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| Daniele Kihlgren photo source: HERE |
Serendipity
One of the many happy surprises during the week in Santo Stefano di Sessanio in May was our encounter with a Swedish TV film crew who were in the burgh documenting small European hotels. They came to interview the developer of Sextantio Albergo Diffuso, Daniele Kihlgren, a man of Swedish and Italian lineage, and captured some of the workshop.
Daniele Kihlgren
About a decade ago on a motorcycle ride through the Italian countryside, Kihlgren encountered and fell deeply for the nearly abandoned medieval village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio in the Abruzzo region of Italy, 90 miles east of Rome.
He subsequently bought many homes in the town and worked to preserve their ancient simplicity as he turned them into charming hotel rooms that feature antique iron beds, mattresses filled with the wool of local sheep, hand-woven linen sheets and locally loomed bedspreads. Scattered about each room are intriguing antiques acquired locally--a child's tricycle in one, religious artifacts and blanket trunks in others, all containing modern Phillipe Starck bathroom fixtures that stand in marked contrast to the candle-lit interiors.
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| Bedroom at Sextantio Albergo Diffuso |
Kilghren joined us at dinner one evening to talk about his love for the Italian countryside as well as other projects. Accompanied by his large bulldog, Carmello, he spoke with a faraway wistfulness as he conjured the "dignity" of people from centuries ago. He told us he had bought many other abandoned villages in the Italian countryside and hoped to restore them as he worked to keep the landscape free of new construction.
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| Kihlgren talking to us after dinner |
YouTube Video
Click HERE to see and hear Kihlgren explaining his vision and to see our workshop in action. Within days of their filming, Sveriges Television AB broadcast their program on TV in Sweden. Although some of the conversation is in Swedish and some in Italian, Kihlgren and Richard Billoti, one of the workshop writers, speak English. Notice the artist's hands near the opening. They belong to Cynthia Parry, one of our participants who made art in oil pastels outdoors while the rest of us made art in words inside.
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