Masseria Cardinale is one of The Thinking Traveller’s larger villas in Sicily, located in the countryside with authentic design features

The Thinking Traveller is a villa rental company that offers exclusive access to some of the most desirable properties in the Mediterranean. Guests of The Thinking Traveller also gain access to local insider knowledge through the company’s on-the-ground concierge team who plan bespoke itineraries and experiences. Here, we speak to the founders Huw and Rossella Beaugié about their villa selection process, luxury retreats and their intrinsically sustainable ethos

Rossella & Huw Beaugié

LUX: How was the concept for The Thinking Traveller conceived?
Huw Beaugié: We started the company in 2002. Prior to that [Rossella and I] had been living in Paris, where we met in ‘98. Rossella was a cell biologist doing her PhD in Paris and I was an engineer working in marketing at that time. Rossella is from Sicily, so we had been travelling to Sicily a lot already. We went there in November 2000 and that was the kind of the catalyst. We climbed up a mountain called Stromboli, and doing that made us decide that we would like to move there for a bit, which we ended up doing two years later.

Rossella Beaugié: We started doing walking tours first of all and then very soon my friends started saying ‘oh we’ve got this nice house on the island, would you want to try renting it out?’. So the first brochure we put together had three walking tours with volcanos and hills, and then seven villas, I think. At the time we were doing everything ourselves but it worked.

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Huw Beaugié: There wasn’t anything of great quality in Sicily so we realised that we needed to really help these villa owners to create a property and product that would fit our clients and the people we wanted to be our clients. We started advising [the property owners], helping with design and we even began advancing money to invest in pools or refurbishments. We would make contact with interior designers to help them develop the houses. Really quickly we figured that if we were making all these investments, the only way we could really work with these houses and make it profitable would be to deal with them exclusively. That is one of the things we have stuck with ever since. We started with seven houses and we now have about 220 in various destinations in the Mediterranean, but the really vital and big unique selling point is that they are all exclusive to us and that means we can still keep on investing to make sure the quality and service is right, and to have our people on the ground to support that. We are expanding slowly, being careful to always keep the quality increasing rather than diluting.

Views over the Sicilian countryside from the pool at Masseria Cardinale

Rossella Beaugié: The secret has been that right from the beginning. For the first 10 years we were in Sicily so we were around the whole time and then we started hiring staff who are really knowledgeable people and know everybody locally, meaning they can find the best doctor if needed, the best yoga teacher or if you wanted to organise a dinner we can do that. We don’t have reps who move around, our staff work for us 12 months a year and they have insider knowledge.

LUX: What challenges have you encountered now that your main offices are in the UK and you’re based here?
Rossella Beaugié: We have developed quite slowly. There have been two regions that we were interested in but because we hadn’t found the right people or properties we wanted to offer clients, we decided not to go with them. We are happy with the regions we’re working in because we have amazing teams and the owners of properties share our priorities and ethos. The team here receive so many offers of villas everywhere, we could have 10,000 villas! We get that many offers because they see the website, they like it and we have a good reputation, but we have been careful of where we go and what we take on.

Faro di Brucoli is a refurbished lighthouse in Sicily with views of Mount Etna across the Ionian Sea

LUX: How do you select the villas to represent?
Rossella Beaugié: They tend to come to us. It is usually owners knowing us already, maybe due to our reputation amongst other owners who also have these kinds of top level properties. So what we do first of all is decide whether it’s for us and we can see that now straight away with Google and photos.

Read more: High altitude luxury at Riffelalp Resort 2222m, Zermatt

Huw Beaugié: Probably 70% of them we cut immediately. The next 30% we go further and ask for more information, and then perhaps the final 5% will end up with a visit and a detailed report and out of those, we probably only take on one property.

Here and above: Iola is a contemporary villa located on the Greek island of Corfu with sweeping sea views

LUX: What are the key elements you’re looking for?
Rossella Beaugié: We are now at a stage where we know what our clients want so we have criteria, but at the bottom of it, we really need to truly like the property in terms of style and we have to know that the owner could be a good partner because it’s their house and they continue managing the property so they need to be able to reinvest and sort out problems quickly. In terms of more objective criteria, the location and views are important but it depends on the region. Greece, for example, is really all about location so being on the sea and beaches. Privacy is also important and then there are all the things like ensuite bedrooms, a good kitchen, a nice-sized pool, not being overlooked. Then once we take on the property, we have a list of stuff that they have to have such as good quality linen, appliances etc. We recommend things and then our local managers go and do what we call a quality check.

Read more: Founder of Nila House Lady Carole Bamford’s guide to Jaipur

LUX: Is it important to you to have a wide range of different properties in your portfolio?
Rossella Beaugié: Yes, we have clients that have gone from a very charming, chic, three-bedroom house in Puglia and then they book our best property in Sicily, which sleeps 24 with a chef because maybe they are doing a multi generation family holiday, or it’s someone’s wedding anniversary and they want to invite everyone. So yes, we need diversity in terms of size and level of service. Some people could afford to have service everyday but they just want privacy, they want to be able to go around without clothes if they like. Then there are also different styles of property. Some people want minimal or really cutting-edge design, and some other people want to go to a place in Puglia or Sicily with traditional charm.

Huw Beaugié: We also work a lot with people who haven’t even started building. The optimum situation is when someone comes to us and says ‘I’ve bought a piece of land’ or ‘I’m looking to buy a piece of land, and what are your suggestions?’ Or people say ‘I’ve bought this ruin and what should I do with it?’ With those projects, we are involved from the beginning right through to the delivery. We suggest interior designers, architects, landscape designers, everything. Those are the villas that tend to perform the best.

Masseria Cardinale (here and above) offers guests traditional charm combined with luxurious modern amenities

LUX: Can you tell us a bit more about the experiences side of the business? What can you make happen for your clients?
Huw Beaugié: We try to make anything happen that the clients want as long as it’s not against the law!

Rossella Beaugié: The kinds of things that are becoming standard for us is that everyone wants a cook. Especially in Puglia and Sicily, people want to learn to cook and so we organise cooking classes either in the villas or on vineyards. We have three kids who were born in Sicily and grew up there which means we were able to try out things with them and find out what they found boring. From that, we designed some guided experiences with experts who will prepare the tours on two levels so that it works for the parents and it’s entertaining for the kids. Wine tasting is very requested, and water sports are popular, but then we also have occasions like weddings when people want a Steinway piano in the garden or a certain opera singer to perform.

Read more: Inside The Dorchester Collection’s first branded residences

Huw Beaugié: What we are starting to do more of is themed weeks so things like getting a celebrity chef out to a villa for a week and creating a programme for full immersion in the food, which might include cooking classes, demonstrations and tours of markets. This year, we are doing a partnership with Bodyism so that you can take a wellness instructor out with you to the villa.

The Thinking Traveller has paired up with McQueens Flower shop to offer guests flower arranging courses at Palazzo Gorgoni (above), one of their properties in Puglia

LUX: What’s your approach to sustainability?
Huw Beaugié: It’s the same as when we started. The basic model of restoring or building unique properties in rural locations or old towns using local people to build, cook and garden, all of that is just inherently sustainable. Generally, you’re also using local materials and the money is staying local. The things that have been added to that model since 2004 is more use of solar energy. However, sustainable a client is they never want to give up on air conditioning, which is one of the single biggest consumers of energy in a villa so solar energy supplements that. Then the other big thing is water: drinking water and swimming pool water. Swimming pools lose hundreds of litres of water a day through evaporation so we encourage people to cover pools when they’re not using them and at night. Same with air con, setting the temperature between 24 and 27 degrees, for example, rather than at 18 degrees and wrapping yourself up in a duvet, which uses a lot more energy. In terms of drinking water, we are doing a big campaign to try and get people to install water filters in their homes, which is difficult in the Med where bottled water is standard, but it’s changing.

Rossella Beaugié: We have these little leaflets which we leave in the houses called ‘Think Green’ which have sustainability tips for guests. People are more aware of sustainability issues so it is easier now than it was in the past to encourage these ways of behaving.

View The Thinking Traveller’s portfolio of properties: thethinkingtraveller.com

Swedish model and CEO of wellness brand Bodyism, Nathalie Schyllert. Instagram: @nathalieschyllert

LUX contributing editor and model at Models 1, Charlie Newman continues her online exclusive series, interviewing her peers about their creative pursuits, passions and politics

Charlie Newman

THIS MONTH: Swedish model Nathalie Schyllert has been modelling for twenty years. She joined international wellness brand Bodyism over a decade ago and is now the brand’s CEO. Here she talks to Charlie about training to be a ballerina, myths of the wellness industry and being a successful woman in business.

Charlie Newman: You’ve established yourself successfully within both the fashion and wellness industries. Were you passionate about clothes and food growing up?
Nathalie Schyllert: I grew up in Sweden as an only child with a single mum. Even if we didn’t have a lot of money the most important thing for my mum was to provide us with really good, healthy food. I think in Sweden it’s very easy to have a healthy diet as our traditional dishes always have fish and vegetables in them. I did a lot of exercise from a young age as I was a ballerina in the Swedish Royal Ballet, so it was very important for me to have balanced meals else I would have really physically struggled, especially when you are growing. To do 4 hours of punishing rehearsals a day as well as school you really need nutritious food to sustain you. I was very fortunate to be practising ballet in Sweden because compared to other traditional ballet schools across the world, Swedish schools have a much more positive approach to food, encouraging us to eat fat in our diets. It was a very good life lesson to be instilled in me from such a young age. My mum always wanted the best for me so we moved around so I could go to a better school, a much easier task in Sweden than here in London! Private schools in Sweden are extremely rare, so as long as you live in a good area you are guaranteed a good school too.

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Fashion only really came into my life when I was 15. In the summer holidays I went to either London or Milan for a month or two. At the beginning my mother would come with me or my Swedish booker to help me get settled. I’ve been with Models 1 in London since I was 17, so it’s 20 years now that I’ve been with the same agency! Modelling was such a good opportunity and career path obviously because I started travelling more. I think my discipline from ballet taught me to see modelling as a career, not just as a good time which so many girls fall into the trap of doing. From the start I tried to be very professional.

At around 15 I had an injury in my foot which I could have probably got surgery on but I think at
that age I’d sort of had enough. To be a prima ballerina and really go for it, you have to have the
exact body and I didn’t have the right arch. I realised that I wasn’t made for it. Looking back now, I can see it was the perfect timing because at that age if I continued with the dancing I wouldn’t have had as much time to study. So instead at 15 I focused more on studying science and maths and got a really good education from it which I still appreciate and utilise to this day. It was meant to be.

Charlie Newman: When were you first scouted?
Nathalie Schyllert: I was first scouted in Gothenburg when I was 14. My mum was very strict at the beginning with my agency, making sure they never said anything about body image. If you go with a really good agency they will look after you and guide you to have a healthy, balanced body – a good agency would never tell you to crash diet. When I was a child I didn’t think of modelling at all, but even as a child I always loved performing so modelling didn’t feel too out of my comfort zone when I got round to actually doing it.

Instagram: @nathalieschyllert

Charlie Newman: What’s been a career highlight for you so far?
Nathalie Schyllert: I did the first Stella McCartney Adidas campaign which was a really big deal at the time because no other designers had collaborated with sports designers like that. It felt so special because Stella was there and her sister Mary shot it. From that job I got so many more activewear jobs and it opened the industry’s eyes to see that you can do really cool campaigns with activewear. It seems so obvious now but sportswear was viewed very differently back then.

Charlie Newman:  What’s the best and worst part about modelling for you?
Nathalie Schyllert: The best part is definitely the travelling because unlike other people who just go to holiday destinations, you actually get to live there and meet the locals, really get a feel for the place. It’s extremely rare to live in various cities in one year, if you’re lucky enough to travel with work, in most careers you’d stay in one city for a year, whereas I got to move around all the time!

But simultaneously the travel is also the hardest part about modelling. I appreciate now having my family and friends around me all the time and to actually have a base. It first dawned on me to maybe step away from modelling was when I was in Miami for two months having just broken up with my boyfriend and losing my mum. I felt so lonely and knew then that I needed a more stable job. I called my booker at Models 1 and asked for advice and they suggested personal training as they knew how I was always training not just myself but some of my friends. I came back to London and had a meeting with James Duigan at Bodyism 12 years ago, which back then was based in a tiny mews studio in South Kensington. I’d read a few online articles about him because he was Elle Macpherson’s trainer at the time, so I was really excited to get on board! I started the next day as an intern and doing my courses at the same time. I was busy form day one, pretty much working for free for the first 4 years, doing everything from membership to PR and so much more. After three months I’d already built up enough interest and had my own clients. You really have to put your all into it when it’s a start up. It was the perfect timing for everything.

Read more: Curator Zoe Whitley on the art of collaboration

Charlie Newman:  What drew you to Bodyism?
Nathalie Schyllert: It was a very unique thing at the time. We talked, and still do, about nutrition and sleep, not just training. We look at the whole 360 approach to lifestyle which was something I had always believed in and lived by. That was why it worked so well for me personally because I didn’t have to change who I was at all, my diet and training routine stayed the same, it was a natural fit for me. I was also the first woman on board so I got to have a voice on what women want out of the wellness industry too.

Charlie Newman:  What’s the biggest difference between working for someone and yourself?
Nathalie Schyllert: The only difference is that I’m now doing more PR and interviews, becoming the face of the brand, but apart form that my role hasn’t changed much. It’s funny to compare what James used to get asked and now what I do. Sometimes I get asked, being a female CEO, what my beauty regime is and being a working mum. As long as it benefits the brand, that’s all that matters to me.

Charlie Newman:  How has the wellness industry changed since you first started working in it?
Nathalie Schyllert: The whole wellness industry has changed drastically. Even supplements from when we first started – we created the first vegan supplement without bad sweeteners, and now everyones doing it! With activewear too, we were the first to make printed, colourful activewear, and now everyone else is doing that too! So in that way the industry has changed a lot.

There are so many different studios now for different types of exercise but what is still so genuine and unique about Bodyism is that we have everything. You can come to one place and do all the treatments, boxing, yoga, PT, breakfast, lunch, eat our supplements and wear our clothes. People always ask us who our competitor is but we genuinely don’t have one, we’re doing our own thing, people can see that we’re not copying anyone. Of course we have to look at new fitness and nutrition trends, like oat milk for example, but at the core of it we stick to what we believe in and what works. If we were entirely devoted to following the trends our food menu and exercise schedule would change every day! And then in a few months time we’d find out it’s not good for you at all!

At Bodyism, we do what works for ourselves and our members. Our clients are the best people to get feedback from because they are always here with their trainers, we’re not a massive company where you have to speak to so many people at different levels to get your voice heard. Our relationship with our members is so important because we learn so much about our products and their results.

Instagram: @nathalieschyllert

Charlie Newman: If you could bust one wellness myth, what would it be?
Nathalie Schyllert: I think everyone has now finally realised that the zero carb diet doesn’t work, because then you couldn’t even eat a carrot because it has carbs in it! For me, it’s so important to have a colourful plate and if it has carbs in their that’s fine. Low fat diets too are terrible because the fat just gets replaced with loads of sugar. These were trends from the 80s and 90s and people have more of an education now on what a healthy diet and lifestyle actually is.

Charlie Newman: Did you ever come across any negativity as a female trainer in quite a masculine world when you first started?
Nathalie Schyllert: At the beginning I mainly trained men but I found it to be an advantage because they’d want to maybe show off more and train harder! Our clients aren’t here to bulk up, so it doesn’t matter who is training who because it’s a very similar workout whether you’re a man or a woman.

Charlie Newman: What advice would you give to any aspiring business women?
Nathalie Schyllert: Apart from working hard, also always continue to learn. I never assume that just because I’m at this position I know everything. I’m learning every single day, not only from people within the company but from mentors outside. Having people you can discuss finance matters and new business ideas with is so important, it gives you perspective and keeps you humble.

Charlie Newman: What exciting projects have you got coming up?
Nathalie Schyllert: We’ve collaborated with Heidi Klein for their first activewear range which is really exciting. We now also offer a lot more perks for our members, for example priority reservations at Zuma, room upgrades in hotels etc. The platinum members especially get amazing perks, free holidays in Turkey for example. So a lot more trips and events are coming up. We have just started doing catering too with brands. We’re very lucky that we don’t have to push ourselves to create corporate wellness contracts, rather it travels by word of mouth from our clients to other brands. It’s been an organic journey.

Charlie Newman: Lastly, who is your role model of the month?
Nathalie Schyllert: It has got to be my mother. She worked so hard as a single mum, sometimes with two jobs, and that has always been an inspiration for me from day one.

Follow Nathalie Scyhllert on Instagram: @nathalieschyllert