Castagneto Carducci. The villa in the shade of the chestnut tree

You taught me that everything is a sign. So when on Friday, after picking up the ring for our engagement and I went to a nursery to get an old rose in which to hang the little box to ask you to marry me, hearing a builder talking who was looking for a chestnut tree for a new subdivision definitely seemed like a good omen.

Now I’m here under your house on my motorbike, you only know that we’re going to Castagneto Carducci, there, where we met and fell in love, but you don’t know that ours will perhaps be a more important date.

During the trip I looked at your smiling face, your rebellious locks peeking out under your helmet. We arrived, you look a little confused while a gray-haired man with a good-natured air approaches us and introduces himself.

He shows us the whole lot, 50,000 square meters, an endless expanse of olive trees adjacent to the town of Donoratico and explains to us that the first part involves the construction of a series of villas, each with its own garden of about 150 square meters each.

Yes, our first home will be here, if you want, a two-story villa, I who am the less imaginative of the two had to see the plans, but you are already measuring with your eyes the space we will have. Given the way you are made, you first took care of understanding how big the garden will be and 500 square meters is the right size for us, to host friends and to raise first a dog and then children.

I already know that the house reflects your way of being, a large single space on the ground floor overlooking that garden in which you will grow your infinite botanical experiments.

In the outdoor pergola you have already decided that you will plant some strawberry grapes, your favorite, which will keep us cool in the summer, which will color our autumn days and in the winter with its slender structure will let the light in.

It seems to me that you have already decided, we will divide the two rooms on the ground floor for our passions but they will have to have a sofa bed each to host friends and relatives. The one on the first floor will be our room with en suite bathroom and a view of the terrace. You have already told me what the terrace will be like, covered with jasmine plants to hide the hot tub, with a small living room for our first sun-kissed breakfasts. Wandering among the clods of earth I can see everything you are dreaming and describing to me.

I already think of our neighbors who I imagine are very heterogeneous, local families, foreigners who will buy to come from far away to spend their pleasant holidays, mature couples who have reached their well-deserved retirement and leave the city for a place with mild temperatures and to live comfortably on the ground floor forgetting about stairs and elevators. A potpourri that will animate the large green spaces of this new residential area.

I was more interested in the technical characteristics and from the information they give us the quality will certainly be excellent. Green building, heating and air conditioning with heat pump or underfloor, 6.5 kw photovoltaic system, ventilated roof are certainly some of the most important.

Let’s look at the projects and the villas are truly beautiful. Like you, I love the large windows and the windows that will be in wood or aluminum reflect my standards while the blackout blinds will guarantee us privacy without having to use curtains, which as you know I can’t stand. The wooden floors almost everywhere give atmosphere to the house and so we could walk barefoot.

I haven’t told you one thing yet, my love, in our project, in addition to the carport I have already budgeted for an outdoor kitchen with barbecue and… the swimming pool for us and our children.

I know how you do as soon as you see a body of water, be it a lake, sea or swimming pool and so I thought that our dream had to be complete to allow you to stay in your natural element as much as possible.

What do you say love, I have already chosen now it’s up to you to tell me if you want to grow old by my side in the shade of a chestnut tree.