From Friday 27th to Sunday 29th June 2025, Reschio had the honour of hosting one of Italy’s most revered pastry chefs: Corrado Assenza. Owner of the historic Caffè Sicilia in Noto — founded by his family in 1892 — Assenza brought with him not only a deep-rooted tradition of Sicilian pastry-making, but also a poetic, almost philosophical approach to flavour. At Reschio, his presence turned a midsummer weekend into a celebration of sweetness in its purest and most expressive form.

More than a master of confections, Corrado is also an agronomist, a beekeeper, and an explorer of landscapes through the senses. His creations are guided not by decorative excess or trends, but by the seasons, the soil, and the stories that ingredients carry with them. His work is a tribute to simplicity, to freshness, and to that fleeting, delicate balance between nature and craft.

During his time at Reschio, guests were invited to explore his distinctive culinary language through a series of relaxed experiences across the estate, offering opportunities to sample his creations at different times of day.

Granita at breakfast, served in the shade of the Castello courtyard, offered a cool, elegant start to the day — a Sicilian ritual reimagined in the Umbrian hills.

At lunchtime, Corrado Assenza’s sorbets, granitas and gelati were reimagined as light companions to savoury flavours — crafted from herbs, vegetables and natural ingredients, in true Assenza style. These delicate pairings with seasonal produce, artisan cheeses and cured meats were served at the Ristorante alle Scuderie, the Torrino and the Ristorante al Castello, each offering its own atmosphere and view.

In the afternoons, the mood turned playful, with gelato served in its simplest, most nostalgic form — sometimes adorned with ripe summer fruit, sometimes left gloriously unadulterated— at both the Ristorante Alle Scuderie and Il Torrino.

And on Sunday, a vintage-inspired gelato cart made its appearance during brunch, gliding through the tables with a sense of whimsy and surprise, delighting all ages.

Every moment was conceived not as a performance, but as an invitation: to pause, to taste more mindfully, to connect with each flavour. Each spoonful, light as it may have seemed, carried with it a philosophy — one that values transparency, provenance and a certain kind of wonder. As Assenza often says, his work is “as transparent as glass”: what the senses perceive is not the chef’s ego, but the ingredient itself, in all its humble complexity.

At Reschio, where every detail is curated with love and an eye for natural beauty, this ethos found a perfect counterpart. The encounter between Assenza’s vision and Reschio’s way of living created something quietly extraordinary: a space where time slowed, palates awakened, and the landscape — through honey, herbs, fruit and flowers — found new ways of speaking.

This special collaboration was more than a gastronomic highlight. It was a shared gesture between kindred spirits — between a chef who listens to the land and a place that lives in deep harmony with its surroundings. It was a moment of celebration, of refinement, of grounded elegance. And for those who were here, it was a weekend to remember — a reminder that true sweetness has nothing to prove, and everything to offer.