Dog, horse, hens, donkey, three little children and Fabio and Suzanne: all live in harmony at this Tuscan ‘casale’. Follonico sits in a bucolic valley surrounded by grassy garden and some of the most beautiful scenery in Italy, and gazes up to Montepulciano. Weathered old doors have been kept and used as shutters, an old jug stuffed with flowers sits in a niche, agrarian implements are propped against walls. It is a lesson to all, in how to restore a property so it doesn’t look restored. The living space where you breakfast on fruits, frittatas and homemade breads is all you’d hope for: rustic beams and worn terracotta, a great fireplace hung with chestnut roasting pans, a white sofa splashed with cushions, books piled on a reclaimed table. Your Italian-Dutch hosts – relaxed, welcoming and in love with this region – have created four beautiful suites in the house and two in an outbuilding: big, simple, charming, with chunky beds on pale stone floors, lights recessed in bare plaster walls, delicious mattresses and a choice of pillows, and retro objects to feast the eyes on. Bathrooms are bliss. Inspirational.
