Her plan included starting a bed and breakfast and an arts center that catered to the community as well as to guests seeking a retreat. A painter, raised in a home immersed in art, she had worked in personnel, events planning and advertising. My dream is that people will come to enjoy the history of the house and the surrounding area and join in the creative activities. I hope they find another avenue for meaning in their lives. And they do, she insists.
Renovations have totaled a million dollars, says the Italian innkeeper.
With seven bedrooms and Ms. Trovato's gracious manner, the bed and breakfast business is thriving. Guests enter through a huge door in a stone turret decorated with griffins. The antique door, imported from a French castle, lacks an outside doorknob or lock. Massive iron hinges and a metal bar keep the door secure until opened from inside. A 15th-century Venetian fountain stares from the remnants of an arbor.