Villa Lena is a rural retreat that turns the traditional hotel on its head.
Conceived as a haven for art lovers, its apartments – which range from 50 sqm up to 110 sqm – fill buildings spread across a sprawling 500-acre site in the Tuscan hills.
These private boltholes include remodelled old stables with soaring, wood-beamed ceilings; six one-bedroom apartments inside a stone building; a three-bedroom private house with a shared swimming pool; and rooms inside the gloriously crumbly Neo-renaissance villa at the heart of the site, still under renovation.
Apartments across the site are self-contained and furnished with a mix of vintage pieces curated by Parisian interior designer Clarisse Demory. Walls are adorned with artworks produced by artists in residence at the villa.
Even the food is a treated like work of art at Villa Lena. The organic farm-to-table restaurant features a Tuscan menu curated by a series of international chefs-in-residence (next up is Gramercy Taver’s Margot Protzel).
Dotted among the olive groves and vineyards, there are swimming pools, a series of boutique shops selling produce and crafts created locally – you can even buy bottles of the estate’s wine and olive, harvested from its orchards.
And a curated programme of events, including a festival and regular DJ events, unfolds across the summer and autumn, with guests able to dip in and out as they please. All very useful considering the nearest town is 15 minutes, by car.
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