Rooms in a Villa Above the Balsamic Barrels
Le Dimore del Borgo are the guest rooms of Il Borgo del Balsamico, the acetaia that sisters Cristina and Silvia Crotti run at Botteghe di Albinea, in the hills above Reggio Emilia. The rooms are spread between an eighteenth-century villa and a smaller countryhouse, inside a historic park of sequoias, sophoras, box hedges and old roses. In the acetaia some 450 small casks of oak, chestnut, juniper and cherry hold the family's traditional balsamic vinegar, and every stay includes a guided visit and tasting.
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Photography © Il Borgo del Balsamico.
Rooms & Availability
Dalia
A suite on the villa's first floor with a sitting room over the park. The bedroom is lined with books, a large fireplace faces a bed built from 600-year-old ceiling planks, and drawings by Walter Albini and Gianni Iotti hang on the walls.
Dalia
Boule de Neige
On the villa's first floor, with pointed-arch windows over the garden, early-1900s floors, a crystal chandelier and seventeenth-century cherubs above the bed. A small library of art and travel books.
Boule de Neige
Gertrude Jekyll
The romantic room on the second floor, looking out at the century-old sequoia. A carved wooden Madonna hangs over the bed in a cedar shelf; bath and shower.
Gertrude Jekyll
Reine des Violettes
On the second floor, facing the old sophora tree, with photographs by Robert Erdmann, two large herbarium prints above the bed and a crystal chandelier.
Reine des Violettes
Dark Lady
Two connected bedrooms along a long corridor on the second floor, sharing a central bathroom in Venetian stucco, with Maska campaign artwork from the 1990s on the walls.
Dark Lady
Ortigia
A double over the rose garden, with antique furniture, Italian paintings and a bathtub. North-facing, so the coolest room in summer.
Ortigia
Gelsomino, Magnolia & Glicine
Three connected rooms wrapped in wisteria above the Italian garden, each with its own shower room: Gelsomino with a fireplace, Magnolia with twin beds, Glicine with an Empire boat bed.
Gelsomino, Magnolia & Glicine
La Piccolina
A small south-facing double with a wrought-iron bed over the park. Its private bathroom with a tub is just across the corridor.
La Piccolina
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A historic park with old roses, box hedges and a seasonal pool in the former orchard; in the acetaia, guided visits and tastings of the family's balsamic.
Photography © Il Borgo del Balsamico.
ALBINEA | OCTOBER 2026
A Family House in the Hills of Reggio Emilia
The villa feels less like a hotel than a house that has been slowly filled over generations. Most of the rooms are named after old roses — Boule de Neige, Gertrude Jekyll, Dark Lady, Reine des Violettes — and each has its own character. Early-20th-century floors, high ceilings, pointed-arch windows and crystal chandeliers provide the backdrop for a collection of things the Crotti family has gathered along the way: photographs by Robert Erdmann, drawings by Walter Albini and Gianni Iotti, artwork from the 1990s campaigns of their fashion company Maska, and 17th-century cherubs above a bed. In Dalia, an antique bed made from the boards of a 600-year-old coffered ceiling sits opposite a fireplace and a wall of books.
Across the garden, the Countryhouse is quieter and more relaxed. Ortigia looks onto the rose garden, Cortina is furnished with antique pieces from the Cadore, and a small apartment of connected rooms sits beneath a canopy of wisteria. The mood is less formal here, but the same sense of a lived-in collection remains: old furniture, family finds and views into the garden rather than the polished uniformity of a hotel.
Much of the reason to stay, though, is outside. The 19th-century park is planted with monumental trees, clipped topiary and an Italian garden surrounding a greenhouse, with hundreds of old roses coming into their own in May. There are rare trees, ancient fruit varieties and enough space to disappear for an afternoon; hares and deer are part of the landscape. The small pool sits in the former orchard, making the whole place feel more like a private country estate than a property designed around its guests.
And then there is the acetaia. A few steps from the house, rows of wooden barrels hold balsamic vinegar ageing according to the traditions of Reggio Emilia and Modena, some of the casks inherited from noble families in the region. A stay includes a visit and tasting, bringing the house’s other great preoccupation — collecting, ageing, preserving — full circle. Reggio Emilia is ten kilometres away, with Modena and Parma both easy day trips, but the better reason to come is to spend a little time doing very little at all.
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