Philip Vile
The pale stone castle that gives Castello di Reschio its name overlooks its estate of grassy slopes, oak forests and vineyards in Umbria, Tuscany’s wilder, less-touristy neighbour. Reschio’s fortress has surveyed this frontier between the regions for a millennium – its oldest tower dates to 900ad – and after decades as a tobacco plantation and farm, the castle will open its gates to visitors in May 2021 as Italy’s most intriguing new hotel.
“It was just crazy as an undertaking but the whole idea behind this hotel is time,” says Count Benedikt Bolza, an architect whose family bought the vast Reschio estate in 1994 and who has dedicated the past five years to transforming it into flawless accommodation. The slow process of gutting, converting and furnishing the castle – unlike a typically rushed hotel development – seems to inspire a similarly leisurely pace in the guests.