What We Cherish: The First Fire

Autumn arrived at Poggio Posillipo some six weeks ago, so gently that we hardly noticed. The swimming pool stayed open well into the first week of October. On October 31, the olive harvest came with a chilly north wind, and the pickers felt it on their hands all morning.

Only this week did we turn our thoughts to the wood. We had gathered it at the end of last season and left it to rest through the long warm months. We went to see whether it was ready. It was.

At Poggio, we love the first fire of the season, and this year it is more special still. We have inaugurated the new fireplace in the guest pavilion.

A dark steel hood hangs from the ceiling in the shape of a trapezoid. It is simple and sculptural, and it lifts the eye upward so that the whole room feels light.

The fireplace stands before a great window of glass, and the fire is framed by the valley: the soft line of the hills, the terrace, the green of the trees, and a sky that changes colour by the minute. At sunset the sun seems to rest beside the hood. The flame and the horizon belong to the same picture.

One member of the family enjoys this hour more than anyone: Saigon, our Weimaraner. He settled on the rug, facing the flames, before the first log had properly caught. He considers the whole house his own, but this room, at this hour, is clearly his favourite.

That is the moment we cherish: the first fire, dry wood, and the light going down over Umbria.