Archive for 'Villas and Farmhouses'

In the past we have discussed multi-unit villas in our Villa Spotlight, and they can be such wonderful properties that we will be revisiting these large rentals once again. Multi-unit villas can offer the luxury of a larger villa, but in smaller spaces if you are traveling with just a few people in your party. On the other hand, if your party is rather large a multi-unit villa can keep all your guests together in one place without crowding a single house. These advantages, among other things, make them so attractive to certain situations.

The villa we are looking at for the next few days is the amazing and gorgeous Fattoria Della Nave. This property has been in the Della Nave family and has been their summer house for over 200 years.

It was constructed in the eighteenth century and still remains this character despite some renovations over the years. Fattoria Della Nave is made up by nine separate units and lies in Terranuova Bracciolini in the province of Arezzo. The entire property, renting out all nine units, can hold forty-three people very comfortably. The property is roughly 40km to Florence, Cortona and San Gimignano and only 25km from Arezzo, making it a perfect location for visiting many of the 'highlights' of Tuscany.

Welcome to this weeks Villa Spotlight, in which we'll be covering a smaller villa in San Gimignano named Capannina.

Nestled on a hill, in the many hills around the small town of San Gimignano with gorgeous views all around of the many olive groves and vineyards that produce the wonderful Vernaccia di San Gimignano. In the distance you can even see the towers that the little medieval town is so well known for.

In our final installment about Villa Fabbroni we will be covering the large and luxurious Il Padronale as well as one of the best features of the property, one that will be hard to find in any other villa: Fabbroni’s private restaurant.



Il Padronale

As the largest of the units at Villa Fabbroni, Il Padronale is well suited for a large family or group that wants the charm of Villa Fabbroni but require a larger space. The unit has five bedrooms with four bathrooms, three of which are en suite, and sleeps a maximum of twelve people. Il Padronale also has a private courtyard equipped with garden furniture to enjoy the outdoors, as well as a stone barbecue to grill some delicious Chianina steaks.

In Day 2 of our spotlight on Villa Fabbroni we'll be taking a closer look at the region around the villa, as well as a look at more of the units that make up the property.

San Polo in Chianti
Chianti was originally a very small region consisting of only three small communities near Siena, but was reformed in 1932 to include more area but still in well-defined districts. Many towns suddenly found themselves in a noble wine region and took his honor to heart. San Polo, as well as the Commune of Greve that it resides in, added the suffix of in Chianti to their name. The region around San Polo and Greve prided itself on its contributions to the so-called “Super Tuscans” prior to gaining the “in Chianti” appellation, but many of the wineries jumped at the chance to produce one of the signature wines of Italy.

If there is one mistake that is repeated more often each year than any other it’s waiting to long to book a villa for a large group. Large villas are always the first properties to be booked in the season. There are many reasons for this but the primary factor is coordinating the travel schedules of some many people and booking airlines tickets.

When should you book? As soon as you know the number of people traveling and have decided on a travel date (remember villa bookings run from Saturday to Saturday). In most cases, the rates and availability come online in Aug/Sept of the prior year, so, for example, you can book for the 2008 season now. If you need to book two years in advance please let us know and we can suggest some properties that allow bookings that far in advance.