This place is also a tourist destination for visitors to explore and learn about history.
In the autumn of 2020, originally intending to go to the United States to attend the Academy of Music and Performing Arts, 19-year-old Ludovica Sannazzaro had to stay in Italy with her family due to the outbreak of the pandemic. During this time, she came up with the idea of creating a personal TikTok channel to share her life in her family’s 900-year-old castle.
This castle dates back to 1163.
Posted on March 7, 2021, her first video was captioned: “Have you ever wondered what it feels like to live in a castle?” Her videos began to gain considerable attention from internet users, who were extremely curious about life inside an ancient castle.
Ludovica’s family lives in the Castello Sannazzaro in the Piedmont region of Italy, which has existed since the 12th century. Her family is the 28th generation to preserve the lifestyle within the 10,000 m2 castle, which sits on a 25,000 m2 estate, featuring 45 rooms, including 15 bedrooms and invaluable historical archives dating back to 1163.
The videos Ludovica shares on social media sometimes showcase the ballroom, frescoed ceilings, and medieval architecture, while at other times reveal a hidden bank beneath a hill or the path to a wine cellar. Before the pandemic, her family welcomed visitors for tours.
She once said: “As a child, while watching Disney movies, I often imagined myself as a princess wandering around a castle. Yet, initially, I had no idea I was living in a place quite similar to what I had imagined. I was born and raised here, so sometimes I forget how wonderful this is.”
Inside Castello Sannazzaro.
However, in another video, Ludovica mentioned that sometimes life in the 900-year-old castle is not dreamy at all. For example, the Wi-Fi works so poorly that she describes it as “freezing cold,” cleaning takes a lot of time, finding something that has been misplaced is not easy, and even getting the family together in one room can take up to two hours…
Her father, Count Giuseppe Sannazzaro, stated that although they have hired a butler and a gardener, most of the work is done by themselves since mowing the lawn can take 2-3 days, and cleaning the house can take an entire day.
