When you come to Masseria Alchimia, in the Fasano’s countryside overlooking the sea, it will be amazed by the dazzling whiteness of the building architecture essential that contrasts with the silvery green olive trees and has just screened by high palm tree that seems to welcome you. Inside the hall, watched over by a large fireplace, it is inevitable to ask why Caroline Groszer, a refined and ethereal lady Swiss by Bern with German father of Hamburg, has decided to move to this corner of Puglia.
Candid volumes between olive trees
“I’m coming as a tourist in 2001 with my husband and a couple of friends. I decided I did not want to leave and I started looking for a farm. I came across this severe and beautiful building among the olive trees and the sea. I stopped doing the photographer and I changed life: so born in 2008 Masseria Alchimia that expression of the character, the rigor of Nordic design furniture and the Mediterranean light”.
Author’s pieces, rigorous spaces, neutral colors but lit by a few fluorescent touches, because the challenge of this place is to find the right balance between art, rationality and comfort.
The farm regularly hosts exhibitions and temporary exhibitions of photographers, sculptors, painters and artists with their works and installations contribute to the magical atmosphere of this place, also ideal for parties and ceremonies on request.
As you explore the surroundings around twisted olive tree trunks and white and thick walls, you realize that no detail is ever deliberately protagonist, but the invitation is to observe a piece at a time.
In fact, the ten studios of the farm each have their own personality: all rooms, different in size and shape, have independent access and are equipped with a kitchenette, satellite TV, Wi-fi. The added value is a balcony overlooking the fragrant countryside and mottled now of coppery colors of autumn.
Each bedroom has a sun deck or patio overlooking the olive groves, the garden and also on the nearby Adriatic Sea. For rooms are provided hotel services such as reordering, daily cleaning and linen change every three days, but no breakfast. Only the day of arrival, guests receive a kit with cafe, tea, milk, biscuits and jam.
Walking around the farm appears to be floating on a cloud, surrounded by immaculate walls and rooms where everything is white. But beyond the gaze it is tinged with green and blue, between the sea a few steps and the clear sky of this unusually warm October morning that invites you to stroll around.
Caroline suggests her guests healthy walks and point to nearby farms for gourmands and genuine purchases: cheese and dairy products from Masseria Lamapecora (Contrada Fascianello, 30 – Fasano, +39 080 4420843 – +39 347 9831168 – taurogiovanni1986@gmail.com) and products bakery, vegetables, fruits, olive oil and wine, which here are really special thanks to the proximity of the land to the sea, from Masseria Monte (Contrada Fascianello, 48 – Fasano, +39 349 6404023 – info@masseriamonte.com), where Ricupero family guarantees freshness and low costs thanks to short chain.
For dinner we enjoyed Caroline’s advice to book in Pezze di Greco at La Locanda di Gaia (Corso Nazionale 236, Pezze di Greco – Fasano – tel. +39 080 4898269), a bright room with stone walls that surprises with his menu that would be perfect in a city gourmet restaurant. Many proposals between fine meat and fish, with particular combinations and a great balance in flavors, prepared by Francesco in the kitchen and suggested, with expertise and many smiles, by Mary in the room.
Brightness, color and warmth of this land Caroline was so in love as to create a town version of her structure, Palazzina Alchimia, in the center of Fasano. The same criteria: a successful meeting of the Apulian tradition and Nordic design and rigorous with works of art here and there that make this alchemy – as defined by Caroline – even more intense.
In greet she anticipates us that soon will open guests her third creature in the white city par excellence, Ostuni. She will invite us to tell this new adventure and we look forward to unveiling this additional magical encounter with this land that has bewitched her.
Masseria Alchimia
Contrada Fascianella 50, Fasano – Brindisi
Info: + 39 335 6094647
www.masseria-alchimia.it – info@masseria-alchimia.it
