Hidden among the woods of the Bolognese Apennines, a villa with frescoed ceilings and Latin-scripted walls stays abandoned, its rooms still echoing of those who once came here in search of serenity and reflection.
The signs of time
Light filters through the open windows onto 1970s sofas, light curtains, and wall paintings whose colors are still vivid. The rooms alternate between flower-filled living rooms, monumental staircases, and walls that imitate lost landscapes. Everything seems to have remained in its place, as if the inhabitants had only left for a short while.
Horace’s appeal
On the main wall of the hall hangs a green panel with the Latin inscription:
“Novistine locum potiorem rure beato est ubi depellat somnos minus invida cura.”
This is a passage from Horace‘s Epistles, which can be translated as: “Have you ever known a place better than the bliss of the countryside, where fewer worries chase away sleep?” It is a hymn to the peace of rural life, a gift that the poet himself received when his patron Maecenas gave him an estate in Sabina. It is the perfect description of this dwelling, a refuge between earth and sky.
Traces of faith and ancient myths
The villa tells of a complex and layered culture. The decorations alternate between pagan figures and classical Latinisms, but also religious texts and a volume of Dante‘s Purgatorio, experienced and annotated by hand. This choice is not accidental: Purgatorio is a place of passage, of hope and redemption, a symbol of a soul preparing for the light.
A house on hold
Each room maintains a different balance between life and abandonment. A faded armchair, an unmade bed, a fresco of trees framing the window like a real landscape. The house seems to watch serenely, ready to welcome new guests. Perhaps, as Horace wrote, there really is “no place better than the blessed countryside.”
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