Conti di San Bonifacio

Conti di San Bonifacio is a beautifully renovated seven-room farmhouse on a hill, surrounded by several hundred acres of vineyards, olive groves and rolling woods. Anywhere but Tuscany, that might be enough, the hotelier’s work done and the guests lining up to take their heavy doses of endorphins. Here amidst one of the world’s great concentrations of impossibly pleasurable hotels, however, it takes something more — like bathrooms carved from marble and bedrooms draped in furs, say.

Or a fine-tuned sense of how to make a Bauhaus chair look at home between a terra-cotta floor and a chestnut-beam ceiling. Or a grandma-trained Tuscan chef whose dishes come out looking like works of abstract art, plus unblemished rural vistas that begin at the edge of your table and only fade away at the horizon. Needless to say Conti di San Bonifacio comes through in all these ways and then some.

The rooms serve as lessons on the power of rich materials in seemingly rustic surroundings. Egyptian cotton linens, luxurious bathrobes, soft leather armchairs, some wisp-light gauze enveloping the bed — these are the sorts of things that turn farmhouse living into a reasonable aspiration. The suites add terraces with views over the olive groves or the vineyards, though even the basic rooms are awash in light. And at every level the light touch on evidence in the design defies the usual farmhouse cliches, making it feel like a modern luxury hotel without undercutting the character of the original stone building.

Naturally, the food is a major part of the appeal. The wine and olive oil made here have a following far beyond the hotel’s walls, and many of the ingredients for the meals are grown on the property. Whether you do your tasting by the sparkling little pool, by the fireplace inside or in the cozy and intimate library bar, it’s all unfailingly delicious.