Summer is on the horizon and our thoughts are already turning to the next holiday escape. Helmsmen Property has the perfect Italian Villa to spend the week with family or friends.

We have agreed a 30% discount for Helmsmen subscribers; Contact hello@helmsmen.co.uk for details.

Beyond the farmhouse lending itself as an ideal holiday retreat, we were particularly interested in its complete renovation and interior design; both of which make it a ‘shamelessly romantic’ villa/farmhouse/pallazo!

When Peter and Naomi Tate first came across the Villa, it was a complete ruin and over the course of two years, they painstakingly renovated every inch of the crumbling ruin. With Naomi’s interior design (www.naomitatedesigns.com) and Peters eye for detail, they have created and now rent out the property for serious holiday getaways.

Interior designer, Naomi Tate;

Our villa started life as a total ruin, so in many ways, we had a blank canvas to work with.  While this gave one quite a bit of freedom, it was very important to retain the sense that this house, embraced by the glorious Umbrian countryside, had been there since 1700.

 Although the property started life as a “grander farmhouse”, our inspiration was always the many Palazzos that we have stayed in over the yeatrs. Working closely with my architect, we were able create a sense of light and space, not typical of the many rural properties in Italy.

To this end, I spent many hours with my specialist painter, whose brief was to create a patina for the walls that was consistent with the age of the building. The furnishings are timelessly elegant, with a mixture of antiques and modern classics that were sourced both in London and Italy.The space is grand but intimate ,shamelessly romantic and a perfect retreat from the stresses and strains of modern life.

Peter Tate;

The inspiration for Villa Col di Casale came from having stayed in some wonderful  hotels built during the Renaissance  period.As incredible as the structure of the buildings were we never quite found our ‘dream’ place and this is why we wanted to create our own place.Our next door neighbour, and great friend, had a house in Italy for 40 years on the border of Tuscany and Umbria and we would visit him there.We fell in love with the wonderful rolling hills and valleys of that region and started our search.We eventually found our house, but it was a complete and utter ruin, and purchased it in 2001.The roof had gone and the floors had fallen in and we couldn’t even get inside as it was completely overgrown.The house dates to about 1700 and in Umbria you have to restore a ruin to as close to the original as possible which in our case was a country farmhouse.I said thats fine but when you walk inside I want to see the inside of a palazzo which brought us back to the original inspiration.I think we have achieved that and yet it is very warm and intimate as well as being grand.

The actual restoration took about 2 years and we travelled back to Italy,from London,to check on progress every month or so.We were involved in every decision made down to the smallest detail.The structual work was great but the finishing was not i.e the painting so we brought over a specialist film set painter and she worked on the walls to texture them and give them depth and character as you see in the old palazzo’s.

The house is set in 117 acres so we are very private yet within easy reach of some great cultural centres like Assissi,Perugia,Arezzo,Florence and Rome

A big thank you to Peter and Naomi for sharing their wonderful home with us.

UPDATE: HELMSMEN have been offered a discount of  for anyone looking to take the Villa for a week. Email hello@helmsmen.co.uk for details.