Fontes Episcopi rural hospitality

In the luxuriant Sicily of the 1800s, the aristocracy of half of Europe came to spend the winter, preceded by the travelers on the Grand Tour because, as Goethe wrote, “Sicily is where the key to everything is found”. It is the era in which a cultured and wealthy middle class embellished the island with admirable works of art and buildings. Baron Ignazio Genuardi, an authoritative local character, wanted to give his son Gerlando, reluctant to the glories of worldly life, a beautiful country house. A place to gather, meditate, read and enjoy the extraordinary benefits of nature. The exceptional human and intellectual gifts soon led Gerlando Genuardi to an ecclesiastical career and then to become a beloved Bishop.

The present resort is the beloved residence of the Bishop who is reborn after a skillful restoration to the delight of those who, today as yesterday, love the life-giving contact with nature, well-being, and harmony of the senses.

The Resort welcomes you like a caress with an ancient flavor that only a place with a history can give. It develops on two elevations around the central courtyard. The hall and common areas have been created on the ground floor where the living room, the farmers’ and the farmer’s rooms were originally located. In the kitchen spaces, it was decided to re-propose the current kitchen: today as yesterday, “hearth of the house” where you can not only enjoy but also have fun preparing dishes with the fruits of our garden. In the areas of the stables and the millstone today there are the rooms of the wellness center, while in the noble area, on the first floor, the guest rooms have been created.

NATURE AND WELLNESS
The resort offers you a life-giving holiday in contact with nature to recover the harmony of the senses.

The large outdoor spaces crossed by paths, among luxuriant medicinal plants and fruit trees, welcome a refreshing “gebbia”: an ancient basin for the collection of rainwater and today a tub for aromatic baths with orange blossom, lavender, rosemary, rose. Essences that kidnap the soul and the senses, releasing wonderful sensations. The organic extracts obtained from the crops of the “Orto dei Semplici” and from the orchards surrounding the Resort are expertly used by expert pharmacists to create totally natural, organic cosmetics with highly effective active ingredients. Particular attention is paid to the ancient remedies. An original and precious knowledge recovered with galenic preparations that draw on the “kósmēsis” of classical civilization. Between ancient gestures and new knowledge, different paths are born to restore beauty to the face, body and regenerate your psychophysical balance.

ORTHOTHERAPY
In an increasingly fast, technological, and virtual society, re-establishing the ancient harmony with mother nature is the main way to recover physical and psychological well-being. In over 15 years of studies, hortotherapy has shown that living as a “farmer for a day” produces extraordinary effects on the body and mind. The resort offers you the opportunity to live this revitalizing experience by rediscovering gestures and flavors of the peasant tradition: gardening, the harvest of almonds and olives, legumes, and vegetables from our garden that each guest can cook in our kitchen for the pure taste of getting ready by itself a fresh and genuine dish. The various paths that run through the estate offer other possibilities to enter into profound harmony with nature: walking in the greenery, among trees, inebriating scents of aromatic plants, and the gentle sounds of the fields, you will complete the therapeutic effects of this experience.

Spoken languages: Italian, English