If an authentic and poetic way of showing love of one’s own origins exists, we can learn it from Chiara. Chiara restored her family’s house in the centre of Porto Recanati, where she was born and where she grew up, and made of it a ‘meraviglia’ bed and breakfast facing the sea. An inattentive person may mistake I Cucali for one of the holiday houses on the seafront, its wicket door always open and some chairs outside to chitchat with the neighbours. Not you, who are more attentive. You would notice immediately the faded map hanging on the wall, the raw wooden table, the design chairs. Just a few hints, but definitely enough to keep you looking. Then Chiara would welcome you with a sweet smile, as sweet as the atmosphere surrounding her, and she would tell you about I Cucali, a hospitality project she started after travelling and working in Rome, Milan, Brussels… She would tell you that, in renovating it, she followed the principles of ecological building. Cement only where indispensable, and lime elsewhere. On the walls, only natural colours made with eggs and goat milk. She would lead you upstairs to see the bedrooms, and you would notice more charming details and unexpected couplings. The set of sheets, the armchair she made herself with the cloths she inherited from her grandmother (a seamstress), and the curtain swelled by the wind that reveals glimpses of the Adriatic. At this point, you too will look for an excuse, any excuse, to sleep between the walls of this house, a house that is not like anyone. The breakfast reflects all the landlady’s love for genuine well-made things, both in the appearance and in the courses, which are made with unprocessed organic ingredients. We are positive you will remember for long the feminine grace of the mise en place and the mum’s custard cake.

Words Meraviglia Paper. Photo courtesy I Cucali.