about us
we don't just host. we belong.
TERRABUCCI –
our land, our heart.
We’re Elena and Matteo — partners in life and in work.
Together, we form a small but passionate property management team, dedicated to hosting with care and authenticity.
TERRABUCCI was born from two things we love deeply: our story and our land.
“Bucci” is our couple’s nickname, and this is the land (terra) we call home — the places we cherish and have chosen to share with travelers from around the world, welcoming them like friends just passing through spaces that speak of us.
We love discovering new places, cultures, ingredients, and flavors.
We’re drawn to DIY projects, thoughtful restorations, handmade creations — and above all, the kitchen. Elena is a passionate foodie; Matteo, a professional chef.
We’re also home staging experts, and we enjoy helping owners bring out the full potential of their spaces — making each home feel more rooted in its surroundings, and more inviting to those who stay, even just for a while.
We believe every home has a story. It just needs someone to help it speak.
But one of our greatest joys remains hospitality.
Opening the doors of our homes feels like traveling without moving — meeting the world, one guest at a time.
Welcome to a little corner of our world. Welcome home.
Opening the doors of our homes feels like traveling without moving — meeting the world, one guest at a time.
Elena
Elena. Translator, foodie, flexible body, free spirit. DIY soul with a handmade heart.
She’s passionate about healthy cooking, self-production and self-sufficiency — always crafting what others would usually buy.
From beauty products to macramé, from homemade ice cream to repurposed furniture, give her an idea, and she’ll find a way to make it herself.
Her love for sweets is best described as a long romance — though now she’s (mostly) divorced from sugar.
She spends hours preparing and savoring her breakfast — which, truth be told, she might enjoy twice a day.
She sees photography as a way to hold onto fleeting beauty, and often takes hundreds of pictures, trying to capture a single moment that feels true.
She shares her life with cats, hens, and a jungle of named plants. She’s always dreamed of adopting a cow too (and you know she means it).
You’ll likely find her practicing yoga, pilates or gymnastics, hunting for treasures at flea markets, harvesting berries in the countryside, or sipping another cup of chicory coffee while dreaming up her next project.
MATTeO
Matteo. Chef by profession, handyman by instinct, and a man of many hats — most of them well-worn.
He’s a traditional cook with a gourmet twist.
His risotto is legendary, but his signature dish is a fiery, amped-up version of spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino (not for the faint of heart).
He’s worked as a gardener, bartender, holiday entertainer, ski resort assistant, airport crew… and even as an exterminator.
Name a job — he’s probably done it. Name a tool — he probably knows how to fix it.
Though the stove is where he spends most of his time, the land is his true teacher.
He builds, repairs, and restores with quiet precision, and can’t resist anything with an engine — from motorcycles to chainsaws and brushcutters.
His English may be broken, but his charm is fluent.
He wins over guests, friends and strangers alike with his warmth and his never-ending stream of running jokes.
He’s often the life of the party… or the one making sure everything works behind the scenes.
You’ll find him mushroom hunting in the woods, stand-up paddle boarding on Lake Orta, sipping a beer in the sun — or adding yet another chili pepper to his plate.
Our VISION
We believe that the true essence of a place lies not in its objects, but in its atmosphere.
The feeling it evokes. The memories it gently carries.
We value the experience of a space — the way it welcomes you, slows you down, and makes you feel at ease — more than any possession or luxury item.
That feeling comes from the place itself, the hands that shaped it, and the people who keep it alive.
To us, luxury means simplicity, intention, and the quiet beauty of things made to last.
We find elegance in imperfection, warmth in the handmade, and soul in spaces with a story to tell.
We are drawn to salvaged materials, timeworn objects, and pieces that already carry a life. We prefer them to catalog perfection, and love to place them where they can belong again.
Our intention is to create memorable experiences rooted in thoughtful design, authenticity, and slow living —
for guests who appreciate nature’s rhythm, embrace imperfection, and find beauty in the here and now.
Because home is not a style. It’s a feeling.
Curious to see how our values shape the way we host?
Home is not a style.
It's a feeling.
How it all begun
Our journey into hospitality began with a home and a dream. We didn’t know it yet, but restoring that house would become the seed of TERRABUCCI.
A house full of life
Elena’s family home was always filled with people.
It was where family and friends gathered, where food and wine were always plentiful and delicious.
Her father was not only the king of the kitchen — he was also a handyman who kept the house and garden like a gem.
A slow silence
After he passed away, Mafalda — Elena’s mother — found herself alone in that big house.
She began spending more time at her sister’s, and little by little, the family home stood empty.
We watched it slowly deteriorate for a decade, and one day, we knew:
we wanted to see it lively and shining again.
A home meant to be shared
This house has always been full of joy and love. And once it came back to life, it was so warm and full of personality that we felt the urge to share it with others. We live in a beautiful corner of the world, we love to share our knowledge of the lakes, our recipes, our way of life. We are hosts at heart — and opening Casa Mafalda to guests felt like the most natural thing.
No budget. Just love (and paint)
We rolled up our sleeves and spent months renovating and remodeling the house — with no budget.
We didn’t buy a single piece of furniture.
We just repurposed what we had.
Our only expense was:
coffee, tons of paint, and time.
A crash course in everything
Through this project, we discovered we had something rare:
the ability to see beauty in what others would discard,
to turn vision into reality,
to transform something outdated into something full of soul.
We became:
restorers, carpenters, plumbers, painters, electricians…
and, somehow, we memorized all of Franco Battiato’s songs too.
restorers, carpenters, plumbers, painters, electricians…
and, somehow, we memorized all of Franco Battiato’s songs too.
May 20, 2016
We published our first Airbnb listing.
Two days later, we got our first booking.
We couldn’t believe it.
Casa Mafalda was born. And so was our life as hosts.
Where we’ve felt at home, before becoming hosts
Places that shaped our way of hosting
Before we opened our doors to guests, we opened our hearts to places.
Each of these stays left something with us — a sense of calm, a feeling of care, a quiet kind of beauty. These are a few of the places that helped shape TERRABUCCI’s way of hosting.