Castello di Casole

Castello di Casole

The spa entrance sits beside the estate's old chapel, down stone steps into what was once a wine cellar, its vaulted arches lit low over steam rooms, a private garden, and a small cold plunge tucked into the men's section. Castello di Casole began as a medieval castle raised in 998 above these Tuscan hills, and its stone walls carry that weight still, most visibly in Tosca restaurant, where dinner is served amid the same ancient masonry. What sets this estate apart is its Visconti chapter: filmmaker Luchino Visconti threw parties here that pulled in the world's international elite, and Bar Visconti now trades on that same aristocratic, faintly cinematic mood over cocktails. The grounds run to an infinity pool, tennis courts, a Technogym-equipped fitness centre, and horse riding across land the estate still farms under a self-sufficiency ethos tied to its Etruscan roots, formalised through EarthCheck certification. Thirty-nine suites and two villas spread across the property; junior suites run from around 592 to 807 square feet, with garden, courtyard, or mountain views, minibars, and turndown service as standard. Families are handled without fuss, babysitting can be arranged, and Emporio del Castello keeps dinner relaxed when children are at the table. This suits travelers happy to base themselves on a private hillside rather than walk out to a piazza each evening; Florence is an hour's drive away. What it offers instead is quiet, considerable scale on a working Tuscan hillside, the kind of place where the history in the walls was never manufactured for guests, only inherited by them. Castello di Casole is a medieval castle turned Belmond estate in Tuscany, its wine-cellar spa and Visconti-era bar carrying real history. Thirty-nine suites and two villas spread across grounds with an infinity pool and horse riding, an hour's drive from Florence.