As her maiden name suggests, Alice is a natural storyteller with a narrative inclination steeped in art, thanks to her art collector mother and art dealer father (though he died before she was born.) "There was a family tradition, soaked up in the milk as they say, of collecting art and helping artists," she explains. After growing up in Bologna, she studied architecture in Italy and Spain before specializing in contemporary exhibition design, creating exhibitions for Milan's annual Furniture Fair. From exhibition design she moved on to curation. "I have always felt that art history is such an interesting way for people to understand history in general because it brings in every single aspect of what is happening at a particular time. For me, museums are kind of like the Holy Grail. Better than going to church." And with Schloss Hollenegg, Alice has married into a magnificent museum-like platform.
With towers and turrets, frescoed vaulted ceilings and grand galleries, ballrooms and libraries and 52 rooms brimming with Rococo moldings, ancestral portraits, hunting trophies, exquisite tapestries and imposing 16th and 17th-century tiled stoves (one in each room), the Schloss initially was an overwhelming trove of architecture, antiquities and art. All grand and jaw-dropping and all in need of restoration and upkeep. Alice remembers first seeing the Schloss in the fall, when the dense ivy trellising the stone walls had turned from glossy green to brilliant red. "It was amazing, just spectacular," She recalls. Like an enchanting time machine.
