In the know

Our favourite rooms: Dedicated Danish owner Jeanette has kept the essence of the original building intact without scrimping on modern luxuries. Flat-screen TVs are discreetly hidden behind paintings and touch-sensitive controls keep the lighting just so. Rooms feature hand-picked antiques, open fireplaces, bespoke hand-carved beds and exquisite views. In the Valle Serena Suite you can look out across the valley from a fireside roll-top bath; the suite also has twin marble sinks and a huge, Rococo-style bed. Honeymooners will love the lavish Santo Pietro Suite – French doors open out onto a vast private balcony from the living room, and there's a Roman steam bath and shower as well as a roll-top soaking tub in the ensuite bathroom. We also love the feminine bathroom of the Via del Pellegrino junior suite, with its white and silver claw-foot bath and glass chandelier.
Packing tips: Broad-brimmed sunhats and sleek swimwear for lounging by the pool. Digital cameras for capturing your expeditions. Leave your iPod and walking boots at home: both are available to borrow.
Also: Set in what was once a bakery, the now-sumptuous spa offers an excellent selection of top-to-toe pampering treatments. Kick off with a Vital Legs treatment to combat post-flight puffiness, then move on to a massage ritual or anti-ageing facial.

Tuscany hotels: Borgo Santo Pietro, need to know

Current offers

Smith card offer: A bottle of champagne on arrival and a free massage or beauty treatment each (excludes holistic therapies)

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Borgo Santo Pietro

Tuscany, Italy[view map]

Style: Classic-luxe Tuscan villa
Setting: Enchanting formal gardens

This boutique hotel in Tuscany captures all that is good and great about the Italian way of life: refined furnishings in a restored 13th-century period property; gorgeous grounds punctuated by cypress trees and stone fountains; fabulous food and wine; and a pleasing menu of gentle outdoor activities and sensual spa diversions. Borgo Santo Pietro is perfect for bone idle aristocrats and bohemian urban escapees.

Need to know

Rooms: Eight, including five suites.
Rates: €310–€720; Santo Pietro suite, €1,760. Rates include Continental breakfast. Rent the villa in its entirety, fully staffed, for €43,000 a week (excludes all food and drinks).
Check-out: Midday, but flexible, depending on room availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Facilities: Spa; free WiFi throughout; 13 acres of grounds; hot tub; tennis, badminton and basketball courts; bocce pitch; small playground; bikes to borrow. In rooms: plasma TV, DVD player, preloaded iPod and dock; some rooms have fireplaces.
Poolside: The organic lines of the free-form freshwater infinity pool help it blend in with the graceful contours of the landscaped grounds. Wicker and wood sunloungers, canvas parasols and a pool bar demand sun-soaked lazing.
Eco-friendly: The restaurant menu features fresh produce grown in Borgo Santo Pietro's own organic fruit orchards and vegetable garden; most other ingredients are locally sourced. The hotel recycles as much as possible (including waste water).
Hotel closed: Borgo Santo Pietro will be closed from 7 December until April 2010.
Also: Small pets can check in with you, for €20 a night.

Food & drink

Hotel restaurant: Breakfast is served in the open-plan kitchen, with a cosy crackling fire in winter. Later, the chef whips up an Italianate storm of Mediterranean seafood and handmade pasta in the elegant dining room. Try the superb seven-course tasting menu (€95).
Dress code: Loose linens (nipped-in waists + Italian cuisine = lengthy spell on the fainting couch).
Top table: For lunch, we recommend a table overlooking the Lemon Tree garden for the best views of the Serena valley, and for dinner, a candlelit table in the romantic Rose Garden.
Last orders: Lunch is served 1pm–3.30pm; dinner, 7.30pm–10.30pm. Drinks are served until the last guest retires.
Room service: Breakfast can be brought to your bedside from 8am–11am; a lighter snacking menu of antipasti, salads and sandwiches is available from noon until midnight. Items can be ordered from the restaurant menu (they'll cost 25 per cent more, though).
Hotel bar: Take drinks at the poolside bar, or anywhere in the hotel grounds: you'll be given a mobile so you can summon something to sip wherever you are. Try a signature Borgo cocktail of champagne and white rum over fruit-flavoured granita.

Also worth knowing

Children: Warmly welcomed; extra beds (€90) and cots (€20) can be supplied to suites. Nannies and babysitters (€18 an hour) can be arranged with advance notice, and little ones even have a secluded playground to romp around in.
Weddings: This hotel is suitable for weddings. More…

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A bottle of champagne on arrival and a free massage or beauty treatment each (excludes holistic therapies)

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