Villa near Cortona

Villa Vignacce: a corner of peace

This weekend I have been with my girlfriend at Villa Vignacce, a great place in Southern Tuscany near the Village of Bettolle. The owner of the Villa is a young man, Giovanni, that was really nice to us. Giovanni is also a great cooker and prepared us some incredible homemade pasta. Annalicia, the mother of Giovanni is also very nice and helps him to run the business. Near Villa Vignacce there are several Villages and towns that you should visit once there: Montepulciano (15km), Cortona (15km), Pienza (20km) and Siena (40km). This part of Tuscany is also famous for its incredible SPA like "Bagno Vignoni" and "Rapolano Terme". I would suggest to go to Rapolano "San Giovanni" that are probably the most beautiful.

For more information here you have the link

Villa Toscane

This is a truly relaxing corner of Tuscany. Highly recommended.

Pulcianese, good Tuscan Food and Nature

Home Food in a green valley

This week I have been in Pulcianese, a lovely eat-outside place very close to Siena. Surrounded by lovely green hills where sheeps and lambs eat grasslands freely, is this lovely nature spot where you can eat great gourmet Tuscan food and stay in touch with nature. The price is around 20 Euro per person, all included. If you wish you can also bring your own food and enjoy it at one of the many outside tables without having to pay a dime. However, I truly advice to try the Tuscan bean soup the owner prepares every day. DELICIOUS! and also the many Tuscan cold cuts, hams, prosciutto, and good hearty wine. Around the place there is plenty of woods to explore, courtyard animals and plenty of separated parking space. A great experience if you are travelling through Tuscany! Open everyday.

Ferragamo lounge bar in Florence

Florence offers everyday new places where you can go and enjoy this wonderful city, the last one where I have been is Ferragamo lounge bar and hotel. This ferragamo creation is situated close to Arno river just 2 min walking from Ponte Vecchio and 5 min from the Uffizzi in one of the most beautiful places in Florence. The bar is modern and minimalist with very elegant fornitures they do serve very interesting food mixing Japanese and Italian food cultures. The music played was chillout. The Hotel seams to be also very elegant. Ferragamo made a almost perfect fusion between food,hotels and fashion.

A nice hang out in Florence

Rifrullo cocktails and
winebar in Florence

By the Architecture university in San Niccolo in Florence, shaded by the ancient walls of the San Niccolo fortress is the Rifrullo bar and winery, a very classy stylish but down to earth place where a lot different kinds of people meet. Here you have students from architectural design, professionals, tourists, and regular customers of every age coming in for the happy hour, between 5 to 8 in the evening.


Rifrullo in Florence is not only a wine bar, because it also has a nice outdoor patio where one can eat under the shade of ancient cypress trees and the fortress's walls. At night the bar becomes a disco pub with outdoor dancing floor and cocktail bar. Being so central in Florence this wine bar is quite convenient.
Around Rifrullo, which is very close to the river Arno)there is plenty of parking, but it's easily reacheable with a short walk from the center of Florence.
You can find Rifrullo here:
Via S. Niccolò, 55/r. Florence Tel: +390552342621

more information about where to sleep can be found at: Italy bed and breakfast

Siena a town for your dreams

Siena is a wonderful town that you should visit if you are planing to travel to Tuscany. Siena is a medieval town situated at 322 meters above sea level in the heart of Tuscany. Siena still keeps its medieval appearance. The town is characterized by narrow streets, noble buildings and unique gothic churchs as its Duomo (the main cathedral). The origin of Siena is Etruscan, than it was colonized by Romans. During the middle ages it become an important, rich and powerful town and around the year 1200 Siena become the most important town in central Italy. Confrontation with Florence was inevitable and after many centuries of wars Florence was able to conquer Siena in the year 1556 so than Siena lost its autonomy and its power. Nowadays Siena is a very well kept town. I would recommend once there to visit at list the famous Piazza del Campo and the Duomo.
A very good website that also talks about Siena is ItalyGuides.it a sightseeing revolution and a virtual reality travel in Italy through monuments and masterpieces and also Italy tours

Sassicaia - Red from Maremma

Red Cabernet-Sauvignon for Wine Lovers: Sassicaia

The warm and dry climate of Maremma's infinite planes, where Butteros (Italian Cow Boys) spend their days on te back of a horse, expert farmers tender vineyards to give life to one of the best Italian red wines: Sassicaia.
Sassicaia was born by the ingenuity of an Italian marquis, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who had a particular taste for Cabernet Sauvignon, and wanted to create a noble wine in a land, the Maremma valley, where wine making was not yet a developed art, and where Nebbiolo and Sangiovese were the grapes of choice. Grown close to the influence of the sea, and at various altitudes, the grapes matured and produced a wine that at the beginning did not encounter much success among the locals. That is why from 1948 to 1960 the wine Sassicaia was made for the exclusive consumption of the marquis and his family.



The success of the now famous Sassicaia came when the marquis discovered that with the aging process, many "difects" turned into a positive characteristic of the wine. The first year that Sassicaia was made and sold outside the estates was 1968, when the vintage, French Oak Barrel aged wine reached the market. In subsequent years it reached world appreciation, gaining many prizes and being recognized as the initiator of the new wine wave in Italy. Thanks to Sassicaia, nowadays all Italian wine producers have confidently introduced Cabernet grapes and barrique aging in their production process.
Sassicaia is produced in Bolgheri on the San Guido estates of Marquis della Rocchetta. Sassicaia means rocky land.

Gelato! In Castellina in Chianti

Unforgettable Ice Cream

So I finally returned to Tuscany last Saturday, and this time I am going to stay for two weeks in Gaiole at wonderful Villa Gaiole! During my first time in Tuscany I had eaten an industrial quantity of ice cream. I thought I had found the best ever in San Gimignano, but today I have found the absolute best of the best! In Castellina in Chianti, just twenty kilometers from Siena on the old road that takes to Florence I found this artisan ice-cream "shoppe". Here at the "Antica Delizia" I have tried for the first time the best Pistaccio and Chocolate flavours. The Cream was gorgeous, too and I felt like trying each one of the fourty plus flavous. Simone and Chiara are very kind to their customers, and offer they offer you to try every flavour you would like to. They also speak English German and French fluently.



The next thing I am going to try are the gelato cakes that look absolutely F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S !!
The inside of the shop is really clean simple and modern, with nice old fashion benches where you could sit on and eat your icecream. The ice-cream shop is just few meters from the centre of Catellina in Chianti, which is also a very nice town to visit. The directions to the icecream shop are:
L' Antica Delizia, Via Fiorentina 4, Castellina in Chianti, Siena
Phone: +39 0577 741337. Closed on Tuesdays.

Bomarzo The park of Monsters

Today we have been at Bomarzo, an incredible park few km from Tuscany in Northern Lazio. The park of Monsters of Bomarzo was made by the architect Pirro Ligorio on request from the Prince Pier Francesco Orsini and it was completed in the year 1552 as the Park of Wonders. The park was renamed as Park of Monsters in the year 1954 by Mr Giovanni Bettini who managed it. Nowadays the park is the place where tourists and local people from Bomarzo go to spend few relaxing hours during the weekend. The park is a really incredible place where mythology meets fantasy creating an incredible world. The park is open all year from morning until 7pm. If you wish to contact the park management the telephone number is +39 0761924029.

If you are planning to eat in Bomarzo, in the park there is a kind of restaurant quite cheap but not bad. If you wish to have a more delicious lunch or dinner I would suggest to go to Agriturismo la Civetta, which is on the way to the park. Food is excellent and the service too.. Price is a bit high, though. We spent almost 40 euros per person.

Dream Holiday at Villa Chianti near Florence

Luxury villa near Florence

Being a large group of people (19 people!) we did not think we could find something in the countryside in Tuscany to fit us all. On www.yourtuscanvilla.com we were able to find Villa Chianti, a sixteenth century farmhouse completely restored to a be a wonderful private villa with pool. The pool was gorgeous! Immersed in an olive grove and surrounded by lush plants and blossoming flowers, it commanded views of the countryside around Florence. The house was just unbelievable. Full of all comforts, it did not even need air conditioning as these ancient Tuscan villas have very thick walls and they function perfectly as a thermic insulation. The peace level, the privacy, and the food (we got a private chef for the week!) were simply gorgeous.
Our daytrips to Florence, Siena and many other small towns in the area were a pleasure since we were so centrally located in Tuscany. One day we even went to Rome and were back in the late afternoon for a swim in the swimming pool of Villa Chianti.
The owner, a French performer, gave us all comforts, such as cable Internet and TV, WI FI connection, fax machine, photocopier, and a wonderful international library.
Even during the occasional rainy days it was a pleasure to be inside this homely Villa Chianti, which internal architecture reminds of an old castle, in bright summery colors.
In addition we went for wine tasting in the chianti region, which left me with a much better understanding of this superb wine.
Villa Chianti in Tuscany is a lovely experience to try!

where to eat in Valdorcia

Last weekend I went for the first time in my life in a very nice restaurant at Radicofani in Valdorcia. The restaurant is called "Le Grotte" and it is situated almost on the top of the village of Radicofani. The restaurant offers traditional Tuscan food like hand made pici different kinds of meats and prices are very reasonable. My girlfriend and I had 3 entrees heach, a bottle of read wine a panna cotta cake two coffees and we only spent 16 euros. The food was excellent and I would recommend this restaurant to everybody who is in Valdorcia and wants to try real Tuscan food. Unfortunately the restaurant does not have any webpage but you will able to find it once there, the village is very small.
The direction is this one:
RISTORANTE LE GROTTE, RADICOFANI province of SIENA

Bagni Vignoni - Roman Baths and Spas

Antique Baths at Bagni Vignoni

On the antique, and well travelled road that takes to Rome, called Cassia in honour to a 154 BC censor name Cassio, at about 35 Miles (50 Km) from Siena, is the wonderfully restored city of Bagni Vignoni, so called because the little town (few houses and two prestigious hotels) has been the center of a rich thermal activity since pre Christian times. Here the heart of the town, the square, is not made of stone or bricks, as in many other Tuscan towns, it is made of water. The enormous square well is filled with thermal waters that come from a spring at its center. The temperature is around 124 F (51 C), but swimming is forbidden. On three sides the well is walled, but on the third side the it is possible to sit under a loggiato and enjoy the view. Here, in 1320 Santa Caterina da Siena too stopped and enjoyed the peaceful sight.



However, if you want to enjoy the thermal and beneficial baths, you have the choice of Hotel Posta Marcucci, with a tiled thermal swimming pool for 10 Euro per person a day, and the more natural, but just as clean, environment that the waters coming from the main square form while descending the hill towards a creek.



This whitewashed hill is unmistakeably signed with the many pools and small cascades adorning it. People have swam in these ever changing pools for centuries. The fresh breeze and unique landscape harmonize with the feeling of peace that one feels entering these waters. Grass bushes and well placed stones form naturally the corners where enjoy and benefit from the baths. Descending from one pool to another the temperature drops accordingly, letting each one decide their comfort zone. The area is very safe and the atmosphere is underlined by a friendly, but understated, feeling of brotherhood.
The route to Bagni Vignoni is: Take Exit Siena South towards Monteroni. At the light, turn right on to the Cassia road. Stay on for about 50 Km, until you will find the signs to Bagni Vignoni. The road will be on your right.
Contact Posta Marcucci: Tel. 00390577887112 - info@hotelpostamarcucci.it