Casale Santino

Casale Santino began life as an oratory in the 1500s, became a farmhouse in 1876 and has since been carefully restored as a 400-square-metre country home. It sits on a hill near Castellina in Chianti, looking across the Sienese Chianti countryside as far as the towers of Monteriggioni.

Five bedrooms and five bathrooms sleep up to 10 guests, a good fit for families or a group of friends.

The ground floor holds the main living room, a dining room, a lounge that doubles as a study, and the kitchen. Upstairs, a second living room with a fireplace opens onto two double bedrooms and a twin, each with its own shower room, plus another double, a further shower room and a separate WC.

A self-contained annex adds its own living room with dining and cooking corners; a few steps down is a double bedroom with a stove, a wardrobe and a shower room, which suits a couple or older children wanting some independence.

Outside are a garden, furnished outdoor areas and an equipped porch for long lunches, along with an irregularly shaped 7 x 14 metre pool reserved for guests of the house, and parking on site. Near Casa Bettini on the estate, a shared laundry room offers two dryers and two washing machines.

This villa with private pool in Tuscany belongs to an estate of about 460 hectares, 350 metres up and lying between Monteriggioni and Castellina in Chianti, where woodland edges fields of wheat, olive groves and vines.

Castellina, 5 km away, has grocery shops and tennis courts; Poggibonsi is 15 km for larger shopping, Siena and San Gimignano 20 km and Florence 50 km. Riding stables are 15 km from the house.