Journalist and TV producer Dominique knows what people yearn for when they’re away. At Poggio ai Santi, he and his wife are channelling all their imagination and flair into providing it. Here are three buildings – the main house 19th-century, the other two modern – set among roses and with spellbinding sea views. Uneven paths wind through fabulously relaxing gardens planted with a hundred exotic trees; there’s even a painting hut – help yourself to art supplies and have a go at capturing the views. You breakfast on the magnificent terrace in summer with its gorgeous views: much is home grown in a buffet of sweet and savouries including home baked bread. Bedrooms are cool, Asian-chic and luxurious, bathrooms are astonishingly lush and the big, open-plan, parquet-floored suites have magnificent terraces and ingenious wardrobes opening to mini-kitchens. Enter the Royal Mare suite and you find a vast free-standing bath on the corner of your terrace… drink a toast to your good fortune as you soak, gazing across the sea to the Isle of Elba.
