The missing Keystone
Over the last few years many of the people that we have met from around Piobbico or Urbania have told us various differing accounts concerning the removal of the “Key stone” or Crest that sat above the archway entrance of Castello dei Pecorari.
Whichever version is the truth, they all seem to have one common factor [...]
Windmills on my mind
Our project manager, Antonio Marconi has just sent us sketches of a potential wind farm that could be placed along the ridge to the north of the castle.
And we’re in a bit of a dilemma.
Firstly of course we were unaware of the proposals for the wind farm, and a little surprised that the Commune of [...]
Castello restoration groundwork begins
It has been a tight run race, but with only 5 days left within which to begin ground works or else our planning window permissions would lapse, we have finally selected a builder for the phase 1 ground works. We have opted to go with the local Piobbico based firm Tocacelli, who have extensive experience [...]
ITALIA! article
Our project to rescue Castello dei Pecorari has been featured in ITALIA! Magazine.
Every month the magazine features a region of Italy, and presents an in-depth assessment of the property market, what it is like to live there or the challenges of mvoing and setting up home in that region.
This month the region featured was Le [...]
It is all in the detail
Should we have an internal pool, an external pool or both? Should the Spa have a Hammam, a Sauna, or a Gym? How many treatments rooms do we need? Where should the laundry chute go?
Trying to fit in all the different permutations yet retain our focus in developing a hotel that is a sanctuary from [...]
Landscaping Castello dei Pecorari
First impressions count.
As a guest, your first impression will be of the estate and the view of the castle as you arrive. So we want to make sure that we capture a little bit of the magic that you will experience during your stay, and integrate this into the design for the landscaping outside of [...]
Planning Castello dei Pecorari floorplans
The secret – or so they say – to a great hotel is the quality of the staff and the type of service they provide. But we think there are a couple of key stages prior to this essential step, and the first of those is in the planning of the operational “flow” of the [...]
Preliminary clearance work begins
With Francesca 8 months pregnant, I came back to visit the site on my own in June 2006. In the intervening months, we had had numerous email exchanges with Antonio and Cesare. With Antonio, it had been agreeing terms and understanding the details of the quotes, and with Cesare we had been exploring the option [...]
The Exchange or Compromesso
Only 4 weeks after having had our offer for Castello dei Pecorari accepted, we were back to undertake the exchange – orcompromesso. We had brought Ed and Rebecca Ross back with us, as they were contemplating the idea of moving to either Italy or France to set up a B&B business, and we wanted to [...]
The Rescue of Castello dei Pecorari
This is the story of our project as we slowly rescue, restore and rebuild the amazing medieval Castello dei Pecorari deep in the heart of the white truffle region of Le Marche in Italy.
The castle, which is on the border of Marche, Tuscany and Umbria, was once owned by the Ubaldini family and for centuries [...]
