The term "Villa" is thrown around a lot these days... Disney uses the term to describe some of their upscale hotel properties, and Marriot & Hilton both label some of their overnight properties as Villas... But in Tuscany, the term Villa has a very special connotation... The inference is typically a majestic & magnificent country Estate, often a Wine & Olive Oil Estate and Farm...
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Yes, this is a real view from a real window at the Villa... |
The Villa's massive - over 10,000+ sq ft throughout 4 floors with 2 ft thick stone walls & a spiral staircase winding up thru the Tower... The look of this small castle is punctuated by two rows of massive arches on the front of the Villa framing two very large outdoor Terraces, and a very large historic wood-fired bread & pizza oven built into the wall on the upstairs Terrace......
There's 7 bedrooms, each with private baths, two living rooms, with a fireplace in one... There's a wonderfully large kitchen with a another massive cooking fireplace & a farmhouse table that seats 12, and a separate more formal dining room that also seats 12... And then, as if that's not enough, there's even two more dining areas outside where we usually enjoy most of our meals; one rectangular table under the large vaulted porticos on ground floor leading out onto the Terrace, and yet another huge round table under the vine-covered loggia overlooking the vineyards & olive groves where we often enjoy our daily Happy Hours...
The rustic beauty of this historic Villa is just wonderful... There's beautiful original hand-formed Terra-Cotta bricks on the floors and even in the vaulted ceilings... There's massive 18 inch exposed hand-hewn Chestnut beams throughout the structure... and 2" thick functional wood shutters with heavy hammered iron hardware swinging open from the windows... This Villa is no "Disney come lately replication" by Marriot or Hilton, this is the real deal! You'll love this place! The photo above is peeking out thru a porthole in a secondary stairway that leads up to the Terrace with the wood-fired Bread Oven... And up here, there's three more grand porticos that give way to yet another amazing seating area and gathering spot with views to die for overlooking the hills of Chianti and our "home base" Village of Radda-in-Chianti
There's two large electronic gates that secure the half mile long, tree lined private road into the property... and what would a Tuscan Villa be without a beautiful in-ground pool and a 40 ft by 80 ft Grand Terra-Cotta entertainment Terrace!
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| click on the pic to enlarge |
We'll tell you lots more about The Wine & Olive Oil Estate in future posts, but suffice it to say this is no neighborhood winery. Castello di Albola is one of Italy's premier Wine Estates and bottles over 1.5 million bottles a year... and distributes and sells their wines in over 135 countries around the world!
Adventures to Tuscany... the real Italian Villa experience! What makes us different, makes all the difference in the world!
