{"id":93921,"date":"2023-02-17T22:03:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T03:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.tablethotels.com\/en\/?p=93921"},"modified":"2024-02-27T09:35:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T14:35:48","slug":"portrait-of-the-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.tablethotels.com\/en\/2023\/02\/portrait-of-the-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait of the Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Castello di Reschio will never be mistaken for a corporate-run, Disneyfied medieval fantasyland. This 1,000-year-old castle hotel in Italy’s Umbrian hills is the real deal \u2014 it’s owned by one family, and it reflects the aesthetic vision of one man.<\/em><\/h4>\n

The rooms at Castello di Reschio<\/a> are designed to provoke. It starts with the old portraits that adorn the walls; the hotel\u2019s owner hopes they steal your attention, evoking someone you love, or even someone you hate. Their faces, gazing out from centuries past, trigger a sort of reverse Dorian Gray<\/em> moment. You continue to age, they remain timeless; a reminder of just how long this 10th-century castle has been around, and how long it\u2019ll probably be here after you\u2019re gone. It\u2019s not the most comforting idea, but it\u2019s key to understanding what separates Castello di Reschio from all the other incredible hotels that crowd the Italian countryside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the opposite of a resort,\u201d Count Benedikt Bolza tells us. That Castello di Reschio may survive another thousand years can be put down to Benedikt and his father, Count Antonio\u00a0Bolza, who bought the 1,500-hectare property in the \u201990s. \u201cWe aren\u2019t developing<\/em>,\u201d he says. \u201cDevelopment happened in medieval times under some pope. All we\u2019re doing is restoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the eye of the Bolza family, sprawling growth and obsessive convenience are not the priorities at Reschio. There\u2019ll be no golf courses dotting the landscape, nor fleets of buggies to ferry you about the Umbrian estate. \u201cWe have an allergy\u201d to that kind of thing, says Benedikt, who prefers instead to focus on more intimate details.<\/p>\n

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For Count Benedikt, everything begins and ends with design. He handpicks or creates nearly every object you\u2019ll encounter at Castello di Reschio<\/a>. Antique tapestries, Modernist chairs, Art Deco lamps, a vintage Marshall radio \u2014 Benedikt finds them or his studio makes them, and he places them where they\u2019ll have the most emotional impact. The effect is to ground you in the present, to awaken you to the beauty in front of you, to make you enjoy the castle not as Middle Ages cosplay but as someone\u2019s soulful home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe designed it to feel like we\u2019re still living there and everybody\u2019s staying as guests in our house.\u201d And they designed it to not feel like a typical hotel. In lieu of the usual hotel corridors with their rows of anonymous doors, they simply built more staircases directly from the ground floors up to the suites above. The result is fewer rooms, but larger and much more luxurious ones.<\/p>\n

There’s really no one better than Benedikt to oversee the restoration of Reschio. Not only is he an accomplished architect and interior designer, he lived in the once-dilapidated castle with his wife, Donna Nencia, and their five children. That was in the old days, back when rain meant a rush for buckets and umbrellas indoors. In 1999, Benedikt began restoring the estate\u2019s abandoned farmhouses for private owners, honing his craft. He and Nencia put that experience to good use with the newly opened hotel. These days, any flooding is intentional; the Bolzas converted the castle\u2019s ancient wine cellar into a bathhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outside fortification tells you to stay out unless you\u2019re invited,\u201d says Benedikt. But once you\u2019re in, it\u2019s almost a shock \u2014 \u201cyou don\u2019t expect to find such a gentle creature.\u201d That a thousand-year-old castle can be so warm and welcoming is a testament to the relentless specificity of Benedikt\u2019s design. His point of view shines through in every space, and his touch is felt in every corner.<\/p>\n

Oscar Wilde wrote that every great portrait \u201cis a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.\u201d Turns out that\u2019s also true of castles.<\/p>\n

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Nuts & Bolts<\/h4>\n

A bite-sized breakdown of your most frequently asked questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why this hotel and why here?<\/strong>
\nWhen owner Count Antonio Bolza fled Hungary at the descent of the Iron Curtain with his family, he left behind a heritage of mounted cavalry and an aristocratic estate. After making his fortune anew, he bought a small piece of the Castello di Reschio property \u2014 and the match was almost too perfect. Nobleman in search of estate, estate in search of steward. Years later, the Count would raise his own horses here, buy the full estate, and his son, Count Benedikt Bolza, would launch his career as an architect by remaking the dilapidated farmhouses one by one to each buyer\u2019s custom desires.<\/p>\n

After years of developing an architectural language and living and working out of the estate (Benedikt and his family live in one of the restored farmhouses, and he works out of the old 1940s tobacco factory), the family took the logical next step and opened the castle to the public. Today it has restaurants, bars, and infinity pool, to go with the healthy forest and glassy lake. This is the countryside Italian escape of their dreams.<\/p>\n

Who comes here?<\/strong>
\nOwner Benedikt Bolza told us he couldn\u2019t believe how young some of the couples are who find their way to Reschio: here to splurge and to luxuriate on an estate that seems almost unreal. The Instagrammable appeal of Reschio may have something to do with that \u2014 Reschio may have the largest Instagram following of any hotel on Tablet \u2014 but the high price point and small number of accommodations (36) provides plenty of elbow room over 3700 acres. Many solo travelers find their way here as well, and the sheer number of activities make it an appealing getaway for families. Think tennis and bicycling, lakeside lounging, fishing, truffle-hunting, and walks through the wilderness to spot fox and boar. Cooking classes begin with excursions to forage ingredients and instructors from the estate’s equestrian school lead horseback rides through the wilderness (if you really know what you\u2019re doing, you can dabble in dressage).<\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s outside the grounds, Reschio is uniquely located at the border of Tuscany and Umbria, with many little towns within an hour\u2019s drive and plenty of historic and cultural sites to find around Assisi, Arezzo, Cortona, Gubbio, Perugia and Siena \u2014 and all the food and wine the words \u201cItalian countryside\u201d implies.<\/p>\n

When\u2019s the best time to visit?<\/strong>
\nThe hotel closes for the low season in January and reopens again in mid-March. The cooler autumn and spring are often considered the best times to visit Italy, when festivals and produce are in season, but the high season \u2014 summer \u2014 sees the region around Reschio rife with outdoor concerts and opera. The Umbria Jazz Festival, in July, may be the most famous nearby. In 2022, Reschio partnered with the event to save a limited number of tickets for guests, and included dinner and transportation. Other events throughout the year: the chocolate exhibition, Eurochocolate, in Perugia in late March and the religious processions of Festa di San Francesco in Assisi in October.<\/p>\n

Best room for a solo traveler? A couple? A family?<\/strong>
\nOnce again, it\u2019s hard to go wrong. Each room is uniquely decorated and designed (not to mention shaped \u2014 thanks to the contours of the historic building), full of light, and organized primarily around the beautiful garden courtyard. The room categories range from the simply named Rooms to the Tower Suite. The latter is a multi-room and multi-story suite with a rooftop garden and open-air tub. It\u2019s a contender for best honeymoon suite in the country, but there are two bedrooms
\nappropriate for families or friends, too. The Grand Suites fit two adults and two children as well, and the Suite Castello Twin has two queen beds. We don\u2019t think a solo traveler or couple would have a problem in any of the remaining room types.<\/p>\n

Worth noting is that each accommodation sits within the castle \u2014 with the exception of the six San Michele suites, set nearby in the former vestry. Two have private gardens.<\/p>\n

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What’s a design feature I would miss if you didn’t tell me about it?<\/strong>
\nFound objects. An old olive press, for one, or a Roman bust. It\u2019s all so seamless, you could miss it \u2014 but the choices are a testament to the Bolza feel for design. \u201cI\u2019m a great believer in putting at least one old object, a piece of soul, in each room,\u201d Benedikt has said. It\u2019s just one way to quantify the thought that\u2019s gone into each room, and a testament to the passion of a family affair. Much of the furniture comes from Benedikt\u2019s own company, produced with local materials.<\/p>\n

What’s there to eat?<\/strong>
\nTwo restaurants and three bars serve the grounds at Reschio. The restaurants \u2014 Alle Scuderie and Al Castello \u2014 both focus on traditional Italian dishes sourced from seasonal ingredients, much of it from their own organic gardens. Each is beautifully designed in the typical Reschio style, all soaring, tree-laden views with plenty of outdoor spaces. Bar Centrale nestles into Alle Scuderie, and the Palm Court bar lives within the iron columns and glass ceiling of a courtyard filled with tropical trees, busts, and portraits. It\u2019s an incredible scene. Il Torrino is the pool bar, meanwhile, a squat little watchtower for espressos and cappuccinos, juices and cocktails. Bonus: Reschio makes their own olive oil, wine, and honey.<\/p>\n

Tell us about sustainability.<\/strong>
\nThey\u2019re nearly plastic-free, and their kitchen is organic \u2014 \u201cbut I don\u2019t like to hang a big bell on that,\u201d says the owner, \u201cbecause you should be\u201d all those things. In other words, it\u2019s a given for a hotel of this caliber. As is the fully organic kitchen and farm that grows \u201cas nature intended,\u201d with Nencia Bolza leading guests through the vegetable garden where produce mingles with flowers and herbs. Another angle is the focus on local. Materials, of course, but so too staff, many of whom come from the local village. \u201cI think what is singularly most interesting is the slowness of how we’ve been developing\u201d the estate, says owner Benedikt Bolza. The focus is on rescue, and on doing it the right way. Before the hotel business, Bolza renovated farmhouses. He did 28 in 28 years. \u201cA developer would laugh at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What’s the final word?<\/strong>
\nA thousand years in the making, in 2021 the Reschio estate finally opened to the public. It\u2019s a testament to the riches of Italian tourism that a place this storied can sprout from seemingly nowhere into Italy\u2019s most exciting new hotel. But there you are. A thoughtfully developed castle for the design-obsessed. \u25aa<\/p>\n

Book Castello di Reschio<\/a> on Tablet Hotels.<\/em><\/p>\n

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