Who We Are
The Hill That Breathes is run by a marvellous team…Maurizio Mea (our manager), Monica Mancini (who looks after bookings), Bente (our chef) and Roberto (our gardener).
The Hill was conceived and founded by John C. Parkin and Gaia Pollini (you can read The Observer's narration of their story on this page). John and Gaia live at The Hill, in the second renovated farmhouse. They run the F**k It weeks. At other times, you'll probably see them around: at meals and by the pool with their boys. Sometimes you'll see quite a bit of them, sometimes not a lot (particularly when they're on holiday themselves).
The Observer on how John and Gaia set up The Hill That Breathes
The Hill was the first place they saw and it matched all their criteria. It is on a hill, so has good C'hi or energy, but the hill is not too high; that's a good thing, apparently. (I was a C'hi virgin before this week). It is surrounded by water on three sides and had two abandoned farmhouses so that they could expand.
They bought the 100-acre site for less than they got for their flat in Balham, and then spent the next couple of years renovating it. The name, they explained, might be very B-movie but the hill really does breathe. Most of the land is covered in pine trees, which are the most prolific producers in tree terms of oxygen and C'hi.
Today, The Hill is a magical place. The kind of gorgeous Italian farmhouse - plus pool, gardens filled with wild flowers, and panoramic views - that you'd spend a fortune renting for a couple of weeks over the summer.
John and Gaia both practise what they preach. "F**k It" was what they said when they gave up their lives in London in 2002.
They were both creatives in an advertising agency when they met in the Nineties, realised they had similar interests in New Age philosophies and decided to quit the rat race and open a holistic retreat in Italy. Gaia is originally from Milan but spent all her summer holidays in Fano on the east coast so had a connection to the area.
They bought a camper-van, packed up their newborn twin boys and set off on a six-month road trip to find the perfect site. The recent overspill from Tuscany meant that Umbria and the Marche were out of their price range - or so they thought - but they stopped in Urbino on the way south anyway on the off-chance. And the rest is history.
Contact Information
If you've got a question around booking and The Hill, it's highly likely that the answer is within our FAQs, so please look there before contacting us.
However, there are of course some things that you need to contact us about (you may be a journalist, for example, interested in what we do)… in which case, our preference is that you e-mail us first.
behappy@thehillthatbreathes.com
Phone
(0039) 0722 347895
Snail mail
La Collina Che Respira,
Localita Girfalco,
Via Ca Loreto, 3,
61029
Urbino (PU)
Italia