History

Every stone of this Albergo Diffuso has a story to tell…
Our family is indissolubly linked to Borgomaro: the houses here have seen the passage of our ancestors; the shops are those of our uncle, grandfather, cousin; our family’s footsteps still ring on the streets. That’s why we want to carry on the life of the town and do it in the right way, by recovering its history, culture and traditions. And then there are our guests, with whom we want to share the wonder of waking up every day in an enchanted place, where the days are marked by nature and the air is fragrant, where children play in the square and the inhabitants know each other in person.
With this idea in mind, we embraced the philosophy of the Albergo Diffuso, recovering the family buildings to open them to visitors, giving the experience of a piece of life in a typical Ligurian village even to those who otherwise would never have lived it.

The buildings of the Albergo Diffuso

The Casa Madre, dating back to the early nineteenth century, is the headquarter where the reception, the breakfast restaurant, the garden with swimming pool and 6 of our rooms are located. The original structure appears in the Statistics of the Department of Montenotte, edited by the French prefect Gilbert Chabrol de Volvic between 1806 and 1812 (published in Paris in 1824). Before the conversion, it housed the butchery and the excellent meat served by grandfather Peppin and grandmother Evelina (you can still see outside the building the plaque that bears the name of Amoretti Butcher).
On the first floor was their home, where Piera was born and lived and where Elena grew up during her summers spent with her grandmother and aunt.
The Casa del Borgo is famous for its terrace, ideal for relaxing with a good book. It is the evolution of the buildings resulting from the planning of the town by the lords Lascaris di Tenda. The setting is the original one of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: on the ground floor, there were warehouses and stables, on the upper floor there was the terrace for drying food. Today around here you can still see the warehouse-shops that in the past hosted the bakery, Aunt Maria’s barbershop and other activities that animated the village.
The Casa del Fienile strikes for its intimacy and originality. It is located along one of the paths that go up the hill in the direction of the upper part of the town, towards Maro Castello. It is placed in a full curve: the shape resembles an “orange wedge”, which at the time was the optimal solution to take advantage of all the available space. The internal walls date back to the late medieval period. In the past, hemp bundles were dried here, then used to make naval ropes or quality fabrics.

How we were

The history of the Casa Madre
The two-storey building is part of a small village outside the main town settlement. The house was already present in the prints included in the Statistics of the Department of Montenotte, dating back to the period between 1806 and 1812. The building is, therefore, a structure of the early nineteenth century, linked to the development of the country beyond the river, not flanked by further structures, given that the upstream properties are linked to the most important families of the city. The destination of the ground floors has been commercial since the beginning.

The Casa del Borgo
Borgomaro is a built-up area created according to a pre-established checkerboard plan desired by the local lords, the Lascaris di Tenda. The houses are all originally of the same shape, with a ground floor with warehouses and stables, a staircase perpendicular to the road, generally steep, with the rooms on the upper floor and often a terrace at the top to dry the food (there were no refrigerators ), later transformed into a covered loggia. The Casa del Borgo has been renovated over the centuries, especially in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, but retains the original setting of the fifteenth-sixteenth century. It overlooks the main street of the town, now via Paolo Merano, and is connected to the upstream building, overlooking Via Garibaldi.
From the vertical dimension, today we moved on to the horizontal apartment, with defined family spaces.
The charm of the small entrance and the ancient shops on the ground floors stands out immediately. At the end of the nineteenth century, the block also housed the bread oven of the late Giovanni Marvaldi. Opposite the entrance was the barbershop of Aunt Maria, Evelina’s sister. The men of the village were happy to get shaved by her, a ture artist of the hand razor. She comes from the Brioglio family, one of the three dedicated to commercial activities around here. The Broiglio family settled in via Umberto I, now via Merano, since the end of the 19th century, with the branch of Felice Giuseppe fu Giacomo.
The guests who stay in this house make two trips: a real one, in Borgomaro, and an imaginary one, through history.

The Casa del Fienile
This building is very unique because of its “orange wedge” shape, in full curve, almost moulding itself on the free spaces of the village. It is located along one of the minor route axes that climb the hill in the direction of the upper part of the town, towards Maro Castello.
At the bottom is a barn and storage space, with internal walls that certainly date back to the late medieval period. The building then rises almost in the shape of a tower house. It has few openings, well calculated, made from stone slabs stuck in the masonry with a hole in the centre, perhaps connected to the presence of wooden structures that have now disappeared, but also to the possibility that hemp bundles stretched out from here to dry. The hemp cultivation was very present in western Liguria during the past, and naval ropes and particularly high-quality fabrics were made with it.

How we are today

We have tried to obtain maximum comfort from the available spaces of the old buildings and thus bring to new life their original style where you will be hosted. Handmade elements, furnishings created by capable craftsmen and fabrics painted with patience are just some of the details that we and our talented interior designer Julia (www.juliadesign.it) have thought for you, to make you feel comfortable in a known and familiar place from the very moment of your arrival.

The Casa Madre
This early nineteenth-century building is today the where the main common areas are concentrated such as the reception and breakfast room on the ground floor, the rooms from 1 to 6/7, a sitting area and the terrace with the garden and swimming pool with whirlpool bath on the first floor.

The Casa del Borgo
To reach the Casa del Borgo from the reception, you have to cross the bridge, go up the pedestrian street and turn left, for a total of 90 meters to be covered on foot. This building is located right in the historic centre of the town, the typical Ligurian narrow alley with its colourful buildings. In the Casa del Borgo there are 6 rooms and the beautiful third-floor lounge with adjoining terrace.
For rooms 11 and 12 there are 16 steps to do and for rooms 13, 14, 15 and 16 another 15.
All the rooms of the Casa del Borgo are very quiet and cool as they are located in a typical Ligurian alley, almost completely pedestrian. The rooms have views over the characteristic buildings of the historic centre of the town.

The Casa del Fienile
Going up for 40 meters you will reach the Casa del Fienile, the third building that makes up the Albergo Diffuso.
This is undoubtedly the property with the most history: since the 14th-century, hemp has been used here to make ropes and other products.
Today it is completely renovated and modernized and has 2 rooms, perhaps the closest to the intimate soul of the old town. These are the two smaller double rooms, with characteristic vaulted ceilings and small windows, typical of this type of construction.