Reschio Hotel – a thousand-year castle, rebuilt by one family's hand

On the frontier where Umbria meets Tuscany, a stone fortress whose oldest tower is reckoned to date from around 900AD has become a 36-room hotel, almost every object inside it designed by the family who still live on the land around it. Reschio Hotel occupies a 3,700-acre private estate of oak woodland, lakes and vineyards, bought as a tangle of ruined farmhouses and an empty castle by Count Antonio Bolza in 1994. His son, the architect Count Benedikt Bolza, and his wife, Donna Nencia Corsini, lived inside the stone castello for a decade while they worked to protect and restore its architecture, before the building opened its gates as a hotel at the end of May 2021. The MICHELIN Guide awards Reschio Three MICHELIN Keys, its highest distinction, reserved for exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime stays.

01The house

The castle's defences have watched over this stretch of countryside for a millennium: its oldest tower is thought to date to around 900AD. The Bolzas themselves are aristocratic exiles from Communist Hungary who, via Austria, returned to their Italian roots in the 1980s, arriving at an estate whose fifty-odd farmhouses had by then been abandoned to oak woodland. Count Antonio Bolza assembled the full estate with his 1994 purchase, and it was his son, the London-trained architect Count Benedikt Bolza, together with his wife Nencia, who began the restoration programme by bringing the estate's ruined farmhouses back to life, long before the castle itself was touched.

Almost everything inside the hotel today — furniture, lighting, even the hardware on a door — was designed by Benedikt and produced through his own practice, working alongside his wife, a member of Florence's Corsini family. His workshop occupies the Tabaccaia, the estate's restored 1940s tobacco factory, where local craftsmen still build pieces for the hotel's rooms. Thirty of the hotel's suites sit within the castle's own walls; a further six, the San Michele suites, were built beside the estate's old parish church.

02Rooms and suites

Each of the hotel's 36 rooms is a different shape, dictated by the castle's original walls rather than a hotel blueprint, and furnished with four-poster campaign beds and marble-and-brass washbasins that carry Benedikt's design language into every bathroom. None of them has a television — only, as one visitor noted, birdsong or the whisper of wind through stone.

Insider tip

Children welcome from age twelve; no televisions in the rooms; book restaurant tables ahead.

Categories run from the simplest Rooms, from 30 square metres, through Grand Rooms, Suites Castello, the twin-bedded Suite Castello Twin, Suites and Garden Suites San Michele and Grand Suites, up to the five-floor Tower Suite, a self-contained 180-square-metre suite with peerless views, an open-air tub on its roof and a dumb waiter for hoisting up evening drinks. Prices published on the hotel's own website in October 2026 start from 1,115 € a night for a Room and rise to 5,062 € for the Tower Suite.

03Where to eat

Two restaurants anchor the table at Reschio. Ristorante al Castello sits inside the castle walls, its cooking built from local, seasonal ingredients and served in a historic dining room looking out over the Umbrian hills. Ristorante alle Scuderie, the more relaxed of the two, is known for its soaring ceilings, handcrafted furniture and farm-to-table dishes drawn largely from ingredients foraged on the estate.

Both kitchens lean on Orto, the estate's own kitchen garden, and on produce grown nearby — part of a wider farm-to-table approach that runs through the whole property and its two dining rooms.

04The bar

Evenings at Reschio gather around Bar Centrale and the Palm Court, a soaring glasshouse of iron columns and glass roof; by the pool, Il Torrino, a converted watchtower, serves espresso, juices and cocktails to guests drying off in the sun. In-room bars are stocked with the estate's own spirits, including a gin distilled at Reschio itself.

05Spa and wellbeing

The Bathhouse spa occupies the castle's former wine cellars, and its centrepiece is the Roman Bath: a saltwater pool set beneath a vaulted stone arch and lined with marble benches. Beyond the spa, the estate's equestrian centre — an idea that traces back to Count Antonio Bolza's childhood encounters with Vienna's Lipizzaner horses — stables Spanish purebreds for guests to ride out across the woodland tracks. There are two tennis courts with their own refreshment pavilion, and an outdoor pool shaded by mature umbrella pines.

06The neighbourhood

Reschio sits on the quiet side of the Umbria–Tuscany border, within driving distance of Perugia, Florence, Cortona and Montepulciano. Closer to home, the estate's own lake and the island ruins of Isola Maggiore make for an easy outing, along with the small, sandy stretch of Sualzo Beach and its adjoining saltwater pool.

07Making the most of a stay

Beyond the castle walls, Reschio keeps guests occupied with clay-pigeon shooting, foraging walks and cooking classes, as well as riding out along estate tracks that have been used by horsemen for centuries. Children are welcome from the age of twelve; families travelling with younger children are better suited to the estate's rental farmhouses, eight of which have been restored by Count Benedikt and his team and are available to rent year-round.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.