Reschio

For more than a thousand years, Reschio has seen the great drama of Italian history eddy and swirl around its borders - and, not infrequently, within them. From the intrigues of popes and emperors to the violent clashes of ducal armies, the passage of pilgrims and Grand Tourists, and the largescale consequences of world wars and mass migration - quite a millennium for a remote estate in the hills of rural Umbria. Recently Reschio has been the scene of a more peaceful, though no less rich and colourful, drama. When the estate was acquired by Count Antonio Bolza in 1994, its 3,700 acres, 50 farmhouses, and 11th-century castle were in a state of advanced decay. In the decades since, Reschio has undergone an astonishing rebirth. Count Antonio's son and daughter-inlaw, Count Benedikt and Donna Nencia, have transformed the estate's farmland, forests, lakes, meadows and gardens into a flourishing ecosystem, its painstakingly restored farmhouses into showcases of Benedikt's ingenuity as an architect and designer, and its castle into one of the most exciting and admired hotels in the world. In the process, the Bolza family's roots have penetrated ever deeper into the land. Not only have they returned Reschio to a state of splendour, they have also given it a uniquely vibrant and energised present - and secured for it a bright future such as its custodians of a thousand years ago could scarcely have imagined.