Sitting On My Throne

Sitting on my throne at Antica Corte "no not the toilet" but on a large beautiful carved dark timber and tapestry throne is the only way to describe it and in fact there are two so one for my queen, but alas she is still sleeping while I sit and blog. 

Our room is in this 1530's rustic farm building that started life as customs tax office for boats coming through this area of the Po River. We are now just north west of Parma about 20km and in the country. The ceiling in our room is original and has 2 extra large rustic timber beams, criss crossing and sitting on top of these beams are smaller beams at 500 mm spacings and in between the smaller beams are further divided into 500mm squares and are the decorative dark wood panels that we have come to see lots of in Italy. Still the original paint with a central flower motive with a boarder of  in very muted colours, several shades of olive and burnt burgundy with a gold high lights. The rest of the room has original brown slate tile  flooring and the walls are washed in a stone beige.

There is a fire  place in the corner and  a old writing side table with a milk maids chair that is sooooo small that if I sat on it well I think you get the picture.....so it's the throne for me. Beside the thrones are next to the window with a great view to the field and some cows the towns small but very tall clock tower which is chiming away. 

Our room is one of 6 that have divided up the top second floor of the villa and were completed in 2010. The top floor space was originally for the tax workers to sit at desks and view the Pow river that run at that time right next to the villa. The retro fitting of the 6 on-suite rooms has been done very well and not to take away from the original use or grandeur of this space. Frosted glass panels makes the bathroom into a corner and with the bath taking advantage of one of the small port holes that the tax men would have used gives a nice small view of the fields below today when one baths.

 " Antica Corte " meaning Antique Court and it is on the river flats of the Po River just outside a small farming town of Pallavicina. Antica Corte is owned by chef Massimo Spigaroli and has been in his family since the 1940's as a derelict building on the edge of the farming flats of the Po River. 2000 started a 10 year restoration and the installation of 6 guest suites on the top 2nd  floor. A 30 seat restaurant in a modern glazed space between the accommodation wing and the the vast restaurants kitchen. Seams like a lot of infrastructure for a 30 seat restaurant but there are two large open air spaces that house some out door tables with another 50 seats. Last night there were only 4 tables of 2 and 1 of 3 but the staff in the kitchen was 8 + Massimo and 4 in the restaurant doing service and looking after the 11 of us, no wonder the Italian economy is struggling, send some staff home I say!!! 

So will need to get to the bottom of that one today when we have another cooking class. 

The Villa and the village are all enclosed by a very high levee banks to hold back the Po river in time of flood. The Po river today is some 1 km away from the villa as over the centuries it has changed it's path, so not so good for the river tax man today.