About two years ago I decided,
along with my family, to develop a country house in Torre dei Belforti which my
family has owned for over 40 years. It was my father's uncle who
renovated it, a coffee merchant and philanthropist who ended up donating
his factory to his workers and his art collection to the Brera gallery in
Milano.
In order to renovate the Torre he contacted one of Italy's greatest
architects, Franco Albini, a team of stonemasons to work on the stones and he
made them open an old quarry. What they produced was of an incredible
beauty: an unusual mix of old ( the tower was built in 1345) and new. In 1989
my father inherited the Torre and since then we have used it, as well as
the two houses overlooking our garden, almost exclusively for
holidays.
The idea of turning it into a place for tourists and visitors has always existed because beautiful things demand to be seen. The right occasion came along in 2012; I had been toying with the idea of leaving my job as a TV political journalist in order to dedicate myself to environmental and naturalistic themes. So I accepted a generous liquidation and got stuck into the task. During the summer my brother and I, along with our wives, renovated the tower so as to make it more comfortable, cosy, better connected and then we started renting it out.
Prospects for the future relate to the fields and the other houses. We have around two hectares of fruitful olive trees and fruit trees surrounded by rows of cypress trees; we would like to make the land more productive along permaculture principles ; big vegetable gardens without plowing, berries, herbs and other fruit trees, a high level of biodiversity, chicken coop, ponds with fish, bees, mushrooms. At the same time we would like to renovate the other houses, which would allow us to increase the number of beds fourfold and to construct a swimming pool for the guests.
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