Villa rental in Borgo a Giovi, Tuscany - Italy - Villa del Borgo

Along the road from Arezzo to Casentino, just 7 kms from the town, you come across a little village, Borgo a Giovi, consisting of a nucleus of rural houses, in which stands out this old country house. Its origins lie in the renaissance, it's on three floors and has been enlarged and adapted in different epochs (in the 1700s and 1900s): it has recently undergone the latest renovation, which has transformed it into a fascinating holiday home. As soon as you cross the threshold you can feel the special atmosphere typical of old aristocratic country houses: the renovation has tried to recover all the old features, bringing out the structural and decorative elements. The rooms are peculiar, some of the bedrooms are frescoed, and a large living-room, which was used for house parties still has its period furniture, as have many other bedrooms and the small games and reading rooms. In the kitchen a large stone table and a large fireplace confirm the rural atmosphere of times gone by you feel throughout the house, the same that you will find in the little hamlet surrounding the house. Moving outside, the part at the rear overlooks the countryside and is reached along a little road marked by two lines of cypress trees, which go through the corn fields and vineyards of the property and which through a large gate dominated by two terracotta lions leads to an internal courtyard with a stone table, where you can sit in the shade of two large mediterranean pines and to the lawn, which can also be accessed from the kitchen with a portico linking to the old wine-cellar, where lies the swimming-pool (8x5m) partly above ground. It's just a short walk to the little piazza in the village, where there is an excellent restaurant, and on to the banks of the Arno river, which meanders past lower down and which in this area is part of a natural river reserve.