The Journal
The journal
This is the part of the site that keeps moving. Everywhere else we try to be the definitive, checked answer to a question; here we write in real time – what’s on this month, what’s just opened, and the honest week-by-week of the restoration.
Facts checked: July 2026. Field notes from Collestatte – what’s happening in the valley this month, and the running story of bringing an Art Nouveau villa back to life.
Latest
Planning · 7 September 2026Half-term at Marmore Falls: what late October actually gives youTwo hours of water a day starting at noon, the clocks going back the day before you arrive, and Italian schools still in – the three things that catch families out, and how to plan around them.Read the guide →
News · 7 September 2026Every release window in 2026 – and the four months with no midweek waterThe complete published calendar in one table. In January, February, November and December the falls do not run on a weekday at all, which is the most expensive thing to discover on arrival.See the whole year →
What you’ll find here
Four kinds of post, published as there’s genuinely something to say (not to a filler schedule):
- This month in the Valnerina – a short monthly note: the current falls timetable in plain terms, what’s flowering or ripe, the festival or market worth the drive, and the honest crowd read.
- The restoration diary – the villa’s transformation, before-and-after, the things that go wrong, the craftspeople, the finds. This is the story we’re most often asked about, and the “before” photographs already exist.
- Festival and event reports – first-hand write-ups after we’ve actually been (the Corsa all’Anello, the Festa delle Acque, the d’Aloja regatta), not previews copied from a press release.
- News – things that change the visit: a cycleway section opening, the Narnia film’s release, a new opening in the valley.
Why a journal at all
Two reasons, honestly. It’s useful – a living page beats a static one for “what’s it like right now“. And it’s the human side of a house you might trust with a holiday: the people restoring it, in their own words, showing their work. How we write — and check — everything →
Start of the story
The first entries begin as the restoration reaches its next stages – we’ll date each honestly and photograph it ourselves. We won’t back-fill invented posts to look busy; the diary starts where the work is.