San Gimignano Vistas

Authentic Italy - Family Lodgings - For Wine Lovers - Green Vacations
     
Character: Authentic Tuscan living in a lovingly restored former monastery.
Advantages: Gorgeous views of San Gimignano and the valleys; very quiet; lovely owners.
Location: Just west of San Gimignano, in the geographical center of Tuscany. Great for day trips to almost everywhere. Click here to see the map for San Gimignano Vistas.
Size: Seven apartments and one room. The apartments can sleep 2, 4, 6 or 7 people; the room can sleep up to 4 people.
Features: Each bedroom has window screens and a private bathroom with hair dryer. Panoramic swimming pool, wireless Internet access in the common rooms. Price includes breakfast for daily rentals; it is available for weekly rentals.
Minimum stay: Three nights.
Disadvantages: No air conditioning, but the property is atop a hill, so air conditioning is rarely needed.
Car needed: Yes.


As you probably know by now, in our humble opinion the best thing about San Gimignano is the view of those amazing towers from afar. Well, few spots in Tuscany offer a better vantage point for that view than this tranquil hilltop winery. Another truism about Tuscany is that "the monks always nabbed the best locations," which must be why a small group of pious brothers chose this little piece of heaven as the spot where they would build their monastery back in the Middle Ages when the pilgrimage route to Rome passed not too far away. Over the centuries the tiny conglomerate of stone buildings has passed through a few hands, until a couple of decades ago when Sabrina and her husband decided to turn it into their own secluded haven. As they set about restoring the neglected mass of stones, they began to feel it wasn't fair to keep all this beauty and silence and magic to themselves, and so it was that they created a handful of apartments and welcomed their first holiday guests. Nowadays, although hubby is kept busy producing two million bottles of prized Tuscan wine each year, Sabrina and her associate Valeria spend their days introducing foreigners to the most authentic country life you'll ever find.

The experience at San Gimignano Vistas starts when you reach the beginning of their private drive (the way you'll know it is that the Tower View suddenly appears over the crest of a hill). Pleasant breezes waft through the estate all spring, summer and fall, making it an ideal spot for Sabrina's countless rose bushes and flowering pergolas. Each apartment has its own patio or garden, furnished with table and chairs for al fresco dining or reading or chatting or just plain dreaming. Guests converge at the gorgeous 20x45-foot swimming pool in the late afternoon, to enjoy a quick dip or gaze at the valleys and hill towns or share an aperitif. More enterprising vacationers can use their barbeque to prepare the yummy local sausages and meat cuts, washed down with the estate's own wines (which you will also sample at the complementary cantina visit and tasting).

There are seven apartments on the property, spread across three beautifully restored stone farmhouses. All have terracotta floors, wood-beamed ceilings, window screens, 18th- and 19th-century Tuscan farmhouse furniture, hand-embroidered linens and up-to-the-minute tiled bathrooms with stall showers and hair dryers. Each apartment has a kitchenette with mini-fridge, oven, toaster and electric kettle. Garbo offers loads of windows on the ground floor; it features a living/dining room, kitchenette with gas range and full-sized fridge, big double or triple bedroom, and bathroom. Fresco and Tosto are also on the ground floor, each with a living/dining room/kitchenette, a bedroom with queen bed and single bed, bathroom, and a gazebo in the courtyard. Tosto's living is large enough to accommodate another single bed for a total of six people. Torrita is 15 steps up on the first floor, and welcomes you with a soaring wood-beamed ceiling in the living/dining room/kitchenette. On either side of this room is a queen bedroom with en suite bathroom. You'll have to toss a coin to decide who gets the bedroom with full-on San Gimignano view! Next door is Tuscio, which has the same living/dining room/kitchenette, one bedroom with canopy queen bed and San Gimignano view, as well as a second queen bedroom with hall bathroom. A fifth bed can be added to a bedroom or the living room. Santo Chiodo is in another building and offers a very large living/dining room/kitchenette which opens onto its own covered patio, a twin or queen bedroom with en suite bathroom and door to the patio, a queen bedroom with hall bathroom, and space for a fifth or sixth bed in the bedroom or living room. The largest apartment, called Itineris, is 16 steps up on the first floor and can sleep up to 7 people if you use the double sleep sofa in the living room, which is separated from the kitchen by an archway. Otherwise you can make yourselves comfy in the two queen bedrooms, each with its own en suite bathroom. This apartment can also connect to a separate triple bedroom with its own bathroom, for a grand total of 7+2 people. This separate room can also be rented for 2 or 3 people on a daily basis, in which case breakfast is included in the room price.

     

For this property:
Included in price for rooms: taxes, services, one set of linens per person, utilities, heating, air conditioning, wireless Internet access in the common rooms, complementary winery visit and tasting
Included in price for apartments: taxes, services, one set of linens per person, utilities except heating, wireless Internet access in the common rooms, complementary winery visit and tasting
Not included in the price for apartments: 10 Euro/day per apartment for heating (if used)


Optional extras:
Breakfast for weekly rentals costs 5 Euro/person per day
A small pet is welcome and costs 40 Euro/week
Laundry costs 5 Euro/load; there is a complementary iron and board
Lunch or dinner costs 15-25 Euro/person and must be reserved in advance

Check-in: 4-7pm
Check-out: 10am
Security deposit: 150 Euro

Please note that you need a car to stay here.

It is not possible to guarantee Internet access at any property, because the property does not generate the service, it merely provides access from a server. If the server experiences any kind of problem at all, the property regrets it cannot be responsible for any inconvenience caused by subsequent lack of service.