Before you rent a villa in Tuscany.....
 

We previously posted the following but ~ for whatever reason ~ cannot be found with a search. If you are looking for a Tuscany base, look at Lupinari.

My wife and I spent 3 weeks in Tuscany this Summere ~ wanted to try something different ~ stayed one location with day trips. In preparation, I read website after website, Fodors’ post after Fodors’ post, the Parker “Encyclopedia”, etc. We like restaurants, hotels, etc. that are unique to locale (no Holiday Inns in Tuscany clothing). I would say that most of the places we stay are equivalent of four stars. Having said all of that, let me tell you about Tenuta di Lupinari.

Lupinari is in Chianti about 40 miles south of Florence west of the A1. They are just outside of Bucine. It is about an hour drive (off peak hours) from the Florence airport. Their website is www.lupinari.com and email is [email protected]. This is a beautiful place. It sits high on the side of a hill overlooking a valley with mountains on the horizon. You are surrounded by 2,200 olive trees and acres of wine grapes. We brought home several bottles of their own Chianti. The owner’s castle and adjacent remodeled units were originally build hundreds of years ago. They were turned into apartments about 7 years ago. We stayed in the Il Poggio (The Knoll) unit. It has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, separate kitchen, living dining combination. We also had a private balcony. The place has a huge swimming pooling and impeccable landscaping.

The owner/managers could not have been more helpful. They arranged for us to have a private cook come in two times and prepare typical Tuscan meals, etc. We enjoyed playing with their dogs and Claudia, their baby daughter. We shared the loss of their dog, Theo, that had been Marco’s pet for 14 years. Marco, Marianna and Antonella all speak English very well.

We made easy day trips to Siena, Pisa, San Gimignano, Volterra, Radda, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Arezzo, Assisi, Cortona, Florence, Arezzo, etc. We had an excellent list of restaurants before we left and added L’Antica Portale (near Bucine for patio pizza), Enoteca Osteria Osticcio in Montalcino (if you are wine lover) and Olio & Convivium (in Florence). Probably the best food (and most expensive) was Osteria le Logge in Siena (about €125 for luxury lunch). The best experience was Cane e Gatto also in Siena (less expensive than anticipated). The best restaurant views was a tossup between Caffe Poliziano in Montepulciano and Enoteca Osteria Osticcio in Montalcino. The overall best setting was a Ferragamo restaurant called the Osteria del Boggo in Il Borro, San Giustino Valdarno. The nice thing about Tuscany, you have to hunt for bad food.

good report.

How much was the apartment? The website is lovely,but I don't see any rates.

Hello Philip, your three weeks sounds heavenly! A true vacation. Thank you for sharing your wonderful visit.

Also, just to help you, if you click on your name at the top of the screen, next to the Welcome you will find all of your post. I just did that and found your original post. Something that Fodor's does not tell anyone. Thankfully Rex usually does...it is such a help to know that.

If you don't mind sharing the information, I too would be interested in the rental rate.

Thank you and best wishes.

Appreciate your remarks, LoveIt...

As is indicated, a "click on your own name" takes you to this message "thread" quite readily: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34636503

As for why you can't find your earlier post by searhing, here is one of the few instances that someone from Fodors has acknowledged the need to fix the problem.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34613284

In separate correspondence to me, I have learned that a fundamental database (infra?)structure overhaul is going to be needed to "fix" the broken search function (it works, to the extent that it ever did for posts prior to May 3, 2005, but not on any since then). There was a suggestion that they will have new communication on this "soon" (told to me August 1).

Best wishes,

Rex

We paid E4,884 for the three weeks plus a cleaning charge that averaged about E110/week. The cleaning charge is based on occupancy so the two bedroom would be less. I believe this is the largest apartment they have. I don't know that I ever looked at the price of the smaller apartments.

Thanks for replies. Absolutely, was one of the true vacations that we have taken. All of the family and friends felt the same way.

Philip