Viesca Suites & Villas

Sister to the original Il Borro luxury-hotel estate near Arezzo in the spectacular Tuscan countryside, Viesca is about half an hour closer to Florence, and offers a similarly blissful experience: a 16th-century manor house surrounded by villas, cottages, and gardens, and an atmosphere that effortlessly joins classic country-estate living with the comforts of a modern high-end hotel.

The rooms and suites are spacious, contemporary in construction, and antique in atmosphere. For larger parties there’s a family cottage that sleeps up to six, and then the villas are on another level entirely — each comes with its own private pool, and each one is a self-contained residence. The largest one, Villa Viesca, is the old manor house itself, with nine bedrooms and its own garden and chapel.

Guests share a common pool, as well as a pair of well-kept grass tennis courts, and yoga classes and in-room spa treatments are available as well. And the surrounding countryside offers plenty of attractions, from wine tours to horseback rides and mountain-bike excursions. The highlight of the estate, however, might be Il Borro Tuscan Bistro Viesca, which is a restaurant, a bar, and a specialty grocer all in one — and which offers cooking classes to those who wish to take a bit of Tuscan knowledge home.