An Italian pastry chef built his version of the 'Lord of the Rings' Shire and has been living like a real-life hobbit for 3 years

• Nicolas Gentile, a 37-year-old Italian pastry chef, has been living like a hobbit for three years.
• He even made a 180-mile trek to Mount Vesuvius to toss a replica of the One Ring into its crater.
• Members of his group dressed up as the "Lord of the Rings" characters Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn.

One Italian pastry chef decided that if he couldn't go to Middle Earth, he'd build it.

Nicolas Gentile, 37, constructed his version of the Shire on a plot of land in the idyllic countryside of Bucchianico, half an hour's drive from the city of Chieti in Abruzzo, central Italy. He designed it from scratch and built a little hobbit burrow akin to a house from the Shire from the writer J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth seen in the "Lord of the Rings" movie series.

Gentile documents his life as a real-life hobbit and mayor of the Shire on Instagram, where he posts snapshots of his crops and home. He also shows what real-life hobbits do during their downtime.

Gentile spoke with Insider on Tuesday in between his morning chores.

"I have always loved fantasy literature and movies, Dungeons and Dragons, and video games," he said. "But at some point in my life, I felt like I was living the adventures of others and not my own. I decided that I, too, would live my life like a character in the movies and books I loved so much."

Gentile was working as a pastry chef in Abruzzo when he realized the region's rolling hills, woods, rivers, and ancient villages were very much like the Shire - they just lacked hobbit houses. So in 2018, he purchased land and built a hobbit home for his family, carving out space amid the hills and forests. Gentile declined to reveal how much he spent on the land but told Insider it cost almost all of his life savings.

He is now working on expanding the area to build a full-size hobbit village called the "Gentile County." The county is expected to accommodate a large underground home and four smaller houses where other families could reside.

Gentile added that he didn't intend to make the area a tourist spot but rather a small community where people lived off the land. He intends to raise $1.78 million to build these homes through crowdfunding.

"This project does not aim to make a profit," he said. "If I had wanted to get rich, I would have invested in bitcoin! All I want is to meet people like me, who have the same magic in their eyes and a love for the simple things in life, who enjoy dinner with friends and an adventure in the woods now and then."

The hobbits head to Mount Vesuvius

Gentile's biggest milestone as a real-life hobbit is the journey he and a group of friends made in August to Mount Vesuvius in Naples.

The crew made the 180-mile journey - with some dressed like Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf, and Aragorn - to toss a replica of the "One Ring" into the volcanic crater of Mount Vesuvius, just as Frodo did in the movies.

Gentile said he met the eight men through an Instagram contest in which he asked people to join him on his journey.

"We walked almost 180 miles of mountains and woods, rivers and ancient cities, and got lost in the mountains. We also met fantastic people who helped us until we got to Vesuvius, our Mount Doom, where I threw the Ring in," he said, adding that the men had become "brothers" and "fast friends."

"Of course, we are not 1.2 meters tall," he added, alluding to the height of Tolkien's hobbits, "but our nature and hearts are inextricably linked to the land, and the joy of living, human relationships, family, and friendship."