Here at Villa Amore, she stands as she always has.

Watching.

Waiting.
And quietly affirming that love, when given time, finds its way home.

#thatsamore

Standing there, we felt both small and deeply connected, as if we had been gently folded into a story far larger than our own.

The light entering through the small windows felt intentional, almost guided, resting quietly where it had rested for generations. Faded colors lingered softly on the walls, and the simple wooden benches carried the memory of countless moments of faith and reflection.

Even worn, the room held dignity. Purpose. Presence.

For generations, this room welcomed blessings and farewells, celebrations and grief, anchoring hearts to something enduring. Today, the chapel remains one of the most intimate spaces at Villa Amore. Guests step inside and feel something shift. A softening, a slowing, a sense of reverence. It asks for nothing but presence.

A room that remembers.
A room that welcomes.

In preserving it, we honor not only the history of the villa, but every soul who ever paused here.

To hope. To celebrate. Or simply to breathe.

#thatsamore

We could almost imagine the early mornings centuries ago: the sound of a heavy wooden door opening to the sun, the scent of bread baking, the rustle of branches in the wind. Each terrace, each staircase, each worn tile seemed to hold a memory of someone who walked here long before we ever dreamed of arriving.

The villa didn’t feel abandoned.

It felt paused, like a character waiting for the next chapter.

We knew our role was not to change it, but to allow the villa to remain itself - ancient, soulful, imperfect, and beautiful.

So, restoring Villa Amore became less of a project and more of a conversation between past and present. Every stone we cleaned, every doorway we opened, every garden path we uncovered felt like the villa whispering, thank you… and welcome back.

And slowly, we understood something profound:

We had not simply bought a home.

We had stepped into a story more than four centuries old, a story we are now humbled to continue.

#thatsamore

Ours did not.
Our story began with an email.

A simple message from an old subscription — the kind that arrives quietly in your inbox, the kind you delete without thinking. But for reasons we still cannot fully explain, this time we clicked. One small, instinctive decision… and there it was. A villa in Tuscany. Weathered. Abandoned. Sleeping beneath centuries of history.

We were in Canada at the time. Tuscany was an ocean, a continent, a life away.
We were not actively looking to buy a home.
We were dreamers — yes — but practical ones.
Our plan had always been 5 to 7 years from now.
One day we would open a retreat. One day we would create a place of beauty, rest, and stories. And we even knew its name: Villa Amore.
A dream so vivid it lived in our conversations long before it lived in the world.

But this villa…
This villa felt like an invitation.

So we listened.
And we booked flights.

From Canada to Florence — not to purchase, not to commit — but simply to see.
To stand before the dream and understand why it had stirred something in us.

When we arrived at the property, nothing prepared us for the way our hearts shifted.
The gates opened, and the garden welcomed us with that soft Tuscan light — the kind that settles over olive trees like a blessing. The villa rose before us, marked by age, by silence, by years of being forgotten… and yet, beautiful beyond explanation.

It felt familiar.
It felt like coming home to a place we had never lived.
It felt like Villa Amore — the Villa Amore we had imagined only in dreams.

But the moment we knew happened deeper in the garden.

We were walking through an overgrown path — branches tangled, statues half-hidden, time resting heavy on every stone. And somehow, as if guided, Giorgio wandered to a far corner beyond the fallen trunks and thick brush. He kept going, drawn by something neither of us could see.

There, covered in rust, nearly swallowed by vines, was a sign.

Via dell’Amore.
The Road of Love.

It stopped us both.
A message from another time.
A whisper from the land itself.
A confirmation that the dream we held for so long had finally found its form.

We looked at each other — no words needed.
In that instant, we knew:
We were not choosing the villa.
The villa had chosen us.

And so began the story of Villa Amore — not with a plan, not with a search, but with a single email, an open heart, and the courage to follow where love was already waiting.