Castello dei Pecorari Entrance Hall

A key factor in hotel design is the operational flow of the hotel – how the passage of staff undertaking their work activities flows around the hotel, without becoming an imposition on the guests.

When designing a luxury or boutique hotel the key differentiator is really the staff – their training, their flexibility and their ability to always seem to know what you want one step ahead of you or to be around just when you are thinking of calling them! A key factor in this is how the hotel is designed to as a working building – how do the staff get about the hotel to undertake their work activities without imposing on the guests. Can the housemaids access cupboards full of linen or service rooms without endless trolleys in the the corridors? Can Food and Beverage staff  provide guests with what they need without having to walk though endless rooms and disturb other guests? Can the chef get his daily fresh supplies without every vegetable or haunch of venison having to be paraded through the hotel?

The interior design of the hotel – and in this case I am not yet talking about the fabrics and furnishings – is a specialist skills.We have employed Goff Associates – one of the world’s leading luxury hotel and spa designers to work with us from the outset. Given the state of the castle currently, we effectively have a blank canvas.

Jane Goff and her team have already made a couple of site visits, and as part of our submission for planning application they produced some sketches of what the Entrance Hall and a typical room would look like. These excellent drawings have helped us not only to visualise better the end result, but have also been instrumental in getting local support and backing for the project.

Buying a property in Italy is a very formal affair, with considerable documentation and opportunity for things to go wrong at the last minute. The Rogito is the final stage of the process and transfers ownership of the property from the seller to the buyer (usually 1-3 months after the Compromesso, but in our case we had asked for considerably longer). The document is drawn up by the Notary (Notaio), who represents both parties. The buyer, seller and estate agent are all required to be present for the signing of the contract at the Notary’s office. However the precision and organisation of our agent, Cesare Belpasso ensured that all the correct details about names ownership, percentages and amounts to be paid to whom had all been checked and double checked an given to the Notaio in advance.

The completion itself took place at the Notaio’s office in Urbania. We had split the deal into two separate meetings –one to deal with the extra land that we had purchased, the other to do with acquisition of the castle and the bulk of the land.

The Notaio read out the full document from cover to cover. We passed over the money to the sellers, signed the documents, shook hands and that was that. We retired to the bar next door to toast our purchase and the beginning of our restoration project.

We were now the owners of 25 acres of hillside, truffle oak and a ruined medieval castle deep in the heartland of Le Marche.

Antonio’s pictures showed that the main track had been widened to almost double the width of the large path we had struggled to climb back in January. The engineers had cut into the rock, and flatten the main track with a digger. Small irrigation ditches had been created across the track to ease the flow of any rainwater and minimise the possibility of the track being washed away in the unpredictable winter months ahead.

The most progress had been made on the stretch between the bend and the castle itself. A major clearance operation had been undertaken and, where formerly there had been small trees and overgrown bushes, these had been uprooted, and in its place the original earthen track was once again laid bare. Half way up this stretch, and about 100 metres shy of the castle itself, a small flat area – big enough to take a couple of lorries – had been created, which now housed the site office.

Back at the bottom of the track a red barrier had been installed to deter the casual visitor from driving up to the castle and an iron fence had been established around the full perimeter of the site – no mean feat given the severity of the slope and the sharp drop on all sides.

That afternoon we went back into Piobbico, where we met again the Mayor – or <em>Sindaco</em> – Dott. Georgio Mochi. Dott Mochi is a young enlightened Mayor determined to put his town on the map, and eager to meet the crazy couple who wanted to restore the castle. Over a lazy and wonderful lunch of pasta and local meats, we heard about his plans for Piobbico, the funding he was applying for and the progress that he had already made in securing European grants. Such was his drive that this small Italian town, deep in the rural heart of Italy, now has wireless broadband hotspots located throughout the community! It was an important meeting for us, in that as Mayor, he holds considerable influence over the other members of the commune, through whom all our future planning applications would have to pass

Nestled in the Urbino hills between Piobbico and Urbania, and only 3 kms form the heart of white truffle capital Acqualagna, was the forlorn looking Castello dei Pecorari. As we drove out of Piobbico on the road to Urbania, the castle sat majestically high above us – like a sentinel watching our progress up the valley.

About 2kms later, in the small hamlet of Piano, we turned right off the main road and wound our way up through the houses and up the steep hill to the base of the rock that the castle was precariously perched upon. The soft hues of the late winter sun, exaggerating the pink in the local stone of what was left of the castle.

We parked our cars at the bottom of the overgrown track that zigzagged its way up the side of the hill, over a distance of about 1.5kms and a rise of about 250 metres, to the Castle itself. The narrow path made the going difficult, but prolonged the time before we could see the castle in its full glory. Accompanying us, as we climbed to the top was the agent Cesare Belpasso, the architectural engineer, Antonio Marconi together with his Geometra, Mauro and Giuliano Gnagnassi from Paradise Possible.

As the track doubled back on itself, the castle came into full view. Originally a medieval watch tower, it had passed into the ownership of the Ubaldini family in the 16^th Century. Up until 1930 the castle was inhabited, but a combination of neglect, weather and time had robbed the castle of it roof, most of its walls and its dignity. It sat in its rather forlorn and ruined state, waiting to be rescued.

The castle was originally bounded by a wall. The archway on the left of the main Keep, wss the only entrance into the courtyard, which was bounded by the keep at the front, additional buildings on the Eastern wall, a church on the northern wall and just open courtyard on the western wall. The church, like most of the buildings had long been ruined, was the ruin of but there was no evidence at all of the stable block and stalls that had originally occupied the left hand part of the courtyard.

Yet despite its dilapidated state, it was majestic. It had huge potential, and at the price it was being offered together with the 10 hectares of prime truffle oaks, woods and pastures it seemed a steal. Very quickly we both realised that this old ruin had real possibilities. With the help of Antonio Marconi, we were able to take some rough measurements and make some indicative assumptions about the possible restoration costs.

Over dinner that night we chatted about the possibilities that Castello dei Pecorari could provide, and the very next morning we decided to put an offer in that was accepted. We had found our project.