Most people come to Italy with a list. Florence. The Amalfi Coast. Lake Como. Venice. And those places are beautiful, iconic even. But there is another Italy, one that doesn’t appear on postcards or fight for attention on social media, and it is in many ways the more extraordinary one. It is the Italy where the food is better, the wine is poured more generously, the hills are quieter, and the welcome feels entirely, unmistakably genuine. Relais Roncolo 1888 is that Italy. And if you haven’t heard of it yet, consider this your invitation.
Hidden in Plain Sight
Tucked into the soft green hills of Emilia-Romagna, less than an hour from Bologna and two from Milan, Relais Roncolo 1888 sits on a 130-hectare estate that has been farmed, loved, and lived in for centuries. The surrounding countryside, the Terre di Canossa, is the kind that makes you pull over the car just to look. Rolling vineyards, ancient olive groves, wooded Apennine peaks in the distance, and a village so quiet you can hear the birds.
The estate itself is anchored by Villa Manodori, a seventeenth-century villa with original frescos and hand-painted wallpapers that have survived intact to this day. Around it, a cluster of beautifully restored historic outbuildings forms a small, private hamlet that is now home to seventeen rooms and suites. This is where you stay. This is where, within about twenty minutes of arriving, you start wondering how you can extend your stay.
Quiet Luxury, Genuinely Felt
The luxury of Roncolo feels natural. It feels organic. It grows from the place itself.
The rooms in Villa Manodori are unlike anything you will find in a conventional hotel: original frescos on the ceilings, hand-painted wallpaper on the walls, and interiors that manage to feel both historically rich and warmly, personally inhabitable. The rooms in Le Dimore, the restored farm outbuildings, have a different character: beamed ceilings, natural materials, a palette drawn from the landscape outside the window. Every room is unique. None of them will make you feel like you are staying in a hotel. All of them will make you feel, rather quickly, like you have arrived somewhere that has been waiting for you.
The Table at the Heart of Everything
If there is one experience that will stay with you long after you leave Roncolo, it is dinner at Ristorante Limonaia. The restaurant occupies the estate’s historic greenhouse — all glass and warm light, with a terrace that looks out over the vineyards — and what comes out of its kitchen is the kind of food that reminds you why Italian cuisine is considered, by so many and for such good reason, among the greatest in the world.
The menu is built around what the estate’s organic garden and the surrounding territory are producing right now. The pasta is made by hand. The produce arrives from just down the road. The wine comes from the estate’s own vineyards. It is farm-to-table not as a concept but as a part of life here and it shows in every dish. Come hungry. Come with time. Order the tasting menu if you can. You will not regret it.
A Sip of Roncolo
The estate has been making wine since the 1970s, and the Venturini Baldini label has quietly become one of the most respected in Emilia. The wines are made from native Italian grape varieties — some of them rare, rescued from near-obscurity by the estate’s commitment to the heritage of the land. They are organic, full of character, and pair beautifully with the food at the Limonaia. A wine tasting in the estate’s cellars, with a knowledgeable guide walking you through the story behind each bottle, is one of the loveliest ways to spend an afternoon at Roncolo.
And then there is the balsamic vinegar. The estate’s historic vinegar cellar Acetaia di Canossa, dating to the seventeenth century, is home to hundreds of ancient wooden barrels producing Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia, aged for up to twenty-five years. A tasting here is nothing short of a revelation: drops of something so complex, so rich, so unlike anything you have ever tasted from a supermarket shelf that you will never look at a bottle of balsamic vinegar the same way again.
More Than a Hotel Stay. A Way of Travelling
At Roncolo, they like to say that the Food Valley starts right here — and it is worth taking that seriously. Before heading out to explore the region, slow down. Spend a morning in the Acetaia. Book a wine tasting. Linger over lunch at the Limonaia. The estate itself is already one of the great culinary experiences of Emilia-Romagna, and the guests who discover that early are the ones who end up staying longest.
When you are ready to venture further, what Roncolo offers is a base from which to experience one of the most underrated regions in Italy. The surrounding area is a treasure chest: medieval villages perched on hilltops, artisan food producers happy to open their doors, the great cities of Parma, Modena, and Reggio Emilia each within easy reach. And for those with a passion for speed and design, the legendary Motor Valley — home to Ferrari, Maserati, and Lamborghini — lies just a short drive away. The Relais team can arrange visits, driving experiences, cooking classes, guided hikes through the Apennines, and picnics in the vineyards. However you choose to spend your days, the evenings always bring you back here.
Good for the Soul — and the Planet
In a world where sustainability is too often a marketing word, Roncolo is the real thing. The estate has been certified organic since 1994 and became a certified B Corporation in 2025 — one of the first hospitality properties in Italy to earn that recognition. It runs almost entirely on solar energy. It is plastic-free. The land is farmed with a reverence for biodiversity that you can feel simply by walking through the vineyards in the morning.
Travelling well, in the deepest sense of the phrase, means choosing places that are good for the world as well as good for you. Relais Roncolo 1888 is both. If you are searching for authentic Italy — not the performed version, but the real one — add Roncolo to your list. Then move it to the top.
Relais Roncolo 1888, Via Filippo Turati 42, Quattro Castella, Reggio Emilia | roncolo1888.it
