Giglis put restaurant, home on the market

Gina and Ruggero Gigli are putting their home and their Villa Gigli restaurant up for sale to be with their children on the East Coast.

"Two of our kids and soon all four will be living in Maryland and Washington, D.C.," said Gina Gigli. "We want to be near our children and start a new adventure."

The Gigli's three-acre property in Markleeville including two habitable buildings and the restaurant is selling for $1.5 million.

"We need to sell our house first so we may be here for a year or two," said Gigli. "I hope someone buys it who wants to continue the restaurant. My husband is willing to teach whoever wants to learn his secrets."

It's been almost 15 years since the Giglis opened the restaurant in Markleeville.

Ruggero Gigli said he wanted to just serve a little bread and wine on the weekends, but within six months, that idea developed into the Villa Gigli Trattoria.

The Giglis feature music and serve Italian dinners on Saturday and Sunday nights, May through October.

The rest of the year they do artwork and travel. A popular destination is Ruggero Gigli's native Italy.

The couple have owned property in Markleeville for 30 years. They first had a coffee house but wanted to travel to other places.

"We decided to be artists and moved to Carmel for a year and St. Helena for four years and came back and opened the restaurant in our former studio," Gina Gigli said.

Gigli met her husband a few years after he moved to the United States from Florence, Italy. She had three sons from a previous marriage and the couple have a daughter together.

The former Jane Green became "Gina" at her first meeting with Ruggero Gigli.

"He always called me Gina and pretty soon our friends asked if they could call me that too," Gina Gigli said. "Now when I sit in an office and they call for 'Jane,' I wonder where she is. I don't even identify with 'Jane' anymore."

While the Giglis want to get out of restaurant business, they plan to continue to create art, travel and visit with their family.

"I'm 75 and Ruggero is 74 and I said we should quit when we're ahead. We don't want our service to suffer," said Gigli.

"As we get older and slower, the restaurant is hard work. We've had a full life and it will be fun to go on a new adventure."

Villa Gigli continues business at 145 Hot Springs Road in Markleeville. Call (530) 694-2253 for more information.