The heart of the great Romagna tourism tradition

Oride and assistant making fresh local speciality cappelletti

The B&B is the heart of tourism and Oride is the soul of the Casa Masoli family businesses

Ravenna is a great destination – it has everything from a massive 1500 years of history, a living culture, great music, stunning sights and architecture, fantastic food, warm and friendly people – and it’s just a hop skip and jump to the Adriatic beach at Ravenna Lido.

But more than all that it has fabulous B&B hospitality, exemplified no better than Oride Guerrini Masoli at Casa Masoli.

This fabulous ancient city wall palace B&B is furnished with great antiques from the family’s houses in Ravenna and in Venice – the rooms are simply stunning and include a suite with bedroom, library, dressing room, Art Deco bathroom (with a massive marble bath). All from just 70 Euros a night with breakfast!

And what a breakfast! The spread includes jams, stunning sweet ravioli, superb applecake and apple strudel, tiny pastries and other delicacies – all of course made by Oride. Simply a sweet breakfast feast.

Of course the Casa Masoli is Oride’s hospitality statement – her view of what really good hospitality should be – not loud and noisy but thoughtful and comfortable and very, very good. Just like her fashion statements from her time as a fashionable dressmaker, stylish, well made, chic and built to give the maximum amount of pleasure for the maximum amount of time!

That’s why it will be Oride who meets you when you arrive, Oride that will make sure you’re comfortable and eat well and Oride that will say goodbye when you leave. She loves to meet her guests from all over the world.

Has Oride always wanted to run a B&B? Maybe not – but clearly she has always wanted to do things very well and, just like Ravenna, Oride has a lot of colourful, powerful history.

When she started in business as a teenage seamstress and dressmaker, she worked in the elegant Via Cavour and did that so well that before she could turn another hem she was in Paris making clothes for Yves St Laurent, Coco Chanel, Dior and all the other labels.

This being the 1960’s she had a pretty good time too meeting all the designers such as Karl Lagerfeld (while he was working for Jean Patou). Ask Oride if she enjoyed these years and she’ll say "Like Crazy!). Her personal favourite has remained Yves St Laurent.

Oride in her fashionista days

And when she came back to Ravenna, she naturally started a chain of very fashionable, very beautiful fashion shops and she ran them so well and filled them with such good things that people flocked from kilometers around to get her stylish clothes. She simply loves to dress beautiful women!

But she loved cooking too -even when she was a seamstress she made lots of traditional Cappelletti in the Romagnola tradition (her recipe starts with "Take 30 eggs"!). So it seemed natural to combine her business acumen, her sense of style and her exuberant cooking to run a superb and elegant B&B. She took on the business with her daughter Anna to deliver the very best in hospitality, good cooking and good baking.

The proof is in a visit. Understated elegance, superb food and warm hospitality – that’s what Oride and Anna have created at Casa Masoli in Ravenna.

And fashion is still in their blood they offer special discounts at their fashion shops Podere Pilicca  Ravenna to all guests at the Casa Masoli

Oride couldn’t have chosen a better place, Ravenna abounds with classy, stylish B&B’s including the newly refurbished upmarket Santa Maria Foris , through the M Club de Luxe  and, of course the fabulous Casa Masoli

How sustainable is this? Very. Local ingredients, local value-added, local business, locally-owned and locally-run. A real asset to the local community.

And here in the heart of Romagna, you won’t be short of things to do. Wonderful, small group and individual tours are arranged to see the amazing local 1500 year old basilicas and extraordinary mosaics, make visits to Faenza for its porcelain, Bologna for its squares and porticos, Comacchio for its canals and eels, Pomposa for its Abbey and historic Rimini, even the hilltop Republic of San Marino is very close.

Plus, the wetlands leading to the Adriatic are amazing for birds – a real global birdworld hub! There is nothing more serene and fulfilling than a guided visit to this natural green waterland.

Contact [email protected] for real tourism B&B bookings, meet and greet, excursions and groups in Romagna.

Valere Tjolle
VISION latest sustainable tourism special offer: Sustainable Tourism Marketing Guide HERE