After almost a decade living and working in New York City, we both craved a change—space, room to grow our own food, fresh air, quiet, simplicity. Many things about living in the beautiful chaos of New York no longer fit us, so to satisfy our wandering minds we booked one-way tickets to Italy, where we both have strong heritage and roots, to explore the country farm by farm. We traveled throughout the beautiful regions, from blood orange groves in Sicily to tiny cabins in Tuscany to the bustling cities up north. Of all the stunning and culturally-rich places we spent time, choosing our new home was easy and obvious to us: Ostuni. After working on a small farm in the nearby countryside and experiencing the charm of this incredible Pugliese town, we felt at home and knew we had to find one of those little white stone houses and make it ours. So we started plotting and planning and sorting out how in the world we could make this work… 

Flash forward a few years: we now own a beautiful country home right in the middle of Valle d’Itria (Itria Valley). Our stone house overlooks an olive grove and is surrounded by friendly Italian neighbors and lots (and lots and lots) of fruit trees. After being abandoned for over 10 years, we worked tirelessly for two years to repair walls and update both the interior & exterior with our own hands and our own ideas. We had a vision and we’ve taken the time to source pieces that reflect our desire to highlight the true rustic beauty of southern Italy. White walls, blue doors, open kitchen. The blood, sweat and tears we put into this home pays off every day. Our private road is quiet and peaceful but with enough activity on our land to keep us busy. Our days are both relaxed and exciting: we usually start with a long walk through the olive trees and trullo-scattered countryside with our sweet dog, Bowie, before running out for outdoor market shopping in nearby Cisternino or Ostuni, having afternoon wines and coffees with neighbors and friends, working on our vegetable garden; making pizza, bread or cake in our outdoor forno, drinking wine on our terrace under the stars.