Casa Soleto | Studio Andrew Trotter

Casa Soleto offers a truly authentic experience of “the village life” in the heart of Salento, Puglia.

The noble palazzotto has been lovingly restored by Studio Andrew Trotter and Marcelo Martínez. They took time with the renovation to carefully preserve the historic features of the house, while bringing it into the twenty-first century. Having kept most of the original floors, the nonna’s kitchen or the internal doors (two of them being three hundred years old), Casa Soleto has all the charm and character you would expect of a house from the seventeenth century.. This is a truly authentic experience. A haven to relax during your trip. A barefoot luxury.

The Story by Andrew Trotter:

I have a hobby, some would call it an addiction, but one of my favourite pastimes is to search houses online. In September of 2020, I stumbled onto a house in a town that I had never heard of before. Often it is only grand houses that have gardens in the town, but this was a perfect size of around 220 square meters, with a front patio and a back courtyard garden.

At the beginning of our two-week stay in Puglia we called the agent. “I’m so sorry, he told us, “the house is under offer and I can’t show it to you." Three days later I called him again. Still under offer. So, I pleaded. I didn’t want him to call us in three weeks when we had left Puglia, so after much persuasion we visited the house and fell in love. Two weeks later we got the call that the first offer fell through and we immediately made a counter offer and it was accepted.

The house was charming. The street front had all the baroque details of a small palazzo, and inside it was like time stood still. The rooms with high vaulted ceilings were full of furniture, books, clothes and old photos of the family. The house hadn’t been lived in for over 20 years but felt like all it needed was a bit of love and we could move right in. But we were wrong.

Because of the pandemic, it took us over seven months just to buy the house. And then another five months to start work. Once we started to clean up the house, we realised there were more problems than we thought. The ceiling of one of the bedrooms and bathroom needed to be replaced. Most of the lower walls had concrete plaster which held all the damp within the walls. The sewerage basically was a hole in the back garden, and there was only one bathroom for the whole house. We had work to do.

Parts of the house were over 400 years old. The room behind the kitchen would have been a chapel back in the days, so the family didn’t need to leave the house to pray. The house is quite a labyrinth, and you need to go into the front patio and up the outside staircase to reach the bedrooms. But this is the charm of the old houses, with not one straight wall in sight.

The House:

From the gate you enter the house through a courtyard, which is the perfect spot to have breakfast and dinner as it has no direct sun. From that courtyard you will find the main living room and a fully equipped kitchen with everything you need to prepare a nice meal. Behind the kitchen you will discover what once was the old chapel, which has been turned into a media room, with a 4 meter sofa (that can also be turned into two single beds for extra guests). This room has its own powder room and outdoor shower.

Connected to the living room you will discover the majestic dining room with another powder room and, on the opposite side, the garden room with a 3 meter sofa, the perfect place to relax and read a book. Outside there is a garden with a 3x2 meter plunge pool, to take the sun or cool off during hot days.

Most of the ceilings on the ground floor are around 5 meters high.

The upper floor is reached using the staircase in the entry courtyard.

To the right side of the staircase you enter into the green room, which leads you to the bedroom overlooking the street and the church, with its own en-suite and walk-in wardrobe. On the other side of the green room there is the large master bedroom with a terrace overlooking the garden, and a large bathroom with an old cast iron clawfoot bath.

To the left side of the staircase you enter another large bedroom, through to its own small living room with a sofa that doubles as a single bed, perfect for a child. There is a large tiled bathroom behind.

Soleto and the area:

Soleto is a special place. Very small and in the heart of the Salento area in Puglia. Only 20 minutes away from the baroque historic town of Lecce and just 5 minutes from its smaller cousin Galatina. The towns feel like they have been lost in time, like a set from an old movie. The kids still play in the streets, the old men debate on the stairs, the grandmas make pasta. The area is known for its fantastic food, great coffee and pasticciotti (small cream filled cakes). This is not the place for a diet.

Soleto is one of the towns of the Grecìa salentina where a few of the old folks still speak Griko, the local language. The small chapel of Santo Stefano is the centre, built in 1347, and like its larger sister in Galatina, it is full of frescoes in the style of Giotto. The Soleto Map, which depicts the south of Puglia on a piece of terracotta, was discovered in 2003. It is thought to be one of the oldest maps in Europe, if not the world.

Being in the heart of Salento, and surrounded by beautiful baroque villages and great restaurants, Soleto is directly half-way between the two seas, with only 25 minutes drive to each. The calm waters of Gallipoli and, to the south, what they call the Maldives of Italy. There the cliffs of the Adriatic are more dramatic, with secluded coves and the Grotta de Poesia. 

Our collaborators:

As this house was so special, we wanted to keep its charm even while bringing it into the modern times. We saved the floors wherever we could, as well as the kitchen. We showcased our design and worked with the brands that we love.

We collaborated with Domingue Finishes for the walls. They make one of the most beautiful plasters we have even seen. Smooth to the touch yet full of texture, we chose colours together with their team to make some rooms feel lighter, others more moody. The application of it was done by Tullio Cardinale and his team, with whom it was a dream to work. Once the plastering was finished and the floors were cleaned, we could focus on the style of the house. We chose old school bathroom fittings from Valadares, as we didn’t want the house to feel modern. We got all the internal doors restored and for the external doors we worked with  Alba Falegnameria, artisan woodworkers from Lecce who got to recreate them with the feeling as if they belonged to the house. For the small pink powder room we got a sink custom made by Arte Ippolito.

We collaborated with Armadillo Rugs throughout the house. Their beautiful jute rugs give a touch of softness to the hard floors. We love to be barefoot in summer, and these rugs are just perfect for that. Linen upholstery and curtains were made by the wonderful local artisan Paglia di Lino. We also collaborated with our friends at Frama to give a modern yet simple touch. We chose special pieces of antique furniture like a XVIII century walnut dining table salvaged from a monastery in Abruzzo and a late XVIII/ early XIX century red wardrobe from Lombardy, both found in Le Icone, a great shop located in Cisternino. Our beautiful workers table and two half circle consoles are from La Mercanteria. Sofa, armchair and pouf in the living room are by By Blasco. The crockery was designed for the property by our friend the chef Giorgia Eugenia Goggi and produced by Nicola Fasano. The cooking range is by ILVE.

Most of the artwork was in the house when we purchased it, except for 3 beautiful paintings that were made specifically for the house by a good friend of ours, the young artist from Antwerp Eleanor Herbosh. For the commission she was sent three bags of soil, all of them taken from underneath different rooms of the house, which she used to create the pieces. We also received two pieces by the artistsLucas Morten from Sweden.

It has been a great experience and a huge learning curve to work with so many great local artisans—all of them very proud to help restore and bring to life one of the historic houses in the town.