In Italy Online – Palazzo Bandino

Palazzo Bandino

Authentic Italy - Slow Food Member - For Wine Lovers - Green Vacations - Family Lodgings - Romantic Lodgings

Character: Very authentic family winery surrounded by vineyards and olive trees.
Advantages: Unbeatable location for day trips in Tuscany and Umbria; very friendly English-speaking hosts; excellent on-site restaurant and pizzeria.
Location: Outside the spa town of Chianciano Terme. The property is in the country with beautiful views of the hills, but Chianciano is a modern town with lots going on in the evening, a rarity for Tuscany. The autostrada is five minutes away, and Siena, Assisi, Florence and Rome are all under an hour's drive. Montepulciano and Pienza are around the corner. Click here to see a map.
Size: Five apartments, three houses, four double rooms and one very romantic little house for two people. Apartments range from one-bedroom, one-bathroom to four-bedroom, three-bathroom.
Features: All non-smoking rooms, air-conditioning, telephone, satellite TV in the main sitting room, mini-bar, safe, US coffeemaker, private bathroom with hair dryer and shower. Shared washing machine, restaurant seven days a week (except December and January), and swimming pool. Price includes winery visit. Cooking lessons and winetasting are available.
Minimum stay: Three nights.
Disadvantages: No elevator (some rooms are one or two flights up).
Car needed: Yes.

Just ten minutes from the autostrada and a mile from the spa town of Chianciano, this gracious 20-acre farm dates back to the 1600s and has been in the Valeriani family for generations. Guests are welcome to pick the seasonal vegetables growing in the garden, participate in the November olive harvest, and watch the grapes become wine in the cellars (September and October). On the ground floor of the main building, which once housed a convent, there is a classic Tuscan restaurant serving three meals a day, and a TV room (with English language channels) warmed by ancient fireplaces. Behind the building is a panoramic swimming pool.

Beautiful restorations have been made to the non-smoking farmhouses, where guests stay in individual air-conditioned apartments or rooms. Brand new stall showers were added in early 2008; the ones in Leccio, Colombaio and Caratello are king-sized and all the others are larger than average. Up one flight of stairs are Mandorlo (700 sq.ft.) and Leccio (440 sq.ft.), each featuring a living/dining room, separate eat-in kitchen, bedroom with two twin beds (or one double) and bathroom (the bathroom in Mandorlo has a whirlpool tub and shower); Girasole (485 sq.ft.), which has a living/dining room with kitchenette, two double bedrooms and bathroom; and Mimosa, Ginestra and Quercia, three double bedrooms each with its own private bathroom. Mandorlo and Mimosa are joined by a private foyer, which makes them convertible into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment ideal for two couples.

For large families, Ginestra and Quercia can be joined to Girasole for a total of four bedrooms and three bathrooms (one of these rooms is right across the hall but not actually encompassed in the resulting four-bedroom apartment). On the top floor, benefitting from wonderful views across the vineyards to old Chianciano, are Colombaio (570 sq.ft.; living/dining room, separate kitchen, triple bedroom and bath) and Caratello (440 sq.ft.; living/dining room, separate kitchen, double bedroom and large bathroom). If two couples or a family take these two rooms, they can also benefit from a third private bathroom and shower across the hall.

There are also five smaller houses, located just a few yards from the main house. Olivo (700 sq.ft.) has a living/dining room with fireplace and bachelor's kitchenette, two double bedrooms and two bathrooms. Glicine (540 sq.ft.) and Cipresso (645 sq.ft.) each have a living/dining room with kitchenette, double bedroom and bathroom. Vigneto (645 sq.ft.) has a living/dining room with kitchenette, double bedroom and two bathrooms. Noce is a very romantic little house that comprises a double bedroom under the eaves, and a bathroom with shower (no kitchen).

All rooms and apartments have independent air conditioning, central heating, very firm orthopedic mattresses, telephone, radio and color TV. Each apartment has a living room with sleep sofa for one adult or two children, plus a modern kitchenette with mini-fridge, aluminum sink, four-burner range and American coffee pot. The bathrooms (all with showers) have also been recently remodeled, and feature great lighting and hair dryers. Heavy wooden antiques, terracotta tiles, wood-beamed and arched ceilings create a warm, inviting atmosphere throughout.

The closest attraction to Palazzo Bandino are the baths at Chianciano Terme, where you can treat yourself to all sorts of health treatments, world-class beauty treatments and excellent fitness facilities. But this is also a prime location for day trips in Tuscany and Umbria. Choose from Florence (one hour by autostrada), Montepulciano (10 miles), Pienza (20 miles), Siena or Volterra (35 miles), Lake Trasimeno (10 miles), or Arezzo (30 miles). Perugia, Assisi and San Gimignano are just a little farther, and even Rome is only ninety minutes away. Travel by car or take the train: Chiusi-Chianciano is a main stop on the Rome-Florence line. No matter how you plan to spend your time at Palazzo Bandino, your life is bound to be a little bit enriched by a stay in this minuscule magical kingdom, whose residents want you to know that

"While the rest of the world experiments with genetically modified organisms,
We still grow farro, a grain beloved several millennia ago by the Etruscans and used today as the base of a delicious, nourishing vegetarian soup you will taste with us
We still spend long hours pruning the sangiovese vines, imitated around the world but first created here on our hillsides, where they still produce wine that we age in small oak barrels
We still wait until November to handpick our olives only when they are ripe on the tree, before they fall to the ground, to make the very best extra-virgin olive oil for your bruschetta
We still raise the exceedingly rare Chianina cattle which spend their lives happily grazing on our own organically-grown pastures and whose meat is used for the famous bistecca alla fiorentina
While science dreams of creating a bionic man, we concentrate on you, who come from a faraway city and dream of tasting our homegrown produce, breathing our fresh air, and living in a house that was built before cement had been invented
We look forward to sharing our world with you"

Also available: One-week cooking & excursion program at Palazzo Bandino
One-week Food & Wine Lover's Southern Tuscany

Weekly Rates for 2009 (per apartment) Saturday-to-Saturday ONLY between August 2 and 30
	One-Bedroom Apartment or House (1-4 people)	Two-Bedroom Apartment or House (4-6 people)
Jan. 1-April 11 April 18-May 2 Oct. 31-Dec. 26	569.00 EURO	739.50 EURO
May 2-Aug. 1 Oct. 3-31	739.50 EURO	910.00 EURO
April 11-18 Aug. 1-Oct. 3 Dec. 26-Jan. 2, 2010	899.00 EURO	1081.00 EURO