La Casalta — Hotel in Lucignano

My husband and I stayed at Casalta for 13 weeks March to May, 2006; that December we returned for a week just prior to Christmas. And in May 2008 we returned to celebrate a landmark birthday with friends. ||||During all our stays, we stayed in the roomy 2-bedroom unit and rented the other two when we had visitors..and we had many, many visitors! ||||Francesca is a treasure; all her family are our family now. Valentina & Katerina made many delicious meals for our big groups; tutored me in Italian and all made us feel so very, very welcome.||||Francesca sent us off into the Tuscan countryside with hand-drawn maps to places we probably would never have visited without her urging. In our 13 weeks, we drove 7000 km and really never traveled very far! Do you know that you can park at the very top of Montepulciano? You can if you have a Francesca map; or that you can park at the stadium in Siena except not on market day. Francesca knows and share all this incredible insider information. Our visitors loved being at Casalta - during the 13-week visit, we had several sets of visitors; sometimes just one couple and ranging up to 10 people for a 4-day period. Francesca and her amazing family helped us so much with arrangements for our guests, dinners in at our dining table or outside on the terrace. It was magical. ||||Returning for the week before Christmas 2006 was brilliant; Tuscany was so quiet and beautiful. We roamed around, finding all the prosepi we could find (Siena train station was our favorite). Again, Francesca sent us out to find remote St. Francis monasteries and churches, the Val d'Orcia, amazing food at La Porta in Montichiello, every day was a grand adventure.||||Our purpose in visiting Tuscany for a long period was to live in the Tuscan style; Francesca made that happen for us. Her family, her animals, her encyclopedic knowledge of the area all combined to make us feel a part of the family and of...

We have recently returned home from a wonderful week at La Casalta (Sept 30-Oct 6, 2014) & the second wk of 2 in Italy.||Upon arrival we found a vast assortment of breakfast staples (homemade jams, honey, milk, yogurt, fruit, cereal, ||butter, coffee etc) had been provided for breakfast in addition to a beautiful cake that lasted us the whole week!||Dinners in our apartment were very atmospheric as we only turned on a few of the lamps so we could enjoy yummy suppers by candle light. you have the option to request dinner cooked by either Francesca or her daughter Valentina, and it will be some of the best food you eat!||I was very pleased with the comfortable beds, the well equipped kitchen (you could have friends over for dinner and have all the supplies you need!) the pool (though too cold to swim while we were there) & the very strategic location for day trips! Francesca`s vast geographic knowledge of the greater region (Siena, Perugia & Arezzo) along with her considerable arts & culture expertise & made her a highly valuable resource for all our day trip planning!! The grounds are very expansive and you can walk about and enjoy the views of vineyards, hills and trees. Lucignano a lovely ancient perched town with Etruscan roots a 5min drive to the north: http://www.comune.lucignano.ar.it/en/ ||and Sinalunga, a larger town (good for business & provisions with more banks, shops & a train station) is 5min south of ||La Casalta. Hopping on the A1 or E78 is very quick and easy from this location: 30 minutes to Siena, 30 to Arezzo, 40 to Perugia, 30 to Montepulciano & Pienza, 25 to Lago Trasimeno and Cortona. ||La Casalta is a wonderful peaceful location surrounded by nature providing independence & privacy along with the great warmth and kindness of your gentle hostess Francesca! Mille Grazie for a wonderful 50th birthday...

My husband and I rented two sections of the Villa to be with our children and grand children for a week! I coulod not think of a better place to be, The Francesca, the owner, and her family and her numberous animals including a goose, a dog, many cats and two peacocks, became part of our family adventure. They cooked delicious food for us, had a lovely big pool, a lawn mower the grand-children could ride on with Frnacesca, found excellent guides for wine and olive oil tours for us and supplied children's equipment and Francesca' own grand-daughter for our grandchildren to play with. ||||The location was teriffic with more interesting, picturesque and famous places within easy day trip distance than we had time to visit (because we were so busy enjoying relaxing there).|| ||One section had two rooms with full baths upstairs and on the ground floor a large living room, huge dining table, and kitchen, stocked with more dishes, glasses and utensils than we would have needed for a famaily of 20 and a delicious lemon cake, fruit ceareal, drinks etc. waiting for us! Our son and daughter-in-law stayed in this section with us. ||||The other section had a small livning room, bathroom, dining areas and very small but generous kitchen on the ground floor, a queenbed on a second 1/2 level and a third level reached by little steps that was a great loft area for our two grnadchildren to sleep and play.||||Outside, surounded by vineyards were to large wood tables with bencehs where we all. ate most of our meals pcinic table. It was truely a perfect place for a family week, for being with our children and grandchildren surrounded by Italian friendship, food, animals, a cool pool and great...