If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR279.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
It may be true that ‘east, west, home is best’, but family-friendly Tuscan hideaway Precise Tale Poggio Alla Sala – inspired by the Silk Road that travelled through the region centuries ago – is a home where both sides merrily meet. In classically Tuscan grounds (cypresses, vines, olive trees…) a spa offers Ayurvedic healing and oud-scented rituals; a restaurant replete with delicate frescoes serves handmade pastas and pizzas alongside sashimi or exotically spiced meats; and rooms are styled with a restrained light minimalism. It dabbles in the precious and rich (vino nobile tastings, starlit sauna sessions), but luxurious to the core and ever so welcoming, there are no trade-offs here.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A welcome cocktail each on arrival; guests staying in a Junior Suite and higher for three nights or more also get an €80 spa credit
11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £262.82 (€307), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €2.00 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates include a buffet breakfast of plenty, with treats from the pastry chef, fruit, yoghurt, salad, juices, coffee and a selection of hot dishes; and free access to the spa’s ‘water zone’.
Also
Some of the hotel’s rooms are accessible.
At the hotel
Spa with two saunas and a Jacuzzi, gym, kids’ club, gardens, concierge, charged laundry service, and free WiFi. In rooms: smart TV, minibar, air-conditioning, and Etro bath products.
Our favourite rooms
The hotel’s rooms and suites are simply dressed, letting the Tuscan countryside do the showing off, but should you feel cheated of a fresco, some suites in the main neoclassical, 18th-century villa have them. For a Jacuzzi steps from your bed, book the spa suite; for a private terrace, book the Junior Suite; and to survey all the splendour of the surrounding countryside, stay in the villa’s tower, which has 360-degree views.
Poolside
There’s a quartet of pools to choose from. The main pool is in a picturesque patch of the grounds (close to the main villa), and surrounded by palm trees and shaded sunloungers; a fountain spritzes out from the centre, there are Roman steps for easing yourself in, and the Marco Polo bar supplies thirst-quenchers. The second adults-only pool is behind the villa secluded away behind a stone wall; a third is child-friendly and shallower, set alongside the main pool; and the spa has a heated hydrotherapy pool that’s more for soaking than actual swimming.
Spa
As well as Poggio Alla Sala’s decor and dining, its spa also merges eastern and western wellness, with Ayurvedic facials, various massage styles using oils with Asian-inspired scents, Sodashi products and oud rituals. And, with mint-scented foot rubs and mani-pedis, this is true top-to-toe spoiling. There’s also a jetted pool to wallow in, a Finnish sauna and a wet sauna with a starlit ceiling, and a gym in a glass pavilion, so you can sigh over the surrounds as you work out.
Packing tips
Bring all your ‘see, swirl, smell, sip and savour’ savvy for wine-tastings and appropriate footwear for ancient streets.
Also
The restored farm buildings housing the spa, gym and more aren’t far from the main villa but staff will scoot you hither and thither on request if needed.
Bambini are very warmly welcomed here, with some rooms that have a sofa-bed or interconnect, a sweet-as-can-be kids’ club (parental supervision needed), and dedicated spa and dining menus.
Best for
From teenies to teens, all ages will love it here.
Recommended rooms
The Deluxe Rooms, Junior Suites and Suites all sleep up to four.
Activities
The hotel’s kids’ club (from 10am to 7pm) is an adorable, nurturing space with a pop-up tent, play kitchen, basketfuls of soft toys, an arts and crafts table, train set and Scandi-style wooden toys, plus an outdoor play area. Little ones get to help out on the estate, planting fruits and vegetables and playing farmer, and there’s a PlayStation for older kids. Otherwise, there’s a child-friendly pool, special spa treatments (a chocolate wrap, tailored massage and mini mani-pedis) and acres of grounds to safely explore.
Swimming pool
There’s a shallower swimming spot for kids by the main pool. It’s unsupervised, so parents will need to keep watch.
Meals
Child-frienly meals are available on request, but pizzas and simple pastas will keep most guests happy.
Babysitting
Babysitting can be arranged on request.
Sustainability efforts
Poggio Alla Sala has tried to stay local wherever possible, whether it’s sourcing ingredients for the kitchen or construction materials. Otherwise expected eco-measures are in place.
Pop the cork on your Valdobbiadene prosecco under one of the white parasols on the terrace.
Dress Code
Culture clash east and west, with acid silks, exotic embroidery and statement jewellery.
Hotel restaurant
The hotel’s eatery La Via Della Seta is vividly painted with pink-and-sage frescoes, eye-watering in their detail. Huge plants spread up to the tips of arched windows, and the menu is a caravan of delicious Silk Road-inspired dishes: short rib in an espresso-cardamom glaze; salmon sashimi in a ginger, melon and basil sauce with a sprinkling of pistachios; fritto misto with harissa aioli. Plus Italian stalwarts in the form of fresh handmade pastas or pizzas topped with bolognese or prosciutto and stracciatella.
Hotel bar
There’s an antique, vaulted stone wine cellar where you can embark on the hotel’s ‘vino voyage’, a very merry odyssey through Tuscan wines. Montepulciano bianchis e rossis and local beers can also be taken in the cinematic hall of La Via Della Seta, and after a few rounds of Marco Polo in the pool, you can order cocktails for sunlounger sipping from the bar named after the great explorer himself.
Last orders
Breakfast is 7.30am to 11am, lunch 1pm to 3pm, and dinner 7.30pm to 10pm.
Room service
For an intimate in-room meal, room service is available during restaurant hours.
Precise Tale Poggio Alla Sala is deeply embedded in Tuscan green, a 20-minute drive from mediaeval hilltop town Montepulciano.
Planes
Perugia’s San Francesco d'Assisi Airport (just over an hour’s drive away), or Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci Airport (a 90-minute drive away) are the closest international hubs. Or Rome Fiumicino is about a two-hour drive away. Transfers can be arranged through the hotel in a Mercedes E-Class or Viano.
Trains
Montepulciano’s train station is just a 20-minute drive away. From here you can transfer to Italy’s most laurelled cities via Siena or Chiusi. Transfers can be arranged on request.
Automobiles
Tuscany is prime ‘whipping along country lanes in a classic car’ territory; and out in the countryside wheels are needed; the hotel has free parking onsite, and the bellboys are on hand to valet.
Other
For discreet arrivals, you can charter a private jet to Siena Ampugnano or Grosseto Airport.
Worth getting out of bed for
Precise Tale Poggio Alla Sala lies close to mediaeval hilltop town Montepulciano, but amid the estate’s holm oaks and cypress-lined paths, strips of vines and olive groves, you’ll feel like you’re living in a landscape painting. Onsite, days pass slowly with a swim here, a spa visit there, some wine tasting… And, things don’t get much speedier offsite, but there’s a wealth of history to sniff out and plenty of vino nobile to sip. Wander along Montepulciano’s Il Corso, looking out for Renaissance churches, noble palazzos, and the Punch-topped Torre di Pulcinella; and swing by the Piazza Grande, known for its grand 16th-century manors and as the setting for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. There are two Unesco-protected areas of extreme natural beauty within reach, the Lucciola Bella park with its sprays of colourful wildflowers, and the Val d’Orcia, Tuscany’s quintessential postcard snapshot. Siena is about an hour’s drive away, and is best known for its breathtaking Palio horse race (held twice a year in July and August) and colourful cathedral and duomo. It’s sort of a mini-me of Florence’s Santa Maria del Fiore, which you could also see IRL, as the city of the Uffizi, Accademia, Ponte Vecchio and more lasting landmarks is an easy day-trip, a 90-minute drive away. Now, about that vino… The countryside is awash with it, and the hotel’s own cellar Tenuta Poggio Alla Sala Winery is a short drive away for tastings of Rosso di Montepulciano and Chianti Colli Senesi. Or sip your way through La Ciarliana, Azienda Agricola Canneto, or Golo (we recommend a designated driver, because the list goes on).
Staff can supply you with mapped-out routes to ensure you don’t miss the region’s hidden treasures, say from Siena to San Francesco Church, passing the Contrada della Civetta, fortified mansion of Castellare degli Ugurgeri, Santa Maria in Provenzano church, and Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra. From Montepulciano through the wooded Val di Merse, spying 7th-century Etruscan palaces and Romanesque abbeys; walk the wynds of the Val d’Elsa’s teeny villages (stopping into crystal shops along the way); or chase Chianti classicos through the wine’s namesake region.
Local restaurants
Tucked into the verdant folds of the surrounding countryside are cellars and farms serving up fabulous food. Take Bindella, Tenuta Vallocaia, a vineyard where alongside tastings there are Tuscan platters with pecorino, honey, cold cuts, pickles, breads and bruschetta; lunches of Chianina carpaccio with goat’s cheese mousse and eggplant, pork with carrot pudding and a coffee crumb, and pastries; or steak dinners. Terraces threaded with roses and wisteria and a white-beamed dining room make Ristorante Castello di Fighine a headily romantic spot. And there’s just as much passion in the cuisine, created by lauded chef Heinz Beck, who offers up the likes of spaghetti tossed with rabbit, wild garlic and olives; turbot with pink grapefruit; or pigeon in a salted onion and pepper sauce. And Montepulciano is small but gastronomically talented, with eateries such as Le Logge del Vignola (for wilder-side dishes of pasta with orange pesto, lemon gel and lavender ‘sand’), or La Grotta, which has sits opposite the picturesque Church of San Biagio and errs towards tradition (ricotta gnocchi with vegetables, pappardelle with guinea fowl ragu).
Local cafés
Producers of fine pecorino Cugusi will pack you a picnic stuffed with cheeses, homemade breads, cold cuts, pickles, salads, jams and honey – and wines, of course.
Local bars
There’s no shortage of juicy reds in Montepulciano – slake your thirst at humbly outfitted Enoteca Borgo Divino (2 Via dell'Opio Nel Corso), which doubles up as a deli. Or opt for the Perbacco Wine Experience, where you can wax as lyrical as you want about all things vino with fellow aficionados; but even the uninitiated will find a flight to suit them.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this charming heritage country estate in Tuscany and unpacked their Montepulciano reds and bottles of Chianti classico, a full account of their Italian family adventure break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Precise Tale Poggio Alla Sala near Montepulciano…
The Silk Road trade route may not have marched through Italy since the 15th century, but Precise Tale Poggio Alla Sala takes the stylings, flavours and spa healing from east and west to make a very welcoming caravanserai, in the form of an 18th-century villa. Formerly the estate of the noble Bonci Casuccini family, the hotel has had its dainty frescoes and brick vaults restored, while the former farm buildings, scattered over cypress- and holm oak-edged grounds, are hubs for Ayurvedic soothing or Asiatic cocktails. And while some rooms and suites are prettily painted and beamed, most have a fresh modern look, unique in these folds of timeless greenery. Also refreshing is its family friendliness – kids can help to plant seeds or play in a club that’s aesthetic enough for adult tastes, while parents taste their way through plummy reds or take peaceful dips in the adults-only pool (one of four onsite). Exotic flourishes aside, the estate’s trade is now in rustic luxury with a contemporary feel and warm hospitality for all ages: beautiful, valued things, indeed.
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