The Gen Zer who lives in a 45-room, 900-year-old Italian castle reveals what it's really like to be part of the aristocracy

• Ludovica Sannazzaro Natta is a 22-year-old Gen Z woman who lives in an Italian castle.
• Her family has owned Castello Sannazzaro for 28 generations — almost 900 years.

When Ludovica Sannazzaro Natta went to study abroad in the US, she decided she would tell new friends that she lived in a castle immediately to get it out of the way.

An opportunity arose early on when the teacher asked the whole class to share something unique about themselves.

"I was like, I live in a castle," Sannazzaro Natta told Business Insider. "People thought that I didn't speak English very well, and by castle, I meant just a big house."

Two years later, one of Sannazzaro Natta's closest friends admitted to her that she'd assumed she just didn't know the word for "mansion."

"I thought it was so funny, I laughed for two days," she said.

Sannazzaro Natta, who is 22, does in fact live in a real-life castle — the Castello Sannazzaro in Northern Italy, which has been owned by her family for 28 generations and just hit its 860th birthday under their care.

Realizing she wanted to share her home with the world, Sannazzaro Natta started posting on TikTok when she found herself back in Italy during the COVID lockdowns of 2021.

At the time, she was still studying in the US, so had to stick to a nine-hour time difference, attending online classes from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m. every day.

"That was not really pleasant," she told BI. "I have no idea how I did an entire semester like that, but I survived. But I couldn't change my schedule completely."

Sannazzaro Natta would wake up at around 9 a.m. with her whole day ahead of her. She'd wanted to start making online content for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

It seemed to resonate with people. They loved the tours of the 45-room castle, Sannazzaro Natta's explanations and timelines of her family's history, and when she showed all the different paintings in the various rooms and heirlooms.

"Then of course the question was, so how did you get a castle? I was like, OK, let's start talking about that," she said.

Sannazzaro Natta's family isn't royalty, she said, but her father is a count. It's usually just her and her parents living in the castle unless her brother comes to visit, she said, though she does believe there are a few ghosts residing there too.

One of the reasons Sannazzaro Natta wanted to start making videos was to break the stereotype of how aristocracy lives. For the most part, her family is pretty normal — they just happen to live in an amazing, historical building.

She said her parents didn't really understand what Sannazzaro Natta was doing at first. But now they're more than happy to help out behind the scenes of videos.

On TikTok, Sannazzaro Natta's account @thecastlediary now has 1.7 million followers.

"Without them, I don't think I could do anything," she said of her parents. "Because my mom, most of the time, helps me with all my videos. She decides all the costumes, she does the sets, everything."

Her dad helps her out with the history, she added.

"He helps me translate letters, and he gives me ideas of some documents, and sometimes he's also in the videos," she said. "It's a family project."

After covering the history, Sannazzaro Natta thought the castle would be the perfect setting to recreate scenes from Disney movies.

"I grew up, of course, with all the Disney classics," she said.

It's one of her biggest dreams to see the castle in a Disney movie, she said. "I don't know if it'll ever happen, but who knows."

Living in a castle never gets old. Sannazzaro Natta has lived at Castello Sannazzaro since she was four years old, but still sometimes can't believe that it's her reality.

Her favorite room, she said, is the music room. In there, there's a piano from 1800.

"It doesn't play, unfortunately, it doesn't work anymore, but it's just so beautiful to see," she said.

"And there's part of our old book collection, there's all the hat collection, there's some of the original clothing that we have, and it's smaller than most of our living rooms. It just feels very cozy, but at the same time, you feel like you're going back in time."

Walking down every passageway feels historic because the castle has been through so many changes, she added. Sannazzaro Natta's own bedroom used to be a small kitchen, then a storage room, then a bathroom, before she took it over. "So it changed quite a few times," she said.

The castle is part of Sannazzaro Natta's identity, and she said it's been integral to who she has become as a person.

"It changed me a lot in a lot of different ways," she said. "I appreciate history, I appreciate culture a lot more, and it made me very aware of how time changed everything."

At the same time, it's all she's ever known.

"Yes, it's a castle, but it's my home," she said.

It can be a little challenging to bring it up with new people at first, though.

"Hi, my name is Ludo and I live in a castle," she said. "It's kind of awkward."

Growing up, Sannazzaro Natta sometimes worried that people would judge her or assume things about her that weren't true.

"It's always very interesting seeing how people react when I tell them where I live," she said. "The castle is a big part of my life, and I'm really proud of it and I'm proud of my family's history.

"If you want to make assumptions, go for it."