The story of the house, from 1753 to today

In 1753 a tailor worked at what is now our address. In 1829 the workshop passed to a glovemaker; in 1859 it became a Viennese café, the kind with mirrors and velvet. The house is almost three hundred years old, and it has always had to do with the hands: cutting, sewing, serving coffee.

We came much later. Anna and Maria, mother and daughter, Italians born and raised in South Africa, where for years we ran a restaurant called Lombardi. We carried Italy with us in the name and in the kitchen long before we moved back.

We returned by way of the Cinque Terre, and from there the road brought us up here, to the Val Pusteria. We chose this house from 1753 and gave it a name, Zenana, the women's quarters. It is our way of going on with what we know how to do: making people welcome.