Stepping back in time: Sextantio Santo Stefano di Sessanio
Santo Stefano di Sessanio, in Northern Abruzzo, Italy was a booming town during the reign of the Medici family in the 16th century. But in the 19th century, the town fell into poverty and most of its inhabitants decamped to find work and prosperity elsewhere. The mass exodus created a time capsule. With only about 100 people living in the village in the late 20th century, the buildings, squares and cobblestoned streets were remarkably well preserved and largely untouched by modern life or progress.
Enter the visionary Swedish/Italian millionaire, Daniele Kihlgren. After falling instantly in love with the village on a motorcycle trip in 1999, Kihlgren started buying properties. Then came the deal with the local government which saw a blanket ban on new buildings in the town and Kihlgren eventually purchased about a third of the town. Five years later, the first stage of Sextantio Santo Stefano di Sessanio opened for business. An “albergo diffuso” or scattered hotel. The guest rooms, taverns, reception area and restaurant all use original buildings in the town which have been restored. But not restored to look like a modern hotel. Kihlgren is a purist. He was determined to stay as close to the medieval history, traditions and culture as possible and went to enormous lengths to do so. The beds are covered in locally made blankets, using materials and techniques that have been part of Abruzzo life for centuries. Furniture was procured from galleries, private collections, abandoned properties. The food served in the restaurant, the tavern and the tearooms use ingredients and cooking methods that would have been used in medieval times. The modern technology and comforts are hidden or blend in so beautifully they somehow don’t seem out of place. The walls have been stripped back of any modern decorations to show the smoke-stained original stone or plaster.
My excitement levels about a night of luxury after some pretty basic Airbnb accommodation were high. After initially checking into a lovely room, called La Stalla (you can see the individual rooms on the Sextantio website) that was unluckily located next to three-month old twins and their poor, tired parents, I was shown to the room upstairs, La Torre, in what would have been the quarters of the nobles of the town. The sun was setting as I climbed the marble stairs, with grooves in the middle worn by many families treading those same steps. The enormous iron key opened a heavy wooden door to a room with creaky, worn wooden floorboards, an open fire place with logs set ready to be lit and a huge bathtub. It was all I could do to leave the room for dinner! I’m glad I did as the traditional food served at Locanda sotto gli Archi was fantastic, as was the locally hand crafted crockery. It was not quite cold enough for the huge fire to be lit in dining room – I would love to see it in the middle of winter with snow outside and a roaring fire inside. A beer in the tavern before dinner had me wondering if I had somehow stumbled into a scene from Game of Thrones.
When I retired for the evening, I lit the fire, drew myself a long bath, using the bubble bath provided and watched some Netflix (well, a little modern life at the edges is ok right?). I fell asleep to a crackling fire and woke to sunrise over the mountains of the Gran Sasso National Park, feeling like I had stepped back in time, even just for a night.
