About Us
Who are we and How did we get to Lubiara?
We are a mixed expat family of Americans, Italians and Danes (and a Norwegian if you count the dog)- Lisa, Stefano, Sasha, Arianna and Zeno (and Loki). We live and work in Copenhagen, and come down to our Italian home as often as possible. We work with friends, neighbors and supporters of the arts to make the Association of Casa Dell’ Angelo possible as a not-for-profit organization to support artists and creatives.
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Our Story
We have lived in the village of Lubiara since 2007. After a decade of Scandinavian summers (too cold for some of us), we decided to rent a small apartment for three weeks in a village near to Lake Garda. After the first week, we were touring around with a real estate agent in hopes of finding a summer home. When we came to Lubiara, we were enchanted. Something about the place, not really anything specific, yet everything about the environment. . . it simply chose us.
The agent assured us that the home was far too small for a family of five, and the lack of a parking space or cantina would make our lives very inconvenient. We disagreed and immediately bought the small house where we will welcome our artists-in-residence—‘Casa dell’ Angelo’ –The Angel House (not as we sometimes joke, the house of Angelo the pizzaiolo). The house is named for the stone angel who lives in the wall of the tiny garden.
At Easter in 2014, we became the owners of the farm next door to Casa dell-Angelo, known as ‘El Poer’, or ‘The Place’ (or better in English, ‘The Homestead’) in Lubiara. From medieval times until the 1960s, ‘el poer’ in dialect, or ‘il podere’ in Italian, was the structuring unit of rural livelihoods. It was the homestead of a family and provided everything needed to thrive and reproduce. The bounded land and its bounty were essential to the existence of a family. El Poer has been in the family of our friend Gianluca for generations and we enjoy the stories from the elder neighbors whose memories on the land trace back the decades. We have been privileged to be welcomed by El Poer and strive to maintain its essence as a simple, tranquil farm. We will be the sometimes neighbors of the artists in residence at Casa dell Angelo.
In 2024, we began talks within our local community about how we might use our Casa Dell’ Angelo in a way that could support our values and our neighborhood, and the Association of Casa Dell’ Angelo was our idea. We have hoped to create a place of peace. It is our goal that anyone who comes to stay in our place will feel at home and will make this their place. We happily host creatives and their families of all configurations- all genders, races, species and religions are welcome here, as long as you are nice.
