Camerino

Borgo Seppio, 15 minutes’ drive from Camerino, is a small hamlet, 600m altitude, with two families permanently resident and other houses occupied in the summer months. The property is on a tarmac road (strada comunale) that turns into a mountain track 100 meters further on. This track leads to the summit of Monte Primo, where there are remains of a Bronze Age sanctuary.

According to the old maps, a pilgrim route from Assisi to Loreto passed through the hamlet and there was a lodging place for pilgrims where our guesthouse is found today.

There are walks and mountain treks, directly from the property and peaceful areas to sit outdoors, as well as possible sites for a secluded swimming pool. There are wonderful views, constantly changing with the time of day and the season, across the valley of Camerino to the Monte San Vicino range to the north and the Sibillini Mountains to the south.

The old house dates back to the 15th century, a former farmhouse built into the hillside that has been extended over the years, with the ground floor consisting today of former stables and cellars (including a spacious and cool wine cellar) and a functioning bread oven. The upper (split) level has large bedroom, dining room-kitchen with the original open fireplace and a modern wood-burning stove with a cooking hub and oven that provides central heating and hot water. There is also a sitting room (with a door to a small courtyard), a bathroom, kitchen and office. Most floors have the old tiles and there are cupboards built into the thick walls. The house needs some finishing work.

The guest-house is composed in part of a restored barn (2003) and of the reconstruction (2008) of a large ruined house, rebuilt as a shell of terracotta blocks in a frame of reinforced concrete with the field stones that were the walls of former house now used as the facing. The 2003 structure can be used as a separate apartment, with 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, kitchen and reception room and is connected by a door to the larger structure. The total (2003+2008 restoration + rebuilding) consists of 5 bedrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, two sitting rooms, 2 bathrooms and a covered loggia (outdoor sitting/dining room) plus, on the lower level, 2 garages and a storage room/workshop/ office. Heating and hot water: gas in the ‘apartment’ and a pellet stove in the large part of the house with a back-up electric water heater.

Heating: wood-fired Windhager ZHN stove in the ‘old house’( installed 1998); gas (underground tank) apartment section of guest-house (2003); pellet stove large section of guesthouse (installed 2008).

Behind the old house is a non-restored barn on two floors, at present used for storing tools. This could be converted into living space.

There are many trees: a belt of mature evergreens, 30 m deep, along the lower boundary. Five oaks, centuries old, provide shade in summer, 15 cypresses, at the entrance and along the track to the neighbouring woodland, 90 young olive trees planted over the last 15 years, many fruit trees, 2 mature almond trees, 5 walnut trees and a magnificent lime with a tree house for children.

The soil and location ideal for planting truffle oaks and growing saffron.

The guesthouse has a B&B license and could continue to function without any changes or further investment. Most guests come from European countries but there have been several Australian parties (one of these has stayed 4 times) as well as Americans and Canadians.