The bathroom tiles were made from clay pulled out of an Etruscan pit, twenty minutes down the road.

This former monastery in Umbria, Italy is entirely designed and constructed of local materials; from the buildings to the meals and the staff walking the grounds.

Frederik Kubierschky spent more than a decade as Chef Concierge at Switzerland's top five-star hotels. He stood behind the desk and watched guests pay fortunes for luxurious experiences and meals.

This also gave him a unique perspective on what exactly was missing from all these experiences: an authentic experience of the place they were in.

In August 2022, he and his partner Catharina Lütjens opened Vocabolo Moscatelli - a restored medieval monastery compound near Umbertide that functions less like a hotel and more like a miniature Italian village. There is a central piazza, a deconsecrated church that hosts private dinners, and a pergola custom-forged by Lispi & Co., a blacksmith workshop running for more than a century.

Twelve rooms and suites sit across two buildings. The main villa holds eight rooms in the restored monastery; a separate annex holds four suites with private gardens. Each has its own commissioned artwork, its own color palette, and those handmade glazed terracotta tiles.

Florence-based architect Jacopo Venerosi Pesciolini led the restoration, preserving original wooden floors, exposed terracotta brickwork, and stone fireplaces. Alongside the medieval bones: mid-century furnishings, iron four-poster beds, and - in at least one room - a hot pink sofa.

One hectare of Mediterranean garden surrounds the compound: lavender, alliums, olive trees, and a rescued orchard of nearly-extinct fruit varieties native to Umbria.

The experiences carry the same fingerprint. Private pottery classes with a local ceramicist, pieces glazed, fired, and mailed home. A Negroni school where you create and bottle your own to take away. Truffle hunting, wine tastings at regional vineyards, private chapel dinners for two.

Their bar, Bar Matite, sorts its bottles by color rather than liquor - a conscious decision, the founders say, to create visual warmth. The bar's only posted rule: "No good story started with a salad."

The restaurant reinvents Umbrian cuisine with vegetables at the center and meat and fish in supporting roles. Everything is sourced locally or from the on-site garden.

Kubierschky recruits staff from surrounding villages rather than hospitality schools - he wanted collaborators who belonged to the place.

A decade behind the desk at the most prestigious hotels in the world taught him well: luxury is now a commodity. Being immersed in all that makes a specific place unique? That will always command a premium.

Hit reply if you've stayed somewhere that made you rethink what good hospitality actually means.