The white roads by e-bike
Six e-bikes wait in the barn, with helmets and Chiara’s map of loops from 12 to 45 kilometres: to Pienza for coffee, round Monticchiello, or out to the chapel of Vitaleta.
The valley,at your own pace.
Chiara arranges all of this, drivers and tables included, and anything else you have in mind. Tell her before you come what you love, and she will build a week that never feels like a timetable.
On the estate
No car needed. Most of these come with the house; the rest we book for you with people from the valley.
The olive harvest
Pick with Paolo and the neighbours in the morning, eat lunch in the grove, then follow the olives to the mill and taste the oil as it comes out green.
Under the stars
Six kilometres from the nearest town, the sky goes properly dark. There is a telescope on the loggia, and on moonless nights an astronomer from Montepulciano brings a bigger one and names everything.
Yoga on the lawn
A teacher from Pienza comes up for private classes for the house at seven in the morning, before the heat, or at sunset.
A massage in the spa
A therapist from San Quirico d’Orcia works in the massage room next to the sauna, or in your suite if you would rather.
Cooking with Graziella
Pici by hand at the long kitchen table, or a whole Sunday lunch from the market to the Vin Santo.
About the classesIn the valley
Everything here is within forty minutes of the house. We book drivers for the wine days, so nobody has to count glasses.
Brunello and Vino Nobile
Two family cellars in a day with a driver: Montalcino in the morning, lunch in the vines, Montepulciano in the afternoon. We choose growers who still open the door themselves.
The hot springs
The steaming square of Bagno Vignoni is fifteen minutes away, and the free pools among the white travertine of Bagni San Filippo half an hour. Chiara packs towels and a basket.
Above the Orcia at dawn
A balloon flight at sunrise over the mist and the cypress rows, with a pilot we have flown with for years and breakfast where you land.
Pecorino di Pienza
A cheesemaker’s ageing cellar outside Pienza: taste the young cheese, the one aged in walnut leaves and the one buried in ash, and take a wheel home.
Pienza on foot
A guide walks you through the town Pope Pius II rebuilt as an ideal Renaissance city: the cathedral, Palazzo Piccolomini and its hanging garden, and the lanes along the walls.
Truffle hunting
Out in the Crete Senesi with a tartufaio and his dogs, then lunch with what they find. White truffles from October to December, black ones in summer.
Further afield
Full days out, with a driver or by train, for when the valley has been explored and someone wants a city.
Siena and the Palio
Siena is an hour away. On 2 July and 16 August the Palio runs round the Campo; we can find balcony seats if you ask early.
Florence for a day
An hour and three quarters by car, with a driver who waits, or the train from Chiusi. We book the Uffizi and lunch.
Orvieto and Civita
Over the border into Umbria for Orvieto’s cathedral, then Civita di Bagnoregio on its crumbling hilltop.
Two abbeys
Sant’Antimo below Montalcino, where the monks sing vespers, and the frescoed cloister of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.
How it works
One conversation,then a plan for the week.
Prices are per person unless we say otherwise, and include the people who take you. Drivers, guides and tickets go on one bill at the end of your stay.
Tell Chiara what you love
When you book, or any time before you arrive: wine, walking, the children, a birthday, nothing at all.
She books the good people
Growers, guides, drivers and tables she knows, confirmed before you travel and written into a plan for your stay.
Change your mind
Rain, a late night or a lazy morning: tell her at breakfast and she moves things round. Most bookings can change until the day before.
Beyond the gate
Come for the house,stay for the valley.
Tell us your dates and what you would like to do.