Things That Don’t Make Sense: Sextantio

The first thing about Sextantio that doesn’t make much sense is its name. Sextantio calls itself an “Albergo Diffuso”, which literally means diffused hotel. This is because the rooms and facilities are randomly scattered about the medieval hilltop town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio. The second thing about Sextantio that might make you scratch your head is its location. The bits and pieces of the hotel are all tucked away up a minor road above L’Aquila in the mountainous region of Abruzzo, which is about as far off the beaten tourist track as you can get in central Italy. And third, the sheer madness of the renovation project undertaken to get Sextantio up and running really doesn’t make sense at all. Before the hotel arrived, the village was for the most part completely abandoned and in ruinous disrepair–now of course it has been rebuilt and given a vigorous new lease on life.

And yet for all that absurdity, staying at Sextantio makes a whole lot of sense. It’s well worth the effort it takes to get there–which is about a two-hour drive east of Rome into the Appenines. The striking guest rooms succeed in combining the old medieval decor with more modern elements (see the oval Philippe Starck baths). The service is attentive and understated, and the restaurant fine. The surrounding stunning mountains provide a tantalizing array of activities: hiking, biking, winter skiing & snow-shoeing, mountain climbing, and truffle-hunting (and that’s just the outdoorsy stuff).

Throughout it all, the central tenet of Sextantio’s mission rings true: staying there immerses you in an unusual and inspiring place where the traditional local architecture, landscape, history, and culture have been lovingly restored and revived, and thereby salvaged from cultural extinction. Call me crazy, but it makes perfect sense.

 Rudston is currently convinced that the Sextantio is just a “diffused” section of his own home.