We are Joep and Antoinette. After a long search for the right spot, we fell in love with Le Marche.

A beautiful region with its hilly landscape and numerous well kept medieval cities and villages. Close to the Adriatic sea, Le Marche offers sea mountains and culture all together.

Our life in The Netherlands was good. We both enjoyed our careers : Joep in Human Resources in multinational companies, Antoinette as a consultant in training and coaching.

As such our careers were quite satisfactory, but at this stage of our lives we felt that a major change was what we needed. Therefore we gave up our jobs and took a year to find out whether we could succeed in our plan : find  a beautiful house in a Mediterranean country in quiet countryside and in a significant warmer climate then in The Netherlands. So we left in the summer of 2007 for our search. We travelled and worked in France and Italy. The (voluntary) jobs we did  served two purposes : cost savings through free lodging and also get to know life over there by experience , other than as a tourist. So we did several jobs like helping in a country house in Southern Italy, and assisting an elderly couple in The Provence in keeping their house with a large garden.

In the mornings we usually did our jobs and the afternoons we spent  on house searching with estate agents. We visited numerous houses , the entire spectre from virtual ruins to beautifully restored farmhouses. There is a large supply of houses and a large need for restoring them as well. But as we both did not have a career in construction we did not buy one of those very exciting houses with a large potential. This turned out to be the right approach as in the spring of 2008 we found the right house at the right location : Casa Fontana. We had the opportunity of buying this well restored original farmhouse, including the Bed & Breakfast business as it was set up and run by the owners. The location, the house and the B&B business immediately felt very good and still do so ever since. In December 2008 the handover was finalized and as of then we are the proud owners of Casa Fontana.

2009 will be the year in which we will focus on running the B&B just as well as our predecessors. Also we want to work on the garden and orchard. As of April 2009 we will be happy to be your hosts and show you around in Casa Fontana and its beautiful environment.

Hoping to meet you soon,

Arrivederci,

Joep en Antoinette