It is in the "Farmer's House", next to the main house. One step away from the glicine courtyard, just climb a stone step and you arrive at Agata, the room "of illusions". It doesn't give in to flattery, it's essential and sweet; at the same time the presence of a mirror and a tromp l'œil make the strings of the imagination vibrate and almost project you into a fairy-tale world. On the opposite wall the window opens another window, but painted: the gaze still rests on a countryside, a turreted village dominated by noble residences: the first illusion.
I return to the solidity of the moment by observing the headboards of the bed - dark wood decorated with brass garlands; bedside tables with light marble shelves, the color of agate. The sweetness of the soft ivory quilt invites you to rest, the wicker armchair does the same. But the eye rests on the second illusion, the mirror. According to the rules of Feng Shui it does not reflect the bed, it is narrow and high, it does not cut the figure, it returns it whole. But above all it reflects the glicine , which we have just left caressed by the air and which we find again here.
A subtle deception, a miracle rather, a small revelation. The raw wooden wardrobe reminds me that we are in the countryside. In the bathroom, a small oval window opens discreetly onto the access path to the hotel, very close to the favorite place of the swallows, who have chosen a niche in the porch as their holiday home.
I return to the room, on my left the Monferrato hills, the glicine branches, the violets; to my right - mirrored, the same hills, the glicine , the flowers: yes, but what does that surface reflect? I remember the instructions engraved in an ancient Vietnamese mirror: “Like the sun, like the moon, like water, like gold, be clear and brilliant and reflect what is in your heart”. Reflection of conscience, of truth, of the heart. We dedicate this room
To those who have their heads in the clouds, to those who love to get lost among reflected deceptions, knowing that at the end of the game they will "find their way back", attracted by the fragrances of flowers, the aroma of a herbal tea or the irresistible scent of a sweet freshly baked at home.
It would be appreciated by... Jorge Luis Borges, of course. Visionary, labyrinthine writer and poet, traveler of time and space, narrator of dreams and illusion.
