BORGA NARI
Our Dream Italian Village
Standing on the balcony at Borga Nari, we gaze at the long abandoned dream Italian village across the valley. It enticed us to explore. Fascinated by the way it seemed to vertically caress the mountain, we set off a number of times to find it but something always happened to stop us.
One day Carina and Sam headed off for a long walk and came back with excited stories about this amazing Borgo, punnets of raspberries from the one and only resident, and pleas for us all to immediately jump in the van and go straight back.
They were right!
I fell in love, and instantly in our hearts we knew that one day it would be returned to it’s former glory. There is no logic to such a dream, yet we know that it has been achieved by others. One day this dream Italian village will be restored.
Colletta is a stunning restored village, and I have been in love with Borgo di Vagli ever since I accidentally came across it on the web one day.
Walking through the tiny lane ways between the buildings it felt as if eyes were watching us, as if the residents had just gone for a siesta and soon the village would come to life. Our friend Aldo tells us that he went to the Scuola (school) here as a child, I long to explore the inside of the buildings and we wander about imagining how it could all be restored.
An ancient grape vine trails through the entire village supported by a rickety trellis. There is a pair of old fashioned underwear left hanging on a line strung up on a balcony. Wood is stacked neatly in every available opening which must have been cut years before.
Overgrown with weeds we watch out for snakes, the walls are so close it’s possible to touch the worn rock walls on either side. I hear music but know that’s not possible, as if these ancient buildings are welcoming us.
Yes we are in love….the dream is planted!
I’d love to hear your thoughts, do you think it possible to restore?
Have you had an impossible project come to life?
and the gang x
Hi Lisa, my husband is taking a trip to Italy in September. To look up the home of his ancestors and generally look around, he put me onto your site/page etc., and I can’t help but fall in love with Borga Nari. I’ve been back here a dozen times already.
Really enjoy your posts, pictures, videos and all of it. Good luck with the move and hope your health, both of you, improves continuously.
Thanks for that Kaye, where is your husband from? I’m sure it will be a wonderful trip, my husband was incredibly moved to see the place his Dad was born. That my inlaws were with us just made it even more special. We found both family homes and my hubby finally got that connection. Borga Nari is just fascinating to me as all these old borgata are. I love the history and sense of time passed. The move is less than a week away so we are starting to get really organized now. Health scares seem to be okay so fingers crossed no more major drama’s before we leave. ciao for now lisa x
Hi Lisa, Michael’s family are from northern Italy near the Austrian border……brrrrr snows in winter.
I’m so excited for you and your pending trip. Have a wonderful time and I’ll be watching for the new posts.
Blessings on all of you.
Kaye xx
Hi Kaye, we love the snow and lived in Piemonte so it got down to minus 20 and plenty of snow. Thanks for visiting and I’m trying to get back into the swing of posting even though we are hectic at the moment. ciao love lisa x
Lisa, your photos have raised my interest a hundred times in Borga Nari. The mountain views are stunning, and the semi-vertical landscape of grape vines and greenery all around, mezmerizing. Have you taken possession yet of the property? I agree, nothing is impossible when the dream and vision birth in strength. And the two of you agreeing together in the vision adds additional power to the manifestation. Follow the dream, you can restore what you see even beyond its better days. Recently completed restoration on my 7th house, ‘rebuilding the old waste places’, as in Isaiah’s prophecy. I am not truly happy unless I am creating something beautiful out of a forgotten and cast-off project, in which I alone see the destined beauty of it. Wishing I were there to join in the fun and the challenge before you at Borgo di Vagli. Speak it into being with every step. That is the way I successfully renovated all my homes: turning ashes into beauty. That is how the entire universe was created by speaking the WORDS. I love participating in your ventures, and reading all the posts. It builds up my spirit to follow my dream to Italy and rescue another cast-away vision .
An amazing discovery, Lisa!!!! And in such a spectacular location. I hope that whoever renovates the village never paints over the “Scuola” sign. It is such a period piece.
Isn’t the sign lovely, I’d certainly want to keep it just as it is. Although our house in Borgo Nari had a fresco dated from the 1800’s and the electricity company put a pipe through it before we came to live. There isn’t the same reverence for these fresco’s which are on most of the old borgo.
Speaking of period pieces I loved the photo’s of the vespa’s!
ciao lisa x
yes, the mountains have eyes/spies and someone would tell someone in about 30 seconds what you were up to.
americangirlinitaly.com is my domain, though the site has been down for a year while i battled with register.com (that wanted to sell the site name back to me for hundreds of dollars after I let the registration lapse — when i had registered it years ago for about $20 which is already inflated). And I just haven’t got around to doing revisions and reposting; but that’s on my ‘to do’ list of about 101 things on which i am procrastinating today — mostly due to surfing property online). Do you have favorite sites beyond casa.it; eurekasa.it etc.?
I prefer the Umbria area (in and around Orvieto) for the green year round and temperate climate.
Buonweekend,
Jami
Maybe you should just start restoring very slowly, and move in adversely possessing it to ownership 🙂 With some of these abandoned sites, I doubt anyone would notice. You could also try to strike a deal with the town. There was that Sicilian town and mayor awhile back who was giving away buildings for one euro if people agreed to develop them. I didn’t follow how many were actually restored though.
Do you mean Burundi as in near Rwanda? I worked with a lawyer from there until about a year ago — and I know there was a nasty bad civil war, but i guess that describes a lot of African (and not only) countries. Why?
best,
Jami.
Sounds like a good idea Jami, yet I know that the entire area would know straight away if we did anything like that. It seems like it would be piano piano! It would be wonderful to buy them for a euro, I’ll see if I can find any information.
I asked about the Burandi as when I clicked on your name it took me to a site that said americangirlinitaly (dot)com. I thought this might be your website. The owner mentioned this place in the about section but used a code name of sparrow. Anyway I clearly have to much time on my hands today LOL x
Hi Lisa, I’m a bit late to the discussion, but did you buy the borgo? I’ve wanted to do this for years — and create a living museum whereby artisans are invited in to make their crafts and bake their cakes etc. as they did historically. Then, you could sell admission to the ‘park’ to help fund the cost of renovations of more space with artisans contributing a portion of their earnings to the operations (you could form as a cooperative).
I volunteer my geometra husband and my ideas to help if you give me a building in the borgo 🙂 I’d probably open a wine bar/trattoria with a seasonal menu and locally produced wines, olive oil etc.
Great blog!
best,
Jami
Fabulous Jami I can picture us now raising our glasses! We will take full advantage of your geometra husband, my hubby says pick a building! We don’t actually own the borgo just hope to one day. Your dream sounds very similar to ours, I am sure there would be a way to achieve it. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about the kingdom of Birundi? ciao lisa
What an exciting journey! Renovating an Italian farmhouse is a dream of mine. I look forward to following your progress!
And we look forward to you coming along Dominic! It won’t happen overnight …but it will happen!!! ciao lisa