Dating back to the 16th Century, Casalone used to be one of many farmhouses that belonged to the Montefioralle estate. There are several interesting and unusual features for visitors to explore.
A family of farm workers would have shared the house with their livestock, living on the top floor while the animals occupied the ground floor. Over 30 years ago the previous owner bought the property and renovated it, the livestock having to make way for human habitation.
One of the rooms in the annex (the building between the house and the pool) is still called the “porcile” or pigsty in English. You can still see the hinges on the walls where the little doors, big enough for pigs to pass through, would have hung.
The two rooms under the terrace are called the “concimaia”, which means dungheap. The dung from the livestock on the ground floor would have been taken and thrown down holes in the terrace into the heap below. The previous owner apparently fell through one of these holes but thankfully wasn’t injured. The holes have long since been covered up and made secure.
One of these concimaia rooms houses the water pipework for the garden, the pool and the house. The other room remains unused and if you open the door you can still see a circular shape in the roof where the dung would have been thrown down from above.
We’re very lucky to have a plentiful water supply underground at Casalone and our own well supplies water for the house, the garden and the pool. We also supply water to some houses in Montefioralle, a legacy arrangement from when the house was sold from the Montefioralle estate.
There remains a rural hay barn for restoration one day, and the old bread oven is now used more often for pizza than bread. There are also 600 olive trees on the 4 hectares from which we harvest our own olive oil (you’ll find a bottle in the kitchen), although we’ve never actually counted them all. Maybe one day! There’s still plenty to be done to implement our dreams for the full potential of Casalone. It’s an honour to be part of its history as we do what we can to restore the house and grounds with love and respect for this very special place.
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