Living like a local under the Tuscan sun

Until recently, I believed the only way to truly discover what it’s like to live in a foreign country was to throw on a backpack, browse the latest edition of the travelling world’s Bible (The Lonely Planet) and hostel-hop my way around a country’s popular tourist trail.

Having looked after elephants in the jungles of Chiang Mai, dived with Whale Sharks in the Great Barrier Reef and trekked mountains in Taiwan, I was sceptical a stay in an attractive European villa could meet all of my travelling needs.

Well, I was wrong.

After enjoying the concierge-style services of Sanctuary Retreats, I’m convinced bespoke villa holidays offer the perfect opportunity to embrace a country and get a real, authentic feel for what it’s like to live as a local.

Journey to Pisa

With my precious backpack safely stored at home, I set off with my unloved suitcase and, a 60 minute plane journey later, I touched down in Pisa Airport armed with nine of my closest friends (all of whom I should mention were born in the mid-1980’s). There to greet us at the arrivals gate were Ricardo and Dimitri - two suave Florentines who would privately transfer us to our Italian villa.

Donning their designer sunglasses, well-cut suits and shiny jeeps with blacked-out windows, it was all a far cry from the grubby black cabs and shouting cockney drivers of London. It was also our first glimpse of what we were to expect from our trip.

Tuscany, I quickly discovered, is a place of tear-inducing beauty. After a 90 minute drive past some of the most scenic and unspoiled landscapes I have ever seen, the final part of our journey was through the exclusive San Martino estate, where we reached our new home.

Villa Le Terme

Villa Le Terme, once a traditional 16th-century farmhouse, is now a restored five-bedroom villa set in an elevated and private position overlooking Tuscany’s sweeping Chianti hills. We were welcomed by Todd Wurbia, a friendly Chicago-born American who moved to Italy ten years ago and was our host for the duration of our stay - a title meaning he was on hand 24 hours a day, every day, to help us with any request we cared to fling at him.

And as he regaled us with his hilarious tale of trawling Tuscany’s many farms in search of a live rooster (the college emblem of a previous guest), I immediately realised he literally meant any request!

Todd gave us a brief orientation of the villa and its grounds - an initial task that had me worrying we were going to find it hard to wander far from the villa itself. With its own spa, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi, large infinity pool, summer bar, pool table, home cinema, fully-equipped kitchen and even a room with a wood burning pizza oven, Villa Le Terme has all the benefits of a hotel but with all the privacy and modern comforts of a home from home – albeit a very luxurious one.

Having quickly familiarised ourselves with the villa, we headed to the terrace for a decadent buffet lunch.

What to eat

Food is one thing that this boot-shaped country does well. Each region has its own distinguishing cuisine and a look at the Tuscan countryside reveals some of the main ingredients in local cooking: hillsides blanketed in grape vines; land swathed with olive groves; forests of chestnut trees; and rosemary and sage bushes lining gardens.

Our lunch was served on a sun-bleached table set upon the expansive terrace and surrounded by manicured lawns and magnificent hillside views - the perfect spot to enjoy some al fresco dining. We dug into Tuscan pecorino cheese, prosciutto di parma ham, basil salad, olives and local bread dipped into Tuscany’s Selvapiana olive oil - and had our first taste of Poggio alla Badiola, a smooth local wine.

San Gimignano

A trip to the medieval village of San Gimignano is a must in Tuscany. Conveniently located just a ten-minute drive from Villa Le Terme, Todd lead us on a personal walking tour of this quaint and characterful village, pointing out historical buildings, gothic architecture and telling us interesting tales along the way.

Fascinatingly, while most or all of the towers in other cities - such as Bologna or Florence - have been destroyed by war, natural disasters or city renovation, San Gimignano has managed to conserve 14 towers, which have become its international symbol. It’s also well worth visiting the village’s many churches; most famously, the Collegiata, formerly a cathedral, and San’Agostino, which now houses a wide range of artworks from some of the main Italian Renaissance artists, including Pollaiolo and Ghirlandaio.

The small walled hill town is teeming with boutique shops selling clothes and leather handbags, small cafés where you can watch Italian chefs impressively kneading pizza dough and - my personal favourite - Sergio Dondoli’s world famous ice cream, which claims to have won the ‘World Gelato Championship’ as the Italian team. I tried a pistachio flavoured ice cream and it’s no surprise that its been voted the best in the world.

Dinner that evening was in the heart of the village, at Ristorante Dorando, an intimate restaurant with an international reputation for serving some of Europe’s best slow food. In fitting with San Gimignano’s ancient past, the building dates back to the 14th century and is now split into three private rooms with vaulted roofs and imposing stone walls.

We dined as the locals do, feasting on a five-course gastronomic delight of traditional Tuscan cuisine, with dishes such as pici (Tuscan spaghetti) with oxtail beef Chianina ragout and chicken livers small timbale in a pastry crust with leeks of VinSanto and Tuscan ham.

As well as a daily maid service, the retreat is distinctive in offering a number of 'extra touches', ranging from private yoga courses to exclusive guided tours of cities and museums. The experiences are run from the company’s Tuscany-based office and offer a novel way to enliven your holiday and pick up a new skill along the way.

We opted for two 'extras' - a group painting class and a wine tasting course with private sommelier.

Painting the town red

The painting class took place in the privacy of our own villa and our professional art teacher provided us with an intellectual and practical lesson, combining tutorials on understanding creativity and how to nurture it with practical sessions in which we learned professional brushing techniques and colour blending amongst other skills. The class was both educational and enjoyable - two things that, like water colour and chalk, don’t usually blend so seamlessly.

The Chianti region certainly lends itself to painting, as picturesque scenery flawlessly fuses with gorgeous old vineyards. Offering breathtaking views over the sweeping cypress-lined Tuscan landscape, Villa Le Terme makes the ideal base to find artistic inspiration.

So, from the comfort of our villa, we set to work putting the skills we learned to test.

Drinking in the culture

A trip to Tuscany is incomplete without a tour around the region’s vineyards. Here, vineyards cover a total of 86,000 hectares and the climatic and soil variation in the rugged hills and valleys suit a great variety of grapes.

The Chianti district is the heart and soul of Tuscan wines and our vineyard tour took place at Chianti’s highly revered Fonterutoli estate, which is located on the hills facing the Val d’Elsa and has been owned by the Mazzei family since 1435.

Our personal guide and sommelier, Chiara Mazzei, had lived and worked on the Fonterutoli estate all her life and knew everything there was to know about the wine-making process. She explained that, today, the estate boasts a total surface area of 470 hectares, of which 79 are devoted to specialised vineyards and divided between four areas: Badiola, Belvedere, Fonterutoli and Siepi.

All the main development processes - pruning, tying, stripping leaves, thinning out the bunches and even the harvest - are still done by hand. We visited the estate’s old cellar and the ancient private garden of Villa Mazzei, where the family has been living for over six hundred years, before we passed into the sprawling ‘wine library’ to view the estate’s archived historical bottles.

The Fonterutoli wine cellar is widely reputed as the most impressive wine cellar in the entire Chianti region, producing world-class reds and whites. It is here where we were taught about the vinification process, a complex and prolonged procedure - from the grapes to bottled wine - which includes crushing of grapes, colour extraction, fermentation, blending, bottling and ageing.

One of the highlights of the tour was the private wine tasting of the Fonterutoli production. Doubling up as our sommelier, Chiara presented us with different wines and explained the characteristics of each different label produced by the estate; most notably, Badiola and Fonterutoli are significantly more aromatic and elegant than Belvedere and Siepi, which are marked by a stronger potency.

Dinner with Billy

Another assault on our taste buds was waiting for us back at our villa, as a professional Tuscan chef named Leonardo had taken up residence in our kitchen and was rustling up a number of interesting Italian dishes. Leonardo bore an uncanny resemblance to Billy Connelly in a chef’s hat and it was like viewing a cookery lesson in fast forward mode as he passionately kneaded, chopped, whisked and marinated.

There was just enough time to enjoy a quick Jacuzzi bath (bliss) before gathering around the large rustic table in the dining room to feast on the regional dishes.

We gorged on panzanella (bread salad with tomatoes and basil); fagioli all’uccelletto (beans seasoned with tomatoes, garlic and sage); pappardelle all leper (wide, flat pasta with a sauce made of braised hare); filetti al balsamic (meat fillets in balsamic vinegar sauce); and rounded it all off with an indulgent Perugian chocolate cake. Delicious.

By the time Ricardo and Dimitri arrived a few days later to transfer us to Pisa Airport for our flight back to the UK, I was ready to well and truly eat my words about villa holidays.

Villa Le Terme provided an authentic Italian experience; we lived like locals, ate like locals, shopped like locals, picked up some new skills from locals, learned about a new local winery culture and even managed to acquire a tan along the way.

Now back on British soil, there’s no more Todd pandering to our every whim and no more divine company ensuring the smooth running of our lives. I’m hoping this won’t be for long though - I’m already planning my next break. I hear Sanctuary Retreats also offers river and expedition cruises around the world and bespoke safari holidays at its lodges and camps in Africa, all with the same intimate level of five-star service.

Marie Harris