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For the Love of Italy

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 Rooftops at Villa di Pignano, Tuscany.
T H I S PAG E :
FRONTISPIECE: A rose and jasmine pergola at Il Pico, Piedmont.
________

Copyright © 2010 by Marella Caracciolo

Photographs copyright © 2010 by Oberto Gili

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown
Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark

of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Caracciolo, Marella.
For the love of Italy / Marella Caracciolo ; photography by Oberto Gili. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Italy—Description and travel. 2. Agritourism—Italy. 3. Farms—Recreational use—
Italy. 4. Italy—Pictorial works. I. Gili, Oberto. II. Title.
DG430.2.C35 2010
914.504’93—dc22 2009047508

ISBN 978-0-307-45248-1

Printed in China

Design by Stephanie Huntwork

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition

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 CO N T E N T S

Introduction 9

Northern Italy 13
Tuscany 55
Central Italy 117
Southern Italy and Sicily 145

Useful Websites for Planning a Trip in Rural Italy 206

An Insider’s Guide to Where to Stay in Rural Italy 209

Acknowledgments 223

Index 224

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 N O R T H E R N I T A LY
L I K E M O S T F R O N T I E R T E R R I T O R I E S , N O R T H E R N I TA LY
is a land of extremes. Industrialization and mass tourism in some areas give
way to vast expanses of land that have remained virtually untouched for
centuries. This paradox is what makes traveling to the lesser-known areas of
northern Italy an exciting and even exotic adventure.
The regions closest to the border are defined by spectacular mountain
ranges—the Alps and the Dolomites—and fertile valleys. When driving
through rural areas, chances are you will be drawn into one of the many local
food festivals or open markets that take place throughout the year. Some of the
country’s favored cheeses, fruits—especially apples—and wines are produced
in Trentino–Alto Adige. Truffles, nuts, and chocolate are among Piedmont’s
trademark produce. The Euganean Hills, a volcanic formation rising in the mist
of the Po river basin in the Veneto, provide an ideal terroir for wine. Emilia-
Romagna, a region best known for its Parmesan cheese, prosciutto di Parma,
and Ferrari, is deeply rooted in its agricultural traditions and yet is barely
visited, even by Italians.
Travelers will be mesmerized by the cultural wealth of northern Italian
cities. Torino is an architectural gem, sheltering world-class museums. Vicenza,
Verona, and Padua in the Veneto hold many treasures, as do the towns of
Brixen and Merano in Trentino–Alto Adige. Emilia-Romagna hosts some of the
country’s glorious historic cities, such as Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna.

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 P e n s ion Br iol
a soaring vision
among the dolomites

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P E N S I O N B R I O L is situated on a volcanic
mountain in the Dolomites, in the German-
speaking region of Trentino–Alto Adige, in north-
eastern Italy. A boxlike structure of brick and
wood, Briol—which recalls the linear simplicity
of Bauhaus architecture—stands on a clearing in
the woods at an altitude of 4,300 feet. For
decades the only way to get here was by train,
followed by a donkey ride or a long walk.
Nowadays there is a one-man taxi service that
waits for guests at the parking lot about halfway
up the mountain (private cars are not allowed
near Pension Briol). “Most travelers, however,
prefer to entrust their luggage to the taxi driver
and walk up,” says owner Johanna von
Klebelsberg.
Cars are not the only modern-day amenities
guests of Briol must learn to do without. TVs,
radios, and Internet facilities are also banned. For
six months a year Pension Briol is buried under a
thick coat of snow and is virtually unreachable.
When the snow thaws in April, uncovering the
mountain’s gray rocks, red earth, and fields of
wild grasses and orchids, Briol returns to be what
it has been for the last eighty years: one of the
world’s best-kept holiday retreats.
Briol’s mountain is called Tre Chiese, after
three ancient churches built near a water spring,
but locals refer to it as “the mountain of women.”
It belongs to the descendants of a local matriarch,
Johanna Settari, whose lifelong obsession, it
16 F O R T H E L O V E O F I TA LY
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Built in 1928,
P R E V I O U S PAG E S :
Pension Briol’s clear mountain
water swimming pool (left) is
chemical free and a favorite
of children. The facade (right)
faces north onto a stunning
view of the Dolomites.
Designed in the 1920s by
Hubert Lanzinger, a well-known
local artist, Briol was conceived
as “a temple to the sun.”
O P P O S I T E : Breakfast on the
sun-drenched terrace. Breads,
jams, and marmalades are
all homemade.
seems, was to own the entire mountain she used
to play on as a child. “Johanna, who started this
whole family community on the mountain, was
my great-great-grandmother,” says Johanna von
Klebelsberg, who manages Pension Briol with the
help of her husband, winemaker Urban. The first
Johanna, who was born in the mid-nineteenth
century, grew up on this mountain, leading what
sounds like an idyllic, Heidi-like childhood. “Her
father owned a hotel here, so she spent most of
her childhood exploring the woods and immersing
herself completely in nature.” When Johanna mar-
ried a wealthy merchant from nearby Bolzano and
started having children, she had an idea. Instead
of receiving the customary piece of jewelry for
every child, she asked her husband to buy her a
piece of the mountain.
So, by the time her fifteenth child (fourteen
girls, one boy) was born, she owned the entire
thing. “Her love for this landscape and what she
saw as a way of life was so profound that she
dreaded the idea of her mountain, or even pieces
of it, ending up in the wrong hands. She felt she
had to protect it and devised a way to keep it
within the family,” says Johanna von Klebelsberg.
Johanna the matriarch built a house for every
one of her fifteen children, each one accompanied
by a set of three simple but unbending rules.
First, no one should ever sell their house to a
third party: the mountain and everything on it
was to remain perpetually within the family.
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 Homemade elderflower
syrup (above) is a regional
specialty. Briol owner and
chef Johanna von Klebelsberg
(right) makes it with the
flowers from her own trees.
OPPOSITE: Briol’s wood-
paneled dining room is
intimate, with room
for just thirty guests. The
pine furniture and much of
the crockery and cutlery
were all designed by
Hubert Lanzinger in
the 1920s specifically for
these interiors.

Second, there should be no visible boundaries
dividing the property. And third, Johanna’s
descendants had to “take care of the woodland
but not too much.” In other words, nature should
simply be helped on its course. Johanna wanted to
preserve the woods and fields of wildflowers
intact, as they had always been. The amazing
thing, which romantic travelers will relish, is that
four generations later her rules are still applied
unflinchingly. No one at Tre Chiese has ever sold
their property, the landscape is still remarkably
intact, and everyone on the mountain lives in a
friendly and cooperative spirit.
The first Johanna initially built Briol in 1898
to serve as a mountain refuge. As the family grew,
Johanna decided to turn the refuge into a kind of
family hotel where they all could come and stay.
It was entirely rebuilt for this purpose in the
1920s by one of the matriarch’s sons-in-law, a
well-known local artist named Hubert Lanzinger.
“He transformed the old refuge, with its poky
windows and somber interiors, into a modern-day
temple to the sun. This he did by creating huge
windows, which are a very unusual feature in
mountain architecture,” says Johanna, who,
together with her husband and their four young

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 To purchase a copy of
For the Love of Italy
visit one of these online retailers:

file:///T|/Lyman_Emily/Scribd/Retailer%20Pages/for%20the%20love%20of%20italy%20buyonline.html[12/1/2010 1:41:28 PM]