The trip we'd booked fell through, and friends who had already moved to Abruzzo said come here instead. So we did, with no property search, no shortlist, and no intention of buying anything. We wanted to see whether we liked the village.
Near the end of the week we looked at one house, on Contrada Cona, a few minutes outside Atri, a farmhouse from 1950 or '51, a small vineyard, and an olive grove of about 130 trees. We made an offer. It was accepted.
What came with it
The land is the part our hearts kept returning to. It has been worked continuously since the house was built. The olive trees were already here in 1954, and the vines since at least the mid 1970s. Seventy-odd years of somebody's attention. We are simply the latest people to look after it, not the first, and that was something very exciting.
Seventy years of somebody's attention. We're the latest, not the first.
The Diploma
I completed my WSET Diploma in wine in 2020, and really didn't know what I was going to do with it. The Diploma is one of the highest wine qualifications in the world, but I didn't work in wine — it was just my passion. I knew I loved talking about wine, being in the countryside and visiting wineries, and just hoped one day I could do something in the space as my work. The Diploma gave me the knowledge; this house is allowing me to put it into practice.
— David & Maddalena
