Monday, December 20, 2010

A SPECIAL PLACE IN MARCHE, ITALY

We had many wonderful experiences on our
trip to Italy, which I think you can tell from
my many blogs.  Some are places we discovered,
people we met and places we stayed.
This one was all three rolled into one.
Ca' del Cardo is a wonderful country bed
and breakfast in The Marche region of Italy.

We decided we wanted to explore this area because
we had heard it was the Tuscany of 40 years ago,
and hardly anyone knows about it.
This is a region rich with culture thanks to its
artistic heritage, beauty, and friendly local people.


Here, soft, rolling hills meet the sea, whose
blue shades merge with those of the Apennine
mountains which, in turn, gradually blend in with
 the rich green Sibillini Mountains. We also heard
it was a great place to relocate for Americans
because the cost of living is lower than in the
more touristy areas of Italy.  Our friends
Gabriella and Rino suggested we stay at
Ca' del Cardo because it is a great central
location for the area and it is owned by two
very nice people, Carlo and Donatella. They were right on all accounts.  

They decided to leave their jobs in Rome and dedicate them selves to a new life. A life that would allow them to share this magical place, bewitched by gullies, with old friends and new ones, our guests, alike.
They created a wonderful place where you
immediately feel at home.
This fabulous dining table serves breakfast
and if your lucky dinner cooked by Carlo.
Their home is filled with beautiful painting,
Murona Glass, that they collect as well as
some original works by Carlo. 




When they did the refurbishing they designed
 everything themselves, from that dinning
table to this matching sideboard

as well as all the doors

They have a furniture maker in the Northern
part of Italy who did all of this fabulous woodwork.
Donatella thinks I should come back and put
together a cantainer of his things and local
antiques to take back to my customers in
Los Angeles.  Something to think about.
We stayed here for two nights and it was
much too short of a visit.  The day we left
was our wedding anniversary that I causally
mentioned the night before and after
breakfast they presented us with this memorable gift.


It is a understatement to say we hated to leave.
The drive to the main highway had a lot
to offer. 



We stopped at a local winery and bought
some wine for our next stop

and stopped at a dairy farm where we
bought some of the best home made
cheese that we enjoyed with the wine.

A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”
                                                            – Tim Cahill 

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