The story
From 1768 to today, the same house
A hunting reserve, then cotton and almonds, then a house for painters and writers. Closed by the 1968 earthquake, reopened in 2010 after ten years of restoration.
The line
Two hundred and fifty years in six dates
- 1768 The hunting reserve A landowner from Agrigento chooses Menfi so as to wake up looking at the sea he loved.
- 1800c. Vines, grain, cotton, almonds The estate becomes a working farm, with its tufa and terracotta wine press.
- 1900c. The house of artists Painters and writers come to stay, for the long months.
- 1968 The Belice earthquake The house closes, and stays closed for almost fifty years.
- 2000 The restoration Lillo and Fabiola begin, with the architect Gaetano Gulino. Ten years of work.
- 2010 The relais opens With the rooms, the osteria and the first exhibition.
The dates of the cotton and of the artists are approximate: we are piecing them together from family papers.
The restoration
Keeping what was there
Before touching a wall, we looked for how it had been: the original colours of the plaster, the stones, the proportions of the windows. What had survived the earthquake and the years of neglect stayed where it was: the tufa and terracotta wine press, the sideboards, the fireplace inlaid in stone and marble.
The rest was remade for a house that has to work: lava-stone bathrooms, the systems, the osteria's kitchen.
The family
Who opens the door
Lillo and Fabiola bought the house closed and reopened it ten years later. Since then they have run it themselves, with the family: the reception, the dining room, the garden, the vineyard.
It is why this is not a hotel. The person who welcomes you is the person who decides, and the person who cooks is the one who picked the vegetables that morning.
What does not change
The rules of the house
The vegetables are from the garden and the oil is ours. The wines are ours, and when they run out we wait for next year. On the walls are living Sicilian artists. The guests are few, and known by name. Weddings, no.
Five rules, unchanged since 2010.