La Mandolata is the realisation of a dream which is born from a love of people and conviviality. The initial idea was mine and that of my sister’s Manuella after having lived for many years in various European cities when we needed to stay in a quiet place on a human scale. On one of those days you could define as rather dull, while we were looking through an old family photo album, a desire came to us to revitalise our grandparents’ old farmhouse which had been abandoned for years. That photo had all our family’s history with their bygone ways and traditions.

It was surely our hearts that wanted to bring La Mandolata back to life … Though having travelled the world and visited other B&Bs, we realised that it would not be sufficient what we had in our hearts to transform our dream into a reality. We would need the help of a qualified architect to do the job.
The whole project was entrusted to Carlo Pucci who interpreted as best he could our wishes by recovering its local roots. The farm cottage was renovated with great care to respect the traditional country style by reusing the stone used for the hay barn, the antique tiles, the beams for the roof and the original terracotta tiles for the floors.

The original tiles were revealed that served to bring light to and ventilate the barn where the hay was kept, lending extra-privacy from the outside. Today they are an essential element in the home decor keeping their functional role of old and characterise the whole cottage, even inspiring its name.