The History of the House

Although the house was built almost 140 years ago, the folklore of the hill is much older.  According to local legend, a medieval castle fortress called La Rocca was located on the hill adjacent to the house.  Stories revolve around a golden bell belonging to the fortress which is said to be buried there. (If Duncan and Michelle ever find this bell, they will retire and all bookings will be null and void!) Indeed many of the older generation of local people still refer to the location as La Rocca.

Il Girasole was built by a local padrone in the 1860s to house a tenant farmer and his family. The house originally was comprised of only half of the existing structure. As the wealth of the area increased and farming methods became more efficient, the tenant and his evergrowing family chose to double the size of the house. Originally, cows, pigs and probably a goat or two would have been stalled downstairs. On cold winter nights the family would have been warmed by the rising heat from their animals. Upstairs, as well as the living quarters, was a granary.

Years ago, Duncan and Michelle were fortunate enough to meet a wonderful elderly lady in her nineties who was born in the house. They brought her back to her birthplace. Once there, she visibily brightened, her stooped back straightened and she told them the stories of her childhood.  As one of nine children, eight of which were girls, life had been hard.  There was no nearby well water and they spent many a long hour carrying water up hill to the house in buckets balanced on their heads. The family was almost entirely self-sufficient and many of the fruit trees that they planted still bear fruit today. In winter, snow falls very quickly in the mountains and one of her best stories was the occasion the children held a party and invited their favourite eight boys. Whilst the singing and dancing was going on in the kitchen, a huge snowstorn swept the area and the guests were marooned inside the house for a whole week. It seems that at least two marriages resulted from the winter incarceration.

After the end of the Second World War, the pattern of life changed considerably in the Italian countryside with many of the young men looking to Rome, the growing cities to the North and abroad to places such as Argentina for better employmment prospects.  Il Girasole was effectively abandoned.

In 1989, the house and land was purchased by the current owners and they set about the task of renovation. One of the first improvements made was to dig up the road and install mains water and electricity. The idea of carrying buckets of water on their heads and living by candlelight was a thing of the past, although a most romantic notion. The results of a true labour of love are now available for others to experience and enjoy.