If you will decide to spend a short or long period of time with us, we will be glad to meet you and get to know you. But for the moment I can just present our family and our estate, telling you a few anecdotes about our life that will certainly lead you to choose the quietness of this area for your next farm holidays in Tuscany.
We have been farmers for 4 generations and we come from a rural area in the North of Italy, where industrial development and the expansion of Malpensa Airport, near Milan, led us to look for another healthier place to live with our kids.
Positive coincidences and strokes of luck, which will be nice to tell during a traditional Tuscan dinner while tasting a glass of good wine, led us to Castiglion Fiorentino where we found a farm in a valley still unspoiled and untouched by urban expansion. This is well shown by the trekking routes linking the castles and ruins on top of the valley, the cycling path that passes right in front of our house and the events organised to safeguard our green territory.
You will find on our notice board many leaflets about tourist destinations and art towns to visit and a lot of events in Tuscany and Umbria not to miss.
In case you would like to travel around without using public means of transport, we will be glad to drive you on our wheelchair accessible minivan (Mercedes Viano). All cultural and food and wine tours are to be agreed together on site.
Our family now is made up of Romano, Giovanna and Riccardo. Alessio, our first born, was on a wheelchair. That is why we have decided to have special consideration for disabled people when we renovated our mill. For this reason our farmhouse near Arezzo has an accessible barrier-free apartment on the ground floor, so that everyone can enjoy life in the open air.
Year after year we have renovated our farmhouse, from the parking lots and the two holiday apartments on the first floor (Melo in Fiore and Glicine Giallo), which can be accessed through a lovely external stone staircase. Then we have added the swimming pools and the sunbathing area with parasols, sun beds and solar-powered shower, and finally the three rooms with en-suite bathroom in the wooden outdoor building.
Every apartment is conceived to be independent, and in equipped with kitchen, fridge, washing machine, ideal for people who like being autonomous. However, if you wish to taste the Tuscan cuisine and the traditional farmers' recipes, made by using organic ingredients produced in our farm, you could make a reservation for a dinner at the farmhouse and try Giovanna's dishes paired with our Tuscan organic wine (Tuscan red wine labelled as "D.O.C. Val di Chio"). The vegetable garden of our house is also made available to our guests free of charge.
Breakfast and dinner upon request are served in the veranda on a big table like in a bug family; however, a barbecue and a wood-fired oven are also at your disposal, if you want to bake pizza or grill meat and eat them while admiring enchanting sunsets with the hill and town in the background.
Pets are well accepted and are welcome to join us at the farmhouse: here you will also find courtyard animals, two dogs and four cats.
While reading these few lines, you will certainly have an idea of how beautiful this place is, but unfortunately you will not feel the quietness and the nice breeze blowing everyday in Val di Chio. You may try to imagine colours and sounds while watching the pictures, but the perfumes and flavours of our genuine dishes and the lovely evenings spent together will have to be experienced.
We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in this marvelous valley.
We are waiting for you! Romano, Giovanna and Riccardo
