Il Borro

For some of us, the fantasy of owning a Tuscan villa is sufficiently romantic; if you’re the Ferragamo family, however, you set your sights on something closer to an old-fashioned Tuscan principality. Enter Il Borro, the sprawling estate in San Giustino Valdarno that the Ferragamos bought in 1993 and have since been developing into the family-run agriturismo to end all family-run agriturismos. Il Borro comprises no less than an acclaimed, hundred-plus acre vineyard and winery, vast groves of olive trees amidst the cypress and oaks, plenty of rolling green hills, three villas, another three lavish farmhouses and — here’s the real coup de grâce — an entire restored medieval village. Given the scope of the estate, it’s almost unnecessary to mention that it also contains tennis courts, a driving range and a football pitch, to name just the athletic facilities.

There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the exact number of rooms here, but it’s somewhere around a couple dozen. Maybe the discrepancy between counts is inevitable when a “room” is something like the Casa al Piano farmhouse. It houses no less than four apartments, two on each floor, each of which can comfortably accommodate four people. One wonders whether a “room” that sleeps up to sixteen people is really just a room. In any case, the place is more than just the sum of its beds. The Casa al Piano has also got a full-sized pool, a private garden and a pool-view terrace with a twenty-seat dining table. To choose one of the other farmhouses is not so much to upgrade or downgrade, but to decide between, say, a quiet corner of the estate overlooking a burbling river and a location on a private road between tended fields and the Tuscan countryside.

It’s tempting to go on a tour here of every one of the villas, but let’s just take Il Borro, at the center of the estate. Built by a prince in 1848, it’s home to a traditional Italian garden that wraps around the villa, a heated pool, a fitness room, a Turkish bath, a sauna, a billiards table and outstanding views of the medieval village, to name some highlights. And about that village, it’s a remarkable restoration and remodel of a series of traditional Tuscan buildings, preserving as it should the original architecture while supplementing it with all the comforts of a modern luxury hotel — and, it hardly needs saying, many more.

How to get there:

Il Borro is approximately 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) from Arezzo and Montevarchi-Terranuova train stations. Florence Airport is approximately 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Il Borro.

Please contact CustomerService@TabletHotels.com for assistance with transfers.

• 32 Rooms
• Style: Traditional Elegance
• Atmosphere: Secluded

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