Casa Maria Luigia

A gravel drive off a country road on the plain between Modena and the Secchia river leads to an ochre villa with green shutters, a swimming pool and a lawn where sculptures stand among the fruit trees. This is Casa Maria Luigia, the guesthouse that Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore opened in May 2019 a short drive from Osteria Francescana in Modena. It is named for Bottura's mother.

History

The villa dates from the eighteenth century and belonged to a landowning family before Bottura and Gilmore bought it with the idea of giving guests of the Osteria somewhere to stay that felt like their own home. The couple live in part of the estate. The house opened with twelve rooms and the acetaia, a loft of barrels where balsamic vinegar ages in the Modenese way. Within a few years the dining offer grew into two distinct restaurants and the grounds took on a tennis court and a vegetable garden.

Architecture and design

The exterior is plain Emilian country house: two storeys, a hipped roof, a loggia. Inside, Gilmore's hand is everywhere. The couple's collection of contemporary art hangs in the corridors and bedrooms, with works by artists they have collected since the 1990s, and the living rooms are furnished with mid-century Italian pieces and shelves of vinyl. A listening room holds the record collection and a serious hi-fi. Nothing is roped off; guests are expected to use the rooms as if they were staying with friends.

Rooms and suites

The twelve rooms are each different, some in the main house under the beams, others in the converted outbuildings. All have a piece from the collection, a record player and a bathroom that leans more on marble and brass than on country rusticity. Breakfast is a long spread in the former stables, with the house's own breads, cured meats from the region, Parmigiano Reggiano and Bottura's take on the Emilian pastry case.

Dining

Francescana at Maria Luigia is the evening table for house guests. It serves a fixed menu of the dishes that built the reputation of Osteria Francescana, among them the five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano and the deliberately broken lemon tart known as Oops I Dropped the Lemon Tart, at a single long table in the old carriage house. Al Gatto Verde, opened in 2023 in a separate building on the estate, is led by the Canadian chef Jessica Rosval and cooks over wood fire, drawing on the garden and local farms. Both restaurants take outside bookings, but the house menu is reserved for residents on most nights.

Wellness

There is an outdoor pool on the lawn, a tennis court and a small gym. The estate is flat and quiet, and bicycles are kept for guests who want to ride the lanes to the river.

Weddings and events

The house can be taken in its entirety for private celebrations, and the carriage house table seats a single party for dinner. Weddings here are small, limited by the twelve rooms and the long table, and are arranged directly with the house rather than through a banqueting department.

Location

Casa Maria Luigia stands in open farmland about fifteen minutes by car west of the centre of Modena, in the direction of the Secchia. Osteria Francescana, the Ferrari and Maserati works and the cathedral of Modena are all within half an hour. The nearest airport is Bologna Guglielmo Marconi, roughly forty-five minutes away; Modena railway station connects to Bologna in about half an hour. As a luxury hotel in Modena it is unusual in that it is really a house, with the chef's own restaurant in the barn.