RENOVATING MY ITALIAN DREAM VILLA! | Debbie Travis | Only Human

[Music] foreign [Music] place at the right time and being where you should be at that time any business you kind of crave something fresh to reignite your passion again so I said to myself well what makes me happy one day she comes up with his ideas and saying wouldn't it be great if I take a group of women somewhere nice and motivate them I love Tuscany so I thought well what if I invite women from around the world and they come and they share my villa with me but I didn't have a house I was like oops I mean it's a huge commitment that it's going to take most of our savings as I think there's people dead in here somewhere there probably are here restoring a 13th Century Property from the ground up it's hard work but it's it's so exciting I'm the most difficult right well you are not easy I have to tell you people like working with me I'm very sweet and nice I am nowhere near ready I need help did you get to the stage where you think well you know what have I done [Music] [Music] I'm going to speech on Monday and I talk mostly about inspiring people to kind of follow their dream and and be successful I guess I've got an audience who followed me over the years through whether it's the television shows or the design or the running of a company I'm going home please welcome Debbie Travis [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello everybody I think with women they tend to want to hear true stories about your failings your stress you know the way you did it how did you handle your family how did you handle marriage how did you handle you know it's a big package for women whereas I think with men it's more like uh how do I make a lot of money I'm always asked about fear am I afraid to start new Ventures am I afraid to pitch a project am I afraid you know to do a new show um no nervous yes I'm worried yes but never afraid but it's all about dreaming it doing it and living it I think basically my story is maybe every other woman's story you know I left school at 16 so I'm highly uneducated that's not most women but that's me growing up till about the age of 12 was was really a very happy childhood in the north of England and it was fairly ideally I was a child when my dad died and my mom was left with four children and my brother was six months old so I was kind of put into a mother's role at a very young age and it was overwhelming to watch her unhappiness but she survived as a 33 year old with four children under 12 through her friends and I watched that support as a growing girl you know and I think that never left me how important it is to have that that support around you but I really wanted to get out of this kind of Village Life so I think I was 17 when I arrived in London with a suitcase [Music] basically I fell into modeling but I was one of the first batches of girls to go to Tokyo to go to Japan in those days as a young girl especially where I came from was just unheard of I think when you're young you never really realize what you're doing it's only when you look back and you're like well you know did I do that there I'm very uh some photographer so we take my top off oh all the girls do it now I look back and I think God yeah it was quite pretty but no I absolutely had no confidence whatsoever I was never a natural great model I had a cute face and that was kind of about it but I love doing TV commercials because I love the action that was going on behind the scenes and um I ended up kind of interning for the BBC and other TV networks and then I started my own little production company of which I made no money at all but I met Hans at the film festival because I took my project to the south of France was love at first sight I didn't understand what she saw in me quite frankly met hands on the first night and married him a few weeks later it was a complete professional we had a whirlwind romance and it was just magical I knew within hours that's the woman I want to spend my life with they arrived in this strange very cold country and I didn't know anybody we decided right from the get-go that we want the children and we had them very fast Josh our first one and 15 months later we had Max So within 18 I'd met a guy married him moved countries and had two children and my life was like spinning it was tremendously homesick she left behind her friends her business and she left behind a whole industry that she was breaking into I had to make some money so I got myself a bucket and a ladder and I started painting people's houses and I we bought an old house and I'd done a lot of these paint finishes in it which I'd learned how to do in England and suddenly people started asking me and I did it for a few years and it got quite exhausting going up and down ladders and you know my kids were like mummy why'd you I love paint thinner so suddenly one day I I thought why don't I make a video showing people how to do this and this video was a runaway success decorative paint finishes made easy welcome to my studio I'm Debbie Travis and that started her career that little video and if you look at it today you're you're thinking impossible it is terrible simply follow my basic rule and she pitched a show based on that on the next show we'll decorate a room a basement a 300 year old kitchen Loft space in the painted house would take a room each episode and do it up over the last year I have renovated my kitchen and my basement now I've had lots of help from the family but now they're absolutely fed up with living in a mess you want to do what let's get started and then after seven years it is revolting I decided to stop the painted house and start facelifting we're ripping this place apart facelift was the first reality design show where we turn the cameras on ourselves other things started to come I'm hiring an unsung hero with a surprise like the book deals the newspaper deals product line deals as I'm glad you know how to paint yeah and then bigger show Network shows [Applause] and then it started to get you know a little bit Deja Vu we're gonna do the uh really new life into your wicker patio furniture um I have to remember all the giveaways yeah okay take your time I started I can't say to get bored but I was getting frustrated and I was edgy and I'm a very enthusiastic person and I was no longer enthusiastic if you're happy you're needed if you're needed you're happy so I said to myself well what makes me happy well women make me happy not in that way you know but um but maybe one day you know I just like being with women I always have a light women's company so one day she comes up with this idea and saying wouldn't it be great if you know I took a group of women somewhere nice and motivate them so I was doing a speech and I said this is what I want to do I love Tuscany I fell in love with it when we were filming so I thought well what if I invite women from around the world and they come and they share my villa with me and that's my dream suddenly I stopped speaking and there was this intake of breath that only women can do you know this this cry that comes from the gut hands were shooting up day it was like a religious thing take me take me then I was getting emails off men saying take her take her Debbie Travis everyone and within a few days I was full but I didn't have a house so I found a villa and I I rented it and I did a retreat there and from that Retreat I knew I knew that we were onto something you smell the fresh mint you can either do this by hand like I said if you don't wear gloves [Music] glow so so the idea is look they're falling off pretty much on their own and you comb it is that great can you reach that one I don't know yeah it was the pleasure of seeing other people's pleasure to make people happy and it was that happiness that made me happy and it was like well this is amazing and it gets very competitive after a while he's got the most okay so after doing this experiment renting a property we knew we needed a property that would house you know a gaggle of women Debbie had a very particular idea in her head of what she wanted our dream house to look like and finding a place was going to be really really tough [Music] left left left over this little Bridge are you sure that's the right Road I'm not sure stop stop let me ask that guy stop stop hang on hang on excuse me let me ask him it looks like a local well like anybody you know we were putting pins in the map and Italy is not a huge country but it's in a very very varied country you go 20 minutes and the landscape completely changes the people change the food changes so what did you say just keep going down here the Bianca strata Strada Bianca follow the White Road they're all Bianca [Music] he says there's no ruin on the left that his old Uncle owned I don't know 100 years ago or something look at that beautiful place over there keep your eyes on the roads seriously we had this wish list the view we wanted an old building we wanted to see the sea we wanted to see the mountains we wanted to see Vineyards we wanted room we wanted Room to Grow we wanted all this kind of stuff and it would drive the agents crazy right we got black we actually got blacks by the agents fill up view spectacular oh my God a little bit of work as I think there's people dead in here somewhere there probably are really we've been told that the property you're looking for doesn't exist so our job is to find the impossible this is hundreds of years of urine and poo and it's making me gag right now but I think this place has potential can you imagine look in here look at this though I've got a tree in my living room you go come on oh my God I should have clean dishes for us [Music] how much are they asking 400 000 for that Debbie said I want to live amongst the Italians so we we started actually in the North and then drove down here we did this part then we drove across across to Umbria we explored this area this area this area this whole thing and now you've got all the beaches that's nice we've driven right across Sicily and then we went back up here and we looked at this area here and then bit by bit we started to hone in onto this one area of Tuscany Tuscany is a very large region and it's known for its light because the light changes all the time every kind of 20 minutes there's this beautiful light so artists have always gone there you've got amazing churches you've got culture you've got all these things it's not just the big cities of Florence and Siena but every village has something every village has five churches two monasteries a convent it's a landscape that the eye keeps roaming and moving taking you to the next thing and next in the little chapel the white the Bianca strata the white gravel Rose The Mists that hover over the valleys and then there's of course there's a wine so it's very famous for wines and abundance of nice wine Oh yay okay I'm with Jackie we're just trying to decide next steps I've got one friend who really is my sister her name is Jackie Brown and we've been friends since we were kind of 1920 and and we met in Tokyo we were models and we ended up living together there then we came back to London and we've been friends ever since and that uh is you know 35 years ago so we stayed very close we've our children the same sort of Age We Got Married around the same time we've had quite parallel lives except debies was in Canada and mine was in London the problem is if we take the dirt road it might take us a lot longer just go out for dinner well I decided with the retreat that I wanted to do with Jackie I needed the support I needed a friend when Debbie suggested doing the retreat together I jumped at it and it just sounded like such a great opportunity she said okay I'm in we'll do it together we stay in Little B and B's and and drive and in and out of properties wow middle of nowhere does this would have been a very large Farmhouse where the extended family would have lived upstairs so this could be like an amazing Courtyard to eat in wine please so most of these houses would have had a Cantina where they did the wine and the they would also it's like for us today to have a pantry wow so this would have been the main kind of family rooms yes up here there would be a big fireplace this is what remains of it you know all the women sitting here has the fire they're chatting about their day each time you see something you're trying to imagine like everybody what you're going to do with this place Nick thank you so much wow that looks like an old well so would this be the water for the house once yes yes Jackie they've already got a pool oh I didn't bring my costume and Monte buchano is over there what is this is so to say Corvettes you can eat anything it's a very very Italian tree and I make a Preserve Jam it's a jam that goes very well with with game oh it's amazing it just appears through the trees when you just walk through these are the original steps which is the same travel team that you solve the well so this is the library it's that table that is the table is priceless priceless you must have some good dinners in here I think Niagara Falls so Alex how much are they asking for this now one eight it's a 1.8 million euros yes which means 600 000 each [Music] and we scoured it we went down every dirt road and we found nothing and it was very difficult and so bit by bit I guess the dream started to crumble a little bit and got a little bit fed up I hate it come on we're not buying that one okay when Debbie gets very tired and frustrated and says I've had enough then I need to step up to the plate and convince her that it's it's going to happen so I find a place that I think is perfect and has called me and he said it's a villa a fantastic looking Villa without buildings and it's already running as a hotel it was perfect um I arrive very late at night and when I woke up in the morning there were these beautiful pink shutters and I opened the shutters and I hear meow meow I was like what's that and well it's a bit of a main road I look out I'm on the main road into town [Applause] it was a gorgeous property it doesn't matter it wasn't right because I opened the window and I could hear traffic and I'm not doing this listening very near a major road yeah it was on a major road but the house was it was right on the road where they changed gear so right outside there's like a house you know it was spectacular it wasn't for us anyway so we had a little bit of an argument which I know it's hard to imagine and I went for a walk and instead of never argue instead of walking into the town I turned right [Music] and there in front of me was this Valley and it was like this lump in my throat grew you know there was a knot in my stomach the Sun was shining the birds were tweeting it was like at the opening of a movie I get a phone call and says you're gonna have to come and find me so where are you I said I'm not sure I turned right and I found the most amazing Valley so I've try and follow the directions I found a tiny little dirt track I followed it and there was Debbie at the end of it in the most amazing Valley and the day I saw that Valley you know I was walking and I said this is it [Music] so now we find a valley that we really really like the next challenge is finding a property if there's nothing on the market it's a whole other game at that point you are so desperate that you'll try and we did that kind of thing you believed in it more than I did there's this amazing kind of church Cathedral that sits at the base of montepulciano [Music] and the story is that it was built on an Etruscan site and in the center of it is a circle and they say if you take your shoes off and pray or dream or whatever it is you do it will come true yeah so many people because nobody's going to make just come through striped socks what I need you to do I need you to be real stop laughing at something funny I want you to concentrate imagine that you're meditating I want you to think positively and I want you to imagine the property we're going to find we took off our shoes we stood on the circle we looked at each other we closed our eyes we held hands and without doubt I felt something can't describe it but I felt something I felt Debbie squeezing my hands if you're asking me whether I believe in divine intervention guiding us to find this place I would say absolutely yes [Music] yes one Friday afternoon I get a call it's a friend from Tuscany she tells me hands you need to come immediately there's a property that's kind of on the market that is perfect for you it's like we're in the middle of a Vineyard we looked at the property together and I'm watching Debbie's facial expressions I hate it I hate it she wants to have the wow factor so it would take some time quite a long time and it will be expensive they really believe in their craft and doing it right they're bloody better [Music] I think happiness is being in the right place at the right time and being where you should be at that time [Music] any business you kind of crave something fresh to reignite your passion again please welcome one day she comes up with this idea and say wouldn't it be great if I take a group of women somewhere nice and motivated I love Tuscany so I thought well what if I invite women from around the world and they come and they share my fellow with me but I didn't have a house so it's like oops I mean it's a huge commitment that it's going to take most of our savings we've been told that the property you're looking for doesn't exist they probably are one Friday afternoon I get it out it's a friend from Tuscany she tells me Hans there's a property that's kind of on the market that is perfect for you I'm really excited have a look at that isn't that something oh I have to get Debbie's attention [Music] Debbie you sure this is the right any second now just keep going I think we're somewhere here on this back roads because that's multiple Channel up there it's like we're in the middle of a Vineyard seeing this property was a little bit like meeting Debbie I knew it was right and I just needed to convince Debbie that he was the right one because it wasn't a villa it was actually a very modest farmhouse but the location was absolutely magical [Music] we looked at the property together and I'm watching Debbie's facial expressions I hated it and I was like I hate it I hate it it's just this tumbledown mess of dull property Pig's eyes everywhere This Barn which was four legs Farm Vehicles everywhere tired miserable property I couldn't see the potential it was a dark and dingy oh good run down farm that hadn't been touched for centuries and Hans kept saying look at the view look at the view [Music] it wasn't a beautiful location it had a view to die for and it had a secret thing it had that magic word volume which means had outbuilding it had outbuildings that were just barns but you could use it and convert it I've worked with so many people in Italy and seen so many houses and they'll go oh you're a decorator you're a designer you can do this like some of the properties I saw had no roofs had a forest in the middle of the living room you know I'm like no no even I can't do this so this was no exception this was just like I don't get it [Music] if you're not in love with it it's going to be a drag it's an Old Farm yard now yes but you you we can all of that can be changed so I had a big job ahead trying to convince her that it had the potential it had the right location and she could create whatever she wanted with what we had we came back the next day and this guy had made this model the seller was actually very clever he created a little paper model of the house this is the model he gave me still it looks a little rustic but you can see this was the The Villa side so it was three four floors here [Music] these were Pig stays which just were tumbled down there were no pigs left in them but in the end you know I could start to imagine what I could do with this this was the farmyard side and this was all blocked in this was an old bathroom but we managed to imagine what it would look like if we would open up the wall like look at it it's like it's like a it's like a scruffy old box inside um but it I started to see it and because it was 3D it was like oh my God this could be a home and she's looking at me and I'm like a little kid waiting for approval and a bit by this I began to smile and he could see I was starting to turn I told him we're moving ahead relieved at a house in Tuscany yes you do it took a bit of convincing but you finally saw the potential there's a decision of a lifetime yeah you're not kidding and if it hadn't been for that model she might never have been convinced that she could actually make the space work it's going to take most of our savings I mean it's a huge commitment baby the name of the house now is called reniela and we don't know what that means but originally um we were given some documents and it was called reginella and regging yellow means Kingdom small Kingdom small Kingdom so it's Debbie's small Kingdom foreign what needed to be done to it everything absolutely everything the roof leaked the walls were covered inside in a white Plaster that was black with a type of mold the ground floor of the property was still Stables it was empty but they were Stables that hadn't been changed for hundreds and hundreds of years the pigstyes were falling in they were broken This Barn is just for metal legs with an asbestos roof thinking that you found the right property and you and that's the end of it is actually just the beginning because you found the property now you have to turn it into yours [Music] takes you 10 years to find a property then you find one it takes a year to sign the property a year it's about time there's no way we could do this project or even buy a property without an architect an Italian architect looking at it because there's so many rules I mean with a name like this you know I expect him to have a leather helmet and fly a biplane not being an Italian architect follicle happens to be the architect who renovated it's a fantastic old castle that was renovated in such a way that it didn't look renovated ciao Poco [Music] when you started this project what was it like when we arrived here it was a ruin to be honest oh my God this is what it looked like yeah I mean the whole castle the whole castle this is the main culture the blast of the main building was off this whole roof was collapsed we rebuild it so it was really in a very very bad condition it doesn't look restored it looks lived in this is original as well absolutely everything is original here the brief we gave balko was to do a massive conversion off The Farmhouse but to do it in such a way that was also in keeping with the style of the house and style of the area not an easy thing to achieve particularly if your boss is Debbie Travis you need somebody with a lot of patience study you couldn't work with somebody who's very Headstrong why because I'm headstrong yes you'd be clashing absolutely you'd be clashing with that person all the time uh here I I have the list that I just received from Debbie of all her wishes regarding the restoration of the House of rinella an Infinity swimming pool with a technical room and storage for furniture a vegetable garden it's like working with me I'm very sweet and nice don't you do that an open plan living room kitchen and dining room all bedrooms ensuite with a walk-in closet it's not going to have plans already yet I you know because it's our first initial meeting I think he's going to make some proposals I really want to know from him is how long when are we going to be finished when can I have the first group of women for me that's the most important thing is time she wants to have that wow factor when somebody reached the place I mean some people may just hand over their life to their architect for me you know I I knew what I wanted I figured really very early now to talk about the vegetable garden why we still have to define the use of the house I've prepared prepare very rough sketch for you where you can see the different use of the rooms I was thinking to use the pick style as the kitchen and dining room oh that would be cool so you've got the view of the valley yo I have the view of the valley and also you have the big sitting room to open it up completely with arches it was very important to me not just to have fancy furniture or expensive fittings but I wanted to be able to reconstruct these bones that were there when you start a project on my point of view is to understand the building in the history of the building so that you have an idea what it was used and how it was built at the beginning and then to transform keeping in mind that the building can't transform too much it was built from the stone on the land so it started Life as a lookout tower in the 13th century that would protect the village behind it and that Tower then probably fell to ruin over the generations and then somebody must have taken it over and built on and then built on and on and on [Music] what I was thinking is I'd love to do you know like in the South in Puglia and stuff they do those flat roofs and then we could have like a lovely kind of wrought iron fence up there and an outside staircase so they can come up and they can sit on the roof in some Bay no if when you restore this building you have to keep in mind the tradition of the buildings and the history of the buildings you will never find in Tuscany a flat roof it's typical from south of Italy and very often he would say impossible but very often he'd say okay let's change that let's try it again let's go back to the drawing board and we keep the oven we keep the oven where it's it's something very typical from farm houses in Tuscany it's a very very good conditions the Vault inside in court is still there it's a realistically Boko how when do you think we could be finished when can I have let's say 17 happy women sitting drinking wine on that Terrace not less than two years two years and a half oh my God I might be dead by then it's a long process why so long I mean really that's the time that it takes to transform completely property like this the one thing that Miss impatient didn't prepare herself for is the amount of bureaucracy and the speed with which things move in Italy there are different offices that are in charge of different pyramids and then they need to have their time to go to the commission to prepare the papers to send it to the following commission and so on and so on so this whole process takes you Maps yes this house has a lot of histories you can't expect that they give you a permit like this in in two weeks you need a permit for everything and you know there is a reason for it and the reason is this is an incredibly beautiful area if people could just willy-nilly go and renovate and put in glass boxes and you know crazy stuff it wouldn't any longer be Tuscany it would be Florida so it will take some time quite a long time and it will be expensive but at the end I will help you to make your dream reality but you need to be patient I think for us it's a learning tool to be calm so basically saying don't argue with him okay we trust you [Music] the first day is the most exciting because um the first thing that happens is they put up a big sign at the front of the property which lists everybody who's working there and the region that you're under just getting the permit uh took over a year and they tell me that is incredibly quick and then they brought in a hut where the workers would have lunch that is a sacred rule and then they put up a crane it was massive it's the kind of thing you'd see in downtown Toronto doing a high rise and it's a great way of moving stuff around I mean it's gigantic and you can see it from everywhere across the valley like this Debbie's crane we're actually renovating three buildings the villa which is the main house the old Pig styes and the barn then we're going to rebuild these Pig styes to make room for six guest rooms which will have each a bathroom the Barn's going to come down it'll be redone at a proper building with three guest rooms three bathrooms and a beautiful loungy Loft space major work will also begin on the exterior of the villa it's going to have a new insulated roof we're going to reuse the old tiles new chimneys gutters by law by the community the bureaucrats you have to keep the roof lines all the same but in a way that made us more creative The Villa will eventually house five guest rooms a semi-professional kitchen and two more Living Spaces in the end we'll have two kitchens four living rooms and 14 guest Suites [Music] population [Music] I've done hundreds of houses in North America I have never worked with people like this I genuinely like the people that work for us some of them are incredible Craftsmen and I have a lot of respect for what they do Brown is the plumber but he's the master plumber Raul doesn't speak any English but he's this very like testosterone guy and he has a whole team of plumbers doing this Plumbing is so complicated I don't know why yes if I'd send you the crochet [Music] Ricardo is really what you'd call the foreman he's here first in the morning last to leave and he's in charge of the team and plus he's working with them I had never met anybody like that in my life uh [Music] see your videos [Music] foreign [Music] example of an Italian man um he's emotional and he's not embarrassed to be emotional and he takes his role as Foreman very very seriously they're all like that if you're a plumber plumber or you're a stone Mason that is your life that is your career they really believe in that craft and doing it right the bloody better foreign [Music] thing on this land is these These are called mezzalunas and the Mezzaluna means Half Moon so they're a half circle and these were built to protect their olives it was a way of farming and they were built by Napoleon's Army so Napoleon's Army marched through here from Rome or wherever they were pillaging and stuff but on their way they put in olive trees so these trees are very very old and they're lovely sometimes I'll come down here to sit quietly and listen to the land and stuff it's very it's very calming under an olive tree very very still just very serene [Applause] one of the hardest things going into a battle like this isn't it is a battle with your North American hat on you know oh you get an architect maybe you got a designer you get a few maybe you have a few permits and then you know within a year you've done them one of the first things we needed to do with the main building was build a massive garage and storage space somewhere where we can put the laundry we can keep all the stuff for the retreat and you know hand says stuff boys stuff so I guess somewhere to put all his things it takes a major Readjustment to undertake a project of any magnitude in Italy if you're used to getting things done in North America yeah [Music] foreign [Music] it's nice having dinner with the people that are building your home it's just a very nice thing yes foreign [Music] we've been married nearly 30 years so either you know each other so well that you do something like this together or you end up hating each other and I think you have to both be on the same page without a doubt if one of us did not vision and did not want to be here you couldn't do it both enjoy what we're doing we're both very good at it it works for our relationship I think it will add 10 years to to our lives um my Italian is so good uh tutor always you say always always anytime come for lunch Brunswick swim she absolutely has to learn the language so I've been working on Debbie to go and enroll in school and she said yes and I'm going to learn the language time will tell what happens there I am ashamed that I can't speak any languages and I'm trying but I don't know one day I'll understand okay that sounds so much better in Italian as long as you bring food so yummy [Music] it's the first time kind of I'm alone here very Italian so the method is a real issue again I have absolutely no clue what they're saying we are going to open all the palettes and select each single pieces for you see everything is off I've got four bathrooms like this yeah of course I'm really upset [Music] just being in the right place at the right time being where you should be at that time any business you kind of crave something fresh to reignite your passion again one day she comes up with his ideas and wouldn't it be great if I take a group of women somewhere nice and motivate them I love Tuscany so I thought well what if I invite women from around the world and they come and they share my villa with me but I didn't have a house latents four bathrooms are being ripped out and destroyed who has a five meter counter nobody just you it's like working with me I'm very sweet and nice [Music] [Music] okay shall we go and it's coming down come on oh man what a misery Debbie Debbie you're going to be okay fine yeah well I have left you for that long my only problem is you don't seem to take me seriously why don't you tell them that unless they take you seriously you're not gonna pay them while I'm gone that will get there so how do I say that in Italian we're not paying you if you don't pay me food no salty no holidays all your money no slowly unless you listen to me as a woman that be safe I'm worried about my hair I love you dear bye good luck and I want to see progress lots of it she's not what I bought into at all like a mud bath here because there's nothing to hold all the ground in the first time kind of alone here it's fine but it's just the weather's cold it's winter it's wet and uh it's mud everywhere it's like I'm gonna get a cup of tea Montreal is calling we've got things to take care of there I really hate leaving her here the fact that her Italian is so limited is a real issue so I feel I'm a little torn between where I need to be and where I should be I'm gonna try and be in touch with Debbie as often as I can bonjourno [Music] morning should we have a look at the barn where you putting the concrete well I've been here now for two and a half years on this site I'm the only woman here it's all blokes all beautiful Italian men um but we're moving along it is coming it doesn't look like it I actually have six months left before this place needs to be completely finished when the ladies start arriving the work on all three buildings has actually come a long way quite amazing between them they'll have 14 guest rooms 14. well the old Pig styes they've been completely demolished and rebuilt these will house six gorgeous guest rooms the old barn which was just four legs and a roof was knocked down and now we've built a two-story building on the ground floor they're going to be three guest Suites and on the top floor an enormous living space here we have toilet and b day okay and there we have the shower when you're upstairs doing yoga you're not going to hear it nothing nothing no nothing tell him I don't need here they are insulated pipes you don't want to be doing your um you will have all your guests if somebody knows my only worry here is this shower is quite tight what if we take out the bday and I get a bigger shower the 10 is in the French and so on will love to have a bee there so if you have guests that are not Americans or English they will be a little bit concerned on not having a big day so does Raul think everybody should have a b day yeah foreign guest rooms it still has a long way to go but it is coming together so this is kind of one of the entrances I mean there's a few but this was actually full of rubble when we found the house and we dug it all out and we found this beautiful Arch very typical of this area and you'll see these kind of concave ceilings and castles and things and I really love this we've restored the whole thing and when the lights are in they'll it'll kind of shine over it and then you kind of you walk into the kind of the main saloni as they call it here and the saloni is where the Stables were so where we are now is this is finished people think it's not but we've really left a lot of the Arches alone so that they can be very natural and real ceilings are all finished this was a massive job so you've got old materials and modern which is really what I'm doing here the staircases you can see is floating which I really love so we've got all the exterior doors that's why I can live here but we haven't yet actually chosen the doors we're going to put on the inside because I'm not sure whether to do them really modern or whether to do them traditional old doors so there's no doors you've got a bedroom and a bathroom and if you want to go to the lou you just pray that one of these many many men won't walk in and I think they're more frightened of seeing me on the loo than I am terrified so this is the very top of the house it's kind of the fourth level up and this is where the farmers would have lived we found out there was 16 people here about 30 years ago living just on this floor and of course the animals were down here and their heat came up and warmed the people Tuscan Windows aren't always very big because if you're in the fields all day in this intense heat the last thing you wanted was great big you know glass windows the new windows are in but I'm not allowed to change the size but the ceiling here is the original ceiling it's all been repaired and put back but I whitewashed it all to make it very light and open so it's very typical but the one thing that is finished uh nothing else is finished but the one thing that is done is my bathroom it's a freestanding bath a mirror again all these Market finds I keep getting I love the idea of kind of industrial Chic like a architect stool with a very modern and clean sinks I just think it looks great so this is the latest in tiling this is mosaic tile kind of got a bit of a Moroccan Flair and every single tile is kind of different tile I chose was a disaster it was a handmade hexagonal tile which is traditional here I wanted it very very narrow with a very thin Gap but what happens is they kind of go like this so you see everything is off everything and he's had a nightmare laying it see here it's really thin then here it's thick it's kind of really upsetting because I love this tile I would say we've lost a week and this isn't just in here I've got four bathrooms like this yeah of course I'm really upset so four bathrooms are being ripped out and destroyed [Music] yeah so this is one of the highlights of the house this was actually outside originally now we've blocked it all in and it's kind of part of the kitchen this is the original bread oven this is about 400 years old and it's completely round inside you could get a whole sheep in there or a cow or something this sustained generations of farmers and we'll use it we'll absolutely use it it's fantastic but then here's the really modern kitchen so this has been two years work designing this kitchen and uh it's not finished yet it's a design company in Florence who did this kitchen with me and everybody wants a beautiful kitchen but more than any other space they need to work and there was a lot of criteria we needed hey what's up I'm doing nothing we need two dishwashers we wanted a massive industrial stove then I wanted a big central island like a big slab of stone and I wanted it really really long I wanted to 20 women perched on stools I could see them talking and chatting and laughing with their Prosecco and learning how to roll a pasta and life is wonderful I have just made the new version and I hope that this is the final one well it is I think we're nearly there I won't move the fridge anymore we have to discuss about a lot of things okay first of all Island yeah well I think the iron is good I mean that's oh good you got everything out so that's the stone yeah they can't turn it off all right amazing with the wood amazing with the steel I do have like one little thing so this morning I was measuring out and you know the whole idea is that these women are going to come in there's maybe 18 women 20 women with us then the chef so that's quite a lot in the kitchen so I like the idea that they're all marooning around this island they're watching the chef they're drinking Prosecco they're chatting you know kind of thing women do but I think the island should be bigger I think the island should really you know it'd be amazing it's like a major feature it comes like that are you sure just one half of it is seating you know that I can poke underneath so we don't have stools all over the place I think that we are very close to the to the door so uh don't you think that it would be better if we eliminated this part and we made it a little bit smaller no I think if we add on another half a meter so we arrive approximately to five meter five meter counter who has a five meter counter nobody just you but I think that it's too too long five meters countertop [Music] you laugh about I'll cry [Music] all right a camera Portuguese I'm struggling with Italians English radio foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] looks way too happy it's really the language issue is a real issue because even if you speak perfectly you still need to repeat yourself ad nauseam very frustrating and Debbie doesn't understand I think this is something quite important they nod and smile and then they turn around saying I have no clue what she's talking about well I'm not doing this today we both know now the term Lost in Translation I think he's ashamed of the fact I can't pick up languages because he picks them up like this for me it's just that part of the brain I think it's just not that finestra who is marito SI marito Rosso morito okay um that's husband right and it's a car right um I always get those maybe Machina Machina machina so I'm racing back I've been in school all morning I sit in class doing my verbs and all I'm doing is like how many windows do I need is the guy going to turn up for the lighting tomorrow by the time I get across that Valley all the guys are eating lunch and the problems have happened so because this has changed we have to go back to the community we move further out these two windows and we add one window on this side it wasn't an original plan for this reason we have to go back to the commode how long is that going to take another 20 years uh more or less I'd be dead by the time this property is finished there is a permit for every single stage of this property and each permit is a job so basically you apply to change this to put a window here to put you know nothing inside everything on the outside the changing needs to have it approved then we will see what happens the first thing Barco said is you know this is not what you're used to this is a game you have to deal with the local permit office then it has to go to Sienna and then you wait 60 days and then it has to go back you remember we spoke about the report between 1 8 of the surface needs to be glass and this is not enough the ancient Sports be a PhD to do all this it hasn't stopped raining now for over a month they can't finish some of the plumbing because the plumbers can't work in this [Music] seriously it's really depressing because you you can't sleep and you just list after list after list of stuff to do and then stuff goes wrong so you're sorting the stuff that goes wrong out so you don't get to your list and it's been a while since Hans has been here to be alone here is also very difficult because you're okay during the day because you've got all these guys around big Burly men but it's very quiet at night and you hear every sound and it's dark and you know it's like what if somebody breaks in so it's kind of scary to be by myself every house I think has a personality and breathes different noises and creaks and sounds and this is a 13th century building there's a lot of history in this building but it is a happy now so the villagers actually call it the happy house here you're restoring a 13th century property in the ground up and so yes it's it's it's hard work but it's exciting everywhere I go my floors are cardboard rugs and I'm tired of walking on grit yeah Dome floors where the animals were which are about 12 inches thick they have to come out because they're completely destroyed by The Animals I want to buy old flooring again and that's going to be a massive expense I want the kind of stone you get in in palazzos in the South and there are architectural salvage places that take this Stone clean them up and then sell them to mugs like me at Great cost one of the best in the country is a place called lacrally [Music] [Music] from stone flooring that's come out of town squares or Old Farms they've got Windows Doors they've got Stone sinks they've got pillars and arches they've got everything you can imagine that's being restored and they sell Stone in pallets but it was really funny because while I was there two monks walk in like real monks in the brown gowns and the whole thing nice to see you how are you I don't know so you're shopping like me so you're not taking out the stone and selling to him and he's selling to me I hope the pope knows I came just to take some pieces for the floor or the church we restore the many monasteries and different kind of monsters do negotiations I bet you get a better place than me you know it was amazing it wasn't only me this Foreigner coming in buying this old you know they are trying to restore some of their old buildings and uh so it was quite magical to be hanging out with the monks marchella what I really like is what you've got in your entrance yeah what kind of stone is that that is a white stone actually from the south of Italy and it's called [ __ ] [ __ ] so my thing is I'd like all big pieces like this one here see I love that I don't want small ones like that you know all kind of broken up see look at this one this is gorgeous so I mean I'd love the whole living room to be like massive you know just yes no well you know each palette has different size so I'm sure everybody asks you the same thing right um I'm the most difficult right uh well you are not easy I have to tell you I mean she's she's a sort of difficult because I mean the flooring is ancient flooring dismantled from a house and it comes as it was originally in the past so I don't know really what to do could I open up these pallets and then like divide them all up and then say I want all the big ones and then leave you the small bits let me let me ask we can try okay look how they've packed it so beautifully done oh look they're all arriving and fantastic at least now you only choose the pieces you like and so they will they are going to open all the pallets and select each single pieces for you [Music] we meant to lift to go the ones I want so this is a good one see no no no no uh six weeks and I ended up eight hours doing this actually no no no it was a little Poco one apart from the stone in the house the kitchen really it's super important to me so it's got to be right the countertop which is huge and extremely heavy it's arriving any minute there'll be a big truck with a load of guys yeah it took about 20 men sweating in the heat lifting this thing and they're carrying this thing that weighs tons and they put the two pieces in and then they they stick them together why look like a runway on an airport and then out it went well David kept saying at the beginning it's too big it's too big sometimes she likes one thing so on the next day she likes completely another one yeah he said you know yeah it's not gonna work but I complete it was completely my fault do you want some ice cream [Music] for today and this girl says if you ever come to Italy are you ready for this are you ready now the weight is 12 weeks left and I'm not ready [Music] happiness is being in the right place at the right time and being where you should be at that time in any business you kind of crave for something fresh to reignite your passion again so I said to myself well what makes me happy one day she comes up with his ideas and saying wouldn't it be great if I take a group of women somewhere nice and motivate them I love Tuscany so I thought well but I didn't have a house I was like oops here you're restoring a 13th Century Property from the ground up it's hard work but it's it's so exciting the fact that her Italian is so limited is a real issue a camera Portuguese I'm struggling with Italian for me it's just that part of the brain I think it's just not there we're going to open all the pallets and select each single pieces for you [Music] so it's a big day for any homeowner and it's a big day for me I bought all this Stone it's called [ __ ] and it comes from the south of Italy and what makes it so special is that it's been in probably in an old mazaria which is an Old Farm in Puglia where you've got all the imprints of the animals over the century so it's going to go inside the house foreign [Music] about 10 of these crates the beautiful color is amazing we're going to lay the pattern out on the flat piece of gravity so we're only a flat bit of ground actually and then every single one will be moved inside well there's a whole lot of broken pieces here and I've seen broken ones in every one I'm a little bit worried because we need every piece Andrea brute see no this is not good this is good this is not good okay no oh boy the whole [Music] it looks like the whole palette the whole thing and I was really upset so I rang the store and the guy suddenly couldn't speak English [Music] [Applause] never work with children animals [Music] so this is my neighbor and um we share a little bit of roles and um she keeps coming around to my house and I have no clue what she wants I don't speak any Italians to speak any English [Music] it'll start to be anchor see see I I owe you yeah tourismo I'm having such problems with the language you know trying to get these Builders to understand the suppliers and all that kind of stuff and somebody's just written to me and I get this kind of email all the time my name's Laura and I live in Tuscany Italy I am a designer or I I'd like to be a designer young designers people starting their careers saying can I follow you and this girl says if you ever come to Italy I've written back to her and said well actually I'm in Italy where are you she says I'm in multiple chiano that is multiple Tiano up there on the top of the hill I was shocked when she answered me that she live here in Tuscany and very near to me I'm really quite excited so I'm gonna meet her I said meet me in the Stella bar tomorrow morning at nine o'clock so she probably thinks I'm some wacko or she's on his email back wow I think she was a little scared because she turned up with the whole family there she is a big fan wow for me oh wow this is you and this is Marty oh we paint we're painting together yes oh my God I watch I said that beef from a long time [Music] foreign she's teaching something to me so what I'm looking for is I'm having many many problems building this house where people don't understand me so what I really want is somebody who's like my my right hand you know my person beside me um so tell me have you done this kind of thing before have you done anything like this no no okay are you ready for this are you ready to yes I'm a soldier yes you're a soldier yeah oh my God I have an army I have 40 men and one woman yes [Music] it makes sense [Applause] when Jonah this is Laura this is Ricardo this morning I met Ricardo the farmer Ricardo's in charge so you can always ask him he could always go to him he knows everything [Music] this this is Roberto and Marcelo they're making all the doors for the inside Roberto is going to be here for a long long time it's a big thing that I have to run be there we can put paper down I can't take the beds out okay okay the only thing is they have to come in with no shoes superla Laura has been a complete surprise she's not only doing all months later she's now doing the work she's ballsy she talks to them she tells them no we're going to do this again and no yeah we say one rooster for the entire Hen House Here I Am the rooster and the older men are the chicken so there's one pressing problem that I really need you to help translate with I bought a lot of stone which is going to go in the main living room and half of it came broken oh oh so this happened in their delivery in their truck you know I just want them to acknowledge it and and maybe replace okay replace the broken ones he'll argue with you okay okay okay two weeks you have a new floor fantastic so what's he replacing like 25 so I I asked for 30 and you did got it wow so I don't know it's maybe it's the way it comes across he said fine we'll come and pick up the broken pieces and replace them so it all turned out really well well done Lara thank you so I think uh I think you've got the job okay [Music] I'm alone a lot it can be a little solitary and sometimes you get to the stage where you think well you know what have I done you know I I I've given up so much to be here and is it exciting me as much as it did at the beginning so I decided to call up Francis Mays she was the only person I'd heard of who lived in Tuscany and she was an author and we became really good friends Francis is an incredible writer and her Plenty famous she wrote the book Under the Tuscan Sun I read that book page after page she brings a passion and a heartfelt feeling to a dream and I am not alone many many people want that dream I think everybody needs a good friend like that when you move to a new country but she also is very good at understanding the culture and actually if you don't start to understand it a lot of people give up and they go home it's not always what you imagined in that dream you know she lives in a fortified Town very famous town called Cortona and it's famous because she put it on the map I haven't seen your house in about eight months how's it going you know slowly slowly It's gotta be slow because of the nature of the work they're not slapping up sheetrock you know they're cutting Stone they're hand Plastering it has to be slow when we first restored brahmacoli which was 25 years ago it was our way into the culture the people who I think have the best time here they're not running around looking for peanut butter or sour cream or any of the things that you don't get here to be here and to really live here you take the ingredients they have the ways they do things and you adapt to that I think it's nice for me because she's somebody who's done it and like anywhere but especially here if you get into a negative side you suddenly get those little there's little doubts coming in those little niggling you know is this right have I done the right thing you're way out in the country Often by yourself Hans is traveling all the time yeah well he's often back in Canada and um you know I'm sitting on the side of a hillside in the pouring rain and it's not the Tuscan blue skies reality sets in very very quickly and you know it gets lonely and this idea of mine of bringing these women to to kind of understand the imprint that you can get from this this place is that right and that's for me the three o'clock in the morning what if nobody comes what if I'm stuck with 14 bedrooms you know you know what if they will come they will come oh definitely come I've experienced that my whole time here I still wake up and think what am I doing here I'm in a foreign country yeah do I really belong here most of the time I feel like this has enriched my life incredibly what is very important you know with kind of what she's taught me is to bring you back to why you're here travel can be transforming it takes you out of your normal life gives you a little space a little freedom to open up to your own possibilities they'll relax they make new friends they see amazing things and at night when they're back in their rooms by themselves they're thinking of their own lives and how to move forward I think that's what they take home foreign reasons I think for doing these Retreats is that when these women come I see it through their eyes again most of Tuscany is highly protected and it's stunningly beautiful everywhere you look are three 400 year old farm houses Villas Rolling Hills [Music] but it's the people really I think that make it so special [Music] there's a lot of old people and the reason there's a lot of old people is that Italians live with their families so Granny on The Nona is part of the family unit and when you're not part of a family unit when you're not important you die you know you need to have a role in life so these known as have a role they have an importance so they live long long lives there's a gentleness and it's a sweet land it's a sweet life [Music] [Music] I get hundreds of registration forms and I actually love going through these and kind of looking into people's lives we say on this registration well tell us a little bit about yourself and why this week would mean so much to you most people write you know a couple of paragraphs about what they're thinking about or their next chapters or really just their lives and then I call them we're about two hours from Rome and about an hour south of Florence and um it's not a huge group it's about 16 or 17 women and what's so exciting for me is uh you are you're the first the first ones in to our brand new place so my job is to get it finished now but it was still building it sounds really awful because they think I'm interviewing them but but actually I'm not but I'm making sure that this is absolutely what they're looking for of course I talked to them for 40 minutes on the farm and I think you'll realize that all these women are the same but tell me how how bad do you think you need this week oh I sorry I didn't get emotional um yeah I think I am I really do I really do need this um I really need something I just want to get away on my own because to something and talk and laugh and all that so it's a whole week of just being in the moment I would like to bring women of all walks of life every generation to come and spend a week celebrating the camaraderie of women and sharing stories and drinking and eating and watch them change it's not just a holiday this is not about coming on holiday to Tuscany anybody can do that it's about coming in really absorbing into the culture here you come here and you sit under an olive tree with a glass of wine and you can talk to me and say you know I always wanted to write a book I always wanted to do this how did you do it maybe help them on their Journey give them some ideas just encouraging them like Francis encouraged me but encouraging them to to do it and and to maybe give them the tools to do it [Music] see exhaustion you see hard work but it's who am I and it's a matter of finding yourself and that is a thread I see all the way through here's one Maria was second generation Italian uh married for 26 years two children I have been living in Ottawa for the last 14 years with the love of my life and my two amazing children and two rescue pups okay I lost my father and watched my little sister in the fight of her life as she battled cancer and thankfully survived I'm 53 years old and find myself at a very restless place in my life my children are out of the home and now what is the ongoing question that rattles in my brain when she says now what that I hear all the time I've raised my kids but now what what about me I was not looking forward to having my daughter move out quite honestly but I knew that you know they have to go so when it did happen I really felt a loss in the sense that I didn't know what my role was anymore I just yeah I just miss all that purpose that um that suddenly it's very quiet and I don't like the quiet everybody everybody has a story [Music] here's a woman called Terry so she's a business manager and she she said I counsel entrepreneurs and she says I'm tired and I'm stressed and I'm tired of the stress but there you go we gotta take our shoes off oh she's written three pages so she's she's really stressed next chapter in my life I really truly do not have an idea of what it's going to be [Music] I don't know if I'm waiting for a sign I don't know if I'm I'm looking for somebody to tell me you know I think you'd be really good at this or maybe somebody to ask me to help them with something and I find out that I really love to do something like that there's got to be something else out there different for me to do I just haven't found a chat [Music] looking for something maybe this next or doesn't mean I mean this is a woman called pamlic from Saskatoon [Music] been divorced for seven years I'm still fighting with the courts I've always been independent always ensuring that everyone else is happy I own a laundry store and have three employees retail's difficult hi is Randy there I'm a single mother of a daughter of 21 with Down Syndrome guarding her staying in school I also solely look after my mother who's 86 and she has dementia my mom probably has been free um my rock both her and my daughter Emma have taught me patience and you know the people that are important I'm responsible to look after them and you just learn to do everything alone I think to the women they don't deserve to be this broken and this tired I think that as I get older and the things that I've gone through I appreciate them more good close friendships it doesn't make you feel like you're alone sometimes that there is somebody always around the corner you just have to ask for it so every time I have this doubt will this work and I go that's what it's all about it's about friendship it's about making new friends sharing the stuff that you did when you were 14 where you let on a bed with your best friend and you told her things that you would never tell your mom and stuff like that and that goes that goes with life as you get older I have 12 weeks left 12 weeks and it all starts in 12 weeks 17 18 women will arrive here and I'm not ready rooms aren't finished I have no furniture what's really kind of funny if there is a funny side to this is that I've been doing this all my life you know we have two days to to go one day to go three hours to go in one hour they're coming home but now it's my turn it's my turn to you know to to count down and and get this place done after three and a half years the crane is going to come down now the main heavy construction work is done look at the palm trees they'd be wanted one particular plant or another particular plant that I really didn't approve of my husband says looks like a pile of crap I mean imagine when that's all cleaned and waxed and stuff it'll make a lovely something everyone is [Music] foreign [Music] place at the right time and being where you should be at that time in any business you kind of crave for something fresh to reignite your passion again so I said to myself well what makes me happy one day she comes up with this idea and saying wouldn't it be great if I take a group of women somewhere nice and motivate them I love Tuscany so I thought well what if I invite women from around the world and they come and they share my villa with me but I didn't have a house I was like oops here you're restoring a 13th Century Property from the ground up it's hard work but it's it's so exciting Laura has been a complete surprise she's ballsy she talks to them she tells them no we're going to do this again yeah I am the rooster every time I have this doubt will this work and I go that's what it's all about it's about friendship [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] is going to come down now it's a big day because it's the end of a chapter this crane I never realized would become such a big part of my life and that means to the workers the main heavy construction work is done [Music] each piece of stone you know these beams the cotton the pipes the dirt you know everything everything has been done by crane for me it's a mixed Emulsion because it's like this chapter's over and I will never do that again I will live off another crane so I don't know how it's going to come down if it goes through my roof I will be very upset [Music] foreign [Music] 17 women will arrive here and I am nowhere near ready psychologically physically the building you know we have 12 weeks Lara 12 weeks I know these women will understand but they won't understand if they don't have a bed and they don't I'm afraid you're afraid the next thing that starts is the Landscaping which is around the whole property I think it's really opportune that we've come here at this particular moment I'm Peter Curtin and I'm a landscape Gardener I have been employed here to alter the landscape everybody I've worked with here has been male and has been Italian so Peter is a true Brit and he's extremely knowledgeable over many years I have worked in France Spain England Italy Greece I think that's all I have to listen to him if plants don't work they die and there's a lot of plants going in here [Music] we are in one of the biggest nurseries in Italy which is called Fratelli margariti [Music] oh look at that can look at the palm trees yes look at them oh actually if we had like a driveway of palm trees coming in I don't think that would be a good idea we went around and uh Debbie would say that she wanted one particular plant or another particular plant that I really didn't approve of these are nice look at that I wouldn't have them looking like that all these are possibilities you know I believe that the garden must belong to its place in other words when I make a garden or to a landscape it is the place that dictates so these are pomegranates these are pomegranates beautiful so these were I think in the courtyard at the front that's right Alberto how old is this more than secular is 100 years old 100 years old gosh it's for shape this one here okay let's put a ribbon on that one yeah yeah okay I would definitely choose this one okay let's can we put a ribbon on this one yeah I'm gonna get a shot when I get back okay I love oleanders [Laughter] they put it in the center of the highways and I think Peter's a snob I think he doesn't want it because they grow it on the highways that beard has her favorite plants but that doesn't mean that they are good to use of course in the summer it flows but then for the rest of the year it really looks dull so [Music] I've traveled all my working life and you know when women are tired there's things that they want and it doesn't have to be the Four Seasons or the Ritz it's really about I guess a home away from home so these Pig Styles will become the bedrooms good nice so sorry it's heavy [Music] in Italy they don't use baseboards so they put a band of paint this is called lining the reason they do that is that's the mop for the mop so you don't have dirty mop marks on your wall to be able to design 14 bedrooms is is really great because they can all be individual and they are they all have a different Flair a different look but they are all designed around warmth around being special that's the the thing that I really want to get across okay so I have [Music] this process has been juggling the Two Worlds the two lives the renovation here and work back in Canada I go back and forth back and forth for me it's like a bus service the writing my publisher the newspapers the product line all that kind of stuff and it is difficult and a regular on many of the daytime shows I'm in the makeup room at the Marilyn Dennis show in Toronto this is Eden he's trying to make me look decent this morning so I've been doing this show for a long time I've known Marilyn for many many years I'm constantly thinking about what's going on on the site I'm sitting here and sitting in here with this great makeup mirror thinking you know the women should have nice makeup mirrors in their rooms it never leaves my mind Marilyn's been very interested in what I'm doing and she's done a couple of interviews I started thinking one day I was actually live and she's talking about I'd love to come you know if I could just take a holiday and everything we're getting ready the opening is mid-june so we've got 20 girls coming from across the country wow I would love her to come here and experience what this place has to offer um so maybe she can test out the room try out the things we're going to be doing with the women if this is the year for me to do it now I'm over for that so we'll be talking about it for so long yeah and you're almost done and we've got a roof now you have a bathroom Plumbing that's perfect I think I might even have sheets I'm in really I can do it this year oh my God okay yeah I think she is somebody who needs a break I think she's somebody who will really appreciate what I'm trying to offer here and just relax and think and share and talk and and enjoy everything [Music] uh look over towards the light one but not quite as high like yeah I've done this before you know once or twice well Max is my youngest and you know he started his own career as a photographer try not blinking this time then okay she's in Africa so you know it would be great if both boys were here together when are you going back home Mom you mean back to Italy yeah it's funny calling it home oh about three days you can come and visit I have to say I see my I see my dad probably more than I see my mom because he's he's back in Canada a lot more than than she is sometimes we're all on different continents you know it's hard it's harder it's harder actually when I'm in Italy because I'm alone a lot of the time it's a new project it's a new chapter in their life and they I mean they're definitely working really hard to kind of build this new this new dream for themselves well I'm here she's there and I can't help out really help out it's easier if two people are there you share the load to some degree and you know you can vent foreign [Music] trees are coming which is about time because everything has got delayed because of the rain [Music] bloody hell they're really heavy they're so heavy I was trying to help [Music] with you I'm trying I'll go back to the kitchen [Music] I understand why Debbie is anxious I think if I were to be I'd be anxious too because she's got a lot at stake and when you see the building site and the conditions is no it's daunting foreign look at the size of it absolutely gorgeous so these are very old we have five right we've got five they're all very similar they're all similar but I think this is probably the most beautiful the biggest morning if you can have the wrong shoes on you definitely have the wrong shoes it goes on like this with all this mother it's difficult to do anything yeah but if we could prepare at least the passageways with solids the gravel is the last thing to go down and the problem is that here we have a very clay yellow soil and when it rains it's a nightmare because you sink into it and it's muddy and it clings to you it's sticky it goes everywhere so they sucks you in you know it's horrible sorry seriously so the gravel hole's all let in but you can't put the gravel in until 98 of the work's done so then I'm like Suddenly It's like we need the gravel this week and I wanted a particular color and I wanted a smooth grapple I didn't want the chips you know I wanted some I just wanted the right thing and it is all the walkways I said I wanted white white was Peter saw it and Peter was like too white it looks like Sicily it's not that I don't like white gravel it's just that I'm I'm worried that lots of people are going to get headaches white gravel produces a great deal of glare as I don't care I love the gravel so it's very hard to walk around here because it blinds you very very bright that is what I want it so this pile of what my husband says looks like a pile of crap is actually I have been collecting for months this is a pochelaya little door put your layer means pigsty and I'm going to use these for other things there are beautiful doors here the Italians seem to make the most fantastic doors and what happens is over the centuries they get faded so you get these beautiful patinas I mean imagine when that's all cleaned and waxed and stuff it'll make a lovely something this is going to be a coat hook so he's taking one of these and this is called a manjitoria and a manjitoria is the manger this is where the balls were chained up it's a beautiful wood and you can that could be a shelf beside a bed I know everybody's looking I don't see it Paulo here can you come down Paolo's the most incredible guy and he does he takes all wood like this and turns into other stuff so if you make that into a headboard you polish it and then we like the wax yeah and imagine that as a headboard be gorgeous oh you know they just got so much character and they smell really good will the smell go away my mayali [Music] Prince yeah I've been collecting stuff for for three or four years and you're antiquing you just keep your eyes open all the time I literally ask farmers can I have your door we have some doors foreign 's growing on this oh I like your ladders now that's nice for me it's not good but I think maybe it's a little broken but for a towel you want there's only blood is everywhere and I've actually found a lot of you know they were handmade that the farmers made their own ladders [Music] okay foreign [Music] foreign 's cave so this is where I'm collecting stuff for all the rooms things like this these old I don't know what it was but bring the towels gorgeous I can't find this stuff anymore and this this is a pig carrier so it would put the dead pig on here and then I guess two men would carry it amazing towel rail I mean really this is priceless and it will look so good in some of the rooms so you love modern and then you have these little old pieces and it's kind of the new industrial Chic this is from a pharmacy and they had drugs in so they would have had powdered drugs and some of them I have still have drugs and I have one that says arsenic it's the way you put things together if you put too much clutter in one room it's going to look like a joke shot old benches I'm going to need a lot of benches because I'd love to have areas where the women can sit quietly they can go for a walk in the woods and suddenly there's a beautiful bench there's something about being in a place where your mind can empty a lot of the women who are going to come here are looking for something they're looking for next chapters they're looking for where they move on to you're looking for something you're not sure what it is I think this trip will change me in in some way just by the sheer factor of going to a different country experiencing that if I don't do it now at this age or in this time in my life I don't think that I would do it since turning 50 I'm really questioning what is my purpose now and for the first time I think I'm starting to give myself the permission without feeling the guilt of discovering well what more can I offer the world Solid Waste Services Maria speaking now I'm starting to explore those possibilities [Music] you know I've struggled for lots of years with lots of things do you want apples or grapes okay um I'm like to look at myself as a as a caregiver and do that for a lot of people but I'm exhausted so I look at it thinking yeah I guess I do deserve it I just want somebody to look after me for a bit although that's hard to say in a way what's kind of crazy is all the things that the women who are coming worry about you know what if what if what if and that's still going on [Music] before 17 women arrived from around the world uh so it's kind of slightly nerve-wracking the Landscaping here is a massive job but we're putting in lots of mature trees we're putting in Cypress trees we're creating areas within the property through vegetation we've taken what was once this Farm yard just all machinery and stuff like this and we've turned it into a pomegranate Garden and we've got it on these raised beds because underneath we have garages so this was a massive hole and now it's a garden of pomegranate trees as far as the grass is concerned it's rather patchy it is a problem in having the building Works going on at the same time as Landscaping I wanted Lush gorgeous grass and this has been down for nearly two months now and it looks like somebody balding I mean it just looks horrible hi Debbie um Ricardo thinks it's really funny he's like you know not going to happen it's like watching The Kettle boil Debbie is very anxious and I think also often on the border of panic Peter wants to show me a typical Tuscan Garden that he's done at this point I hope it will comfort her to see what a property looks like once it's settled what a beautiful house so would you say this was a typical Tuscan Garden I don't know what a typical Tuscan Garden is really no you don't know no I don't know because there are so many Gardens in Tuscan it really leads to the question what is Tuscany they suppose the use of cypruses has had an influence on the design of gardens what are those big those that's a rose which is called Sally holes and I'm putting it in at your place what is so clever about this place is the way your eye keeps moving it keeps going on and on so you know you put a huge urn somewhere and your eye is drawn towards that whether it's a pond a dove house an urn that's what you do in interior design it keeps moving it's not just four walls he's got ducks and Ducks oh ducks and geese while we were there we were lucky enough to meet the owner who was this charming Charming gentlemen it's almost the same it was the same story every client does that you know lack of trust that's what she does Peter keeps talking about the trust Factor because these are not your typical Gardens full of annuals and you know different colored flowers I love Oleander nothing I hate Oleander you have to have plants that are typical of this area and I guess he's trying to get that to sink into my thick head what does my grass not look like this Peter I can't wait any longer I mean I'm staring at the stuff every morning it's a question of one year to get grass like this okay I've got two weeks left exactly so you're going to have a sod please America's got no peace they want it now that's me now so I want American Grass I want this grass laid like a carpet perfect oh foreign [Music] however there is oleander here in the way that I think it should be put in okay this is for Debbie are you kidding me my goodness how much work they have done on this place in 24 hours the ladies arrived and I've still got men I've got men running around here I want every single woman to come in and go wow wow I'm glad I'm here [Music] I think happiness is being in the right place at the right time and being where you should be at that time any business you kind of crave something fresh to reignite your passion again one day she comes up with this idea and saying wouldn't it be great if I take a group of women somewhere nice and motivate them I love Tuscany so I thought well what if I invite women from around the world and they come and they share my villa with me but I didn't have a house I was like oops we have two weeks before 17 women arrive so it's kind of slightly nerve-wracking everyone is I'm in the makeup room at the Marilyn Dennis show I've known Marilyn for many many years I would love her to come here and experience what this place has to offer [Music] uh oh blocked by a tractor Luciano [Music] every time my boys come and visit it's just so special I'm just a mom [Music] ENT around it's completely different apart from this bit wow this place is changing every day you know every week every month [Music] it's huge that's weird sorry isn't that fantastic when you're in it it's an infinity pool isn't it beautiful [Music] I would say when he got here well Maxi was gobsmacked I am stunned when I come back to Rainier I'm absolutely ecstatic I love coming back I love seeing the progress that has been made I love the scenery it's truly exhilarating during construction there was an old wooden pergola here not even a Pergola there were a couple of wires that plant was laid down and I thought it wasn't going to survive it and here it is four years later I'm Blown Away a mother nature comes back in force absolutely beautiful Debbie and I planned a very large Garage in which I could store my collection of vintage motorcycles so I ended up with a sort of 2 000 square feet more or less fantastic I thought never had a garage in my whole life so the plumber comes where's the space where I can put all of the plumbing infrastructure then Debbie says where are we going to put all the Linens and the towels and just supplies kind of a waste of space I could actually sleep on this so this is my box of tools and that's the extent of when I was given air space that's it so my big garage is no more because the rest has been confiscated by my wife and the plumber this room okay is it has to go up this week and P4 has to go up foreign these things are industrial mirrors um they were old windows that we put mirror in but they weigh a ton I want you to put these on the problem is this is the room I've chosen for Marilyn to test out and she's arriving in 24 hours so I want to get their filthy dirty boots out of my beautiful room ah Elegante sexy okay regassi what I'm thinking is if we move that if it's possible we move the desk over there and we put the mirror there because then you see it when you walk in foreign I've put the wrong mirror in the room to start with and now we've got the right mirror but put it on the wrong wall so we're moving it over there and then we have to do that now 14 times okay so this is all ready for Marilyn it's perfect and I've still got men I've got men running around here [Music] I've actually been going to antique markets in London outside Paris and about an hour from here is a town called rezzo and that has once a month the largest Antique Market outside Paris so I go very fast through the market because it's huge every single road is full of antiques I always need a pair of hands so I will drag my very tall strong sun to carry stuff he doesn't know that of course I like the Old Dutch this is a it's a vacuum did you have two uh yes I love deck chairs I've always loved the shape it reminds me of my mother you know always struggling to try and get up the picture they're making a huge comeback I think these would look great by the pool What colors would you get what if we did a blue a turquoise and a green does that not say Seaside to you very Seaside Quattro okay this is nice one foreign [Music] so there were these two guys from Puglia and they come up they drive like nine hours to get to this place and all over buy off them is breadboards um 150 for the floor too much 100 come on lift that shake the hand and change the price little bugger that lovely chain when you put one piece in a room just one separate piece looks looks awesome one thing that I wanted to do right was the kitchen because I wanted a semi-professional kitchen meaning that we could have cooking classes there we need two dishwashers we wanted a massive industrial stove we wanted good lighting we wanted a huge counter central island and I wanted to have an old sink and I managed to find because they're quite expensive a beautiful Old Stone sink foreign [Music] 's coming Marilyn is your typical working girl she works hard you know and she does a radio show she does a daily TV show God does how she does that we've got these little signs we're going to be giving to all the ladies so from Ireland I'm just gonna I don't know right well come on or something is the largest Suite we have it's on two floors so it's very very roomy this was an old Cantina where they used to make the wine so we had this great big open space and because we had the volume we could turn this into this big place that's why we put this great big like New York Loft type metal windows in [Music] the colors the the textures everything is about being relaxed being Serene you're on an adventure and you just want to be here I mean I just love everything everything's worked out really really well I just wanted to come in and go wow here it comes I hope she didn't miss it [Music] when friends come you see what they're seeing the little things that you're freaking out over don't really matter are you kidding me this is like this is the most amazing view [Music] this is the main Ville as he grew on they they built on and built on over the centuries and everything is made the Stone comes from the land around here we haven't bought one stone foreign the workmanship the beautiful buildings the way that the trees you know were just swaying back and forth and just coming around that corner and seeing that view it's so peaceful [Music] she had told me about building this wonderful Retreat for I don't know how many years and as you could see it in her eyes that things had really changed and it was all coming together foreign and you know I know I'm in Italy because the arches [Music] foreign [Music] very good looking guy a little old but you know my goodness how much work they have done on this place and how beautiful it is [Music] foreign it was brilliant to be able to see things through her eyes the design style of the place is that the Practical things in the rooms I've done very modern the lighting the floors the beds are clean wrought iron beds I want every single woman to open that door for the first time he went wrong you know I'm glad I'm here the sounds the smells you know everything looking fantastic and feeling fantastic you have the best Linens in the world you have these little splashes of color that make you feel happy [Music] cool Stone under your foot you've got amazing bathrooms [Music] but then I wanted to add some real Rustic Stuff like Old Farmers benches big containers where they would put the grapes [Music] this is actually the old door this was the front door of the house this was an old barn but we really had to take it down and start from scratch is where the women are going to come they have a fire going they can read they can hang out talk so this is Europe oh my gosh it's beautiful so this is some of our lavender Essence so when you go to bed a little bit on here sleep like a baby okay I have arrived isn't it gorgeous beautiful non-horarario means I don't have a schedule so the ladies who come here don't have a schedule of course I have a schedule but they don't they come here they do nothing they relax have a great time they don't have to worry about anything whether this place will change her or not whether it have any impact whatsoever I don't know I'm relaxed here you know you're not dolled up you're here and it calms you down and and it puts things in focus and what I'm trying to inspire to these women who come to us is you can do that dream that you have foreign [Music] to throw party as a celebration they're putting up more tables we'll have 11 tables times eight we expect 85 people maybe a bit more a bit less so we all have room three and a half years the sign down how do you say finished finito when I first sat down with volko and we talked about you know the entire project he originally said it would take two and a half years which for me that seemed like a lifetime but it actually took three and a half years and I don't think actually we wasted any time wow [Music] thank you Quincy quindiciani quindiciani 15 years ago so I'm going to try and do a speech in Italian um and practice it I really do want to thank them I mean it's so important these are the best workers I've ever ever worked with foreign [Music] over those years is really an incredible respect for the traditional ways of building there's no drywall here everything is is Stone and plaster obviously it's lost in North America we have different trays but we've lost those trays and here I hope they'll they'll stay [Music] okay Legacy bruta [Music] adesso codero Questa proprieta tencero a Boko boko's become a friend we worked really well together it's not always been easy and I'm sure sometimes he just wanted to knock me over a cliff but he never did Claudio Luca we've had two brothers Claudia Luca who have worked on all the stone building walls that look like they've been there for Generations we've experienced a death not on site but one of the key workers got ill and passed away [Music] [Music] Alexander [Music] Adobe every time I get into my bathtub I will think of my plumber and all the plumbing issues but Ricardo I'll always think of with a smile una Persona dementikeri or my not understand Bravo [Music] [Applause] feels he could have been a brother in another life you know we've gone through thick and thin rain and snow and heat and everything together as we've watched this building Come From the Ashes if you will [Applause] much these guys know their business there's something to be proud of this place will stay for 300 years 400 years like it is now so it's something that gives profits for everybody I could carry on forever just building and tinkering and doing stuff but I can't I can't afford to do that it's like our wedding cake oh it's better [Music] I know you all know each other from running past each other in hecticness this morning we're in a countdown now so we all the rooms to perfect we've got to put all the gifts in really get into a kind of a nice dance I think between us all but just so you all know Lucy's role is as a life coach she's going to be talking to all the women which we're going to schedule and Jackie's my I would say my my sidekick I've got a fantastic team you know Jackie knows me better than anybody else she calms you down she makes you comfortable and she's like that with the women as well perfect I found myself a fantastic Chef Francesco good looking and highly recommended right now we're scrambling to get things in place but once the ladies arrive my role is to be the chauffeur and to make sure we don't run out of wine Jackie's husband Steve is the other chauffeur Debbie's the boss and then I think number number two realistically is my wife who's Debbie's co-host if you like in this sort of thing with the ladies they're from all walks of life they are from different parts of the world they are different ages so what I want us to do is look at their registration forms and see if we can work out foreign I originally started this project because I believe in this place I believe in what it's done for me I believe in it I guess in the same way as I believed 15 years ago that everybody wanted to stencil their walls [Music] there's 17 women arriving for their next chapters but I'm beginning mine [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] as I was approaching the property I felt like I was in a dream and this has been a long time coming and to think that the moment has arrived it's surpassed my expectations every time we went around a curve I kept thinking is is that it is that the Villa just even seeing the room it's like when I see the bed it's like oh I can't wait to have a good sleep tonight [Music] describe the beauty in a picture you have to be here this week it is all about me to do this without having to feel too guilty about doing it for yourself amazing [Music] the Dolce Vita means the Sweet Life [Music] when we hear the word Dolce Vita everywhere it's only when I'm here that I understand what they mean foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Only Human

Views: 437,798

Keywords: 100-acre farm, DIY home projects, House transformation series, Italian property makeover, Italian tradesmen, Only Human, architecture and design, challenges of life, documentaries about life, historical protection laws, home improvement show, home renovation TV show, home renovation journey, human experiences, human spirit exploration, olive tree farm, personal transformation, property renovation, renovating a villa, vineyard maintenance, vineyard management

Id: yJl_gDJBl0M

Length: 134min 57sec (8097 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022