The Old Trattoria Locanda
An inn since the 1700s

Rest, as travellers always have.

A stone locanda on the old ridge road between two valleys, now being carefully returned to what it was built for: welcoming people in.

Belvedere · Castel del Rio · Bologna
The trattoria-locanda in Belvedere, photographed in the last century — the painted TRATTORIA LOCANDA sign visible on the gable wall
The locanda and its painted sign, Belvedere — from the family archive
Story

Three centuries on the road over the ridge.

1700s

The locanda

Built in local stone on the road linking the Santerno and Sillaro valleys, the house served travellers, drovers and traders as a roadside inn — terracotta stairs, chestnut beams, floors of stone slabs.

1944

The front line

In the autumn of 1944 the Gothic Line ran through these hills. Belvedere saw some of the fiercest fighting of the campaign at nearby Ca' di Guzzo — and the old inn survived it.

Now

The restoration

We are stripping away the twentieth-century additions and restoring the original stone block and its courtyard — conserving what three centuries left behind, and opening the doors again.

The Stay

One apartment, made slowly.

First guests · Summer 2027
  • Original stone building of around 180 m², with cellars below
  • A private courtyard of around 200 m²
  • Antique terracotta staircase, exposed chestnut beams
  • Stone slab floors, kept and repaired rather than replaced
  • 463 metres up, on the quiet SP21 through the hamlet of Belvedere
The Valley

Chestnut country, between Emilia and Tuscany.

200 m · on foot

Osteria Tubeya

The hamlet's own osteria: handmade pasta, porcini in season, Romagnola beef — the same trade this house once kept, still alive next door.

10 min · by car

Ponte Alidosi

Castel del Rio's Renaissance humpback bridge over the Santerno, begun in 1499 — with the Alidosi fortress-palace, war museum and chestnut museum in the town below.

All around

Marrone IGP woods

Centuries-old chestnut groves produce the protected Marrone di Castel del Rio. Walk the drovers' paths in autumn and the woods are full of them.

50 km · by car

Bologna & beyond

An hour to Bologna's porticoes and food halls; Florence over the passes to the south; Imola and its circuit down the valley.

Looking ahead

One day, a wine bar in the courtyard.

The long plan is to bring the ground floor back to its old public life — a small wine bar pouring Sangiovese and Albana under the chestnut beams. First, the restoration. Then the first guests. Then, in time, the glasses.

Contact

Follow the restoration.

We'll share the work as it happens — the survey, the stone, the first room. For enquiries or to be told when booking opens, write to us.

stay@oldtrattorialocanda.com