L'Andana

The name comes from the driveway. L'Andana — the long road — is a mile of cypress and pine that deposits you at the gates of a 500-acre estate above Castiglione della Pescaia. Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, chose this hillside for his summer hunting estate in the nineteenth century. The olive groves, the vineyards, the sea just visible on the horizon — his taste was, as it turns out, impeccable.

The estate still produces its own wine and olive oil. The interiors were designed by Ettore Mocchetti, longtime director of AD Italia, who managed the difficult trick of combining antiques and baroque detail with contemporary Italian furniture without making the whole thing feel like a museum or a catalogue. It feels, instead, like somewhere a person of considerable refinement actually lives. The 500 acres take care of the solitude. Enrico Bartolini takes care of the rest.

The Rooms

Sixty-one rooms, suites, and apartments across the main villa and estate buildings. Each one is dressed in Italian fabrics and antiques, with views across the Maremma countryside that make it genuinely difficult to leave for dinner — which is saying something, given what's waiting at dinner. The private villa La Scuderia, the former stable block, can be taken exclusively by a group who want the estate entirely to themselves. This is the correct way to celebrate something important.

Food & Drink

Two restaurants, both overseen by Enrico Bartolini — Italy's most decorated chef, a man who has accumulated Michelin stars the way other people accumulate frequent flyer miles. La Trattoria holds one of those stars and operates on the principles that made Bartolini famous: Maremma ingredients, treated with precision, served without ceremony. The menu follows the season and the surrounding countryside. Guests report unexpected courses arriving unbidden from the kitchen. This is the correct kind of surprise. La Villa handles breakfast and informal meals on a veranda with views across the estate. The wine is from the property's own production and is considerably better than that phrase usually implies.

The Experience

A spa with indoor pool, sauna, and Turkish bath. Tennis, cycling, horse riding on the estate. Wine and olive oil tastings from the property's own cellars. The sea is seven kilometres away. The Etruscan towns — Pitigliano, Sovana — are an hour south. Saturnia's thermal springs are forty-five minutes by car. L'Andana sits at the centre of the Maremma like a very comfortable axis around which to organise a week.

Worth Knowing

The property skews toward Italian and European guests, which gives it an authenticity that more internationally marketed resorts tend to lack. Book La Trattoria before you arrive — it fills quickly, and eating Bartolini's cooking in the former ducal estate, with the Maremma evening coming through the windows, is not an experience to miss through poor planning.

"The Grand Duke of Tuscany built his summer estate here. Five generations of good taste later, the view is still worth the drive."