{"id":23315,"date":"2026-06-09T13:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/23315\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:15:22","slug":"how-a-noble-italian-dynasty-ended-up-on-a-ranch-in-the-deep-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/23315\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Noble Italian Dynasty Ended Up on a Ranch in the Deep South"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated2 min read<\/p>\n

If you think about it, the American South<\/a> isn\u2019t that different from the Italian country\u00adside. There are the rolling hills and bucolic landscapes. There is the slower pace of life. And there are the shared values around family and community, good food and great hospitality. So perhaps it wasn\u2019t such a stretch that, in 1977, the Duke and Duchess Visconti di Modrone, members of one of Italy\u2019s most storied aristocratic families, found themselves drawn to a huge plot of land in a tiny town called Gay, Georgia (current population: 110). To be fair, it wasn\u2019t completely by choice: The turmoil of \u201970s Italy, mostly wrought by the Red Brigades, had forced them to leave Milan. But once they found this place they never looked back.<\/p>\n

\"PersonQuercus\"PersonQuercus<\/p>\n

The couple (pictured above) first turned their sprawling estate\u2014which they named Quercus<\/a>\u2014into a working ranch, where they raised horses and bred Limousin cattle. By the \u201990s they had turned it into a hunting reserve to host blue-blooded European friends for quail hunts<\/a>. Through it all, Quercus has always been a family home.<\/p>\n

It still is\u00ad, now under the stewardship of their daughter Chiara Visconti di Modrone. She is ushering in the next evolution of her childhood idyll: as a 4,000-acre regenerative farm and Relais & Ch\u00e2teaux property, where everything is rooted in the land, from the food (made by Atlanta star chef Ryan Smith with ingredients harvested on-site) to the experiences (equestrian pursuits, fishing, and kayaking). \u201cWe\u2019re not forcing anything here,\u201d Visconti di Modrone says. \u201cIt\u2019s just what naturally exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"interiors,Quercus<\/p>\n

Quercus operates on a (sumptuous) back-to-basics philosophy.<\/p>\n

While all of the four guest cabins are reinforced with wellness luxuries like cold plunges, saunas, and red light panels, Quercus operates on a simpler philosophy. \u201cWe are so caught up with the next shiny object or sexy treatment,\u201d Visconti di Modrone says. \u201cBut if you don\u2019t have the basics that are at our disposal for free\u2014fresh air, light, greenery\u2014all that fancy stuff can only go so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story appears in the Summer 2026 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Play\"Video\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Leena Kim is Town & Country\u2019s Editor, covering the travel, jewelry, style, arts and culture, education, and weddings beats. She has no priors\u2014she has been at the magazine for 11 years, having started her career at T&C as the assistant to the editor in chief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2 min read If you think about it, the American South isn\u2019t that different from the Italian country\u00adside.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16424,16421,16423,639,9797,5,638,1016,16422,3414],"class_list":["post-23315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-collection-in-the-magazine","tag-content-type-round-up-general","tag-contentid-592ac934-6a5f-4361-823f-abb66ca73478","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-italy","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-3","tag-shorttitle-how-a-noble-italian-family-ended-up-in-georgia","tag-subsection-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}