Hotel Podere Terreno ★★

Like spending the weekend at your aunt and uncle's house in Tuscany

Roberto Melosi left a glam hotel career at London’s Savoy for the simple pleasures of life back in Tuscany as proprietor of an agriturismo (inn on a working farm).

His Paris-born wife, Sylvie Haniez, who had owned a modern art gallery in Florence, decided the only proper way to run an agriturismo was to share communal dinners with their guests in the French table d’hôte style.

Together, they restored a sixteenth-century Chianti farmhouse set amidst vineyards, furnishing seven country-comfy guest rooms with a hodgepodge of painted metal bedsteads, carved wood vanities, and worn terracotta floors.

As this is a vineyard—the light, peppery organic Chianti Classico is made by their adult son, Pier Francesco, who gave up dirt bike racing to study agriculture at the University of Florence—each guest room is named for a local grape. Malvasia, Trebbiano, Vernaccia, and Ciliegiolo are all on the side of the house with the best views over the surrounding vineyards.

In summer, guests enjoy the same view from the patio during family-style dinners with Roberto and Silvie, who sit at either end of the long table and keep the conversation lively.

In cooler weather, dinner moves into the common room—stone walls hung with oil paintings, ceramics, and Silvie’s collection of sun icons; copper pots dangling from thick wood beams.

The room’s seven-foot-wide fireplace is surrounded by squashy armchairs and a sofa that Sale-e-Pepe (“salt-and-pepper”), the miniature schnauzer Roberto and Sylvie rescued from the side of the road, is more than happy to share.

In 2005 they inaugurated a wine tasting cantina and a tiny spa with a Jacuzzi and massage table.

Note that rates include dinner and breakfast, so it's a far better bargain that it may appear at first.

» book

Tips & links

Share this page

Search ReidsItaly.com