Villa Rosa in Boscorotondo ★★

A stately, quiet country hotel in the Chianti hills on the main road from Florence to Siena

Sabina Avuri, tall and think with dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, runs this elegant and secluded dusty-pink villa on the twisting main road through the Chianti.

She’s joined in the evenings by her husband, Giancarlo, who spends his days managing their wine bar in Florence before driving down here to help prepare three-course dinners for guests on the back patio (€23/$30). They also offer cooking courses and other culinary adventures in Tuscany.

Giancarlo is a Tuscan straight from central casting, complete with open-necked shirts, trimmed moustache, and gray-flecked wavy hair swept back from a proud forehead, all precise Tuscan gestures, facial expressions, and a thick Florentine accent.

The villa was built by a French ex-pat in the early 1900s, and many of the original elements remain: octagonal stone floor tiles of red and black, terracotta stoves that once warmed the rooms, and little sitting rooms filled with books, comfy chairs, and the occasional TV set.

The Avuris have added their own touches, including canopied beds under the high ceilings, funky lamps and sconces (decorated with glass baubles hanging off twisted twigs of wrought iron filigree) designed by a Belgian friend of theirs, and a swimming pool on the hillside out back under a neighbor’s grape vines.

Rooms 2 and 4 have French doors that open onto massive terraces with views of the forested hillsides across the road. No. 7, on the top floor, has vaulted beams on the ceiling, soft blue washed walls, and small windows.

In cooler weather, breakfast moves from the patio to the sunken cellars that once held barrels of vin santo, Tuscany’s sweet dessert “holy wine.”

The villa is open Easter though mid-November.

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