A 19-year-old TikToker says living in her family’s medieval Italian castle is not the fairy tale you’d expect

• Ludovica Sannazzaro lives in an Italian castle that's been in her family for 28 generations.
• Sannazzaro, 19, went viral on TikTok after showing the unexpected realities of living in a castle.
• Wi-Fi can be spotty, and cleaning the garden can take between two to three days.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Life is rarely a fairy tale, but it might seem like 19-year-old Ludovica Sannazzaro lives in one from the outside looking in.

Ludovica and her family live in the palatial Castello Sannazzaro, a 12th-century Italian castle that's been passed down through her family for 28 generations. Nestled among the sprawling greenery of the Piedmont region, Castello Sannazzaro spans 107,639 square feet, with a 269,097-square-foot garden, 45 rooms, 15 bedrooms, and invaluable historical archives dating back to 1163.

"When I was younger, I used to watch Disney movies with princesses, and I could pretend that I was them running around the castle or dancing in the ballroom," Ludovica told Insider.

"At first, I didn't even realize that I was living in a place quite like this," she added. "I was raised here and I grew up here, so sometimes I forget how amazing this is because it's just my house."

While the family still lives in the castle full-time, Castello Sannazzaro doubles as a bed and breakfast with rooms that reopened in May.

Ludovica moved to New York City to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in fall 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought her plans to a screeching halt. She was forced to move back into her childhood home for quarantine and online classes.

Castello Sannazzaro also faced challenges as would-be visitors paused travel plans and entered lockdown.

Ludovica created a TikTok account to document the realities of living in a castle

With plenty of time on her hands and the grounds relatively empty, Ludovica created a TikTok account named The Castle Diary to chronicle life inside a castle.

The first video, posted on March 7, was captioned: "Have you ever wondered what it's like to live in a castle?" It delighted users with glimpses of brightly painted fresco ceilings, ballrooms, statues of past relatives, and medieval architecture.

Other videos showed off the family's full church, ice house hidden underneath a hill, a dungeon, and secret passageways that doubled as a wine cellar.

Ludovica continued to take videos of Castello Sannazzaro but soon realized that many people had a very idealistic idea of what living in a castle was actually like.

"Sometimes people don't even know that it's possible for families to live in places like this," Ludovica said. "So, when I started the account, everyone was like, 'Oh, cool! You have maids and butlers and people that serve you.' I was like, 'Actually, no!'"

According to Ludovica, there are a few unexpected features that come alongside the perks. For example, Wi-Fi can be spotty around the large abode, it can get very cold, and misplacing your phone can turn into a full-fledged search.

"When we lose something, it's very hard for us to find it," Ludovica said. "It's very hard to understand where we are [in the castle], so when we want to find each other, we spend a lot of time just walking around."

Her father, Count Giuseppe Sannazzaro, said that chores also take up "a lot of time."

"We have a housekeeper and someone helping us with the garden, but for the most part we do it ourselves," Giuseppe said, adding that his wife was outside mowing their lawn during the interview.

Giuseppe and Ludovica said that it could take around two to three days to mow the entire garden during this time of year. Cleaning a single tower can take one day.

Ludovica and Giuseppe celebrate Castello Sannazzaro by looking towards the past

The castle's website explained that Castello Sannazzaro was built after four cousins from the Santo Nazario (Sannazzaro) family were permitted by Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I to build a castle.

"I inherited the castle in 1986 from a great-aunt, but the castle was relatively unused until 2006," Guiseppe said. That's when he and his family moved in, renovated the castle, and opened it up for reservations.

During Italy's first lockdown last year, Giuseppe decided to organize the family's archive with all the historical documents. In one TikTok video, Ludovica showed users a letter her father found addressed from Pope Pius XII to a relative, Count Jacopo Sannazzaro, for his merits towards the church.

"Until last year, I didn't even realize how cool and important our family history is," Ludovica said. "And that's also part of the reason I decided to open the TikTok account. I was curious about where I live, and the account helped me."

Ludovica added: "Every day, I'm a little bit more curious and I explore this place with completely different eyes."