The History of the Villa

If you are interested in learning more about the history of the villa and its transformation process, sit back and enjoy this journey through time

A New Beginning

The project of theAntica Villa Colonica was mainly born out of Paolo's passion for cultural exchange and for his homeland. Thanks above all to the entrepreneurial spirit inherited from his father Lucio, the thought of combining the two had always attracted him, and he had finally found the opportunity to realise this desire.

While strolling through the pine forest, Paul saw something. He could hardly make out that behind all that uncultivated brushwood was an abandoned house. But driven by curiosity, he wandered into the middle of the green and discovered a ruined building. Someone else would have just poked around a bit and then left. But he had already realised that this house had asked him for help and had chosen him.

Thus began a whole process from clandestine visits to the dilapidated structure, to researching the area and the actual owner, to the bureaucratic process of making the very place he had so longed for a new life. Paolo already imagined what it would be like to be able welcoming tourists inside that wonderful place, what the house would look like once it was brought back to life. After a few minor hurdles, the house officially became the property of the company that in the meantime Paolo had created specifically for the tourism in Sardinia. Thanks also to his surveyor friend Nicola, who is able to bring his innovative ideas to life, Paolo is ready to introduce a Sardinia different, hidden, unusual, the Sardinia of the Sardinians.

From house to villa

Choosing a contractor to whom to entrust one's ideas had not proved very easy. The search for a person with special characteristics and, above all, from the area led Paolo to find Pietro, a young, imaginative bricklayer. From the first moment, the two found a special understanding, and it was also with the help of this engagement that Pietro was able to open his own construction company, and be able to show others his innovative skills.

In 2016 work begins. Giving shape to Paolo's ideas may seem difficult, but Pietro succeeds and finally the ugly duckling with collapsed roofs is transformed into a beautiful swan. From this moment on, the farmhouse takes the name of Villa, theAntica Villa Colonica.

In 2019 the furnishings are also completed. The time for the opening is approaching and Paolo starts to feel that he can no longer deal with the building and bureaucratic issues of the Villa alone. So first Pinuccio and then Sara join the staff, who are given an important role in completing the final details.

18 May 2019: the Antica Villa Colonica opens its doors to tourists. A new route for everyone, a renaissance for the Villa.

An important story

The Villa is located within a landscape protection zone. At the then appointed Farmhouse there lived the sharecropper (or colone), whose job it was to take care of the building and the surrounding land. Paolo's idea was precisely to make tourists feel, even if only for a few days, almost like actual settlers of the Villa.

One detail that had struck Paul, however, was the place name of this house:
the so-called Domo Sabino, a surname of noble origin, from which Paolo's mother, who bore the same surname, also came.
When he told her this anecdote, the mother spontaneously said: "Since this may be a sign of destiny, bring it home".

Thanks to the stories of his own maternal grandfather, who frequented this place during his childhood, and also thanks to the research of some historical documents, Paolo is able to deduce that the house has more than 100 years. Passed from hand to hand, the villa finally really came home.

Curiosity about the area

According to some accounts of village elders, before the house and the neighbouring village of Arboriamar, the land boasted vast vineyards. The abundance of water from the land and the century-old well allowed for regular irrigation of the area, also providing water to the inhabitants of the village of Sorso who walked there for a long time.

Others say that after the vineyards, the area was used for the growth of pines which were then grafted onto the entire coastline, giving rise to the pine forest that we can now admire and walk through.

The Villa is also a trigonometric pointalso present in the air force charts as a fixed reference point, like a lighthouse or a nuragheas something that has always been there.

The Villa's strategic point is also due to the fact that it is located halfway between the sea and the pine forest. Ideal for all types of tourists whether they want to breathe different air, relax in the midst of the nature surrounding, on board swimming poolamong the hammocks or on the banks of the sea. The area was also rich in juniper. With the grafting of pine trees, the growth of juniper has largely diminished.

Curiosity about interiors

The breakfast buffet table used to be the door to Paolo's father's bedroom when he was a child; an old school blackboard with a pink frame given to him by a friend rediscovers its reason for being; a carpenter's table with its scars becomes an original bar counter.

The idea that can be perceived everywhere within these walls has always been to give old things a second chance. The Antica Villa Colonica is that place where an old dilapidated house becomes the ideal place to welcome tourists; that place where a door from the 1950s, a school blackboard and a carpenter's bench become sought-after furnishing elements today.

The walls of the house are made of pedra e lozzu (stone and mud)just as it was built in ancient times, then clad externally with tuff blocks. Over the years, the old walls in pedra e lozzu were hidden by layers of concrete. Peter and Paul, symbolically in this role, have rediscovered this ancient side of the Villa by bringing to the surface even the red bricks that characterise some of the rooms on the ground floor.

The small niche that can be glimpsed behind the headboard of the Junior Suite was originally a small door leading to the back of the house

A corridor joined the rooms from the reception to the double room opposite the orchard.

In the double room facing the swimming pool you can see a ancient oven, now a bottle holder niche, almost suggested by its own shape.

The most romantic thing in all this is that the house was there when there were vineyards, it was there when there were junipers, and it was always there when it was replaced by pine trees.

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