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Modern charm in Roman countryside casa
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AFTER years of working for the family fashion brand, Ilaria Venturini Fendi had already decided to go her own way when she came across I Casali del Pino in 2004.
As the youngest daughter of Anna Fendi, Ilaria felt the need to resume a closer contact with nature, remembering the long walks in the countryside she used to take with her father when she was little. So she left the luxurious world of fashion, purchased this farm in Northern Rome and changed her lifestyle.
“I was very young when I started to work as a designer in my family’s company, but my instinct was always close to nature and open-air life. The first time I saw I Casali del Pino, a piece of land left abandoned for a long time and needing care, I could not resist,” Ilaria said. “Having a farm was an old dream of mine coming true.”
Since 2004, she has become an organic farmer, an independent designer focused upon sustainable fashion, and an active supporter of environmental safeguarding and social projects.
The farm is located within Parco di Veio, a protected archeological area with many remains of the Etruscan time. Ilaria had carried out restoration works strictly respecting landscaper regulations. There are now more than 800 milk sheep, a simplistic yet well-designed “agriturismo” (guest building) with 16 individually furnished rooms, a restaurant, a multifunctional hall and the workshop where she works on her Carmina Campus line producing accessories and furniture made of discarded materials.
On top of that, she has created a country house where she spends many of her weekends, and where she celebrates birthday parties or simply has a good time with friends.
“It’s a place I love so much, so it’s natural for me to wish to pass most of my time here,” Ilaria said. “It’s not only the ideal location for my working activities, farming and ethnical fashion, but also the place where I spend quality time with family and friends. And I take walks in the wood or go horseback riding. I’m never tired of enjoying the place.”
Ilaria said she was afraid to overdo the restoration work. “I feared the magic of this place could be lost. All I wanted was to bring back to use the old stables and the other buildings of the farm, including the master house, preserving them as much as possible as they were.”
Ilaria found the master house she now calls home fascinating. “So I was even more determined to preserve it. It dates back with the annexed church to the beginning of 1900s when the farm was a hamlet with housing for the peasants and even a primary school for their children.”
Ilaria is a master of taking old pieces and giving them a new life.
“I found the building ramshackle and roofless but I could reclaim many of its stones, bricks and wooden boards and I didn’t alter the room layout,” she said.
The open gallery on the first floor is now an integral part of the home and a peculiar feature of this space.
“It’s a ‘shabby’ country style that is simply the result of putting together pieces of reused materials that I make with my brand Carmina Campus,” Ilaria said.
“Everything acquires a special flair mixed with some antiques that sometime come from family belongings like two oil landscape paintings, or I bought it at flea markets. I wanted an informal, cozy atmosphere.”
The spacious open kitchen and dining room is rustic and relaxed in style. The antique tiles are beautifully laid, mixed with other rustic materials on the walls and floor.
“I often organize family gatherings or lunch and dinners for friends. I love to have people with me around the long dining table in the kitchen that gives people the feeling of being at home.
“The time I like best in the year is the weekend when at the farm we have Floracult, the plant and flower show I do every spring. During those days, every night we have dinner there with my mom, my sisters and all the nieces and nephews, with friends and some of the people at the fair.”
Next to the kitchen is the living room where family and friends can all sit around a table in front of a fireplace. “I was able to keep the original stone walls and this provides the atmosphere. The concrete floor also perfectly matches the stones,” she said.
The most striking feature throughout the first floor is the selection of extremely beautiful antique tiles. “They come from my mom’s collection of antique tiles. She was the first to teach me how to reuse and recycle things. She decorated the house bathrooms with patterns, even using pieces of broken tiles,” Ilaria said.
Ilaria said that the whole Fendi family enjoys spending quality time together at this cozy place.
“We sleep here when we have family gatherings or special events. In my family there are so many women. It’s funny to be all sleeping together with my sisters and their children like when we were kids in the large bedroom,” Ilaria said.
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