie where the menu celebrates the simple, earthy local cuisine; I feasted on tagliolini with fresh truffles and spit-roast galletto to a background of live jazz and a chorus of cicadas.
There’s so much to do at Reschio that it’s tempting to forgo expeditions to nearby Assisi, Perugia and Cortona and stay put. In high summer, the pool beckons, but on cooler, shorter autumn days, the subterranean Bath House spa comes into its own; here – to the gentle rising and falling notes of traditional plainsong – they rub, scrub and brush you until your skin zings, then massage you with essential oils infused with herbs from the garden. Outdoor pursuits include trekking through the miles of wooded hills on foot or horseback, truffle hunting (the season begins in late September) and clay pigeon-shooting. A warming fire crackles in the boot room for your return.
So far, so upmarket country hotel. But Reschio goes above and beyond. There’s Count Antonio’s astonishing stable of thoroughbred Andalucian dressage horses. There’s the live music: sung Vespers in the Bath House; jazz in the Torrino bar; piano music in the Palm Court; and there’s even a Reschio choir. And most importantly, there is the Bolzas’ genuine commitment to this labour of love, to the spirit of the place, to its sustainability, to their plans for expanding the kitchen garden and rewilding.
There’s a real buzz about Reschio these days – everyone wants to go (although the hotel is much too discreet to brag about who). Will international fame compromise its unique character? I don’t think so; it’s in very safe hands.