Casa Maria Luigia – Massimo Bottura's farmhouse of art and appetite

South of Modena, on a lane called Stradello Bonaghino, an 18th-century farmhouse holds the private world of Massimo Bottura, chef of three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana, and his wife, restaurateur Lara Gilmore. In 2019 the couple turned it into Casa Maria Luigia, a boutique hotel named after Bottura's late mother, filled with the art, records and cars they had collected for thirty years rather than built as a conventional country retreat. The MICHELIN Guide gives it Three Keys, its highest distinction for a stay, and this year The 50 Best Hotels ranked it 18th in the world, naming it the Lavazza Highest New Entry of 2026. On the estate's own wood-fired restaurant, Al Gatto Verde, the MICHELIN Guide has placed one Star. Guests sleep across a scattering of farmhouse rooms and garden cottages, eat breakfast at a long table, and can book a nine-course dinner that retells, dish by dish, the story of Osteria Francescana itself.

01The house

Bottura and Gilmore bought the 18th-century property with the intention of extending the art of hospitality beyond the doors of Osteria Francescana, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant they opened in Modena's historic centre in 1995, and filled the farmhouse with their private collection of contemporary art, books, vinyl records, cars and motorcycles built up over three decades. What started as a twelve-room guesthouse has since grown: the couple expanded with the purchase of a neighbour's acetaia, the balsamic vinegar production space that now sits on the estate, and added the wood-fired restaurant Al Gatto Verde. A further chapter, Casa LU, opened more recently with ten additional rooms and new spaces for dining and lounging, bringing the property's MICHELIN-listed room count to 25.

Nothing here feels staged for a gallery. Contemporary works by Damien Hirst, Joseph Beuys, Tracey Emin, Barbara Kruger and Ai Weiwei hang through bedrooms, corridors and the breakfast room, alongside pieces by Cindy Sherman, Luigi Ghirri, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Alighiero Boetti in the newer Casa LU wing. Outside, a Joseph Beuys-inspired banner hangs over the tennis court and an Olafur Eliasson installation lights the acetaia after dark.

02Rooms and suites

Every room at Casa Maria Luigia is different, furnished with a mix of design pieces, vintage finds and artwork drawn in part from Osteria Francescana's own visual archive. The entry-level ML Festina Lente rooms measure around 30 square metres with walnut floors and handcrafted ceramic-tile bathrooms, while the Festina Lente Comfort rooms add an open-plan sitting area across roughly 37 square metres. The high-ceilinged Bella Vita rooms run 40 to 50 square metres, some with cast-iron bathtubs, and the Alcova Penthouse pairs an 80-square-metre bedroom with a private wood-decked balcony and a separate tower room.

Insider tip

Open Tuesday to Sunday, minimum age 15, book directly via the hotel's own website.

For more space, the Cottage Lù has its own garden entrance and patio, and the three-bedroom Luigina Cottage offers 200 square metres indoors plus a 150-square-metre deck, a private pool, a professional kitchen and its own washing machine — named, the house says, from the first day staff began calling it Luigina, little Maria Luigia. Every rate includes a stocked minibar, espresso machine, tea selection and free run of the house kitchen's savoury and sweet snacks around the clock.

03Where to eat

The estate's signature evening is Francescana at Maria Luigia: a nine-course tasting menu built from some of Osteria Francescana's most iconic dishes, served at communal tables with an open kitchen so guests can watch the final plating and hear the stories behind each course from the chefs themselves. Reservations require the non-refundable room rate, and the experience runs for roughly three and a half hours after doors open at 7.30pm.

Al Gatto Verde, the estate's wood-fired restaurant set among corn and alfalfa fields and the converted barn of Acetaia Maria Luigia, holds one MICHELIN Star. Under chef Jessica Rosval it grew out of what the house describes as its first Sunday gathering, called Tola Dolza, in June 2020, and now serves smoke-driven, countryside-inflected plates built around fire. For a lighter register there is Cucina LU, the all-day wood-oven kitchen at Casa LU, serving shareable lunch and dinner plates reserved for house guests.

Breakfast is taken seriously here too: a long Emilian spread served indoors or in the garden from 8.30 to 10.30am, built around gnocco fritto with mortadella, cotechino with zabaione, seasonal frittatas and focaccia baked in the wood-fired oven — a menu the house traces to Bottura's own childhood Christmas table.

04The bar and the Playground

Drinks here happen as much in the fitness room as at any counter. The estate's gym, nicknamed the Playground, doubles as an art gallery and informal garage, with Technogym equipment set among Bottura and Gilmore's private collection of cars and motorcycles — Ducati, Ferrari and Lamborghini among them — beneath paintings by artists including Joseph Beuys and Damien Hirst. A separate Music Room holds the couple's vinyl collection, open for guests to put on a record with an evening aperitivo, while Casa LU adds a shaded pool and lounging garden built for a pre-dinner drink.

05The neighbourhood

Casa Maria Luigia sits around a ten to fifteen-minute drive from Modena's historic centre and its own Osteria Francescana, and roughly twenty minutes from Maranello, home to the Ferrari Museum — fitting territory for a house with a private car collection of its own, in the region regarded as Italy's Food and Motor Valley. The nearest international airport is Bologna's Guglielmo Marconi, around 40 minutes away by car, with Milan's Linate and Malpensa a further option at about two hours' drive.

06Making the most of a stay

The house opens Tuesday to Sunday; from May to October it welcomes guests every day, while from November to April it runs Tuesday afternoon to Sunday noon, closing on Sunday and Monday nights. Bookings open up to a year ahead directly through the hotel's own website, and children under 15 are not accommodated, with only service dogs permitted.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.