Hotel Caserio Aldeallana

Hotel Caserio Aldeallana

Segovia is one of those Spanish cities that surprises people who come expecting a day trip and end up reconsidering their entire itinerary. It sits on a rocky ridge about 75 kilometres northwest of Madrid, reachable in 22 minutes on the high-speed train, and it contains one of the most astonishing pieces of Roman engineering still standing anywhere in Europe. The aqueduct runs straight through the heart of the city, nearly a kilometre of granite arches stacked two tiers high, built in the first century AD without a drop of mortar and holding by sheer force of balance and placement alone. Beyond it, the Alcázar, a fairy-tale castle perched above the confluence of two rivers, is said to have inspired Disney's Cinderella castle, which sounds like a tourism board invention but is apparently true. The Cathedral, begun in 1525, is the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain. The food is cochinillo asado, roast suckling pig so tender it is carved tableside using the edge of a plate, which is then smashed on the floor. It is a city where the theatre of being there is genuinely part of the experience. The people who come to Segovia tend to be Madrileños on a long weekend, history-minded travellers, and food people. It is elegant without being self-conscious, ancient without being ossified, and compact enough that you can cover the main sights in a day and still have time for a long lunch. It is not the kind of place you come to be seen. It is the kind of place you come because you have taste and you know the difference. Caserío Aldeallana is where you stay if you want the Segovia experience and none of the city noise. The finca is an 1800s farmstead on 740 acres in the countryside, 18 kilometres from Segovia and about an hour from Madrid, restored by Rocío, its owner, who spent years at Spanish Vogue before deciding she had better things to do with a piece of Castilian land. The interiors are by Isabel López-Quesada, one of Spain's most sought-after interior designers, and the approach is the kind of layered, antique-laced decoration that looks completely effortless and takes years to achieve. There are five rooms, each different, all beautiful. The estate has a stone pool, a rose garden, a chapel, thousand-year-old oaks, and resident wild boar, deer, and horses. The family will take you out on Land Rover tours to meet them, arrange picnics with hampers left ready under the stairs, and conjure a drinks table at sunset in the middle of the fields as though this were simply what people do. Rocío's daughter Lucía handles the cooking in season, with gazpacho from the kitchen garden and whole roasted lamb under lights strung through the trees. The bespoke fragrance of the finca is available in the small boutique alongside work by local artists. The bathroom tumblers, multiple reviews note, are the thing everyone wants to steal. This is the weekend that the most stylish person you know keeps not telling you about. The short version: A five-room 1800s finca on 740 wild acres near Segovia, an hour from Madrid, restored by a former Spanish Vogue editor and decorated by one of Spain's best interior designers. Wild boar on the estate, Land Rover picnics, Lucía's cooking under fairy lights, and a stone pool. Adults only from 14. Go in spring or autumn, when the oaks are at their best and the countryside earns its reputation.