From Wine Spectator, May
15, 2000
At Home in Wine Country
LODGING AMONG THE GRAPES IN TUSCANY
By Michèle Shah
Today, wineries all over the world
welcome visitors, but often, the standard tour and tasting
can by rushed and rudimentary. A handful of Tuscan wine
producers have taken the next step in hospitality: They
offer accommodations on their estates and provide activities
for wine-loving visitors and travelers who simply prefer
a rural home base.
These winery lodgings fall under
the rubric of agriturismo, which started in Tuscany
about 35 years ago. It is a growing business based on
the concept that paying guests stay in houses or apartments
on working farms. Compared with similar accommodations
in other parts of Europe, the quality level has remained
relatively low -- often these places are nothing more
than medieval hovels with broken furniture, soft beds
and cold showers -- but a handful of modern, well-appointed
agriturismi are beginning to cater to a more demanding
and sophisticated clientele.
All of the accommodations in this
report are located on working wine estates, and offer
organized winery visits and tastings for their guests.
Some also produce their own olive oil and have fully
operational mills. Each lodging provides at least one
swimming pool. Amenities can also include horseback
riding, painting, cooking courses and catered meals.
These establishments are a cut above
any other agriturismo available in Tuscany. In addition
to basic comforts such as heating, telephones and weekly
housekeeping, they are clean, comfortable and well-equipped,
with high-quality furnishings and kitchen appliances.
The bedrooms have their own bathrooms, many with tubs
as well as showers. Supplemental cleaning, laundry and
cooking services, as well as extra beds and fax machines,
are usually available at an additional cost and upon
prior request. Some lodgings also provide air-conditioning,
fireplaces and small gardens with individual barbecues.
A friendly, English-speaking office
staff is common, and each apartment or house comes with
an up-to-date information booklet with useful clues
on where to eat, the times/days of local markets and
the telephone numbers of key offices such as banks,
airports and stations. It is important to realize that
staying at an agriturismo is more like renting a house
than booking a hotel room, which means dealing with
many chores yourself, from buying groceries to washing
your laundry.
The high season in Tuscany starts
in May and ends in October. The rest of the year is
mostly considered low season, with the exception of
Christmas and Easter. Some places are closed in winter
because they do not have central heating. Most bookings
require a deposit, and very often, a minimum of a three-day
to one-week stay is obligatory.
Tucked away in its own 200-acre estate,
Collelungo is off the beaten track, yet only a 10 minute
drive or a 30 minute stroll from the medieval village
of Castellina in Chianti with its wide choice of good
restaurants. Nature lovers can admire a huge variety
of flora and fauna, from wild boar and porcupines to
prickly pear and seven types of wild orchid.
The 12 apartments of various sizes
can accommodate two, three or four people. The style
is rustic, and each room has its own bath. The owner
explains, "Most of our guests are couples interested
in sightseeing and relaxing with a good book by the
pool. In the evenings guests can socialize, enjoying
a good bottle of Chianti in the wine bar or catching
up with the latest news on satellite TV situated in
the lounge." Warm, fresh bread is brought in for
your morning breakfast.
From Bon Appetit, May
2000
THE SOUL OF TUSCANY
Down on the Farm
Staying at a working farm, known
as agriturismo, is a great way to experience Tuscany.
Accommodations range from simple to elegant; from rooms
at wine estates to lodgings at small family-run farmsteads.
Some owners allow visitors to participate in the venue’s
daily activities, while others offer cooking classes
or vineyard tours. In any case, the food is about as
genuine as it gets, since most hosts do the cooking.
These are a few good choices.
Podere Collelungo is 25 miles south
of Florence, in Chianti. It is situated on a two-hundred-acre,
fourteenth-century estate. This is a charming property
that was recently restored.
Extracted from The Sunday
Times, London, April 1997
IDLE PLEASURES
The benefits of Tuscan agriturismo
are refreshingly simple, says
JONATHAN FUTRELL: good food,
great wine, and idyllic scenery
"Clinging to the contours of
a hill, (COLLELUNGO) is a farm right enough, but there
is nothing promitive about it. A week or two at Collelungo
is to commune with the sights, scents and flavours of
Chianti without ever having to get your hands, or shoes,
dirty.
"The most strenuous activity
here is following pairs of hoopoes on the valley path
to Castellina. Passing cornflowers, junipers, rosehips,
wild oregano, ivy, thistle, dozens of varieties of conifers
and a profusion of lichen, it was the most active thing
I did all week, and I didn’t even complete that:
a local woman gave me a lift to the Co-op, where the
food put Fortnum and Mason to shame."
Extracted from The Times,
London. April, 1997
CHIANTI? I’LL DRINK TO THAT
By GEOFFREY WANSELL
"...Just a few minutes by car
from Castellina, there have been dwellings on Collelungo’s
200 acres of woodland, vineyard and olive grove since
the Etruscans, but now the entire estate is being restored.
The grapes and olives are to be harvested again and
the buildings have been carefully refurbished to retain
their original features.
"Hidden at the foot of its own
two-kilometre long and suitably rutted strada bianca,
it is one of Chianti’s newest secrets and opened
its doors for the first time in the spring of 1996.
"The apartments are not the
tiny attic rooms of Florence, for each has its own terrace
and individual bathroom and a hearth or wood-burning
stove. Each also has its own view across the grapes
towards the turrets of Castellina and provides an unsurpassable
base for discovering Tuscany -- and Chianti -- in a
style that those in pursuit of their own Room With a
View over the Arno in Florence will never see."
From Preview Travel -
Heaven in the Heart of Tuscany
"Each of Collelungo's apartments
features a kitchenette,
terrace, and views of the farm's revitalized vineyards.
The property is
remarkable for the loving care with which it has been
restored, and its
live-in owners proved to be the most gracious of hosts...
"...Tuscany is so rich that
we could only sample a few of its pleasures.
So we let ourselves settle into its gentle rhythms,
promising each other
that we'd simply have to return someday."
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