Tuscany

Tuscany has become one of Europe's most enduring images of cultivated life. Hills, vineyards, cypress roads, Renaissance towns and farmhouse kitchens create a landscape where beauty, food and history are completely entwined.

Tuscany stretches from the Apennines to the Tyrrhenian coast, with Florence at its heart. The city of the Medici holds the Uffizi, the Duomo of Brunelleschi and the workshops of the Oltrarno; Siena, its old rival, keeps its Gothic Piazza del Campo; Lucca and Pisa lie to the west, Arezzo and Cortona to the east.

Between them run the Chianti hills, with vineyards, olive groves and fortified villages, and to the south the Val d’Orcia, a UNESCO landscape of cypresses and rolling fields around Pienza and Montalcino. Montepulciano, San Gimignano with its towers, and the Maremma coast with its beaches and Monte Argentario complete the region.

Spring, from April to early June, brings green hills, wildflowers and mild days ideal for walking and visiting towns. Summer is hot and busy, best spent in the countryside or on the coast; Siena runs its Palio horse race twice, on 2 July and 16 August. The coastal resorts and the islands of the Tuscan archipelago fill in August, when much of Italy is on holiday.

September and October are the most rewarding months: the grape harvest across Chianti and Montalcino, the olive harvest beginning in late autumn, white truffles around San Miniato and long golden afternoons. Winter is quiet and cool, the best time to see Florence’s museums without crowds. Many country estates close between November and March.

In Florence, Four Seasons Hotel Firenze occupies a Renaissance palazzo and convent set in the largest private garden in the city, and The St. Regis Florence faces the Arno from Piazza Ognissanti. On the hill of Fiesole, Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel, a former monastery, looks back over the whole city. In the countryside, Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco lies within its Brunello estate near Montalcino, and Castello di Casole, A Belmond Hotel, holds a medieval castle above the Sienese hills.

A Florence stay combines well with a few nights in the Val d’Orcia or the hills around Siena. LVXVRY books the Four Seasons and the St. Regis through Four Seasons Preferred Partner and Marriott STARS & Luminous — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay — and advises on and arranges stays at the two Belmond houses and at Castiglion del Bosco.