In summer 2019, the B&B above the pub – with its three bedrooms – was opened. The couple was actively involved in the renovation of the entire building. “I reinvented myself as a builder and a carpenter” explains Giulio, who made the beds and the furniture for the bedrooms. He observes that Mica was much more patient than him in grouting the joints between the exposed stones in the bedrooms and along the wooden stairs leading upstairs (“those that were there, made of stone, we were able to recover, while the treads were made using the window shutters; we were able to keep the beams too, which we used to make the elements that support the bedroom doors”): “When it came to new materials, we made choices that are in line with the beliefs of natural building, such as lime plastering, lime-based paints, solid wood floorings, plus the bedrooms are insulated from the inside using a hemp fibre thermal insulation contact system” explains Giulio.

These are the choices of a pair of urban ‘critical consumers’ (supporting sustainability and local suppliers) in the Apennines. The bed&breakfast is frequently favoured by hikers walking the via Francigena. , travellers who are looking for a more comfortable place to stay than a hostel. “Foreigners, mostly – who could not come during the summer 2020” says Mica. “If those who come in are looking for more modest accommodation, we direct them to our neighbours, who, like many around here, take in guests in exchange for ‘voluntary donations’. Our relationship is mutually productive”. Those same neighbours have created a line of organic cotton t-shirts that are on display in the pub. One of them features a loaf of bread, together with the etymology of the Italian word compagno (companion): “he who shares bread with others”. A life of relationships, in the Apennines too.