TRAVEL

Sextantio Albergo Diffuso :

Redefining tourist hospitality

 

 

Great buildings, like great mountains,

are the work of centuries.

Victor Hugo

 

Like most travel addicts, I frequently have my nose in some kind of travel magazine. If we are not travelling, I’m usually thinking about travel.

A few years ago I had read about a restoration project in a medevial hilltop village in Italy, where the houses were now being used as hotel accommodation. A mental note was stored in the future travel jollies part of my brain.

On our recent trip to Italy, we were able to make some time to travel through the Gran Sasso mountain range of Abruzzo, the green heart of Europe.

Our journey took us along the outskirts of L Aquila, the Italian town which was devastated by the big earthquake of 2009. This hotel project is one of many initiatives, that have brought visitors back to the region.

We drove through the Gran Sasso tunnel, truly the longest tunnel either of us had seen in our lives. It passes through the Apennine Mountains via Gran Sasso. Its a feat of engineering and construction, with two tunnels for each direction,  the longest of its kind in Europe.

Of course the gigantic Gran Sasso mountain dominates the landscape. It has been there for hundreds of years. Imposing. Impressive.

As we approached the village, we knew at once that this was not going to be like any other hotel stay.

The village of Santo Stefano di Sassnio has 100 regular residents, all going about their day. The hotel has a number of old village houses, which offers accommodation. Walking along the old perimeter wall, you reach a restaurant and that is where the hotel offers its guests breakfast. Day trippers mingle around in between all of this but post siesta, the temperature and visitor numbers drop and the village takes on a different atmosphere.

On our arrival I phoned the Sextantio Albergo Diffuso hotel and they immediately arranged porterage. The guy met us, scooped up our two bags and placed them in the back of his old Piaggio Ape, a rusty three wheeler. We walked, over a cobbled pathway towards the hotel’s reception area.

After a warm welcome, we were shown to our room. We entered through a common area and then opened the door to Rondine. The room was as expected, ancient and eclectic, flaunting all its imperfections. The floor was not level, the fireplace had scorch marks on the crumbling plaster and the lights flickered at night. Under our bed, there was a hidden doorway, perhaps to an old cellar or tunnel.

The room had been sensitively updated, largely left unmodernised, with the exception of one lush, oversized tub and a contemporary bathroom, discretely hidden behind an interior wall. Where possible, things had been left well alone. It had taken hundreds of years to get it to this.

Around the village the sentiment to restore and conserve the heritage continued. There was extensive scaffolding on many of the buildings. A couple of cranes could be seen overhead. Saving this settlement is a work in progress.

We had come to celebrate our eleventh wedding anniversary. Steel. It was truly a unique place to stay. A perfect bottle of chilled white wine had been left for us in our room.

We had a fantastic three day stay at the hotel, which is truly one of a kind. A highlight was dining at the restaurant on the evening of our anniversary. Locande specialises in offering regional dishes, which were all amazing. The setting is ancient and elegant, the cuisine as good as any we have enjoyed at fine dining restaurants around the world. The ricotta and saffron ravilioni was outstanding!

Overall, it is a place we would highly recommend if you are travelling and looking for somewhere very different. We added it to our book of unforgettable stays.

Have you stayed somewhere really special that you would recommend to other travellers?

 

 

 

© Maggie M/ Mother City Time