10/10 Excellent
Frances Sutton
11 oct. 2018
We were privileged to spend a magical 2 weeks in Gemma's stunning and vast Tuscan house.
Here are the things we loved:
âą Gemma, the owner, is a delight â always happy to help and offer advice. She speaks good English and is a mine of information including fascinating facts about the property and its history. She visits daily to make sure her guests are ok. We miss her.
âą Beautiful rural surroundings
âą Gorgeous country walks â bring walking boots
âą Peace and tranquility â away from it all â not any immediate neighbours
âą Safe and secure â electric gates lead to a long avenue flanked by trees
âą The house is spectacularly historic â built around1512 . It is unspoilt, with wonderful original Italian features and furnishings.
âą The house is vast âwith access only to most of the ground floor and the large basement kitchen (this is not the everyday kitchen), but even this amounts to probably about 5-6,000 sq feet, and with high ceilings. Upstairs remains un renovated
âą Large private swimming pool
âą Deliveries of organic produce grown by the owner
âą Fresh figs from the tree
âą The house has its own water supply from a mountain spring
âą Dining in the large walled courtyard by the light of the fine candelabra â thereâs a BBQ there too (as well as one down by the pool)
âą Sitting under the chestnut tree where there is always some shade and a beautiful view.
âą Fabulous pizza evenings â Antonio fires up the ancient pizza oven, prepares the dough and then we all make pizza together.
âą The basement kitchen used for the pizza evenings.
âą Snooker/Pool table
âą Table tennis table
âą Good supermarket 5 minutesâ drive away.
âą Strongly recommend Riva Sud restaurant on the lake â about 10 minutes away
âą 5 minutes from A1
âą About half an hour from Florence and from the airport . 90 mins to Siena.
Things some may not like, but we didnât find them a problem:
âą The bathrooms are basic, but they were originally done to a high standard. Everything works really well, there is plenty of very hot water and shower pressure is good
âą The kitchen is dated and small, but has everything you need. There is also a laundry room off one of the bedrooms.
âą One of the bedrooms is only accessible through another.
âą The pool is not so close to the house and there is a bit of a trek back up the hill after a swim.
âą There are a lot of biting insects
If you want to stay in a fascinating, historic house, full of Tuscan culture, look no further! We were sad to leaveâ it was an emotional parting from Gemma and her ancestral home.
Frances Sutton
Séjour de 14 nuits en septembre 2018
