Castello del Nero
Tuscany, Italy
Smith Exclusive: Stay four nights for the price of three
Tuscany, Italy
If you’re longing for a rustic getaway in Italy, head to Tuscany, where luxury villas and boutique hotel stays rest amid picturesque farms, expansive vineyards and quiet coastlines. Holidays here are spent exploring medieval hilltop villages and splashing about in warm summer seas.
And, if it's in-depth exploring you're after: See our Italian itineraries
Destinations in Tuscany
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A love affair between culture, commerce and good living, this fine city has long been fêted as the most aesthetically pleasing in all Italy.
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Gavorrano is the picture-perfect Tuscan town of the kind you see in films: honey-hued houses, green-shuttered trattorias and winding streets, perched atop a rural clifftop.
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A coastal province at the southern end of sun-soaked Tuscany, Grosseto is a treasure trove of hidden villages, fertile olive groves and sweeping beaches.
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Stretching along Tuscany’s southern coast, Maremma is a treasure trove of treats: long beaches, green-carpeted hills and wide, sunflower-spotted fields are all on offer in this ravishing swathe of Italian countryside.
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Miraculous works of art, grand Renaissance buildings and some of the best vineyards in the Val d’Orcia: these are just a few of our favourite things about the hilltop town of Montepulciano.
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Starting life as a quiet rural village in Val d’Orcia, Pienza is now a hotspot for cheese-lovers and culture-chasers seeking a glimpse into the Renaissance.
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This stretch of northern Tuscany is a natural charmer; its winding coastline spans rust-coloured hills, dense pine forests, moorlands, and beaches graced with sand as white as Carrara's famous marble.
Recommended offers
See our boutique hotel deals
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Soprarno Suites
Florence, Italy
Smith Exclusive: Times 2017: 30% off 2 night stays or more
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AdAstra
Florence, Italy
Smith Exclusive: Times 2017: 30% off stays of two nights or more
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Maggiorana Garden Suite at Borgo Santo Pietro, Tuscany, Italy
This restored 13th-century villa in the hearet of Tuscany is all flagstone floors, huge stone fireplaces and ornate chandeliers; beds are draped in tasselled silks and brocade, and light bounces from gilded baroque mirrors in marble-enhanced bathrooms. Every detail is exquisite;every piece of furniture murmurs classic luxury. All 15 rooms are pretty darn sexy, but we’re especially smitten with the Maggiorana Garden Suite and it’s ‘super super king-size’ four-poster bed, exposed beams, freestanding copper tub and prvate garden. It’s the perfect couples’ retreat.
Castiglion del Bosco
Hotel
Could a main course come from anywhere better than Tuscany? Make Castiglion del Bosco – an 800-year-old hillside estate with its own winery that produces a top-notch version of the region's signature Brunello di Montalcino – your villa for four nights, and settle in for several days of decadent wining and dining.
Worth getting out of bed for
– Take Tuscan cooking classes at the hotel's cookery school
– Go Truffle hunting, if the season permits
– Picnic in the vineyards with focaccia, pecorino and a bottle of Brunello
Become a master pizzaiolo in Tuscany
Stay at Castello di Casole – a hill-view haven in the heart of Tuscany set in a culinary utopia, with grapes, olives, lemons and saffron a few of the ingredients in plucking distance – just the place to get inventive with your pizza making.
Take a bite of a fresh-out-a-Tuscan-oven slice and all limp, regrettable crime-against-pizza take-aways are forgotten; this is the real deal. Replicating it at home is the hard bit. Which is why being schooled in the perfect pizza is a lesson worth learning. All the crucial crust-based challenges are tackled, from the dough to the toppings via the all important tomato and cheese foundation, with the added satisfaction that almost everything you use has been grown, pressed or reared somewhere on Castello di Casole's endless estate. Daring dough-flingers may find some inspiration in the pizzeria menu where combos like prawns and swiss chard and red potatoes and rosemary go up against the ever-presents. However yours turns out, though, few foodie endeavours are as fun as muddling your way through your first Margherita, so flour-faced five-year-olds will get as much enjoyment as desperate dinner party show-offs.
FOLLOW YOUR TASTEBUDS
For many of us, travel is what we eat: new flavours, local delicacies and relaxing al fresco feasts. Grade-A gourmands tend to love things Gallic and, when it comes to getaways, Provence’s Alain Ducasse-owned Hostellerie de l’Abbaye is the cerise on France’s rich gâteau. Nearby Baumanière is a Michelin-star-spangled stay hugged by abundant vineyards. Cross the Med to Castiglion del Bosco and you can learn the secrets of the Tuscan cucina at its renowned cookery school. Thirsty? California’s cinematic wine country – valleys Napa and Sonoma – will sate you in style.
ON THE ROAD
Your own convertible, an ocean-side highway and some unironic blasting of The Beach Boys – a California road trip is driving as it's meant to be. Farmhouse Inn, a romantic ranch in wine country, is a great starting point for your adventure, once you've sampled the Michelin-starred food and some local blends (and slept it off, of course). Make a stop at Big Sur for some intimate isolation and dramatic Pacific views at Post Ranch Inn. Alternatively, follow in the tyreprints of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon and take your own feast-fuelled trip around Tuscany (Michael Caine impressions optional). Or, hire a car in Naples, and put Monastero Santa Rosa's address into the sat nav – you'll follow the jaw-dropping Amalfi coastline before tackling a death-defying uphill road to the hotel.