My love story with Casa Corvo
I first visited Casa Corvo in May 2016. It was meant to be: a family friend told us his family was selling it just at the moment I was looking for a space to create my own yoga/retreat/holiday rentals space. The house had not been put on sale so far and the contact happened per pure chance, or as I would say, because it had to be that way! (thanks Universe!)
The day my parents and I visited the house we instantly fell in love with it. Two months later we are signing the first papers and in the beginning of July, after moving out belongings of three generations, I move into the old house. The last major renovation had taken place in the Seventies. The house was charming even like that, but clearly it needed some work.
Slowly it became clear to my family and I that the house needed a total makeover. It was a hard decision: it was tempting to leave everything the way it was to preserve the patina, the shine and the old charm. We start gathering ideas and thinking of solutions. That’s were one of my best friends steps in, Alessandra is a talented interior designer and she has helped me so much taking the right decisions.
We decided to build a Yoga Room on the ground floor, needed to take down walls that were almost one meter wide! Another decision was to make additional space under the roof for a beautiful attic and take down other walls on the second floor.
The house has four levels, ground floor, first, second and attic. The first floor become a Holiday Rental Flat, that can be used also during Yoga Retreats and Immersion. I live on the second floor and attic. On the ground floor, we now have a spacious room that can be used for Yoga and other actives as well as Art exhibitions and small gatherings.
It requires a certain amount of creativity and vision to see things that are not yet there. Besides Alessandra, I have to thank my father who even being more than 70 years old never lacks vision! Works begun in October 2016. The executive architect promised us that by Christmas everything would be done. I hoped he was telling us a realistic date, but knew it was impossible.
I lived in the house, moving from one floor to the other, until mid November 2016, then dust and noise made it impossible. I spent months travelling and living at my parents and finally, in March 2017 I could move in and start furnishing this beautiful space.
I decided to call it Casa Corvo, the house of crows, because the first night I spent here I could barely sleep because a huge crow would not stop “crowing”. I believe in animal medicine, and have had crow visits all along the first year after I saw the house for the first time.
Historical notes
The previous owners bought the house in the mid Fifties. They told me the house is at least 400 years old and that it used to be a Convent. I asked the local historian, but it’s hard to have a proof of the existence of a Convent in 1600. On the other hand, as he saw the building with its inner court, cell like rooms on the ground floor and arches, he said it is very likely that it was a small Convent as the area had many at that time.
In any case, we do have records that Casa Corvo is at least 200 years old. One of the doors (to the cellar) is original from 1819 (the number is carved in the wood).
JOLLY BAR
Another interesting chapter of Casa Corvo is the Jolly Bar. In the Seventies, in the beautiful cellar with round vaults, there was an illegal bar. It was a place where the kids of the “Lugano bene”, the rich families, used to come spend nights. When I first saw the house, they showed me the DJ table and the bar. “There used to be a stack of condoms hidden in the garden for who needed them”, told me with a huge smile one of the owners! Casa Corvo definitely has an interesting past…