Sleeps 8. 4 bedroom 17th century terraced stone house on three floors with private garden including a private swimming pool, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room with original open fireplace, patio and barbecue, spectacular views, located on the edge of a small mountain village. Ideal for a relaxing and peaceful holiday and for families with children.
The space
Recently restored and refurbished 17th century house on three floors with patio under a kiwi pergola, barbecue, private garden with swimming pool, panoramic views, located on the edge of a small village above Bagni di Lucca. The property is the ideal resort for a restful and relaxing holiday to recover out and above the world but still close to it while being in perfect peace. Superbly suitable for families with children, but unsuitable for people with mobility problems. A car is essential. Car parking available both below the house and nearby.
Guest access
Full use of four bedroom house with two bathrooms, kitchen, sitting room, private garden and pool, patio with barbecue and al-fresco dining.
Other things to note
Minimum stay: 5 days.
Local service charges:
Power: included in the price
Linen/towels: available and included in the price. Changed on request, EUR 10/ person.
Beach towels: included in the price
Deposit: EUR 300 in cash.
Extra bed: EUR 25/ week (please order).
Pet: EUR 30/ week (please advise prior to arrival).
Internet: W-LAN included in the price
Some information on the house and its history:
Riolo
The house where you will stay is part of a large, semi-detached house which was build at some stage in the early 17th century if not before, by people who escaped from the villages and towns of the Serchio river valley, infested by the bubonic plague, and sought refuge in the salubrious forests hills around Bagni di Lucca. The village of Riolo was established by a prosperous family, the Prosperi, who built the church of San Nicola and the original nucleus of the village. Eugenio is a direct descendant of some of these Prosperi, through Elena (b.1873), who married Eugenio Biagini (b.1875), from Lucca. They were Eugenio's grandparents. Eugenio met Elena in the 1890s, while on a shooting holiday in the Riolo area (we still have his shotgun). Elena was herself in Riolo on holiday, by her grandparents, her mother having married into a prosperous family from Pescia. So the house was used as a holiday home from the late 1890s. Eugenio's father, Mario (b.1901) inherited part of the house from Lidia Prosperi (b.1849) and was allowed to use the house where you are staying for the rest of his life (he died in 1967). In the 1970s the surviving Prosperis (they were then living in the USA) sold the house, but Eugenio's Mother, Federica, who had just restored the other part of the house, decided not to buy it because of lack of funds. The house was then again on the market in 2010, when Eugenio and Almut bought it and refurbished it completely.
The area is full of history. Until 1796 Riolo and the surrounding area were part of the Republic of Lucca. The republic granted the highlanders citizenship rights (including the vote) in exchange for them supplying a certain number of infantry companies, drawn from the local militia (the renowned Milizia della Montagna). We still have an 18th century flintlock musket which was later adapted to hunting, but may have been the weapon of the militiaman in the family. In 1796 the Republic was overrun by the invading French revolutionary armies, who created a 'democratic' puppet republic, soon to be replaced by a duchy, when Napoleon became Emperor. He gave Lucca to his favourite sister, Elisa. After 1815 the Vienna Congress assigned Lucca and its territories to to Maria Luisa, a Spanish princess, to Carlo Ludovico of Bourbon.
Of Lutheran sympathies, Duke Carlo Ludovico allowed the erection of an Anglican Chapel (Palazzo della Nazione Inglese) in Bagni di Lucca in the 1830s, and a Protestant cemetery (Cimitiero degli inglesi) The 'inglesi', grateful, endowed Bagni di Lucca with its first hospital, now the seat of a doctors' surgery. I
The chapel was to be of exclusive use of foreign Protestants, but in the spirit of evangelicalism, these shared the gospel with some of the local Italians. This was forbidden. In the 1840s Protestant missionaries started to sell copies of the New Testament in the Martini (Catholic) version, but without notes - and therefore legally considered a 'heretical' book. Eventually these missionaries were caught by the police, imprisoned and expelled. But one of Eugenio's ancestors must have bought a copy of the New Testament they sold, because one has survived and is currently in the family library in Pietrasanta. Carlo Ludivicoo also built the Casino Reale, the first casino in Europe, in Bagni di Lucca Ponte (where you find a pharmacy with the revealing name of 'Legazione Britannica', probably the seat of the honorary consul. This was Bagni di Lucca's golden age, when the great and the good of Europe came 'to take the waters'. Home to a large community of English, Swiss and German expatriats, Bagni di Lucca saw the erection of numerous villas and of a Circolo dei Forestieri (the foreigners' club), nowadays an elegant restaurant in the main square of Bagni di Lucca La Villa. It is in this part of the town that one finds the best shops, restaurants and hotels, as well as the spas. For the restaurants, the best are il Circolo dei Foresieri and l'Antico Caffe' del Sonno (the Ancient Cafe' of Slumber), facing each other in the main square.
There are several other gelaterie, restaurants and pizzerie. One is in the village of Granaiola, across the valley just opposite the house in Riolo. Simple food, but a good reputation. There are many other restaurants dotting the valleys and the villages. A good, spectacularly local restaurant is in Coreglia Antelminelli. If you visit the city of Barga (a fortified town with a magnificent church, the town from which many of the Italian emigrants to Scotland came from) , on the way back you may wish to visit Coreglia and taste the food in the local restaurant.
The Terme di Bagni di Lucca (URL HIDDEN) are very ancient and were restored over the last ten years. Renowned for the hot springs and the muds, they are worth a visit (direct access from the Riolo road).
Registration details
IT046017C2JXEQ4WCM
