Best city for spring 2011: Lucca, Italy

11 January 2011 | By Abigail Hole, Lonely Planet Magazine

Lucca’s old town is encircled by fortified walls, which date back five centuries to the Renaissance. (Rachel Lewis/LPI)

Wandering through Lucca in Tuscany is like stepping into an illuminated manuscript. The town’s red-orange roofs and spires thrust out of a landscape of deepest green, with cypress-tree brushstrokes and a backdrop of mountains. Author Hilaire Belloc’s 1902 description holds true: ‘The neatest, the regularest, the exactest, the most fly-in-amber town in the world, with its uncrowded streets, its absurd fortifications… everything in Lucca is good.’

It's hard to imagine anywhere more romantic than Lucca in the spring... Complete article

We offer in villa dining in 2011. Click here  811 Il Fienile Menus.pdf to download the menu

Astride a turn in the hillside, known as A Capo, lay a farm with exceptional views and two buildings: Il Fienile and La Casa Padronale.

Abandoned, overgrown, collapsed.

Until recently...

A new owner has returned the farm (some 1000 olive trees) to production.

Using the Ferrari construction company and surveyor associates of Knight Frank, he has restored Il Fienile, sparing no expense to use traditional materials.

The result: a farmhouse villa, meeting all the requirements of today's market (including interior design, eco-efficient solar-powered under-floor heating, air-conditioning, wi-fi, infinity pool, etc, etc).

La Casa Padronale (still partially hidden by growth, resplendent with an orange tree, screened from Il Fienile by olive trees and shrubs, and internally floodlit at night) evokes the history of this exceptional site.

Now you can stay here any week, all year round...

For a photographic guide to the house, please click here

Il Fienile is beautifully presented and interior-designed in traditional Tuscan style, touched by modern luxury... All with a tasteful mix of antique and modern furniture and fabrics from Busatti, traditional Tuscan artisan fabric designers.

Lower floor                                                                   

Hall with stairs to upper floor, main entrance door to garage and corridors to Dining Room (18m²),  Kitchen (18m²), La Camera Rosa - Principal Guest Bedroom Suite (28m²) and La Camera Verde Guest Bedroom (20m²) . In addition, there are two further Ancillary Bedrooms both with bunk beds, one further Shower Room, Laundry facilities and a small Office.

Upper floor

Stairs to the magnificent large beamed Soggiorno (living room - 50m²), off which lies a small 2nd Kitchen (open to guests only by arrangement). A Lobby opens to a small Guest WC and the Upper Corridor off which are La Camera Gialla Guest Bedroom (23 Tenuta di m²) and La Camera Grigia Master Guest Bedroom Suite (31m²).

Outside

Two large terraces, covered with pergolas and both with outstanding panoramas towards the distant Leaning Tower of Pisa, provide outside seating, cocktail and dining areas.

A path leads up to the Infinity Pool (12x6m) and beyond it to seating areas in the woods. Paths also run across the 20 acres of woodland, disused vineyards, newly planted orchard and active olive farm, with further seating areas.

Walks across the hillside to the nearby monastery, Villa Tenuta di Forci vineyard and more distant but reachable restaurants are accessible from paths across the estate.

It is difficult adequately to describe the beauty and peace of this place: indeed, several guests have commented that this website and photos don't really do it justice. This is a place one ultimately has to experience to understand. (If it seems hyperbolic, understand that when we first came to it, overgrown and collapsed, we were no less captivated by it than our guests have subsequently been...)

Please note that we have been 'adopted' by a cat. If you are allergic to cats, we can make arrangements with you to remove it for the duration of your stay.

Click here for the full specification (PDF)