Villa La Massa

Hotel description

This kind of haute-luxury Tuscan-villa experience can certainly stand on its own, and probably needs little selling anyway — but all the same, it would be unfair not to mention that the Villa La Massa happens to be a sister hotel to one of Italy’s best-loved luxury hotels, the famed Villa d’Este on Lake Como.

And so it is. This one’s a different animal, however. With just thirty-five rooms and suites it’s edging into real boutique territory, and its location, for all the magic of Lake Como, has its own appeal — the Villa La Massa stands just outside of Florence, overlooking the Arno river, just a few minutes outside of town and yet splendidly secluded amid the rolling Tuscan hills.

Rooms and suites remain traditional, outfitted in a Medici-era style to match the villa’s age. It’s the classic Italian five-star experience, with marble baths, antique furnishings, plush fabrics, overnight shoeshines. Nods to modernity are minimal: satellite TV, wireless internet and air conditioning are pretty much the whole list.

There’s a nearby tennis club and equestrian center and even a golf course for those of an athletic bent, as well as a spa and outdoor pool. But most physical self-improvement, one imagines, is done to atone for what has to be the region’s greatest draw, the food and wine — here, as expected, you’ve got a fine Tuscan restaurant accompanied by a wine cellar of prodigious depth.