(CNN) – When Ludovica Sannazzaro Natta introduces herself to someone, she always starts with the most important facts: She is 21 years old and will soon be 22. She is Italian. She is a “very proud Scorpio.” He studied musical theater in Los Angeles and New York.
Then he adds an unexpected detail: “I live in a castle all day.”
Growing up in a castle
Sannazzaro Castle is located in northern Italy. Photo credit: Ludovica Uberta Sannazzaro Natta
At the age of four, Sannazzaro Natta moved into the fairytale Sannazzaro Castle with 45 rooms and towers.
Sannazzaro Natta comes from Italian nobility and his father is a count. Located in the picturesque countryside near Giarole in northern Italy, this medieval fortress has been in his family for 28 generations.
The previous generation used the Sannazzaro Castle mainly as a summer home, but in 2006 Sannazzaro Natta’s parents decided to move from Milan and make the castle their full-time residence, also taking their young daughter with them.
“When I moved here, everything was so normal to me,” he tells CNN Travel today. “It was simply my home and the place where I would spend the rest of my life.”
Although the castle was “normal” for the young Sannazzaro Natta, she still remembers the excitement of discovering the castle’s wealth of rooms: there are 18 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, as well as living rooms, a library, a ballroom and a dining room. not to mention the moat, a chapel and secret passages. His parents soon realized that hide-and-seek games in a castle can take a long time.
“I ran through the whole castle,” recalls Sannazzaro Natta. “My parents sometimes couldn’t find me because I thought it would be so much fun to hide in the closets.”
The interiors of the spectacular ballroom date back to the 19th century. Photo credit: Ludovica Uberta Sannazzaro Natta
Sannazzaro Natta has an older brother, but he is 14 years older than her. So she spent her childhood exploring the castle with her group of friends. The children spent long days making up stories about princesses, witches and wizards in an extremely appropriate environment. The castle, says Sannazzaro Natta, was a “very creative” place where he spent his childhood.
“I grew up with Harry Potter and Narnia and all that stuff,” he remembers. “Of course the castle was absolutely brilliant at recreating that kind of fantasy atmosphere and world, so it was our own Harry Potter in my castle.”
As a teenager, Sannazzaro Natta attended a boarding school in another part of Italy. With this distance and increasing maturity, he developed conflicting feelings towards the palace of his childhood.
The castle is a treasure trove full of family heirlooms. Photo credit: Ludovica Uberta Sannazzaro Natta
“I didn’t really know how to tell people I lived in a castle,” he says.
She realized that “this detail of mine can change your view of me, your opinion of me” and saw her withholding the information until she felt she had established a good relationship with a potential boyfriend.
“I live in a castle. This isn’t normal,” he realized. “It’s unique and special.”
As Sannazzaro Natta began to explore this privilege and its meaning, she also became fascinated by the history of Sannazaro Castle and its intertwining with her own family heritage.
“There are almost 900 years of history between this place and my family,” he says.
He helped his father examine old family letters. He closely followed the paranormal investigators who came to investigate possible ghostly events. He researched his family tree to understand how the castle was built.
See the castle with different eyes
After finishing high school, Sannazzaro Natta moved to the United States to study musical theater. Her new American friends were even more speechless than her Italian colleagues when she told them the news about her living style. But by now, Sannazzaro Natta was feeling more comfortable and able to make her story her own.
“I’m not going to hide any part of myself just because I’m afraid of what they’ll think,” she decided. “If you really want to get to know me, you’ll get to know me with this special thing because it’s a part of me.”
Then, in the middle of Sannazzaro Natta’s studies in the USA, the Covid-19 pandemic came. Like many college students during the pandemic, she was forced to go to her parents’ house, even though, of course, her parents’ house was a castle.
Sannazzaro Natta saw the fortress with different eyes after his absence.
“I said to myself, ‘I love this place. Sometimes I don’t appreciate him as much as I should. Probably because it’s my home. And it’s so normal for me. But I really, really love this place.’”
With this newfound appreciation for the castle, Sannazzaro Natta’s social media account, The Castle Diary, was born.
In between his studies, Sannazzaro Natta spent time uploading videos to TikTok and Instagram summarizing what life in a medieval castle is really like. Yes, it’s nice, he explains, but there’s also a poor Wi-Fi connection, a lot of rooms to clean and a lot of drafts.
Ludovica Sannzzaro Natta began posting videos about her life at the castle on social media. In the videos, she mostly wears ball gowns inspired by “Bridgerton.” Photo credit: Ludovica Uberta Sannazzaro Natta
It was March 2021 and his videos offered a timely escape from the pandemic. Plus, the Netflix series “Bridgerton” was on everyone’s lips and Sannazzaro Natta seemed to be living a real version of it. It didn’t take long for her TikTok account to gain followers.
As her following grew, Sannazzaro Natta dedicated herself to historical drama, commissioning her mother to sew her dresses in the 19th century rather than the 2020s.
Nowadays, Sannazzaro Natta rarely appears in modern clothes in her videos and fully embraces the “princess aesthetic” on social media.
At the same time, it remains committed to depicting the reality of life in the castle. He continues to make videos about the castle’s unexpected features, from the many antique toilets to the frustration of forgetting keys and climbing several spiral staircases to find them.
And to be clear, Sannazzaro Natta is not actually a princess, although she is on the verge of inheriting her father’s title and one day becoming a countess, which is very reminiscent of Bridgerton, even if the title has no real meaning in Republican Italy.
Enjoy life in a castle
Some rooms at Sannazzaro Castle are available for holiday rental. Photo credit: Ludovica Uberta Sannazzaro Natta
Sannazzaro Natta’s social media presence has become a family affair: her mother helps her do laundry, her father is often in front of the camera, and her brother works on the administrative and financial part of Sannazzaro’s fame. Natta on social networks.
The Sannazzaro Natta family is pleasantly surprised by the great interest that the videos have generated, among other things because they served to promote accommodation in the castle.
That’s right, if you want to live like Sannazzaro Natta for a day, you can do it. Six of the castle’s eighteen rooms are available for tourists to rent. Additional rooms are available for weddings or other large events.
The castle is about an hour from Milan, Turin and Genoa and 650 meters from Giarole train station.
“This area is very famous for its landscapes,” says Sannazzaro Natta. “There are a lot of small towns. There are beautiful hills,” he adds. “Of course the food is fantastic. And the area is also very famous for its wine. So there are a lot of different wineries.”
Share the experience
Sannazzaro Natta wants to open the castle doors as wide as possible and is thinking about organizing a ball next year. Photo credit: Ludovica Uberta Sannazzaro Natta
Sannazzaro Natta says there’s nothing he likes more than when the castle is full of visitors and pulsating with energy, be it from the visits of his incredulous and enthusiastic American friends (whose reactions to the castle he often documents on social media). or by tourists.
For Sannazzaro Natta, his house then comes to life. So if his social networks increase traffic, what could be better?
“My father opened the accommodation because he wanted the castle to be experienced. He wanted people to be able to see and breathe that reality,” he says. “And I want exactly the same thing.”
Inspired by the success of her aesthetic on social media, Sannazzaro Natta is planning upcoming public events exploring what she calls the “fantasy” of the castle. First, he hopes to host a history-themed ball in 2025.
Now that she is an adult, Sannazzaro Natta is becoming increasingly aware of the costs and upkeep that come with living in a castle. Hosting balls and historical events could also be a way to ensure the castle’s longevity, something she has great interest in as she and her brother will one day inherit the property.
Sannazzaro Natta says she remains committed to musical theater and currently dreams of playing one of Henry VIII’s six wives featured in the musical comedy “Six,” who all knew a thing or two about castles. He would like to perform at Sannazzaro Castle.
Sannazzaro Natta says his ultimate goal is to share “the atmosphere of this beautiful place” with everyone, whether through social media or in person.
“I have something unique and special that I want to share with people,” he says. “Because I think a lot of people don’t know this reality. They don’t even believe she exists unless she’s in the movie.”