A letter to our guests
from Cecilia Bellelli Baratta

For more than 15 years now I have been running the Azienda Agrituristica Seliano (the Seliano Farm Guest House) and I would like to tell you about our family – the Bellellis – past and present. The farm is right next to Paestum, where the ancient Greeks settled in 600 B.C. The property was acquired by the Bellellis in the late 18th century and it has been cultivated as farmland ever since. The family was quite successful in the development of agriculture in the Sele river plain, so much so that in the 19th century Bellelli agricultural products were being exported to the capitals of Europe, and the family business had stands at the 1862 Great London Exposition and at the Paris World's Fair in 1867.
The first Baron Gaetano Bellelli was granted the title in 1806 by Joachim Murat, King of Naples (his full title was Joachim Napoleon I.) An interesting art historical note is that the painter Edgar Degas, whose aunt was a Bellelli, painted the famous portrait of the Bellelli family in 1860. It is on view at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Skipping ahead to the present, besides offering hospitality, the Bellelli estate now is principally devoted to the raising of buffaloes and horses. We invite our guests to tour the farm as well as the dairy where our buffalo milk is processed into first class mozzarella. I and my sons Ettore and Massimino, their wives Veronica and Barbara, along with our cosmopolitan host and family friend Nicolas are here to make your stay as pleasant as possible. The food we serve is all grown on our land and on selected nearby farms. We are serious food lovers and take great care in supervising our highly skilled staff in the preparation of meals which are inspired by the great tradition of Italian cooking at its best. Our steadfast dedication and expert staff ensure that your stay will be a special, and restful one. As far as the setting and decoration are concerned, my first requirement was to preserve the historic buildings and make sure they were restored with authentic materials. What I hope to have achieved is the comfort and charm of a period country house. Our dining room and reception rooms, as well as every guest room are decorated with antiques, mostly belonging to the Bellelli family, but also collected in my travels around Europe.

Our farm has modern stables, a riding ground with a natural obstacle course, where the important National Equestrian Competiton “Città di Paestum” takes place every year. Our guests may ride through the countryside and explore the natural habitat of the buffaloes on horseback. For non-riders there is always the swimming pool, the beach, or discovering the Cilento, the geographical name of this unspoiled region. For our guests we also organize country outings and delightful picnics at our chestnut grove in Cicerale where you can bask in the leafy shade of the chestnut trees and enjoy breathtaking views of the Bay of Salerno.

……Last, but certainly not least of the features of your stay with us is visiting the endlessly fascinating site of Paestum itself. You can almost hear the ancients speaking as you meander through the city with its peerless architectural masterpieces -- the Doric temples of Neptune and Ceres -- or as you marvel at the Tomb of the Diver, the only surviving example of Greek fresco painting, still so alive after 2400 years,. ..