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When we discovered La Villa in 2002 it was a wreck - a magnificent 17th Century palazzo with great charm, wonderful original features - but still, a wreck. No-one had lived in it for more than 15 years and the last sets of owners had done little more than maintain the roses. We rolled our sleeves up, got out our Italian dictionary and, in the course of its restoration, learned a great deal about this old building.

Originally built for a wealthy Genovese medical family called Dagna, the property was renowned as much for the scale of its wine production as its architecture and size. The house remains one of the largest in the area, although its 100 acre (42 hectare) wine lands are long gone, sold in small parcels to the locals. The house remained in the Dagna family for over 300 years, who through some administrative quirk, never got to see the house named in their honour. When we bought it, it still had its original name of Villa Daina – a spelling error on the part of a local clerk at the town hall. Even our local hamlet, Casalotto, was originally named Casal de' Dagna and dates back to the 14th century.

However, it wasn’t just the history of its owners or its connections with the wine world that captivated us, but the stories about how the house had been used to hide local resistance fighters during the war, how it was the only place in the area to get water during summer droughts and where, Saturday nights, it was the only place to be. Even today, it lives on in the locals’ memories as the big house on the hill where everyone used to laugh and go to enjoy themselves - not much changes!

Since starting the restoration, we have had descendants galore – aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, grandchildren, nephews, cousins of people who had once lived and worked here - all turn up, troop around the house to check out what we’ve done and share their memories of what it used to be like. We are very relieved they all approve - La Villa remains very much a part of the local community and it gives us great pleasure for the house to continue to play its part in the lives of the locals.