Tolkien's Middle-earth finds fertile ground in Italy, to be precise in Abruzzo. it's all about Nicolas Dear, 37-year-old pastry chef with a passion for fantasy and a great fan of The Lord of the Rings. A few kilometers from Chieti, in Bucchianico, a real miniature county is being born. A community within which to enjoy life in the manner of hobbits.
Hobbits in Abruzzo
Over the years, driven by his passion, Nicolas has given life to various Lord of the Rings themed events. All in one community that has just over 5 thousand inhabitants. No one intends to accelerate events in this dream area, as the pastry chef himself explains. Everything moves slowly and what changes it does with very different times from the city ones.
Interviewed by Wired, he explained how his project was born: “I realized that the hobbits could only be from Abruzzo. The lifestyle of my villagers is very reminiscent of that of the hobbits. I live in a place where everything changes slowly. My relatives are almost all farmers, like the hobbits, and I also do a job in full County style ”.
From the passion for the masterpiece of Tolkien when buying land a Bucchianico, so as to build his bucolic house in full Lord of the Rings style. A total of about 20 square meters, with an aesthetic that recalls that ofhome of Bilbo Baggins. Initially intending to make this place his private meeting place, he then realized that he had started a much more ambitious project.
He organized an event to celebrate the end of the works. The title chosen is all to say: “Happy birthday Bilbo”. It was a great success: “For the events in the town I had to pay taxes for his audience to the Municipality. This is also why I had chosen to buy land. It was the ideal solution to organize events and have my happy island. But I have received a lot of love from people who have come from other regions to see my hobbit home. A couple even came from France. So I understood that it was something to share with other people ”.
Gentile County
That first major private event kicked off the project "Gentile County”, Supported by fans of his lifestyle, detailed on his Instagram page. From a single house to the dream of creating a real village, building about 20 houses.
In Italy, however, we know, we must deal with a difficult bureaucratic system: “I presented the project, in order to receive funds and finance everything. I was told, however, that it was not interesting. I will launch crowdfunding in September for the construction of the Gentile County. On the bureaucratic front it will be framed as a sort of fantasy farmhouse. But I am not interested in the economic aspect of the village. I want people to be able to live this experience ”.
The project was done, he explains, and features a cost of 100 thousand euros, approximately. Fortune has it that a change in the land use plan will soon lead to its agricultural land becoming for tourist use, with a margin of 400 hectares to build: “I am building the parent company with the help of an architect. For small houses I will entrust myself to an Abruzzese company that builds just this type of housing. There will be all services, including wi-fi. There are those who have objected to me that it is something little hobbit, but I believe their lifestyle requires having all sorts of comforts. We are modern County dwellers".
@mariartese, did you like Lord of the Rings? Check it out!
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