The Spinabella Affair: An Entrepreneur’s Leap Into the Unknown and the Wild Fight to Bring an Italian Villa Back to Life
Entrepreneurs are wired differently.
- We chase problems instead of running from them.
- We look at chaos and see opportunity.
- We find ourselves drawn to adventures that make no rational sense but every emotional one.
That’s exactly how I ended up buying Villa Spinabella — a forgotten historic villa tucked into the hills of Marino, just outside Rome. A place that whispered possibility the moment I stepped onto its land. A place that had been abandoned by time but not yet defeated by it.
I didn’t go looking for a renovation project.
I went looking for a challenge that would force me to live fully — to travel, to work, and to play in equal measure.
Villa Spinabella delivered exactly that.
This is the story of how I bought a villa that most people would have walked away from, the battles that followed, and the adventure that continues today.
The Moment I Saw It: The Entrepreneurial Instinct Kicked In
If you’ve ever built something from scratch — a business, a career, a brand — you know the moment where logic shuts up and instinct speaks.
That’s the moment I had at Villa Spinabella.
Yes, it was crumbling.
Yes, the roof was failing.
Yes, the water system belonged in a museum.
Yes, the land had been left wild for decades.
Yes, every possible bureaucratic nightmare was guaranteed.
Yes, a territorial neighbour was waiting like a boss fight in Level One of an Italian renovation game.
But the entrepreneur in me didn’t see problems.
I saw potential — raw, unpolished, buried, but very real.
The adventurer in me saw the landscape, the silence, the history carved into every stone, and whispered:
“If not me, who?”
“If not now, when?”
That combination — risk, beauty, and purpose — is how an entrepreneur falls in love.
And so I bought it.
Challenge #1: The Mystery of the 200-Metre Water Line
Every adventure begins with a riddle.
Mine was water.
When I purchased the property, nobody knew where the water pipes were. Not the owners, not the municipality, not the neighbours — nobody. The entire system had been constructed piece by piece over generations.
To an adventurer, that’s exciting.
To an entrepreneur, that’s a nightmare.
With the help of Giancarlo — a man who deserves sainthood — we walked the land, cleared trees, smashed through old walls, dug up ground, traced ancient pipes, followed clues, documented evidence, and slowly pieced together a system ACEA would understand.
Every time we sent the documents, we were told something was missing:
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A measurement here
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A material specification there
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A photograph with the wrong angle
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A date about to expire
It felt like building a startup inside an escape room.
But we kept going.
Persistence is an entrepreneur’s strongest muscle.
Eventually, we cracked it.
Challenge #2: The Neighbourhood Saga — or The Farmer Who Declared War on My Gate
I came to Italy expecting bureaucracy.
I didn’t expect a local farmer to rip off my gate plaques, steal materials, throw our tools into the bushes, and try to assert dominance like a medieval land baron.
But this is Travel.Work.Play — not Travel.Work.Nap.
When adventure hits, you stand up straighter.
We documented every incident.
We built evidence.
We spoke to lawyers.
We reinforced the understanding of our right of passage.
We remained calm — mostly.
And in the process, I learned something important:
Every great adventure has a villain.
Every entrepreneur has an obstacle to overcome.
Every story needs tension to be worth telling.
This was mine.
Challenge #3: Electricity, Termites, and the House Fighting for Survival
Inside the villa, another battle awaited.
Electricity was inconsistent — some lights worked, some didn’t, and the garage wiring resembled a puzzle with no solution.
Termites had been feasting for years.
Chairs. Tables. Doors. Beams.
The house was alive… in all the wrong ways.
Most people would panic.
Entrepreneurial instinct says: diagnose, prioritize, execute.
We brought in specialists.
We mapped the damage.
We made a plan.
We started restoring, one beam at a time.
This is the part of the adventure where you roll up your sleeves and embrace the mess.
Challenge #4: The Roof — The Heart of the House
The roof of Villa Spinabella is legendary.
Not because of its beauty — but because of its fragility.
Tiles cracked, beams weakened, storms threatening structural collapse.
This wasn’t cosmetic work.
This was triage.
In business terms:
The roof was the company’s “critical infrastructure” — and it needed urgent investment.
We began the process:
Quotes, materials, scaffolding design, contractor schedules.
This is when the restoration stopped being a project and became a mission.
Challenge #5: Italy’s Bureaucracy — The Ultimate Boss Level
Entrepreneurs talk about “navigating complexity.”
Italian bureaucracy laughs at that and says:
“Hold my wine.”
Permits, certifications, declarations, surveys, notary documents, residency requests, historical preservation rules — each step required precision and patience.
But if building companies teaches you anything, it’s that complexity is just another form of resistance.
You push until it gives way.
Slowly, the villa started to move forward, one paper, one approval, one signature at a time.
Why Do This? Because Travel.Work.Play Is a Philosophy, Not a Slogan
Villa Spinabella isn’t just a house to renovate.
It’s a test of resilience.
A playground for creativity.
A worksite for innovation.
A travel story unfolding in real time.
A reminder that life is better when you build something extraordinary — even if it scares you.
Some people collect stamps.
Some collect cars.
Some collect experiences.
I collect projects that change me.
Villa Spinabella is exactly that.
Follow the Full Journey — The Real Story, Not the Filtered One
Everything — the beauty, the disasters, the wins, the failures, the breakthroughs, the ridiculousness, the adventure — is documented on:
👉 https://www.spinabellaaffair.com/
On the site you’ll find:
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Daily updates
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Drone videos
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Construction reports
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The neighbour drama
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Water line discoveries
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Roof rescue operations
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Before-and-after photos
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Architectural plans
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Travel.Work.Play storytelling
Villa Spinabella isn’t a renovation.
It’s an expedition.
A startup in stone.
A life experiment.
A test of madness and vision.
A story still being written.
If you’re curious how far this adventure goes —
follow the journey and watch the transformation happen in real time.
Welcome to The Spinabella Affair.
Welcome to Travel.Work.Play.