The Farmhouse
San Concordio di Moriano Casale
“Any arbitrary turning along the way and I would be elsewhere; I would be different. Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual; the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.”
-Frances Mayes
From looking across the room 40 years ago and seeing my world turn from black and white into color when I first saw Anne to “Taking a Left” in 2018 and finding the path to our second apartment in Lucca, what seemed like the randomness of life at the moment, now seems like a finely crafted play. The photo albums, they say, only have happy pictures and life; it's lived between the pages.
Now, in 2024, another chapter begins in the hills of San Concordio di Moriano, overlooking the Walls of Lucca. Somewhere between “rustic and ruin” is Casale Rigo, the former property of the Ciiti family. As is the case with many Italian properties, it's a multi-generational tale, which, these days, has too often led to a longing for care and attention. This was our calling.
In May of 2023, after finishing our apartment furnishings in Palazzo Busdraghi, we had an “itch” to rekindle our journeys in the hills of Lucca. So, we drove in the countryside, passing familiar properties for sale, whereupon we found one listed by the realtor who managed our two previous transactions. At first glance, it checked all the boxes: land, olive trees, southerly facing, a view of Lucca, a forno, a frantoio, and in need of much love and work, that’s code for being undervalued and requiring much patience, which is another word for money.
For years, before deciding to purchase apartments inside the city walls of Lucca, we vacillated between a life in the hills and the city. Always struggling with the question “what do you want your life to be like?”. As with most decisions, opportunity and budget were the factors that turned us toward the city center. Now, opportunity and an undervalued property have presented us with this new story in the hills. Within 120 days, a record timeframe for most transactions in Italy, we became the owners of “The Farmhouse.”
Renovating a 125 sqm apartment in the historic city center was a journey; a 350-year-old farmhouse property is entirely another thing! So much is yet to be discovered; what is possible, what is practical, and what will happen in the end are all tales to be told in the coming months and years, but it will be the people who are part of this process that will make the road one filled with great stories. This is likely a project with no end and works to be carried out indefinitely, which is ideal for us, as our goal is to leave a place better than we found it, fill it with love, be good caretakers, and pass it along.
In the end, we hope to share the stories of the farm, now called Casa dei Fiori, with friends, new and old, so that we can all experience life in the hills, even if just for a week, experiencing the harvest of the seasons.
A presto,
Michael & Anne